Democrats woke up yesterday and discovered that dozens of names they'd never heard of will soon be joining them in Congress.

🔮 Why it matters: Their enormous new majority includes so many complete unknowns that party leaders are scrambling to figure out what they believe, whom they'll support and how they'll vote.

• Their ranks include people who weren't ready to commit to supporting Hakeem Jeffries as speaker. Several describe themselves as conservatives or former Republicans. Others are surprisingly progressive. Most didn't receive a dime from the party apparatus.
• 🕵️‍♀️ Democrats were left to Google many of the candidates who won upset victories in North Carolina, Tennessee and elsewhere.
• "Never heard of them," a senior House Democrat, who was involved in battleground races, told us.

🌊 The big picture: At least 37 incoming House Democrats won districts President Trump carried in 2024, Punchbowl News' Ally Mutnick reported this morning.

😱 Zoom in: Perhaps the most stunning result was activist and tech support worker Victoria Broderick's 280-vote upset over longtime Rep. Scott DesJarlais in a Tennessee seat Trump carried by 24 percentage points in 2024.

• Broderick had spent just $90,000 to DesJarlais' $500,000 as of Oct. 14, according to FEC filings. Neither national party spent on the race.

‼️ Between the lines: North Carolina was a hotbed for flips, courtesy of Republicans redrawing the state's congressional districts from an even split to a 10-4 GOP advantage in 2024. After Tuesday, it could be a 10-4 Democratic margin.

• Retired local newspaper journalist and publisher Chuck Hubbard is on the verge of an upset win over Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the powerful House Rules Committee. Hubbard leads by 99 votes in a district Trump carried by 17 points in 2024. (AP has not called this race, and there are provisional and overseas ballots still to be counted.)
• High Point Mayor Cyril Jefferson took down freshman Rep. Addison McDowell in a district Trump carried by 16 points. Jefferson spent just $225,000 to McDowell's $1.3 million, per FEC filings.
• Paul Barringer, a former Republican who's been a lawyer, health care consultant and tree farmer, beat freshman Rep. Brad Knott by 3 points in a district Trump won by 17.
• LaKesha Womack spent just $55,000 in her campaign that ousted Rep. Tim Moore, a former state House speaker who was one of the architects of the very gerrymander that led to his political demise.

The bottom line: House Democrats' progressive and centrist wings are both looking to recruit as many of these so-called "wave babies" as possible to grow their strength for the ideological fights ahead, we reported yesterday.

• Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus' PAC, told us some of these candidates applied for her group's endorsement but didn't get it because "honestly.... the districts looked so tough."
• "We will definitely be reaching out to them," she said.

— Andrew Solender

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is heading back to South Carolina this weekend to speak to Black voters, celebrate Democrats' success in a deep-red state and lay out his vision for the party's future.

• We scooped Booker's plans earlier today.

Why it matters: For Senate Democrats, the 2028 presidential primary is getting underway before they formally vote on their next Senate leader.

• That likely leader — Sen. Chuck Schumer — will have to manage the ambitions of at least half a dozen senators looking to distinguish themselves in a crowded, wide-open presidential field.

Zoom in: Fresh off his 27-percentage-point reelection victory in New Jersey, Booker isn't wasting any time between his last campaign and his (likely) next one.

• Booker appears to be the first senator — and first potential presidential contender — to visit South Carolina since the midterms. The state will hold the first Democratic presidential primary in 2028.
• In October, Booker campaigned in South Carolina for Annie Andrews, who went on to upset Republican Darline Graham to become the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from the state since Fritz Hollings in 1998.

Driving the news: Booker is scheduled to speak tomorrow night at the Sumter County NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet in Sumter, S.C.

• He'll return to the state on Nov. 20 to attend the Charleston Branch NAACP's annual Freedom Fund Gala. It's the oldest NAACP branch in the state.

— Hans Nichols