- “When I see things that I don’t think are right, whether it’s within my own party or another party, I’m going to call it out,” Jake Johnson, a Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in Minnesota, told Axios in an interview.
- Montana Democrat Sam Forstag, asked about the approach he would take at the Capitol, said showing a willingness to work across the aisle and “counter your own party” had to “be part of it.”
- “There’s a tremendous amount of frustration with the political establishment in D.C., and … a lot of cynicism that things aren’t going to change,” said Colorado candidate Eileen Laubacher.
State of affairs: Democrats got a taste of this last month when Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Washington) repeatedly broke with party leadership on key procedural votes.
- The defections of two independent leaders have sparked a new fear among House Democrats: Safe-guarding progressives aren’t the only wayward freshmen they’ll have to worry about next year.
- This is a major concern as Democrats put more Republican-leaning seats on their radar in anticipation of a “blue wave” on Election Day.
- There has been a huge increase in ads from Democrats in these districts repudiating their own party or the two-party system as a whole, Axios reported last week.
What they say: “I’ll stand up to the Republicans, I’ll stand up to the Democrats as well. I talk about it a lot,” Michigan swing district candidate Christina Hines said.
- Johnson said it was “no wonder people have historically low levels of trust in Congress” because they “see a bunch of people wearing red shirts and blue shirts…and it just doesn’t work.”
- Forstag highlighted housing as an issue on which he broke with his state’s Democrats, telling Axios: “When it comes to zoning reform, you know who I think is the biggest obstacle to progress? Often, Democrats.”
- “You bet I’m going to work with the Republicans,” he said.
Between the lines: This trend toward swing district independence will inevitably come into conflict with the rebellions that security insurgents are planning.
- Left-leaning Democratic lawmakers and candidates told Axios they want votes on core policy issues like Medicare for All, abolishing ICE and cutting aid to Israel.
- The type of candidate who gets elected to a double-digit President Trump seat in 2024 won’t want to win those votes — in fact, they may be more likely to fund ICE and Israel.
Yes, but: Some of these candidates for red seats are openly progressive and partisan.
- The common denominator: They hear voters’ frustration with the party’s direction and, if elected, they would arrive at the Capitol with a mandate to shake up the system and remain independent.
- Missouri candidate Fred Wellman, who told Axios he is “very Democratic” and “pretty progressive,” said he was “disappointed” that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) met with Jared Kushner in August.
- Wellman said he “will make a decision when I get to it” about whether to vote for Jeffries for president and that he “does not intend to be a rubber stamp.”
Zoom: Democratic activists told Axios that this skeptical attitude toward leadership extends, in some cases, to candidates who don’t want party leaders to campaign for them.
- “There’s very little appetite for anyone among Democratic leaders,” said a consultant to the district’s congressional campaigns they work with.
- Matt Herdman, an adviser to Maine Democrat Matt Dunlap, offered a brief response to Axios when asked if they would welcome Jeffries into their district: “They haven’t offered and we haven’t asked.”
The bottom line: So far, none of these rebellions have deterred the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which Jeffries and his allies control.
- The Democratic campaign arm of the House of Representatives spent a lot of money supporting Gluesenkamp Perez, even after some of his colleagues called for it to be halted.
- Fittingly, Gluesenkamp Perez said in a coordinated announcement with the DCCC released Tuesday, “I do not answer to any political party or president.”
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