House Democrats face epic power struggle over their massive majority
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Summary
House Democrats channeled anti-Trump fury into a landslide victory over Republicans. Now comes the hard part: Figuring out what to do with their huge majority . Why it matters: That question is already igniting a power struggle between Democrats' ideological factions as they lay out contradictory visions for what the next two years of governing looks like. This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen sitting and incoming House Democrats from across the political spectrum. "Last night was a rebuke of the status quo," progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Axios, adding that "for the left it was an affirmation and a validation that we are on the right track." There is "absolutely no excuse," Ramirez said, for House Democrats not to do "the most over the next two years, and as quickly as possible." Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a centrist, said Tuesday was a "gigantic night for the middle ground," and that the mandate is far more modest: "We need to crush high costs and corruption." State of play: House Democrats are on track to win more than 250 seats, which would give them a comfortable majority of dozens of votes. That blows up the plans of a cohort of incoming progressives known as the "Bloc" to demand concessions from leadership in exchange for voting with the party. The potential concessions included changes to House rules, plum committee assignments and votes to enact Medicare-for-All , defund ICE and cut off U.S. aid to Israel. What we're hearing: The left's new tactic is to try to convince the Congressional Progressive Caucus to, as one sitting House Democrat put it, "assert its authority in a way it has never done before." "That should definitely be part of the game plan," an incoming Bloc member told Axios, "we've got so many members of the CPC and I think we're adding 25 more." Said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former CPC chair: "We have certainly used our power many times ... and we will do that again." The CPC is currently around 100 members, though not all are pugnacious ideological brawlers. The new strategy also involves aggressively recruiting incoming House Democrats from battleground districts, a group that hasn't traditionally been at the core of the CPC's membership. The left is hopefully eyeing the "Bernie Dogs": Populist candidates from working class backgrounds who won red districts with support from both progressives and centrists. They are also taking a close look at the "wave babies": Candidates who won upset victories in districts that weren't even on the party's radar and whose politics are largely unknown on Capitol Hill. What they're saying: CPC chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) argued in an interview that it may not be such a fight to pass a progressive agenda, noting that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has called for "dramatic change." "Americans delivered a demand for bold change, and progressives are excited to deliver it," Casar said, adding that Medicare-for-All is "overwhelmingly popular" and that Democrats "should move that kind of legislation forward." Jayapal told Axios: "We will be driving an agenda that truly is big and bold and looking for [Jeffries'] leadership to make sure that is what we deliver." The former CPC chair said she is "100% down" for the items on Jeffries' 100-days agenda but "I just don't think there's any way we can stop there. ... We have to pass a living wage bill, we have to pass universal childcare." The other side: Rep. Adam Gray (D-Calif.), a leader of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition, told Axios, "The most extreme elements ... want to do messaging bills and yell and scream and point the finger." "There's time for that, let's just not make it the majority time," he continued, "and I think you're going to find a lot of people ... agree with me on this." Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), an ally of Jeffries, said the results were a "victory for common sense, not any extremist ideology" and that Jeffries "understands what last night was all about and he will lead accordingly." Jeffries is being characteristically taciturn about how he will govern. "We're going to have a conversation as a caucus upon our return about what the agenda looks like," he told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. Asked about marking up Medicare-for-All, Jeffries said House Democrats will have a "family conversation" about what health care measures to pass beyond renewing expired Affordable Care Act tax credits and reversing the GOP's cuts to Medicaid. The bottom line: "Medicare-for-All is not going to happen in the next two years and everybody knows that," said progressive Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a co-sponsor of Medicare-for-All. "I hear all of this jockeying, and frankly I find it tedious," he told Axios. "We're going to have a huge majority to navigate these issues and it's all going to be fine. ... We're mostly on the same team here." Said another House progressive: "With this big of a majority, honestly, the Bloc has way less influence, but the good news is so do the members who buy Depends by the carton." "On balance, this is a center-left caucus," a third House Democrat said.
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