Congress

Democrats’ fight-or-flight dilemma comes to a head in the Senate

Published

11 months ago

July 31, 2025

Senate Democrats have been grappling for months over how to show their voters they are standing up to President Donald Trump.

Now they have their chance. They are facing key decisions this week over how readily they should cooperate with Republicans to advance Trump nominees and bipartisan spending bills. And an even bigger test looms on the horizon: a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.

It’s all workaday congressional business, but dealing with it has become more politically fraught under the second Trump administration. The internal debate between members who want to resist and those who want to cut deals has been simmering, and it played out both behind closed doors and out in public view this week.

The tensions spilled out on the Senate floor Tuesday evening when Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey accused fellow Democrats of being “complicit” in Trump’s actions and urging them to “have a backbone,” fueling anger among some of his colleagues.

On Wednesday, Democratic senators used a closed-door lunch to hash out what their strategy should be heading into the fall funding fights, where they are hoping to avoid a repeat of the shutdown drama that played out this spring — ending in internal divisions and recriminations.

“The Republicans can roll us once, but we sure as hell shouldn’t let them roll us a second time,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a brief interview. Warren added she was “deeply skeptical” of spending negotiations after Republicans approved a $9 billion clawback of funding at Trump’s request this month.

But it was Booker’s fiery protest — targeting a package of bipartisan police-focused bills that had been shepherded by his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee — that underscored the tension over his party’s approach to Trump.

“Democrats need to learn to fight, and fight him, and stop him from hurting people,” he told reporters shortly after blocking several bipartisan bills. “There’s a lot of us in this caucus that want to fucking fight, and what’s bothering me right now is we don’t see enough fight in this caucus.”

The burn-it-down crowd might be a minority inside the caucus, but those words echo what many progressive activists, and some congressional Democrats, have been urging since at least March, when Minority Leader Chuck Schumer joined with nine Senate Democrats to help advance a GOP-written funding bill to avoid a shutdown they worried would only empower Trump.

The immediate stakes for Democrats’ fight-or-flight dilemma are relatively limited — the fate of their summer recess, to be precise.

Republicans want Democrats to agree to accelerate the confirmations of dozens of the roughly 150 pending Trump nominees before they allow senators to leave Washington. Democrats are seeking a “quid pro quo,” in the words of Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois. The main idea under discussion is getting the White House to release frozen agency funding while still holding up some of Trump’s most controversial picks.

But some Democrats like Warren are questioning why they should agree to help the Trump administration fill its ranks at all. Booker’s outburst is hanging over the decision (though even he showed pragmatism this week, allowing two of the police bills in the larger package to advance).

The bigger fight, senators agree, will come in September, and some Democrats are already warning that they need to stiffen their spines — and get their strategy settled — ahead of a potentially messy shutdown brawl.

They aren’t there yet. But Schumer convened another special caucus lunch on Wednesday to talk through potential September strategies.

One idea Democrats are discussing would be to secure a commitment from Republicans that they would not pursue additional funding clawbacks following this month’s successful “rescissions” votes, according to a person granted anonymity to disclose the private deliberations. There’s plenty of skepticism that they can trust the GOP to stick any deal, however, and they are also discussing possible policy demands, such as preserving Affordable Care Act tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year

“We’re having, I think, very productive discussions about what our priorities are,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said after leaving the caucus lunch Wednesday. He added that, based on the discussion, Democrats “are going to have a pretty good consensus position.”

As they hash out demands for the nominations and shutdown battles, Senate Democrats are trying to show some fight in smaller ways. They continue to try and put the GOP on the back foot regarding the so-called “Epstein files” — the yet-to-be released investigative records pertaining to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Schumer and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Democrats invoked a little-known law this week to try to force the administration to hand over the files — a move almost certain to be spurned by the Trump administration.

Schumer insisted during a news conference Wednesday that the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi was “not a stunt” and suggested Democrats could sue if the Justice Department does not comply.

“That’s what accountability looks like. This is what oversight looks like,” Schumer told reporters, before sidestepping a question about whether Democrats would use their leverage on nominations and spending to pursue the Epstein matter.

Democrats are also working through whether they want to use the Senate’s government funding process this week to show Republicans they are willing to work with them. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is hoping to advance a small subset of the fiscal 2026 spending bills ahead of the summer recess, and many Democratic appropriators are ready to play ball. Other Democrats want to be more combative, with some floating an amendment related to Epstein.

