Several 2026 political candidates in crucial battleground states have opted to lean into a cross-party appeal as they vie for voters beyond their party.
In Georgia, one of the nation’s closest-margin purple states in recent elections, both Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson have made a point of touting endorsements from politicians outside of their own political party this year.
Ossoff has pointed toward several endorsements from Republican mayors in the Peach State who each signed onto his Senate reelection campaign citing the work he has done for their communities. GOP mayor of Tifton, Georgia, Julie Smith said in her endorsement of the Democratic incumbent, “I have to look to someone who takes care of their constituents.”
On the other side of the aisle, Jackson has also promoted endorsements he has received from Democratic sheriffs for his bid to be the state’s next governor. The two sheriffs pointed to Jackson’s policy stances on public safety and law enforcement in their endorsements, with Jackson thanking the sheriffs, saying, “Public safety isn’t a left or right issue. It’s a matter of public trust.”
University of Georgia political science professor Trey Hood told the Washington Examiner that the Peach State candidates are likely promoting cross-party endorsements to appeal to undecided, independent voters, not necessarily partisan voters.
But he emphasized that in a tight-margin state such as Georgia — where these independent voters have in the past split their tickets to vote for Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (R-GA) — “it doesn’t take a whole lot of split ticket voters to win.”
But in this election cycle, it is not just Georgia where candidates are touting cross-party endorsements and making cross-party appeals.
Florida, Iowa, and Arizona, too
In Florida, Rep. Byron Donalds, the GOP nominee for governor in his state, promoted an endorsement from Democratic Sheriff Morris Young of Gadsden County, who has served as law enforcement chief of his community for over two decades.
Donalds touted Young’s bipartisan approach to his job in his response to the endorsement message, saying Young has “spent his career serving the people of Gadsden County, not politics, and that’s exactly the kind of leadership Florida needs more of.”
Sharing over 100 GOP names, Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Iowa Rob Sand has gone so far as to create a nickname for all the Republican officials and voters in his state who have endorsed him, calling them “Rob-Publicans.”
“Iowans from all political stripes are coming together because they’re ready for leadership that puts people over politics,” Sand, the current state auditor, said in a statement. “I’m running to be a governor for all Iowans — Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike — because we get better results when we work together rather than continuing down the same path that ten years of one-party control has put us on.”
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) took a further step and nominated former Republican Mesa Mayor John Giles to be her running mate in her reelection campaign.
‘An effort to distance from the brand’
Richard Barton, senior research fellow at the Unite America Institute, which researches the causes of and possible solutions to political polarization in America, spoke with the Washington Examiner about which voters these cross-party appeals could be attracting and why they are happening this election cycle.
Barton echoed Hood’s assessment that these cross-party appeals are more likely to move independent voters than partisan voters, but added that they especially appeal to independents who are largely politically disengaged.
“I think there’s a narrow slice of the electorate that could potentially be persuaded and moved, swayed by that cross-party endorsement. But in the states that we’re talking about, that narrow slice of the electorate could be pivotal,” Barton said.
For example, in the Georgia gubernatorial race, Jackson is running in a toss-up election against Democratic former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. He is running to replace a GOP governor in a state that President Donald Trump won in 2024 by 2.2 percentage points, but it also has two Democrats representing it in the U.S. Senate, who each won by single-digit margins.
Likewise, in Iowa, Sand is leading by single digits in the polls against Republican Zach Lahn to replace Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. Although Cook Political Report pings the race as “leans Democratic,” Trump won the state by more than 13 points in 2024.
Barton zoomed out from the cross-party endorsement states to tie it nationally to a trend political candidates around the country are partaking in, especially on the Left, which is distancing themselves from the national party establishment.
“I think what we’re seeing be effective is, ‘I’m against my party, and not just generally, but I’m willing to be specific, and I’m willing to take a position against my party on specific issues,’” Barton said.
He talked about the penalty of party brands in certain parts of the country that have historically rejected the Democratic or Republican brand, saying, “That’s how I’m interpreting the strategy, is an effort to distance from the brand and to minimize that kind of penalty.”
He pointed to Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) and independent left-leaning candidate for Nebraska Senate Dan Osborn, who have each bucked Democrats on specific issues such as support for Israel and immigration. Barton pointed to Fetterman’s rising popularity among Republicans, arguing it will ultimately help him in a general election if he can make it past a possible 2028 primary challenge.
In the 2024 presidential election, pundits saw a particular movement among politicians who were thwarting the Democratic Party on specific issues to endorse Trump.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, who each previously launched Democratic presidential campaigns, both bucked the Democratic label over issues such as healthcare and foreign policy, respectively, to support Trump, who embraced their support. Both Kennedy and Gabbard then landed spots in Trump’s Cabinet — as health secretary and director of national intelligence, respectively, although Gabbard has since resigned — once he was successfully elected.
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In his analysis of why these cross-party endorsements have been prevalent in 2026, Barton pointed to what he sees as a rejection of the hyper-partisan political environment established over the past few years.
“I think that the sort of very toxic, acrimonious, negative partisan environment that we’re living in — I think has become tiresome,” Barton said. “So it’s not surprising that strategic, savvy candidates are thinking of creative ways to cut against the grain and to stand out in a way that might be a breath of fresh air for a lot of voters.”