text: enate seats in Pennsylvania and North Carolina will be hotly contested. Source: BallotpediaBoth candidates live in reliably red districts, but reliably red doesn’t always matter if the incumbent is disinterested or running for another office. One example is former Republican Rep. Steve Russell for Oklahoma’s 5th District. Russell was an Iraq War veteran, retired Lieutenant Colonel, and conventional ground force commander during the operation to capture Saddam Hussein. Former Rep. Kendra Horn defeated Russell in 2018 by just over a percentage point, with roughly 1/3 of her campaign funds from out of state. Out-of-state funding is a standard tool used by interested political actors to flip otherwise reliable seats folks might not pay attention to otherwise. Districts containing metropolitan areas or universities are prime targets of political influence campaigns as they often have a motivated and willing base of activists to tap into.