Congress

Why House Democrats stayed the course with their leaders

Published

2 years ago

November 19, 2024

Despite coming up short in their fight for the majority, House Democrats aren’t tossing their leaders aside.

The caucus opted to keep their top slate of leaders in Tuesday’s party elections, with every single top Democratic leader reelected without opposition.

It’s a mark of confidence, even as the party girds for another Congress in the minority. Even with public and private venting over the future of their party, alongside debate over the Democratic message, most in the party were satisfied with their performance in congressional elections.

Though the House majority fell just out of reach for Democrats, members aren’t blaming party leaders for their Election Day performance. Purple-district incumbents generally outran the top of the ticket, and the majority of them are coming back to Washington. The party flipped several seats around the country, too, ensuring a similar margin in the new Congress — if not a slightly narrower one, depending on the outcome of some uncalled races. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his leadership team will now face partisan battles with President-elect Donald Trump while searching for bipartisan deals and protecting their vulnerable incumbents.

“We are prepared to work hard to find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues and the incoming administration on any issue, whenever and wherever possible, but at the same period of time, we will push back against far-right extremism, whenever necessary,” Jeffries told reporters.

In interviews with House Democrats from various geographic and ideological sides of the caucus, lawmakers expressed confidence in their leadership and wanted to give them another term in their slots. As the top House Democrats embark on a series of listening sessions with rank-and-file lawmakers, backbenchers believe their leaders will be responsive to their requests.

“Those tough seats — we outperformed the top of the ticket dramatically,” said Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.). “The reason that I’m supporting the current leadership is because they’ve made a commitment that they want and understand the need to take a broader look at how those of us who outran the ticket, from two to almost nine points, did it, and a willingness to listen to us, to make positive change in the party.”

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who is running unopposed to lead the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the loss of the majority isn’t leadership’s fault.

“I think our leaders worked really hard. We ran our strategy, and I think that we’re all recognizing where there were parts of a strategy that didn’t work,” he told Blue Light News. “So I don’t judge our leaders based on them being perfect. I think we judge our leaders on whether or not we’re willing to learn from what worked, learn from what didn’t work and change.”

One swing-district Democrat also didn’t blame leadership.

“Their leadership had nothing to do with [losing the House.] I support Hakeem, Pete, Katherine. I support them,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

Besides, as other senior lawmakers saw it, their leaders hadn’t been able to get a shot at governing in the majority.

“They haven’t led yet,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a former whip.

Democratic leaders drew applause and cheers Tuesday morning, with lawmakers from a broad cross-section of the caucus giving their nominating speeches. Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) nominated Jeffries, Reps. Don Davis (D-N.C.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) nominated Clark, and Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) gave the nomination speech for Aguilar, while Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) made the motion to nominate him.

There was only one competitive election for an incumbent leadership position: the chair of their policy and communications arm. Current chair Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) defeated a challenge from Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) by a 152-59 vote. Crockett, a first-term lawmaker, had raised some eyebrows in the caucus with her last-minute bid against Dingell.

One outstanding question for Democratic leaders: the future of the DCCC chair, which became an appointed position after a rules change in the last leadership elections. Some lawmakers have privately griped about the performance of their campaign arm, though a push to change course has not materialized. Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) is expected to stay if Jeffries asks her to, and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) has publicly swatted down rumors she’s interested in the job.

“I told her I think she should stay this morning, but that’s up to Hakeem and Suzan,” said Craig when asked about keeping DelBene as chair of the campaign arm.

Congress

How Talarico is countering Trump’s midterms convention

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

James Talarico is planning to counterprogram President Donald Trump’s GOP midterms convention in Dallas with a focus on affordability.

The idea from the Texas Democratic Senate candidate and seminarian: host a statewide “Love Thy Neighbor” food drive to offer a contrast with Republicans coming to town and highlight the high cost of groceries, according to plans shared first with Blue Light News.

“Next week, billionaire mega-donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to clink champagne glasses and toast their own corruption. They’re paying $20,000 for entry to a Billionaire Ball celebrating corrupt tariffs, billionaire tax breaks, and a new forever war that are all driving grocery costs through the roof,” Talarico said in a statement to Blue Light News. “We’ll be doing something different. We’re bringing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together to collect groceries for our neighbors who have been screwed over by corrupt politicians.”

The campaign said it will “mobilize volunteers to collect, sort, and donate groceries for middle class Texans struggling with the high price of groceries.” The event will last from Sunday, Sept. 6 through Wednesday, Sept. 9 — the same day the GOP convention kicks off.

Talarico is also expected to field media interviews in a large warehouse near the convention.

