Democrats celebrated midterm victories on Tuesday night after key party figures helped candidates across the nation. Pete Buttigieg, Mark Kelly, and Andy Beshear shared photos of their campaign efforts as results rolled in. Many leaders used these races to build a national brand while helping others win their seats.
Victory has a thousand fathers. And Democrats everywhere are clamoring for a piece of this midterm triumph.
It wasn't long after Democrats claimed victory across huge swaths of the nation on Tuesday night that Republicans started pointing fingers at one another. Meanwhile, Democrats, riding high on the promise of a congressional majority, started pointing to their work.
Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, posted more than 30 photos of himself campaigning with winning candidates as their race calls rolled in. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky each posted a dozen such photos.
The biggest names in Democratic politics had helped midterm candidates raise money, court voters and generate buzz, in some cases spending months traveling the country to campaign. Now they want to share in the victory lap, even if they themselves weren't on the ballot.
Their efforts weren't always purely altruistic: Many of this cycle's busiest campaign surrogates are mulling 2028 presidential runs, and hitting the trail can be a prime opportunity to road-test ideas and build a national brand. And picking winners, of course, is generally a good look.
Here are some of the Democratic heavyweights who made big bets that paid off this midterm season.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist from the Bronx, focused much of her campaigning this year on New York, but there was a major exception: Michigan.
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One of the party's top fund-raisers, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Abdul El-Sayed for Senate in Michigan, then campaigned with him and transferred $1 million to an account to help him get elected -- a huge sum for a House member to devote to a Senate contest.
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