One candidate had dropped out in September. One had no campaign staff. One was a 19-year-old and halfway through the fall college semester.

Across the US, Democratic candidates with almost no public profile and long odds of winning their midterm races were stunned to find they had outperformed their opponents on Tuesday. They were swept into Congress and statehouses in the blue wave that knocked out Republicans from seats considered untouchable in deep-red districts.

“It’s very surreal,” said Victoria Broderick, a Tennessee Democrat poised to pull off an extraordinary upset in the state’s fourth congressional district, ousting Republican incumbent Scott DesJarlais, who was seeking his ninth term. The prominent US election forecaster Cook Political Report rated it as a “solid Republican” district, and almost nobody in Washington thought Desjarlais could lose.

Speaking on Wednesday after state officials declared she had won by about 300 votes, Broderick said: “I think the first words to my team were: ‘Wait, what?’ I was just sitting there shocked.” The Associated Press hasn’t yet called her race.

In an indication of how eager some residents were to “vote blue no matter who”, Eric Armstrong, an Iowa Democrat, won his race for state representative despite having dropped out in early September. At the time, he cited “personal health issues that require my full attention and immediate care”.

Even though Armstrong did not campaign for the last two months, he defeated Republican Keith Jones, a county supervisor and retired police lieutenant, by more than 800 votes. Armstrong didn’t respond to inquiries, but told the New York Times in a phone call on Wednesday morning: “I’m going to do my best to represent [the district] … But I still have health issues, that’s what I’m struggling with.”

Jones said by phone Thursday that he was stunned by his loss: “It was a gut-punch. I worked really hard for eight months … the blue wave hit Iowa and Texas very hard, no doubt.” He said voters were concerned with the Iran war and gas prices – issues he couldn’t address as a state representative: “It’s hard to lose a race based on events outside of my control.”

In Arizona, Sebastian Matta, a 19-year-old college student studying philosophy, defeated Jeff Dial, a 50-year-old Republican former state lawmaker, in the race to be Maricopa county clerk of the superior court. Matta told the Arizona Republic that he noticed Democrats had not run for the office in years: “I figured: ‘You know, why not?’” He said he expected it would be a “destined loss” for Democrats, but now he is set to lead the court’s clerk’s office for the nation’s fourth-largest county.

Some of the unexpected candidates weren’t prepared when they heard news of their success.

In Tennessee, Broderick, the Democrat, worked a full-time job in tech support throughout her longshot campaign: “I’m a working-class mom. I was supposed to go to work today, and I had to message my boss.”

She first ran for Congress in 2024, throwing her hat into the ring after learning DesJarlais was running unopposed. “I essentially said: ‘Over my dead body,’” she said. DesJarlais won 70% of votes that year, compared to her 27%. The Tennessee legislature redrew its congressional maps earlier this year and made the fourth district slightly more Democratic, by including parts of Nashville. But Trump still would have won the current iteration of the district by 24 points in 2024.

Broderick, a 34-year-old mother of two who previously worked as a logistics sourcing coordinator, said she connected with residents who hadn’t voted in years and met Republicans who were concerned about affordability and appreciated the “integrity” she brought to the race.

“We’ve been neglected in this district,” she said. “People want representatives who understand what they’re going through, who understand the costs of going to the gas station or grocery store. I’m that representative.”

With just 400 followers on X as of Wednesday, Broderick pulled ahead without support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s campaign and fundraising arm for the House, she said. She had also been outspent roughly 12 to one during her primary, she added. “The Democratic party wasn’t paying attention to this race … I knew I was the underdog.”

DesJarlais’s tenure had also been marked by scandal over the years, with Politico calling him the “biggest hypocrite in Congress” in 2014 after it emerged that he had privately supported his ex-wife’s abortions, but publicly opposed abortion rights in office. (DesJarlais’s campaign did not respond to inquiries.)

In North Carolina, LaKesha Womack, a Democrat, won her congressional race against the Republican incumbent, Tim Moore, after running her campaign without any paid, full-time staffers and raising only $59,000 compared to Moore’s $2m.

“I wanted to run a different type of race. I wanted to be more present in the community,” Womack, 49, said on Wednesday. “So I didn’t spend as much time fundraising. I spent most of my time with the voters – attending events, going to church, doing meet-and-greets.” She said she worked closely with county party chairs who hosted events for her and prioritized door-knocking.

Womack is the founder of a consulting firm for small businesses, non-profits and faith-based organizations. Last month, she was served with a criminal summons while at a campaign event. She was accused of failing to return a rental car on time in 2019, the Charlotte Observer reported. She said in a video message last month that she had struggled with homelessness at the time and was unaware of criminal proceedings until the surprise summons.

Womack declined to discuss specifics of the charge, but questioned why the summons was issued just before the election. The charges were covered by conservative media and highlighted in attack ads by her opponent. She has a court date in the case next week.

“It was very hurtful, but my supporters reached out to me and said: ‘We’ve got your back.’ They had questions, but never doubted that I was the person they had gotten to know over the past nine months,” she said.

And she said her personal experiences with economic insecurity made her better prepared for Congress: “When you know what it’s like to figure out how am I going to put food on the table for me and my child, then you look at food security differently.”

One of Womack’s top priorities is healthcare costs and protecting rural hospitals from funding cuts, she said.

Womack, who has a political science degree but no previous experience as an elected official, said voters were also desperate for a candidate who would stand up to Donald Trump. She noted Moore had not criticized Trump when the president at a rally said he would not send Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) funding to North Carolina if the Republican Senate candidate lost, before adding he was “kidding”.

Moore served one term in Congress and before that was the longest serving speaker of North Carolina’s statehouse. His campaign did not respond to an inquiry.

“People understand what’s at stake in this election. They chose the candidate they believe will go to Washington and fight for them,” she said. “I’m looking forward to our freshmen orientation. I’m sure I’ll get a big binder of all the things I need to work on.”