Congress
‘We are facing an existential crisis’: Redistricting rocks the race for the nation’s bluest House seat
PHILADELPHIA — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s voice boomed over the crowd of progressive activists that had packed the pews and lined the walls of a North Philadelphia church. “The very foundations of our democracy are being shaken with the attacks on the Voting Rights Act,” the New York Democrat warned.
But Ocasio-Cortez pointed to hope for resistance in a “city of abolitionists and organizers,” where “somebody in each generation refused to accept the world as it was.” For her, that meant supporting congressional candidate Chris Rabb, who she was rallying alongside Friday.
A day earlier, in a too-hot conference room near City Hall, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison made a similar appeal to a couple dozen community leaders — about Sharif Street.
“You saw what they just did with the VRA. They’re not done,” said Ellison, a former House member, as sweat beaded on his forehead. “The time requires not just inspirational leadership. And it sure requires principled leadership. And in Sharif we have both.”
Republicans’ rush to erase majority-Black seats across the South after the Supreme Court weakened the VRA has turbocharged the primary for an open congressional seat in this northern city long at the forefront of the civil rights movement. The crowded race to replace retiring Rep. Dwight Evans in the 3rd District, which spans from South Philadelphia to Chestnut Hill and is the bluest in the country, has divided Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Democrats. And it has fueled a family fight within the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), with some members choosing sides between the three Black candidates in Pennsylvania’s sole majority-Black district.
Red-state gerrymanders threaten to force up to one third of the 63-member caucus from office, including some of its longest-tenured and most influential leaders like Reps. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). It’s a major challenge to one of the most powerful voting blocs in Congress and a pillar of the Democratic Party, just as one of its own, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), could ascend to the speakership if Democrats retake the chamber. And it comes at a time when the CBC was already facing generational and ideological divides, with younger members and candidates pushing to inject fresh vigor into an aging caucus that has long been deferential to seniority.
The upheaval has placed outsized importance on primaries that could impact Black representation in Congress. The Congressional Black Caucus PAC is playing a role in several of these races by backing Black candidates, throwing its support behind former Rep. Colin Allred against Rep. Julie Johnson in a high-profile Texas runoff, and endorsing first-time candidate Lauren Babb Tomlinson in a crowded field that includes independent Rep. Kevin Kiley in California’s redrawn 6th District. It has stayed out of another redistricting-created fight, a generational member-on-member battle in Texas between Black Reps. Christian Menefee and Al Green.
“The CBC is and will always be the conscience of Congress. Our members share the core values of protecting and preserving voting rights, creating an affordable America with opportunity for all, and defeating the extremist politics of Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans,” said Chris Taylor, a spokesperson for the Congressional Black Caucus PAC. “We will win in November and further the people’s agenda.”
And it has ratcheted up the stakes late in the game in Philadelphia, where Democrats were already warring over who best meets the moment.
“We are facing an existential crisis,” said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), a 38-year-old progressive member of the caucus from the Pittsburgh area who has endorsed Rabb. “We need people who understand the urgency of right now. There are old ways of doing things and there are bold ways of doing things. And they’re not the same.”
Evans has a different approach in mind. And the 72-year-old five-term representative and longtime state lawmaker who is retiring after missing months of House votes in 2024 following a stroke, has a different candidate — Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon and political novice who emerged as an early front-runner with his backing — to execute it.
“[John Lewis] always talked about doing good things together,” Evans said, referencing the civil-rights icon and longtime Georgia lawmaker who died in 2020. “And what we desperately need — especially in this day and age, when you look at people talking about [gerrymandering] affecting Benny Thompson, Jim Clyburn — she more than anybody has the ability to bring [people] together.”
SCOTUS Raises the Stakes
The race to represent the 3rd District was already playing out as a messy microcosm of the stylistic and ideological fights roiling Democrats nationally.
“We know that the next member of Congress is going to be Black, we know they’re going to be a Democrat. The question is, what kind of Democrat are we sending to Congress amidst great dysfunction and chaos?” Rabb, a five-term state representative, told Blue Light News. “I am the troublemaker of the three, and I believe we need a real troublemaker in troubled times. We need to shake things up.”
In interviews on the campaign trail across Philadelphia last week, the leading contenders offered similarly stark assessments of the potential ramifications of the recent Supreme Court ruling on Black representation and voting rights.
