Category: Senate and House Endorsements

Florida Senate Evaluation Published: CIVPAC Makes No Endorsement

CIVPAC Florida U.S. Senate 2026 candidate evaluation — no endorsement

CIVPAC has moved its Florida U.S. Senate evaluation from the draft pool to publication and makes no endorsement among Republican incumbent Ashley Moody, Democrat Angie Nixon and No Party Affiliation candidate Neil Gillespie.

Moody is considerably closer to us on a number of economic and foreign-policy questions, including support for sanctions against Russia. But her Senate record raises serious concerns about congressional independence. She has supported a series of controversial Trump nominees, backed the administration’s exercise of emergency tariff authority and repeatedly declined to support congressional efforts to assert its constitutional authority over military action.

Nixon would provide a stronger partisan check on the administration, an important consideration given our increasing concern about executive power and the value of divided government. But her domestic agenda—including Medicare for All, a federal jobs guarantee, national rent controls, tuition-free public college, a wealth tax and abolition of right-to-work laws—lies far to our left. Her positions on Israel and unanswered questions about Ukraine, NATO and broader American international leadership create additional concerns. Nixon’s own platform confirms many of these domestic and foreign-policy positions. Angie Nixon for U.S. Senate

The Democratic primary also demonstrates that this choice was not inevitable. Nixon defeated Alexander Vindman, who offered a substantially different combination of positions and whom CIVPAC would have viewed much more favorably. We mention that not to relitigate the primary, but because it helps explain the particular choices now before Florida voters. Washington Post

Gillespie’s rejection of conventional partisan politics initially merits attention from an organization focused on independent voters, but we have found too little of a developed policy program—and no clear indication of how he would caucus in the Senate—to recommend him as an alternative.

The result is an unusual but straightforward conclusion: Moody is closer on many policies but has not demonstrated the institutional independence we want from a senator serving under a president of her own party; Nixon offers greater institutional opposition to the White House but asks us to accept domestic and foreign-policy positions too far removed from our own; and Gillespie has not yet provided enough information for a comparable evaluation.

CIVPAC therefore makes no endorsement in Florida’s 2026 U.S. Senate election.

Read the full Florida U.S. Senate evaluation and no-endorsement.

See all CIVPAC 2026 Senate endorsements and evaluations.

See all CIVAPC 2026 Endorsements

CIVPAC Provisionally Endorses Annie Andrews in South Carolina Senate Race

CIVPAC provisional endorsement of Annie Andrews in the 2026 South Carolina U.S. Senate race

CIVPAC has published its evaluation of South Carolina’s 2026 U.S. Senate race and provisionally endorsed Democrat Annie Andrews over Republican Senator Darline Graham, Libertarian Kasie Whitener and Constitution Party candidate Mark Hackett.

This is not an endorsement without reservations.

Andrews is closer to our positions on reproductive freedom, immigration, evidence-based public health and congressional war powers. We also give substantial weight at this point to congressional independence and the value of divided government as a check on executive power.

At the same time, Andrews is to our left on much of domestic economic policy. We have reservations about the size and role of government implicit in parts of her agenda, including important unanswered questions about the design of her proposed public health-insurance option.

Our largest uncertainty concerns foreign policy. Andrews has made clear that she opposes open-ended wars and believes Congress should authorize sustained military action, but we have found much less from her on Ukraine, NATO, Russia, China and the broader international order.

Graham receives substantial credit for taking over the Russia and Iran sanctions legislation championed by her late brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, and helping carry it into law. But her limited foreign-policy preparation, her pledge to have President Trump’s back “100 percent,” and her vote against allowing an Iran War Powers resolution to proceed raise questions about congressional independence.

Whitener offers a strongly market-oriented and fiscally restrained alternative and has been unusually clear in challenging unilateral presidential war-making. Questions remain about what her noninterventionist approach would mean for NATO, Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.

Hackett is clearer: he advocates ending U.S. support for Ukraine and Israel and withdrawing from NATO and the United Nations—positions fundamentally at odds with our approach to American foreign policy.

For now, the combination of divided government, congressional independence, reproductive freedom, immigration and public health tips our evaluation toward Andrews.

The endorsement is deliberately provisional. Andrews, Graham and Whitener are scheduled to participate in the October 11 South Carolina ETV debate, and we intend to review the endorsement afterward. In particular, we will be listening for clearer answers from Andrews on Ukraine and NATO, from Graham on congressional independence, and from Whitener on the practical implications of her foreign-policy philosophy.

