Midterm Cross-Party Endorsements: A Strategic Gamble in Tight Races

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski endorsed Democratic Alaska gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins on Tuesday. This move marks the latest instance of midterm candidates highlighting cross-party support in the final weeks before the November election.

The strategy is not limited to Alaska. In Kansas, former Republican governors Bill Graves and Mike Hayden have backed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hamilton. Graves announced his support in September, while Hayden did so in October. In Texas, the campaign for Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico claims that more than two dozen former Republican officials have endorsed him.

Kel Seliger, a former GOP state senator in Texas, joined Talarico’s coalition this week. Seliger chose Talarico over Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. "I’ve served with both people," Seliger said. "James Talarico is not some wild-eyed socialist and and he may believe in a lot of things that Democratic Party believes in that I don’t. But I think he’s going to be honest. And I think he’s going to be frank and direct. I think that the things that he does are going to be what is best for Texas. Not what’s best for Elon Musk."

Republican officials are also courting voters from the other side. Natalie Baldassarre, national press secretary for the RNC, pointed to the Michigan Senate race featuring Mike Rogers and Abdul El-Sayed. She also cited the "Democrats for Mike Rogers" coalition as evidence of this trend. Baldassarre said she expects cross-party voting to influence outcomes in specific contests, including the Texas race between Paxton and Talarico.

Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project, offered a more restrained view of the impact. Blank noted that cross-party voting usually involves small, idiosyncratic groups rather than large blocs. "We’re not talking about a large group of Republicans crossing party lines to vote for Democrats, or a large group of Democrats possibly crossing party lines to vote for Republicans," Blank said. He added that these shifts are significant only if the elections are statistically tied.

Recent polling indicates that several midterm races have narrowed to the point where they are statistically tied. In these specific contexts, the small share of voters who cross party lines could determine the winner.