But they offered different approaches.
Rabb said “centrism and establishment politics is [not] going to get us anywhere beyond where we are now.”
Street, a state senator, former state Democratic Party chair and scion of a prominent North Philadelphia political family, said he would draw on his background as a lawyer and legislator to counterattack in the courts, in Congress and on the campaign trail by boosting Democratic turnout in the midterms.
Stanford, a former regional Health and Human Services director in the Biden administration, called for “fearless leaders” in the style of Clyburn who are also willing to work across the aisle to “find common ground” to advance voter protections and expand access.
“I am a disrupter,” Stanford said. “But [you also can’t be] a bull in a china shop and no matter which way you turn, you’re crushing and breaking everything but you’re not building anything.”
The candidates have also cleaved over whether to back Jeffries as speaker. Street has committed to the minority leader, and Stanford also said she’ll back him. But Rabb said he wants to see who runs before weighing in.
Redistricting has become a late-stage flashpoint on the campaign trail. The political arm of the pro-Rabb Working Families Party launched an ad Friday across digital and streaming platforms attempting to link Street to red-state gerrymanders by referencing a draft 2021 redistricting map the senator worked on with a key Republican that would have drawn Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle and GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick into the same district and created an incumbent-free seat in Philadelphia where Street could have run. The spot accused Street of trying to “sacrifice our power for himself.”
The map was never formally introduced and Street has distanced himself from it. He says he favored another that still would have drawn Boyle and Fitzpatrick into the same district but would have given Democrats an advantage in 10 of the state’s 17 congressional seats and grown the number of majority-Black districts.
Anthony Campisi, a spokesperson for Street, said the senator was trying to “bolster Pennsylvania maps against the type of attacks we’re seeing from Republicans in Washington now.”
A House Caucus Divided
As Rabb runs to the left, he’s picked up support from younger progressives like Lee and Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and a constellation of left-leaning groups including the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Meanwhile, Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), a fellow Black physician, is backing Stanford, who besides Evans also has support from Pennsylvania Democratic Reps. Madeleine Dean and Chrissy Houlahan, leading health officials and an outside super PAC that works to elect STEM candidates.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) offered 11th-hour support for Street in a rally Monday, positioning him as the best choice in a “time of crisis.” Street also has the backing of Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and the city’s Democratic establishment, along with a raft of high-profile state politicians like former Gov. Ed Rendell and state House Speaker Joanna McClinton.
Most CBC members have stayed out of the race, but some have made connections with candidates behind the scenes. Stanford said she met Clyburn, the Democratic kingmaker who is likely to lose his seat in a GOP gerrymander, at a book tour stop last December. She said she considers him a mentor and sends regular updates to his chief of staff. Clyburn’s office and an outside adviser did not respond to a request for comment.
Some presidential hopefuls have also waded in beyond Booker and Ocasio-Cortez in a race that will offer a directional test for Democrats. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) are backing Rabb, while Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has not endorsed in the race, is working behind the scenes to block Rabb — even though he and Street have some historic beef of their own.
“This moment matters,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And if you want to change the Democratic Party, we have to change the kind of Democrats that get elected to serve in Congress.”
Cheyanne M. Daniels contributed to this report.
Democrats may be rooting for Sherrod Brown’s comeback, but they are not exactly prepared for what’d happen next.
If Brown wins on Election Day, Democrats likely face an uncomfortable choice: break longstanding party rules to restore his seniority on powerful committees like Banking, Agriculture and Finance or potentially make him start over at the bottom.
Complicating the issue: Brown will immediately need to prepare for a grueling re-election fight in 2028 and his campaign could greatly benefit from two years with a high-profile gavel. That’s because this midterm is Ohio’s special election where voters are selecting a senator to serve out the remainder of Vice President JD Vance‘s term.
Brown’s post, therefore, may not only deeply impact Democrats’ policy agenda but could also play a key role in the party’s success in winning the battleground seat in 2028.
Some members are already suggesting the party should try to find a middle ground.
“Some accommodation that recognizes he would not be a rank freshman would make sense. But that’s distinct from handing him back a leadership role at Banking,” said Sen. Chris Coons.