Read the full South Carolina U.S. Senate evaluation and provisional endorsement.

See all CIVPAC 2026 Senate endorsements and evaluations.

CIVPAC Completes Its Review of the 2026 U.S. Senate Races

CIVPAC completes review of every 2026 U.S. Senate race with Oregon endorsement of Jeff Merkley

CIVPAC has published its evaluation of the 2026 U.S. Senate race in Oregon, completing its review of every Senate general-election race this year.

The Oregon evaluation endorses Democratic incumbent Jeff Merkley over Republican David Brock Smith, Libertarian Gary Dye and Progressive/Pacific Green candidate Chris Henry.

This is not an endorsement based on broad agreement with Merkley’s domestic agenda. The evaluation identifies substantial differences over Medicare for All, labor policy, wealth taxation and the use of government direction rather than market mechanisms to address climate change.

There are also important areas of agreement. Merkley has strongly supported Ukraine and has been an active advocate of Congress reclaiming its constitutional authority over decisions involving war. The evaluation also finds substantial common ground on democratic institutions and parts of Middle East policy. Merkley

Brock Smith is closer to CIVPAC on several economic and regulatory questions. But the evaluation raises concerns about climate change, the effort to challenge the 2020 election results, voting policy and abortion. OPB has reported both his rejection of human contributions to climate change and his participation in the 2020 Texas election challenge. (OPB) opb

His relationship with President Trump is also important to the evaluation. Willamette Week described Brock Smith as an outspoken Trump supporter and reported that, when asked whether he disagreed with anything Trump had done during his second term, he did not identify an example. CIVPAC was also unable to find sufficiently clear positions from him on tariffs, Ukraine, NATO or the Iran war. (Willamette Week) Willamette Week

In the end, the value of divided government tipped the balance. The Oregon evaluation argues that congressional checks on executive authority work less effectively when members of Congress are unwilling to challenge a president of their own party. For this moment, that consideration favors returning Merkley to the Senate. The endorsement is explicitly conditional: if the White House were occupied by a Democrat, particularly one well to the left of center, Merkley would probably not receive CIVPAC’s endorsement.

Read the full Oregon U.S. Senate evaluation and endorsement.

See all CIVPAC 2026 Senate endorsements and evaluations.

With the Oregon review, CIVPAC has now reviewed every 2026 U.S. Senate general-election race. We have published endorsements in 26 races, including Alaska, published evaluations without an endorsement in 3, and have 6 completed drafts still under review and awaiting publication.

That completes the research stage of the Senate project. The races will continue to be followed, and evaluations or endorsements can be revisited if significant new information warrants it.

Oklahoma Senate 2026: CIVPAC Publishes Candidate Evaluation

Oklahoma U.S. Senate 2026 candidate evaluation — CIVPAC no endorsement

CIVPAC has published its evaluation of the 2026 U.S. Senate race in Oklahoma. After reviewing all five candidates, we are not making an endorsement at this time.

The field offers Oklahoma voters unusually different choices: Republican Kevin Hern, Democrat N’Kiyla “Jasmine” Thomas, Libertarian Sevier White, and independents Ron Meinhardt and Curtis Stinnett.

Hern has the most extensive governing record and overlaps with CIVPAC on markets, taxation, regulation and fiscal discipline. But we have substantial differences with him over the 2020 election, presidential power, Ukraine, abortion and his close identification with President Trump.

Thomas offers a detailed domestic agenda and takes positions we regard as reasonable on a number of civil-rights, reproductive-choice and health-care issues. But her economic program would give the federal government a substantially larger role than CIVPAC supports, and important questions remain about fiscal and foreign policy.

Meinhardt’s emphasis on constitutional limits, congressional war powers and putting principle ahead of party machinery deserves attention. But his abortion position differs sharply from ours, and we found too many unanswered questions about his positions on major national and international issues.

Stinnett has produced an unusually detailed policy program. We appreciate the effort to confront difficult issues directly, but many of his proposals would move considerably farther toward federal direction of health care, wages, credit and resource allocation than CIVPAC favors.

There is simply too little publicly available information about White’s positions for us to make a meaningful comparison.

CIVPAC does not expect candidates to take centrist positions on every issue. We look instead at the overall combination of policy agreement, institutional responsibility, independence of judgment and willingness to confront difficult tradeoffs. In Oklahoma, none of the five candidates currently provides enough of that combination for us to make an endorsement.

Read our full Oklahoma U.S. Senate evaluation.

