These former feds could be members of Congress next year

Many federal employees who left or were pushed out of their jobs last year due to the Trump administration’s downsizing of the civil service still wanted to be involved with the government. So, some of them pursued political office.  

In fact, several of these individuals, who are hoping to be elected as new members of Congress in fewer than two weeks, cited the Department of Government Efficiency’s cuts to agency workforces and programs as a motivating factor in their decision to run. 

Still, race ratings from The Cook Political Report show that virtually all of them are in tough races where they’re often long-shot underdogs. 

Here is a list compiled by Government Executive of former career civilian federal employees who advanced to general elections in upcoming congressional midterm races. 

Chris Backemeyer 

Party: Democratic 

District: Nebraska’s 1st 

Opponent: Incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Flood 

Backemeyer is a former State Department official who previously told Government Executive that he resigned from the government because of DOGE. 

“They just wanted me to fire a lot of people. We were asked to basically pick 15%, and that's when I realized that I was playing by different rules,” he said. “I was trying to be faithful to the oath that I took to the Constitution. But there wasn't any mission or purpose left when DOGE came in. It was just about destruction and retribution. 

Zach Dembo 

Party: Democratic 

District: Kentucky’s 6th 

Opponent: Republican Ralph Alvarado (former state senator) 

Dembo is a Navy veteran and former federal prosecutor who worked in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and as an assistant U.S. attorney in Kentucky. He said that he resigned due to the Trump administration’s “politicization” of the DOJ. 

“The overt hostility toward all these hard-working men and women I knew in the FBI and DOJ was really galling and unpatriotic for me,” he told The New York Times. 

Alissa Ellman 

Party: Democratic 

District: New York’s 24th 

Opponent: Incumbent Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney 

Ellman is an Army veteran who said that she lost her job at the Veterans Affairs Department because of DOGE. 

“When you can be thrown out like yesterday’s garbage, that does not make people want to come and work for VA,” she said in an interview with MS NOW. “And it does not make people want to come and take the pay cut from the private sector to work for the federal government.” 

Sam Forstag 

Party: Democratic 

District: Montana’s 1st  

Opponent: Republican Aaron Flint (former GOP staffer and Army veteran) 

Forstag was a smokejumper for the Forest Service. As the former vice president for National Federal of Federal Employees Local 60, he criticized DOGE’s cuts to public land agencies. 

“What got me into this race was this misnamed Department of Government Efficiency, where at least in our state, in my agency, the Forest Service, they just about exclusively came after the lowest paid workers we’ve got,” he told the Montana Free Press. “The first round of firings from DOGE, it was 360 Montanans in the Forest Service, 80% of them making $19.70 an hour or less.”

Hillary Herzig

Party: Republican

District: New Jersey’s 6th

Opponent: Incumbent Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.

Herzig was a military spouse who worked at several agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Defense and Homeland Security. 

“Being in a lot of crisis situations in public service, making important decisions and seeing the emotional effects of how granting citizenship, for instance, affects a human and their emotions, I believe that’s what has prepared me to serve my community,” she said in an interview with 710 WOR.  

Kristin Hook 

Party: Democratic 

District: Texas’ 21st 

Opponent: Mark Teixeira (former professional baseball player) 

Hook is a scientist who worked for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as well as the National Institutes of Health and Government Accountability Office. 

“I worked in the federal government. I know that it can be a powerful force for good — for consumers, for children, for families,” she said in an interview with KSAT 12. “Right now, it’s being weaponized against us.”

Michael Masuda

Party: Democratic 

District: California’s 5th 

Opponent: Incumbent Republican Rep. Tom McClintock 

Masuda is an engineer and former State Department officer. He argued in an interview with The New York Times that working at an agency is ideal preparation for serving as a member of Congress. 

“We had to work across the federal government and understand how those other agencies operate, what they care about, what their priorities are and how to get things done in this very complicated, bureaucratic environment,” he said.

Karen Ortiz

Party: Independent 

District: New York’s 12th 

Opponents: Democrat Micah Lasher (state assemblyman) and Republican Caroline Shinkle (attorney) 

Ortiz was fired last year as an administrative judge for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after opposing an agency order to deprioritize gender identity discrimination cases.

“I may be an introvert, but I don’t stay quiet when I see harm being done,” she said in an interview with Marie Claire. 

Lauren Reinhold 

Party: Democratic 

District: Kansas’ 1st 

Opponent: Incumbent Republican Rep. Tracey Mann 

Reinhold served in several different roles at the Social Security Administration and National Labor Relations Board. She decided to leave government after the Trump administration began implementing Schedule Policy/Career, which removed civil service protections from about 8,000 federal positions, and was motivated to run for Congress because of the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies. 

“I want to be an ambassador to restore trust in our federal services,” she previously said in an interview with Government Executive. “Get people to recognize the importance of federal services — the ways they depend on it, even if they don't agree with everything the way it's done. For the most part, people see my experience as good.”

Ceretta Smith 

Party: Democratic 

District: Georgia’s 12th 

Opponent: Incumbent Republican Rep. Rick Allen 

Smith is a former Army medic, city councilmember and past president and member of American Federation of Government Employees Local 2017, which represents Army employees at Fort Gordon, who worked in the federal government for 24 years. 

In an interview with 13 WMAZ, she said that “understanding what our local federal government workers bring to our community and do” sets her apart as a candidate. 

Trina Swanson

Party: Democratic 

District: Minnesota’s 8th 

Opponent: Incumbent Republican Rep. Pete Stauber 

Swanson previously worked for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, ultimately becoming the agency’s director of international operations. She told MinnPost that she left after the Trump administration pressured her “to do things I thought were unethical,” including checking the visa for the spouse of a nanny who worked for a DOGE official.