“Texans across the political spectrum will come together to build community, show up for their neighbors, and take power back for working people,” the campaign said in a statement.

A recent poll conducted by Texas Public Opinion Research poll released last week showed Talarico leading ,his opponent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 48 percent to 42 percent.

Trump this week said he would campaign for Paxton soon.

Congress

‘I don’t think anyone is really comfortable’: Democrat leading on AI raises alarms at Trump, Zuckerberg call

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A House Democrat trying to lead her party on artificial intelligence policy sent a warning shot Friday to tech CEOs trying to undermine efforts to regulate the fast-growing technology.

In an interview, Rep. Lori Trahan raised alarm bells over a POLITICO report detailing attempts by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to personally discourage President Donald Trump from moving ahead with plans to establish an independent AI regulator modeled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA.

“I don’t think anyone is really comfortable when they see tech executives who are sitting on the stage at the president’s inauguration, and have had to pay millions of dollars to this fund and that fund, calling the shots,” said the Massachusetts Democrat.

Allowing Zuckerberg to call the shots on the proposed AI commission would be tantamount to “a complete abdication of Congress,” Trahan continued. She also suggested would use her perch on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to work with other Democrats to haul in industry executives like Zuckerberg to testify, should Democrats win back the House majority in the midterms.

“Congress’ job is to do oversight and to have those hearings,” she said. “And I think we would learn a lot from those hearings so that we can put pen to paper on thoughtful proposals. So yes, there have been a number of people, myself included, who have called for those hearings, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”

Trahan is poised to be a major player in the coming weeks and months when it comes to AI, especially if Democrats prevail in the November elections and are forced to solidify a position on the subject; the party is currently all over the map.

Unlike other Democrats who have retreated to their corners to work on partisan proposals, Trahan has gone out on a limb by crossing the aisle to broker a deal on a bipartisan AI safety bill with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — a package that was originally met with disdain by members of both parties.

She announced this week she would opt out of a run for a place in House Democratic leadership after being widely expected to make a play in the next Congress — in part, she said, to continue working on AI issues.

But Trahan’s comments Friday illustrate the deep distrust among Democrats, herself included, over the GOP approach to AI regulation — from Republicans waffling on whether they support the proliferation of data centers to Trump’s recent call with Zuckerberg.

Her calls are consistent with left-leaning members like Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat and chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who has been at the forefront of the most aggressive proposals to crack down on top tech companies.

“The CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI say that cutting edge AI could be as dangerous as nuclear weapons,” Casar said Thursday on X in response to the Blue Light News report. “But Trump is conspiring with billionaires for this technology to be regulated like … Hollywood movies.”

Trahan said Friday that “reasonable people can disagree on what regulatory construct we come up with” governing development and use of AI.

But, she added, “what I don’t think the American people agree with is that Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump are going to figure that out on a phone call.”

Congress

House Dem election leader’s message to states: Count faster

Published

3 days ago

September 4, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Democrats’ top election leader has a message for states ahead of the midterms: count faster.

“We are, I think, nicely trying to encourage people to do their balloting as quickly as possible, and that means hiring additional staff so that it doesn’t call into question results,” Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, said in a Thursday interview with Blue Light News.

The advice is just one part of Morelle’s efforts to secure the midterm elections. He said Democrats have wargamed over 150 scenarios of how the Trump administration could attempt to interfere or complicate the November elections and its certification. He is encouraging states to have a “degree of urgency” when counting ballots to stave off Republican-led conspiracy theories about the reasons for delays.

Morelle said he is leaning on states to staff up on election officials to facilitate speedy ballot counting while emphasizing the process should still be “done properly,” “fairly” and that “we don’t want people with cast ballots not to have their ballots counted.” He is going to Los Angeles next week to deliver that message and meet with election security experts and election administrators — though he did not specify whom he is meeting with or where.

“We are trying to gently encourage people to staff up,” he said. Morelle added that if Democrats take the House majority, they’d “push for more resources for local and state administrators so they can hire additional capacity.”

Morelle has other big plans in the majority, including cracking down on dark money in politics, protecting voting rights and most notably, working on a bipartisan voter identification bill.

Asked whether he could accept some form of voter identification as part of a larger bipartisan elections package, Morelle said, “I’m personally not opposed to some form of voter ID,” adding that he has opposed multiple Republican-led proposals to tighten up identification requirements.

“I don’t know where my colleagues on the Democrat side will be, but I think voters think, ‘Okay, you show your ID for just tons of things. Is it really that much of a burden?’” he said. “And if it is, we’ll get state issued IDs or federally issued IDs to people who can’t afford it. So I do think that there’s hope for a bipartisan way forward, and I’ll be anxious to work with colleagues to do it.”