See all CIVPAC 2026 endorsements and evaluations.

Michigan U.S. Senate: An Evaluation, Not an Endorsement

Michigan U.S. Senate evaluation graphic featuring a purple outline of Michigan and the U.S. Capitol, with the text “Mike Rogers vs. Abdul El-Sayed,” “Centrist Independent Voter,” and “CIVPAC.”

We have completed our evaluation of the 2026 Michigan U.S. Senate race between Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

It is not an endorsement.

We could not quite get there for either candidate.

That is worth putting in context. During the Democratic primary, CIVPAC endorsed Haley Stevens over El-Sayed. Had Michigan Democrats chosen Stevens as their nominee, we would probably have endorsed her in the general election as well. Our inability to endorse El-Sayed is therefore not simply a consequence of evaluating a Democrat against a Republican. It reflects concerns specific to his candidacy and policy program.

Rogers and El-Sayed present very different strengths, weaknesses and policy agendas. But each leaves us with an important unanswered question that goes beyond the ordinary disagreements voters should expect in a Senate race.

Our full evaluation examines those differences in considerable detail.

El-Sayed has produced one of the most extensive and specific policy platforms we have encountered this election cycle. (That is one reason why this evaluation has taken about a week to draft.) We agree with him on some important matters, including support for Ukraine, concern about unauthorized military action, protection of reproductive freedom, vocational education, increasing housing supply and taking potentially catastrophic artificial-intelligence risks seriously.

We disagree much more broadly with his economic approach. His Medicare for All proposal would create a far more comprehensive government-financed system than Medicare as Americans know it today. His proposed annual wealth taxes are extraordinarily high by international standards. His AI program would go beyond regulation to substantial government ownership and control of major AI companies. We also differ on labor policy, tariffs, climate policy, the Senate filibuster and restrictions on independent political spending.

But those normal policy disagreements are not what ultimately prevent us from reaching an endorsement.

For El-Sayed, the unresolved question concerns Israel.

He has repeatedly declined to say plainly that Israel should continue to exist as a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state. He has said that whether there should ultimately be one state or two should be decided by “the people,” without clearly defining who he means by that term.

Our question for him is straightforward:

Does Abdul El-Sayed accept that Israel should continue to exist as a secure Jewish and democratic national home for the Jewish people, with equal individual rights for its non-Jewish citizens, alongside a viable Palestinian state in which Palestinians exercise their own national self-determination?

He is perfectly capable of answering it.

Mike Rogers presents a very different problem.

Rogers’s earlier career gives us substantial reasons to take him seriously. He has deep national-security experience and, in 2021, forcefully rejected Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. Rogers wrote then about the danger of blind allegiance to a person or party and insisted that certified election results should not be rejected without evidence.

The 2026 Rogers has aligned himself much more closely with President Trump.

To his credit, he has also demonstrated some real independence. He has called for an end to the Iran war, supported slowing AI development while safeguards are developed, and backed a Michigan pause on new data centers despite the administration’s very different approach.

But his comments about his own 2024 Senate loss remain difficult to reconcile with the standard he articulated in 2021. Rogers has suggested that a Detroit ballot delivery “swung” the election against him without producing evidence that anything improper occurred.

So our question for Rogers is equally straightforward:

Does he still apply to himself the standard he articulated when Donald Trump lost an election?

More broadly, where are the lines at which a future Senator Rogers would place his own judgment, constitutional responsibilities and institutional obligations ahead of loyalty to President Trump?

We are not asking either candidate to agree with CIVPAC on everything.

We are asking each to answer a question that bears directly on whether we can recommend entrusting him with a seat in the United States Senate.

Michigan voters should listen carefully for those answers.

Until we hear them, this remains an evaluation, not an endorsement.

CIVPAC Endorses Chris Coons for U.S. Senate in Delaware

CIVPAC endorsement graphic for Chris Coons for U.S. Senate in Delaware in 2026, featuring the U.S. Capitol framed by an outline of Delaware in a purple-and-white design, with Centrist Independent Voter branding.

Centrist Independent Voter has endorsed Democratic Senator Chris Coons for reelection to the United States Senate from Delaware in 2026.

Coons will face Republican Michael Katz, a physician, businessman and former Delaware state senator. Our full Delaware Senate evaluation examines both candidates across foreign policy, presidential power, tariffs, taxation, health care, immigration, election administration, abortion and gun policy.

