WASHINGTON–Over the next two months 27 states will be holding primaries, beginning with Ohio and Indiana today, with credit unions backing 18 incumbents in those two states.
As the CU Daily reported here, America’s Credit Unions said it and its Political Action Committee (PAC) said they will spend a combined $8 million in independent expenditures and member communications during the 2026 midterm election cycle to support candidates who are “credit union champions.”
Trey Hawkins, head of political affairs with America’s Credit Unions, said he expects the CU-backed candidates in the Hoosier (four candidates have CU support) and Buckeye (14 candidates have CU support) states will win their races, which aren’t competitive.
But things will be tighter in other states, he said, including California and Nevada, with America’s Credit Unions’ PAC will be spending $1 million to back three candidates: incumbent Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Young Kim (R-CA), and Brett Marques, a member of the Alabama House who is running for an open congressional seat as a Republican.
Hawkins reminded that America’s Credit Unions hosts an “Elections Hub” that contains information on all the races in which it is involved, in addition to other resources.
The Effects of Redistricting
While litigation is certain to be involved, one thing changing in many of the primary races is redistricting as the parties in power in the respective states seek to gain seats in Congress, which President Trump has urged so-called red states to do. Asked by the CU Daily during a press call whether those redistricting effort will affect decisions made by the ACU PAC, Hawkins replied, “Yes and no. I would say we are always supporting our champions and, in many cases, we’ve gotten ahead and partnered with our leagues and local credit unions where we anticipate there might be changes, but we put it through the same kind of lens of support.”
The question, he said, is always whether the candidate has had a relationship with credit unions and has been a “champion.”
“That process of who we’re going to back doesn’t change,” Hawkins explained.
What could change, Hawkins added, using the races California as an example, is that with redistricting the candidates are now in front of new voters, which may require different kinds of support.
