House Democrats have largely spent their time in the minority this Congress as passive observers of internal GOP infighting. As Democrats left the Capitol last week to campaign, lawmakers told us a central part of their closing message is that they’ll govern more responsibly than Republicans.
And with a lack of legislative accomplishments to point to, it’s no surprise that Democrats are harkening back to achievements from the first two years of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Take Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.), for example. The Frontline Democrat who represents parts of Las Vegas hailed the Brightline West high-speed rail project that broke ground this spring thanks to the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
“The infrastructure law brought 140,000 good-paying union jobs, not to mention the 40,000 from the Inflation Reduction Act — the largest investment in climate change in history,” Lee said. “We have a lot to talk about.”
While the benefits of the infrastructure bill might not have been felt in the 2022 midterms, House Democrats are hoping that the implementation phase is paying off in the minds of voters now.
Lee’s fellow Nevada Frontliner, Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), said she’ll be talking on the trail about the region’s bounce-back from the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Southern Nevada went from 35% unemployment to 5%. The Strip was shut down. Nobody was working,” Titus said. “It’s an amazing recovery.”
In the 117th Congress, the Democratic House and Senate joined together to pass sweeping legislation to expand Covid stimulus programs, beef up the nation’s infrastructure, provide benefits to veterans and expand climate change initiatives.
But because Republicans won back the House and Democrats held the Senate, the past two years have been lean times for legislative deal-making. As we reported on Monday, even House Republicans acknowledge there are few tangible legislative wins for the majority party to campaign on back home.
“We’ve been enduring the least productive Congress in my lifetime, and possibly in history,” Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) told us. “I remember from history class Harry Truman going on his whistle stop tour and complaining about the ‘Do Nothing Congress.’ We are in the ‘Do Nothing Congress,’ not on steroids but on sleeping pills.”
With bills passed few and far between — Democrats aren’t eager to tout the Fiscal Responsibility Act back home — many lawmakers are instead focusing on contrasting themselves with Republicans.
“We’ve got a forward-looking choice, or we’ve got a backward-looking choice,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) said. “We’ve got one that embraces American values and democracy, and we’ve got one that embraces authoritarianism and autocracy.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has consistently struck a message of contrast when discussing the stakes of the 2024 election.
In his final press conference before recess, Jeffries hailed Democratic vision to “put people over politics, lower costs and defend freedom” and bashed “the extreme MAGA Republican plan to criminalize abortion care” and “increase the tax burden on working-class Americans.”
“We’re going to make our case to the American people, put it in their hands on Nov. 5 and see what happens,” Jeffries said.
