The National Republican Congressional Committee has promoted more than a dozen candidates to “Contender” status and added dozens more to its “Young Guns” program, which aims to recognize and help House Republicans’ top challengers this cycle.

The program already has 10 candidates who have achieved Young Guns status, as well as 62 candidates in the Contender and “On the Radar” categories. The addition of 40 candidates to the program marks the program’s biggest expansion so far.

According to a release from the committee, the NRCC has promoted these candidates:

Jonathan Paton in Arizona’s 8th district; Scott Tipton in Colorado’s 3rd district; Jim Gibbons in Iowa’s 3rd district; Jackie Walorski in Indiana’s 2nd district; Larry Bucshon in Indiana’s 8th district; Brian Rooney in Michigan’s 7th district; Rick Berg in North Dakota’s at-large district; Joe Heck in Nevada’s 3rd district; Richard Hanna in New York’s 24th district; Tom Reed in New York’s 29th district; Tom Ganley in Ohio’s 13th district; Scott Bruun in Oregon’s 5th district; former Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania’s 8th district; Lou Barletta in Pennsylvania’s 11th district; Morgan Griffith in Virginia’s 9th district; and David McKinley in West Virginia’s 1st district.

Additionally, the committee has accepted the following 40 candidates into the program with third-tier On the Radar status:

Rick Crawford in Arkansas’ 1st district; David Schweikert and Jim Ward, both running in Arizona’s 5th district; Brad Goehring, David Harmer and Elizabeth Emken, all running in California’s 11th district; Tom Herrmann in Connecticut’s 4th district; Steve Southerland in Florida’s 2nd district; Bruce O’Donoghue in Florida’s 8th district; Rob Gettemy in Iowa’s 2nd district; Bobby Schilling in Illinois’ 17th district; former Rep. Mike Sodrel in Indiana’s 9th district; Kevin Yoder in Kansas’ 3rd district; Jeff Reetz in Kentucky’s 3rd district; Jon Golnik in Massachusetts’ 5th district; Jeff Perry in Massachusetts’ 10th district; Paul Welday in Michigan’s 9th district; Steven Palazzo in Mississippi’s 4th district; Hal Jordan and Harold Johnson, both running in North Carolina’s 8th district; Jeff Miller in North Carolina’s 11th district; Ilario Pantano in North Carolina’s 7th district; former Rep. Charles Bass in New Hampshire’s 2nd district; Jon Runyan in New Jersey’s 3rd district; Scott Sipprelle in New Jersey’s 12th district; Chris Cox in New York’s 1st district; Chris Gibson in New York’s 20th district; Ann Marie Buerkle in New York’s 25th district; Doug Hoffman and Matt Doheny, both running in New York’s 23rd district; Mike Kelly and Paul Huber, both running in Pennsylvania’s 3rd district; Tom Marino in Pennsylvania’s 10th district; Dave Argall in Pennsylvania’s 17th district; Bert Mizusawa in Virginia’s 2nd district; Pat Herrity in Virginia’s 11th district; John Koster in Washington’s 2nd district; Jaime Herrera in Washington’s 3rd district; Marc Trager in Wisconsin’s 8th district; and Spike Maynard in West Virginia’s 3rd district.

Seven GOP Candidates Sharing $1.1 Million

Seven top Republican candidates for the Senate got a nice windfall early this year from a special fundraising committee.

The U.S. Senate Victory Committee, which was organized in January as a joint fundraising committee, distributed almost $1.1 million in the first quarter to the campaigns of Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Jane Norton (Colo.), Rob Portman (Ohio), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rob Simmons (Conn.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.).

Each candidate received from $128,000 to $172,000, according to documents on file in the Senate’s public records office.