As the new Congress enters its third month, Democrats are full of bluster about their chances of recapturing the majority next year and handing Jeffries the gavel
BALTIMORE — House Democrats embraced three favorite words during their annual retreat: Speaker Hakeem Jeffries.
This year’s Baltimore gathering marked a fresh test not just for Jeffries, but for the entire new troika of leaders, including Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar . While lawmakers wouldn’t draw direct comparisons to their former head trio, they were endlessly optimistic that the new generation of leaders would usher in a younger, more diverse and unified caucus — the last aspect essential if they want any hope of winning the House majority next year.
Equipped with legislative wins from the previous Congress on landmark infrastructure and social spending bills, Democrats are gearing up to sell their message to the American public. They’re determined to avoid total policy irrelevance and are searching for bipartisan wins, even if they’re incremental ones on immigration or energy permitting, both of which sputtered out last term.
While Rep. Ami Bera expressed pervasive doubts that Congress could agree on “sweeping immigration reform,” he said smaller scale wins to protect so-called Dreamers, immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children, might be possible. But in other areas, Democrats were determined to set aside old feuds and focus on defeating Republicans. In one example, lawmakers made clear they were moving past drama that had engulfed the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, after Chair Nanette Barragán sparked backlash over the firing of a top staffer. Rep. Adriano Espaillat , the second-ranked Hispanic Caucus member, publicly defended Barragán for the first time since the brouhaha.
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