The Ohio Democrat served as the top Democrat on the Banking panel for a decade. He was also a longtime member of Finance as well as Agriculture, where he would also be the most senior member if his previous service counted.
To give Brown a gavel on Agriculture or Banking could set up clashes with the Democrats now expected to lead their party on the panels: Sens. Michael Bennet and Elizabeth Warren, respectively.
It would also break Senate Democrats’ caucus rules, and precedent is not on Brown’s side when it comes to making exceptions.
Still, aides and lobbyists around the panels expect Democrats will be eager to give Brown some sort of perch.
Those close to him have been encouraging him to seek the Agriculture gavel. It’d allow him to deliver valuable policy wins for Ohio’s rural areas, influence the farm bill if it gets punted to next year and help guide the direction of cryptocurrency regulation.
Another possibility that avoids an intraparty clash: hand Brown a seat on Appropriations, which could potentially give him a subcommittee gavel and federal funding clout.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has avoided any firm commitments on Brown’s seniority, saying last month when asked: “Let’s win back the Senate first.”
What else we’re watching:
— OMAR RAID RAISES QUESTIONS FOR GOP: House Republicans — including Majority Whip Tom Emmer — have publicly cheered on the Trump administration’s investigation of GOP boogeyman Rep. Ilhan Omar. But the raid raises thorny questions for GOP leaders about how aggressively Congress wants to defend itself — regardless of party — from encroaching federal prosecutors. Lawmakers’ work communications are protected from prosecutors’ scrutiny, with few exceptions, under the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause. That draws into question whether the emails, texts, and materials on Omar’s phone, which was seized in the raid, could legally be reviewed by Trump officials. So far, Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to weigh in on how the House’s legal team may defend Omar.
— TRUMP’S TRICKY FARM MONEY PROMISE: Trump’s move Monday to turn out GOP voters by promising to send farmers $8 billion in taxpayer money is already facing a reality check. The internal USDA taxpayer-funded account Trump is tapping doesn’t actually have enough money in it right now to make the payments, meaning Congress will have to approve new funds or the administration will have to take it from another program, according to three Trump officials granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Plus, farmers wouldn’t receive the payments until late November or early December at the earliest — well past Election Day, according to three people close to the plans.
Jasper Goodman, Grace Yarrow, Kyle Cheney and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
At the end of one of the least productive Congresses in modern history, freshman Rep. Johnny Olszewski is so sick of the gridlock on Capitol Hill that he wants voters to bypass it entirely.
“It’s been a long two years,” the Maryland Democrat said in a Tuesday interview.
“One of the things that’s made it difficult as a new member is to see not only the dysfunction, but also the missed opportunities,” he added. “There are so many issues out there that Americans support that this Congress and frankly prior Congresses have failed to act on.”
Fed up with the lack of progress on popular policies like banning congressional stock trading, equipping police with body cameras or protecting in vitro fertilization, Olszewski is introducing a constitutional amendment Thursday, first shared with POLITICO, that would create a mechanism for voters to make federal law directly.
The measure would give voters 18 months to gather signatures from at least 5% of people who participated in the most recent presidential election in 25 states. Then any qualifying direct-democracy measure would be put on ballots for the next national election and need a 60% national majority to pass.
Votes to declare war or direct federal spending would not be eligible under the proposal.
“If we were acting, there’d be no need for this to come into play,” Olszewski said. “It would create a really important backstop for the American people to say, ‘You know what … irrespective of which party is in power, Congress is failing to meet not just our everyday needs but act on issues that we overwhelmingly support and want to see acted upon.’”
The amendment — which itself would require support from two-thirds of the House and Senate as well as three-quarters of states — is an incredible longshot and would create serious implementation headaches, but Olszewski — a former civics teacher — hopes his proposal will spark a discussion about congressional reform.
“I understand that any constitutional amendment is going to be difficult,” Olszewski said. “But I’m hopeful that at least for the lame duck session, this is an opportunity to create a conversation around the fact that we have been so gridlocked that we have failed to address the needs of the American people.”
House Republicans have publicly cheered on the Trump administration’s investigation of Rep. Ilhan Omar. But underneath the posturing, the raid raises thorny nonpartisan questions about how aggressively Congress wants to defend itself from encroaching federal prosecutors.