The endorsement reflects areas of both agreement and disagreement with Coons. His record on foreign policy is especially well developed. He has been a strong supporter of Ukraine and NATO, has taken substantive positions on China and Taiwan, Israel and Iran, and has repeatedly defended a congressional role in decisions involving war and presidential tariff authority.

Coons also differs from some members of his party in ways relevant to our evaluation. He does not advocate Medicare for All, has supported border enforcement as part of broader immigration reform, and has demonstrated a willingness to support some Trump administration nominees while opposing the most troubling ones. His record on biomedical research has also included significant bipartisan work.

There are important areas where CIVPAC disagrees with him. We do not favor his proposal to tax unrealized gains of extremely wealthy taxpayers, and several of his gun-control positions go farther than we would. We also generally favor a smaller and less regulatory federal government.

Katz presents a different problem. His campaign emphasizes fiscal discipline, deregulation, immigration enforcement and his experience as a physician. But on several issues important to CIVPAC, his positions remain either unclear or insufficiently developed. We found no sufficiently specific positions on Ukraine and NATO, China and Taiwan, Israel and Iran, presidential war powers, abortion, the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid or federal biomedical-research funding.

His current platform also repeatedly aligns itself with President Trump while leaving unanswered how Katz would respond when he disagreed with the president. Those questions matter particularly in evaluating a Senate candidate, because one of the Senate’s constitutional responsibilities is to provide an independent check on executive power.

Our endorsement of Coons therefore does not reflect agreement with him across the board. It reflects our assessment of the available record, including foreign policy, institutional independence, health care, trade, immigration, elections and the role of divided government.

Readers can see the complete reasoning in our Delaware U.S. Senate evaluation and review all of CIVPAC’s 2026 endorsements and evaluations.

CIVPAC Endorses Juliana Stratton for U.S. Senate in Illinois

Centrist Independent Voter endorsement graphic for Juliana Stratton for U.S. Senate in Illinois in 2026, featuring the U.S. Capitol and Illinois flag in a purple-and-white design.

CIVPAC has endorsed Juliana Stratton in Illinois’s 2026 U.S. Senate election.

The decision follows our review of Stratton, Republican Don Tracy, and American Center Party candidate Whitfield Harrington Jr. The race presents a difficult tradeoff between foreign policy, democratic institutions and the appropriate role of government in the economy.

Stratton is substantially closer to CIVPAC on several issues that have become increasingly important in our 2026 evaluations. She supports continued assistance to Ukraine, a strong NATO alliance, congressional checks on presidential war-making and greater restraint in the use of tariffs. She would also provide an independent partisan check on the Trump administration.

Our reservations about Stratton are substantial. Her domestic agenda includes Medicare for All, a $25 federal minimum wage and abolition of ICE. Those proposals would significantly expand the federal role in the economy and, in the case of Medicare for All, create major unanswered questions about financing.

Don Tracy is considerably closer to CIVPAC on conventional economic policy, health-care markets, regulation and the scale of government. He also supports NATO and Ukraine’s right to defend itself. But his greater willingness to defer to President Trump on war powers and tariffs, along with his support for pardons of January 6 defendants, raises questions about the degree of institutional independence he would bring to the Senate.

We also reviewed Whitfield Harrington Jr., who presents himself as a pragmatic centrist. His platform contains some interesting ideas, but his public record remains too limited on foreign policy, presidential power, immigration, fiscal policy and major social issues to evaluate him alongside the major-party candidates with confidence.

With Illinois voting beginning September 24, we concluded that the choice could no longer be deferred. Given the available record—and CIVPAC’s preference for divided government as a check on executive overreach—we endorsed Juliana Stratton.

Readers interested in the details can read our full Illinois U.S. Senate evaluation and endorsement.

Our other 2026 endorsements and evaluations are collected on our 2026 endorsements page.

CIVPAC Endorses Everett W. Wess for U.S. Senate in Alabama

CIVPAC endorsement graphic for Everett W. Wess for U.S. Senate in Alabama in 2026, featuring the U.S. Capitol framed by an outline of Alabama in a purple-and-white design, with Centrist Independent Voter branding.

CIVPAC has endorsed Everett W. Wess in Alabama’s 2026 U.S. Senate election.

The decision follows our review of Wess, Republican Congressman Barry Moore, and independent candidate Craig Jelks. Each presents a very different record, and our endorsement of Wess comes with reservations about gaps in his public positions.

Wess brings an unusually varied professional background. Before practicing law, he spent many years working in information technology. He subsequently practiced law for more than two decades and served as a municipal judge. We were particularly interested in his emphasis on constitutional government, congressional responsibility, political stability and the possibility of working constructively across party lines.

