- This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen incumbent and incoming Democrats from across the political spectrum.
“Last night was a rebuke of the status quo,” progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) told Axios, adding that “for the left, it was an affirmation and validation that we are on the right track.”
- There is “absolutely no excuse,” Ramirez said, for House Democrats not to do “the most they can over the next two years and as quickly as possible.”
- Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a centrist, said Tuesday was a “gigantic night for the middle ground” and that the mandate was much more modest: “We must crush high costs and corruption.”
State of affairs: House Democrats are on pace to win more than 250 seats, which would give them a comfortable majority of dozens of votes.
- This blows up the plans of a cohort of new progressives known as the “Bloc” who demanded concessions from leaders in exchange for voting with the party.
- Potential concessions included changes to House rules, privileged committee assignments, and votes to enact Medicare-for-All, defund ICE, and suspend U.S. aid to Israel.
What we hear: The left’s new tactic is to try to convince the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as one sitting Democrat put it, “to assert its authority in a way it never has before.”
- “That should definitely be part of the game plan,” a new Bloc member told Axios, “we have so many CCP members and I think we add 25 more.”
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former CCP chairwoman, said, “We have certainly used our power many times…and we will again.”
- The CCP currently has around a hundred members, although not all of them are pugnacious ideological brawlers.
The new strategy It also involves aggressively recruiting new House Democrats in battleground districts, a group that does not traditionally make up the CCP’s core membership.
- The left is hopefully eyeing the “Bernie Dogs”: working-class populist candidates who won red districts with the support of progressives and centrists.
- They’re also taking a close look at “wave babies”: candidates who won upset victories in districts that weren’t even on the party’s radar and whose policies are largely unknown on Capitol Hill.
What they say: CPC Chairman Greg Casar (D-Tex.) argued in an interview that adopting a progressive agenda may not be so difficult, noting that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has called for “radical change.”
- “Americans have been calling for bold change, and progressives are excited to make it happen,” Casar said, adding that Medicare-for-All is “extremely popular” and that Democrats “should advance this type of legislation.”
- Jayapal told Axios: “We will be running a really ambitious and bold agenda and will be looking for (Jeffries’) leadership to make sure that’s what we deliver.”
- The former PCC chairwoman said she “100 percent disagreed” with the items on Jeffries’ 100-day agenda, but “I just don’t think we can stop there. … We need to pass a living wage law, we need to pass universal child care.”
The other side: Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.), leader of the centrist Blue Dog coalition, told Axios: “The more extremist elements… want to message and yell and yell and point fingers.”
- “There’s time for that, let’s not make it the majority time,” he continued, “and I think you’re going to find a lot of people…agree with me on that.”
- Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), a Jeffries ally, said the results were a “victory for common sense, not extremist ideology” and that Jeffries “understands what last night was about and he will lead accordingly.”
Jeffries is typically taciturn about how he will govern.
- “We’re going to have a caucus conversation when we get back about what the agenda looks like,” he told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.
- Asked about marking up Medicare-for-All, Jeffries said House Democrats would have a “family conversation” about what health care measures to pass beyond renewing expired Affordable Care Act tax credits and reversing GOP cuts to Medicaid.
The bottom line: “Medicare-for-All is not going to happen in the next two years and everyone knows that,” said progressive Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a co-sponsor of Medicare-for-All.
- “I hear all these maneuvers, and frankly, I find it tedious,” he told Axios. “We’re going to have a big majority to resolve these issues and everything will be fine. … We’re mostly on the same team here.”
- Another House progressive said: “With such a majority, honestly, the Bloc has a lot less influence, but the good news is that the MPs who buy Depends on cardboard do too. »
- “Overall, this is a center-left group,” said a third House Democrat.
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