Four Senate seats are toss-ups in 2026

Friends of Traditional Banking Looks at Key 2026 Races

The forthcoming 2026 midterm elections look as turbulent as the recent storms that blasted the nation's capital! Friends of Traditional Banking is already analyzing races that are likely to be close, that will have an impact on banking, and where the involvement of our 50,000+ members across the country can make a real difference! FOTB has a track record of helping to flip close races, and this year will be no exception.

The Cook Political Report notes that there will be four toss-up Senate races: Jon Ossoff (D) in Georgia, Susan Collins (R) in Maine, and open seats in Michigan (D) and North Carolina (R). At 270toWin, they agree that those four are the true toss-ups right now, while both groups see a few leaning one party or another beyond that.

For the House, 270toWin predicts 210 seats will go Democratic, 206 Republican, and the remaining 19 seats will be toss-ups. Similarly, Cook forecasts 211 seats blue, 206 red, with only 18 toss-ups.

In the months ahead, FOTB will be gathering YOUR ideas for races we should get involved in that affect our great industry. Stay tuned for more monthly updates!

FOTB Launches 2026 Partnership with American Banker

The American Banker has been an institution in our industry in various formats since 1842. Since 2016, the industry news outlet has been primarily digital. This year, Friends of Traditional Banking has entered in an agreement with American Banker to supply banners to increase FOTB's visibility (see example above) and to supply press release content later in the year.

It is anticipated that this new partnership will help introduce the unique arrow in the quiver of our industry that FOTB is. Once specific candidates are chosen later in the year, it will also be an outlet to encourage direct donations to those key candidates. We're excited to increase our organization's visibility with the partnership of this industry institution.

BANKER NEWS BITS:

The Main Street Capital Access Act (H.R. 6955) was introduced by two good friends of FOTB, Rep. French Hill of Arkansas, the chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, and Rep. Andy Barr of Kentucky, the chair of the subcommittee on financial institutions, according to PYMNTS.com, who noted Congress is targeting regulation to jumpstart new community banks.

According to CNBC, President Trump is urging lawmakers to pass legislation to limit credit card rates to 10%. "I’m asking Congress to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year, and this will help millions of Americans save for a home,” Trump said from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Among the options that the Trump administration had for applying pressure to American banks over card rates, the legislative path may be the least threatening to the industry.

Politico reports that "Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott is abandoning plans to hold a vote Thursday on landmark cryptocurrency legislation amid surprise new opposition from a leading crypto firm and uncertainty about the whip counts on both sides of the aisle." They note that Scott has been working for months negotiate with a bloc of crypto-friendly Senate Democrats on Senate Banking, but they remained opposed to the bill as of late Wednesday, meaning it was unlikely to draw bipartisan support if he forged ahead with a markup. Some Republicans also had outstanding concerns with the bill.

Friends of Traditional Banking supports the American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers Association, and other financial institutions urging Congress to reject the Credit Card Competition Act and any expansion of the Durbin amendment. The letter warns that government intervention in the U.S. credit card market would harm consumers, small businesses, and community-based financial institutions by reducing choice, increasing costs and fraud risks, and creating economic challenges for smaller institutions.

SPONSOR'S CORNER

Risk Assessment with Artificial Intelligence

A message from our sponsor BankOnITUSA:

As you make decisions about whether and to what extent you want to use automation and AI in your bank part of the conversation will be about which AI firms and tools to utilize. Before you make those decisions, however, you must first conduct an assessment of where your bank is now, where you want it to be in five years, and how best to get there strategically.

Your selection of AI vendors is critical as the next steps require investment of time and resources to integrate the new tools into your existing systems. Selecting the wrong AI vendor or tools could have a significant impact on your institution.

See tips on the latest in AI and how it can affect your bank positively--or negatively in the CEO Update from our platinum sponsor, BankOnIt HERE: https://insights.bankonitusa.com/ceo-update-q4-2025

Want to provide content in our Sponsor's Corner? Reach out about being a partner! mike@friendsoftraditionalbanking.com

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PAID for by Friends of Traditional Banking. NOT authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Friends of Traditional Banking is a non-partisan grassroots effort organized by bankers in 2012 to improve the political and regulatory environment for the traditional banking industry in the U.S. FOTB is the inverse of a PAC--instead of spreading a little bit of money to a lot of campaigns, they focus a lot of money on a couple of key campaigns.