At the same time, Wess has not yet developed detailed public positions on several issues important to CIVPAC. We would like to know considerably more about his views on fiscal policy, energy, immigration and especially American foreign policy, including continued support for Ukraine and NATO.

We also considered independent Craig Jelks. Jelks has taken positions on tariffs, federal deficits, congressional war powers and political independence that reflect well on him. His candidacy nevertheless raises significant unanswered questions. His cultural conservatism differs from CIVPAC’s generally libertarian approach to personal issues, his comments suggesting that the United States is overly focused on foreign affairs give us concern about possible retrenchment, and he has not explained which party he would caucus with in the Senate. Nor has he yet demonstrated a substantial statewide electoral constituency.

Our greatest concerns involve Barry Moore’s established record. Moore continues to associate himself with claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, strongly identifies his Senate candidacy with President Trump, opposed the 2026 Ukraine Support Act, and supports the administration’s broad use of tariffs. Those positions conflict with several priorities that have become increasingly important in CIVPAC’s evaluations: respect for democratic institutions, an independent Congress, support for Ukraine and skepticism toward protectionism.

Readers interested in the details can read our full Alabama Senate evaluation and endorsement of Everett Wess.

Our other endorsements and evaluations for the 2026 elections are collected on our 2026 endorsements page.

CIVPAC has endorsed Jack Reed for reelection to the United States Senate from Rhode Island.

Rhode Island outline and U.S. Capitol representing CIVPAC’s 2026 endorsement of Jack Reed for U.S. Senate.

This is not an endorsement based on broad ideological agreement. Reed remains substantially to our left on labor policy, taxation and the proper scope of government. We disagree with him on important domestic economic questions.

But Reed is unusually strong on several issues that have become increasingly important in CIVPAC’s 2026 Senate evaluations.

He has been a consistent supporter of Ukraine and of America’s alliances, brings substantial experience in national security, and has repeatedly defended Congress’s constitutional authority over war powers and presidential use of emergency powers. His record gives us considerable confidence that he views the Senate as an independent branch of government rather than simply an extension of the executive.

The alternatives did not overcome that advantage. Republican Ray McKay is closer to CIVPAC on some conventional economic issues, but his campaign has closely identified itself with President Trump and has provided relatively little detail on Ukraine, NATO and congressional independence. Independent Michael Bahry offers a more developed foreign-policy position, but his support for American withdrawal from NATO is fundamentally at odds with CIVPAC’s view of the United States’ international responsibilities.

On balance, Reed’s strengths on foreign policy, Ukraine and institutional responsibility outweigh our significant disagreements with him on domestic policy.

CIVPAC therefore endorses Jack Reed for reelection to the U.S. Senate from Rhode Island.

Read our full Rhode Island U.S. Senate evaluation.

See all CIVPAC 2026 endorsements.

CIVPAC has endorsed Marquita Bradshaw for the United States Senate in Tennessee.

Tennessee outline and U.S. Capitol representing CIVPAC’s 2026 Tennessee U.S. Senate endorsement.

It was not an easy decision. In fact, we had been preparing to make no endorsement at all.

Republican incumbent Bill Hagerty is substantially closer to CIVPAC on many questions of taxation, regulation and economic policy. Bradshaw’s economic philosophy remains considerably to our left, and important questions remain about her views on Ukraine, NATO and America’s broader international responsibilities. Her current campaign focuses primarily on domestic priorities including education, health care, housing, voting rights, broadband, small business and environmental issues.

But Hagerty’s record raises a different set of concerns. He has opposed U.S. assistance to Ukraine, saying that he had opposed “every cent” of such aid and arguing that the United States should focus its resources at home. He has also generally supported President Trump on issues in which CIVPAC believes congressional independence deserves particular attention, including nominations, tariffs and presidential war powers.

The final consideration came from President Trump himself.

At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Trump urged voters to treat the 2026 election as a referendum on his presidency, telling them to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”

CIVPAC has decided to take that invitation seriously.

For CIVPAC, divided government is not an automatic reason to support the opposition party. Candidates still have to be judged individually. But when questions of congressional independence and executive power are already central to an evaluation, the composition of the Senate becomes an additional consideration.

After weighing those factors, CIVPAC has endorsed Marquita Bradshaw for the U.S. Senate from Tennessee.

Read our full Tennessee U.S. Senate evaluation.

See all CIVPAC 2026 endorsements.