The Department of Homeland Security investigators who raided Omar’s Washington home last week were searching for evidence related to the Minnesota Democrat’s immigration history. But they also emerged in possession of her personal phone, which likely includes a trove of records related to Omar’s work at the Capitol — records that both parties have a strong interest in keeping private.
Lawmakers use their cellphones and computers to communicate with aides about upcoming votes, committee hearings and drafting or filing legislation. They text and email colleagues about the work of the House. And they talk to constituents, advisers, attorneys and experts about crucial congressional decisions. The Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause makes such material absolutely immune from scrutiny by federal prosecutors, with few exceptions.
The founders adopted those protections to ensure the executive branch could not use its law enforcement power to punish or coerce opponents in Congress. That principle has united Democrats and Republicans, even in this hyperpolarized era.
Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to weigh in on the speech-or-debate implications of the Omar raid, but the House has sometimes taken weeks or months to articulate a position in other recent investigations.
A letter from Omar’s attorneys to the Justice Department, reviewed by Blue Light News, suggested that the magistrate judge who approved the search ordered investigators to contact the House’s top lawyer, Matthew Berry, giving him a chance to intervene on behalf of the institution. Berry’s office has been in contact with Trump administration counterparts in recent days, according to two people familiar with the investigation.
The people, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the probe publicly, say investigators have not yet accessed Omar’s phone. If they choose to attempt to access it, they must first give Omar a chance to review its contents and assert speech-or-debate protections, with a court ultimately deciding which materials investigators may access.
A representative for the Justice Department declined to comment. Representatives for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Johnson and Omar did not respond to requests for comment.
The administration’s targeting of Omar comes amid a series of actions the Trump-led Justice Department has taken against Democratic members of Congress: a failed effort to indict Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, along with several House members, over comments encouraging members of the military to refuse unlawful orders; criminal charges against Rep. LaMonica McIver for allegedly assaulting an ICE officer during a visit to a New Jersey detention facility.
It also comes amid continued GOP outrage over former special counsel Jack Smith’s decision to gather some material related to Republican members of Congress in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
The House’s official legal positions are determined by an obscure five-member body known as the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, or BLAG. The BLAG is made up of the speaker, majority leader, majority whip, minority leader and minority whip. That panel, always controlled by the majority party, charts the House’s course in court. And while most of the BLAG’s recent decisions have broken 3-2 along partisan lines, speech-or-debate issues have sometimes resulted in unanimous agreement.
Berry has seen this movie before: In 2022, federal investigators seized the phone of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) to scrutinize his role in President Donald Trump’s bid to subvert the 2020 election. The Justice Department’s aggressive action drew a bipartisan response from House leaders, who demanded access to the sealed proceedings to ensure prosecutors didn’t cross any constitutional lines. And shortly after Republicans returned to the majority in 2023, Jeffries and Minority Whip Katherine Clark joined GOP leaders and supported Berry’s filing of a 36-page brief demanding robust protection of materials seized from lawmakers’ cellphones.
That case resulted in a new precedent that treats lawmakers’ personal cellphones as an extension of their private offices. It took more than a year of litigation before those investigators, later led by Smith, were able to access a subset of Perry’s records that were deemed to fall outside of Congress’ constitutional protections.
Stan Brand, a former House counsel who represented Perry in the legal battle against Smith’s team, noted that the backdrop of Omar situation is strikingly similar to one of the most significant constitutional clashes between the House and Justice Department: the 2006 raid of then-Democratic Rep. William Jefferson’s congressional office by George W. Bush-era prosecutors. At the time, GOP House leaders joined Democrats in outrage over the raid.
Notably, the DHS investigators who carried out last week’s search presented Omar with a “speech or debate” waiver that she refused to sign, according to the letter from Omar’s attorneys. Courts have expressed skepticism about whether individual members can waive protections that were intended to safeguard the separation of powers for the entire institution.
“This is just one more example of excess in the Department of Justice under both Democrats and Republicans,” Brand said.
Senate Republicans have also accused the Justice Department under President Joe Biden of violating their speech-or-debate protections when Smith subpoenaed their phone records — which don’t include the content of texts or emails — from third-party telecom companies like Verizon. One GOP senator is suing Smith and the Justice Department over the matter, and DOJ has since adopted new policies for third-party subpoenas related to members of Congress.
Riley Rogerson and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
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