Congress

House Democrats commiserate after Harris’ election loss as the blame game begins

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

House Democrats’ path to the majority is rapidly narrowing. The blame game over what went wrong is only just starting.

In a subdued, somber call, their first since Tuesday’s election, Democratic leaders projected confidence in their party and told lawmakers to wait to see the results of the races that still haven’t been called — as many rank-and-file members are starting to air grievances.

Democrats felt their leadership set expectations for how the call would go when Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told lawmakers to sit tight, according to two people on the call, and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was formerly whip of the House Democrats, told Democrats to stand with their leaders but to speak for themselves and their races rather than for the caucus as a whole.

Jeffries in a statement issued just before the caucus call said he congratulated Trump but believed House control was still up in the air.

“It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress. We must count every vote and wait until the results in Oregon, Arizona and California are clear,” he said.

One Democratic lawmaker who requested anonymity to speak freely told Blue Light News they believe the call was calm as some incumbent Democrats are finding out they’ve lost their races and added they believed next week’s in-person caucus meeting will be where the real fireworks will happen.

“We need to be much more assertive when we’re telling leadership [what we think went wrong],” the lawmaker said.

But outside of the caucus call, Democrats from all sides of the party have begun sharing their thoughts on why they performed so poorly on Tuesday despite expectations that Vice President Kamala Harris could win and Democrats could flip the House.

One centrist Democrat, Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, blamed the party’s perceived lean into political correctness for why they lost the election.

“Democrats need to focus more on issues Americans care about, like wages and benefits, and less on being politically correct,” he said in a press release also posted on X. “We failed as a party to respond to the Republican weaponization of anarchy on college campuses, defund the police, biological boys playing in girls’ sports, and a general attack on traditional values.”

Lawmakers are scheduled to return to Washington next week, though House Democrats aren’t expected to hold their leadership elections until the week after. House Democratic leaders had largely been expected to slot up a rung if they took back the House, though being relegated to the minority again could shake up their plans.

Republicans currently have the lead in the vote count, but control of the House still remains in question. Democrats had staked their path to the majority on flipping Republican-held seats largely in New York and California, and so far three of the New York seats have flipped to Democrats. Races in California will take longer to count.

But Democrats’ remaining paths to the majority are closing off after a handful of losses, including incumbents Susan Wild and Matt Cartwright and an open seat in Michigan.

Congress

Trump’s MAGA Inc. to host first public event in battleground Michigan

Published

53 minutes ago

August 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump’s $400-million super PAC is taking its first steps into the general election: hosting a public event in battleground Michigan, headlined by Vice President JD Vance.

Battleground Republicans have been clamoring for Trump’s MAGA Inc. to spend in competitive races. The Michigan event is an early indicator of how the massive group might seek to use its funds to help the party keep control of Washington.

Vance will be joined in Sterling, Michigan, on Monday by GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers, 10th District nominee Mike Bouchard Jr. and gubernatorial nominee John James, along with several other Michigan Republicans, according to an event advisory from MAGA Inc.

The GOP sees Michigan’s open seat as its best Senate pickup target this fall as Rogers faces former public health leader and progressive Abdul El-Sayed, who emerged from a grueling primary earlier this month.

“MAGA Inc. will be hosting events throughout the nation to ensure that Republicans retain control of Congress in order to finish cleaning up the mess the Biden-Harris-Pelosi-Schumer Democrats left,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesperson for MAGA Inc. “We’re not going back to their record inflation, open borders, and surging crime.”

MAGA Inc. is sitting on more funds than any other super PAC, and Republican donors and battleground candidates have been hoping it will unleash that money to help the party keep control of the House and Senate.

So far, the group has only spent only a few million dollars out of its massive fundraising haul, and its funds have largely gone to competitive Republican primaries. Most recently, it spent $827,000 on phone calls and text messages to boost Sen. Darline Graham (R-S.C.) in the state’s special primary.

Congress

House Democrat moves to reverse Trump’s ‘Lake America’ order

Published

1 hour ago

August 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat is already pushing back on President Donald Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.”