Asked if she believed Democrats are appropriately fighting back by participating in the funding process, the top Democratic appropriator, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said, “Absolutely. We are working really hard to make sure that our priorities are in these bills.”

Booker, for his part, said Wednesday he had “very strong feelings” about how the caucus should handle the overall funding fight.

But he said “the last thing I would do is discuss it.”

Calen Razor and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

Congress

Key Democrats urge House to reject kids’ safety proposal

Published

13 minutes ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Commerce Committee’s top Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) warned House lawmakers against advancing their chamber’s version of the Kids Online Safety Act, arguing it would face intense lobbying from tech companies in the Senate and risk unraveling years of bipartisan work.

“If it is passed by the House it will come to the Senate,” Blumenthal, the bill’s Senate cosponsor, told reporters at a Friday press briefing. The Connecticut Democrat said he is concerned senators will be influenced by the tech industry’s “armies of lawyers and lobbyists” who may “confuse and exploit” misunderstandings about a House bill with the same name as a Senate version but excludes key provisions, such as the “duty of care.” (This concept requires online companies to design social media platforms with an eye for children’s safety.)

“We’re not going to let bad legislation with a good title just get across and think somebody’s done something,” Cantwell said.

The House version of KOSA — which is included in the KIDS Act, a revised bipartisan package that the Energy and Commerce Committee advanced along party lines in March — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor next week under suspension of the rules.

“We need to stop this bill in the House, and we need to prevent the White House from forming an alliance with Big Tech on this issue,” said Blumenthal, who characterized the version of KOSA that House leadership is pushing as a “sham.”

Both Democratic lawmakers also expressed concern that Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) could adopt the House version of KOSA in a kids’ safety package he has yet to publicly release but has pledged to markup by August recess. Cruz said “negotiations are ongoing” earlier this week when asked by Blue Light News whether he would be open to incorporating such changes put forward in the House.

Cruz’s package is expected to include KOSA as well legislation barring companies from using minors’ personal data for targeted advertising, banning kids under age 13 from social media, and providing greater oversight for how children interact with AI chatbots.

Although Blumenthal remains hopeful that Cruz will “stay true to his first vote in favor of KOSA,” which overwhelmingly passed in the Senate last Congress, the Connecticut Democrat said Friday he’s worried Cruz and others may be tempted to “take the bait” and abandon the bill’s basic principles.

Congress

Moderates beware: Mamdani coalition portends a dramatically different Democratic Party in NYC

Published

4 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

NEW YORK — A coalition powered by Mayor Zohran Mamdani expanded the left’s reach Tuesday, winning younger voters across racial and ethnic lines and once again upending conventional wisdom about elections in New York City.

A series of hotly contested congressional and state elections pit a slate of Mamdani-backed democratic socialists and progressives against establishment candidates who, in several cases, differed little on policy aside from U.S.-Israel relations.

The results were staggering.

Midterm election cycles in deep-blue New York City tend to be sleepy affairs. Both this year and in 2022, just over 500,000 people cast ballots, less than 20 percent of eligible voters. But turnout within a congressional district spanning Upper Manhattan and the Bronx increased by roughly 50 percent between 2022 and Tuesday, with more than 66,000 voters heading to the polls.

In another seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Queens, turnout more than doubled from 2022, though state and federal elections were held on different days that year and the seat was not competitive, which would have reduced the number of voters going to the polls.

Congressional candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America were able to replicate the mayor’s success by winning younger Latino voters in Brooklyn and a majority of Black voters in Harlem. Combined with the DSA’s base in relatively wealthy neighborhoods, the result charted the far left’s broadening appeal and a potential reorientation of the electorate that will influence races for years to come.

“This was a big wave for DSA and they did a good job capitalizing on it,” said Evan Roth Smith, a pollster with Slingshot Strategies. “The question now is: Was this a wave cycle that will abate, or is it the start of the takeover?”

Much of Mamdani’s base is concentrated in the so-called “commie-corridor,” a series of neighborhoods along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront filled with young, educated and affluent voters who’ve propelled several DSA candidates into office. They went gaga over Mamdani’s candidacy and, as Tuesday’s results show, will turn out for candidates he supports.

The area was crucial to Assemblymember Claire Valdez’s crushing 56-38 defeat of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.