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said in an interview hours after Trump’s announcement that she plans to introduce a bill Monday that would nullify the name change. The one-page bill is titled the “Hands Off Our Great Lakes Act.”

“People do not understand how intertwined our two countries are,” Dingell said “And this is insane, this naming Lake Ontario ‘Lake America.’”

The name change is Trump’s latest escalation in a rapidly spiraling trade war between the U.S. and Canada. The White House imposed 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion in Canadian imports earlier this week, inviting retaliatory levies from Ottawa.

Trump said in a Truth Social post Canada has been “Ripping Off” the U.S. for decades and that Canada is “easily the most difficult and unreasonable” country he deals with.

Trump’s renaming Lake Ontario throws another controversy into one of the country’s most consequential states ahead of the midterms. Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed has already attacked his Republican opponent Mike Rogers over the move.

Dingell said she has been working with Democratic leaders on a response to the tariffs, and separately collecting signatures on a letter to Trump that urges “your Administration to change its diplomatic approach with our closest ally, Canada, and recognize the importance of the United States-Canada relationship.” She said she has about 100 signatures from fellow House Democrats.

“I grew up in a small town called St. Clair, and when I got up and looked out my bedroom window every day, I didn’t see America. I saw Canada,” Dingell said. “We lived that close. Canada was as close to us as [the Cannon House Office Building] is to the Capitol.”

Congress

Public workers union helped sink labor nod for Lander

Published

2 hours ago

August 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

ALBANY, New York — The Big Apple’s largest municipal workers union helped sink the New York State AFL-CIO’s endorsement of Democratic House candidate Brad Lander.

The union’s president, Henry Garrido, said in an interview Thursday that Lander’s audit of New York City’s Health Insurance Stabilization Fund as city comptroller was a factor in the opposition to his endorsement. The report, which recommended the fund’s dissolution, angered the union.

“Our members were really upset about that,” Garrido said.

Lander has also been at odds with the union after the group backed moving retirees to a Medicare Advantage Plan, which the then-comptroller opposed.

Lauren Hitt, a spokesperson for Lander’s campaign, pointed to his efforts as the city comptroller to support workers at companies like Starbucks, Amazon and eBay as well as hotels across the country. He also plans to support a federal bill in Congress meant to address unfair labor practices and make it easier to unionize.

“Brad is a relentless supporter of workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively,” Hitt said. “In just the last few months, Brad joined food service workers, nurses, residential building workers, bartenders, researchers, teachers, and many others on their picket line, demanding union recognition and fair contracts.”

The potential endorsement of another Democrat, socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, is considered to be on hold. Garrido said he expects to meet with Avila Chevalier, whose insurgent left-wing candidacy toppled influential Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat. DC-37 endorsed Espaillat’s reelection earlier this year as well as that of Rep. Dan Goldman, who Lander defeated in the June primary.

“I don’t know the young lady,” Garrido said. “I hear good things. I want to meet her; I want to talk with her.”

Avila Chevalier’s campaign did not immediately comment.

Declining to endorse two Democrats considered shoe-ins to win their deep blue districts concerned some labor leaders eager to present a united front ahead of the November elections.

“We want a New York delegation elected in November that will fight and do things for worker pay and embody the fighting spirit we need across the nation,” said PSC-CUNY Vice President Jen Gaboury, whose union represents public higher education workers.

Garrido, though, disputed that his union was solely responsible for sinking the endorsements, noting that Lander would still have struggled to win over the full New York State AFL-CIO, a federation of some 3,000 unions of varying political stripes. To win an endorsement, candidates needed to get backing from two-thirds of the unions that fall under the AFL-CIO umbrella.

As the umbrella organization met in Albany this week, Lander received support from unions that backed Goldman during the primary, his spokesperson said. His campaign also pointed to endorsements during his successful primary from a range of labor groups including the United Auto Workers, 32BJ SEIU and the Communications Workers of America.

Both Lander and Avila Chevalier are part of a surging left-flank that won upset races against establishment-backed Democrats in June — losses that shook New York City’s political establishment and highlighted Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s kingmaker role in predominantly left-leaning districts.

Joe Anuta contributed to this story.