“The factor that felt most significant to me were all of these New Yorkers who got activated and politicized in the mayor’s race last year who were looking for the next fight,” said Andrew Epstein, a political adviser to Mamdani who worked on Valdez’ campaign. “Those people didn’t go away. And they want to keep going.”

Valdez also won several heavily Latino areas that were expected to break for her opponent.

Reynoso was born in Brooklyn to Dominican parents and just a few years ago was a City Council member representing Bushwick, a long-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood that’s home to Latino families and young hipsters. Valdez was born in Texas, moved to New York City in 2015 and served in the state Assembly for just one term before launching her Mamdani-backed bid for retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez’s seat.

She ended up winning areas of Bushwick by even greater margins than the total results — in some election districts winning upwards of 80 percent of the vote.

“You don’t win the district by 35 points if you don’t have broad advantages across age and demographic groups,” said Michael Lange, an election analyst and Mamdani supporter who has tracked several contested races with extreme granularity. “Is she blowing him out of the water with Hispanic voters under 50? I see tons of evidence that the answer is yes.”

The age advantage was the common thread across several other races.

In Upper Manhattan and the Bronx, for example, younger Black voters in Harlem were key to Darializa Avila Chevalier’s win over Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who had built a small political empire in the district.

While gentrifying, the neighborhood remains a seat of Black political power and is home to younger households who tend to rent. That particular demographic is a strong indicator of why Mamdani won the area in 2025, even as he lost the Black vote overall to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose support was concentrated among older Black homeowners in Brooklyn and Queens.

While Espaillat never healed a rift with the Black community in upper Manhattan opened during his election in 2016, which contributed to his weak performance, Avila Chevalier demonstrated Tuesday that a significant share of voters there were not just supportive of Mamdani the person, but of the broader political movement he’s now leading.

Overall, she edged out Espaillat with Black voters 48-46, according to an analysis from The New York Times, which charted demographic breakdowns for several contested races.

Three winning congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani — including former city Comptroller Brad Lander in Brooklyn, who unseated incumbent Dan Goldman — share several similarities. They won younger, college-educated and wealthier voters by huge margins, in several cases by 30 points or more, and lost lower-income voters to incumbents or candidates affiliated with incumbents — a sign that the movement seeking to boost struggling New Yorkers has not won them over.

While the DSA was able to win three state races without the support of Mamdani — a testament to the organizing prowess of the left that was essential to reactivating the mayor’s coalition — there were limits to the city’s leftward shift.

Rep. Grace Meng won her reelection race, though she only vanquished challenger Chuck Park by 14 points, an uncomfortable margin for an incumbent of her stature. Park, who ran to Meng’s left, was boosted by a huge turnout in Woodside, Queens, a multiethnic neighborhood that went heavily for Mamdani in last year’s mayoral race.

Elsewhere in the Bronx, however, incumbents remained strong. Rep. Ritchie Torres handily won reelection with 72 percent of the vote, though it was a low-turnout affair more consistent with an uncompetitive midterm. Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries touted the results — even as he watched a series of his endorsed candidates fall to the DSA in Brooklyn, his home borough, in a preview of the intraparty battles to come.

“In some higher-income districts, there was an outsized focus on the Middle East. In other districts, for instance, in the South Bronx, Ritchie Torres ran against somebody who was heavily critical of his position on Israel, and he won by fifty points,” Jeffries told MS NOW on Wednesday.

Congress

Divisive Israel vote to be discussed on Sunday House Democrats call

Published

5 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

An anticipated vote on cutting off U.S. military aid to Israel is among the subjects House Democrats are slated to discuss on an unusual teleconference Sunday evening.

Six people granted anonymity to describe private caucus plans confirmed the member call, which has not been publicly announced. Two of them said it would involve an amendment that would block aid to Israel and other appropriations matters.

Democrats are likely to be sharply divided on an amendment drafted by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to a fiscal 2027 spending bill funding the State Department and foreign aid programs. Massie is proposing to end Israel aid and cut the overall foreign military aide program by $3.3 billion.

House Republicans have not yet announced a vote on that bill, but two other people granted anonymity to describe GOP planning said it is likely to be added to the floor schedule next week. The House Rules Committee voted last week to set up debate on Massie’s amendment.

Senior Democrats want to talk through member concerns and strategy on the Sunday call, according to one of the six people.

The call comes just days after three outspoken critics of U.S. aid to Israel swept hotly contested House primaries in New York City, ousting two incumbents.

Meredith Lee Hill and Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.