Democrats wrestle over campaign agenda: ‘You can’t just be anti-Trump’

Democrats agree that they need a plan for what they’d do with the power they’re asking voters to give them. The details of that hypothetical agenda are another story.

The party is in the first throes of a raging debate over how specific it needs to be in order to ride anti-Trump sentiment to victory. Democrats are confident that backlash against Trump’s chaotic return to office positions them to flip the House this fall and puts the Senate in play, but their congressional leaders are still scrambling to give their voters the clearer vision that polling shows the public wants.

“As disorganized and jacked up as the GOP is, and even with all the things that Trump is doing, we need an affirmative agenda for the American people,” Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., told Semafor.

House Democratic leaders are holding listening sessions as they devise a midterm agenda to build on Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ framework released last year. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is rolling out agenda items on healthcare, housing and food costs. In theory, those could underpin the type of unified plan that powered the biggest two midterm waves in recent history — Republicans in 1994 and Democrats in 2006.

But beneath the broad consensus that Democrats should focus on affordability is clear division: progressives are pushing for details, while those closer to the center want a broader-strokes approach. Even if Democrats can find middle ground, there’s a bigger question of who the best messenger is for a party that currently lacks a clear leader.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who is coordinating with populist House members, told Semafor that Democrats’ platform can’t “just be about an economic message” because voters who see both parties as compromised think Democrats are “never going to get it done.”

He advised party leaders to focus a “very short agenda” on what he and other progressives have described as “unrigging” the Trump-era system: “It’s not going to be good enough to just say we’re going to investigate Trump’s corruption. We actually have to explain how we’re going to clean up the corruption on both sides of the aisle,” Murphy said.

House progressives met with leadership Tuesday for their listening session and rolled out their own legislative agenda, including a slate of bills to address cost-of-living concerns like gas prices, prescription drugs and grocery costs.

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar, D-Texas, cited one socialist and one centrist as models for his preferred pithy plans: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pitch for free buses, and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s call to freeze utility rates.

“Each member’s going to go to their district and have a few important individual ideas. But nationally, I think we should have very succinct, very clear, but very concrete plans for the American people,” he said.

But centrists like Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., prefer a higher-level approach.

“I think it’s more about stating our principles and providing a little bit of detail around those principles so that we can let folks know where we’re going to be prioritizing on issues,” she said, citing specific legislation like repealing cuts to Medicaid enacted in the GOP’s megabill as part of a broader health care message.

Democrats managed to claim big victories in 2018 running primarily against Trump. One big reason that a growing number of them want to do more this time: Republicans are loudly warning that Democratic control would mean another Trump impeachment or investigations of the administration.

Countering that with a more positive list of goals is a tall task for a party that has significant schisms over campaign strategy.

“You can’t just be anti-Trump, you’ve got to be for something,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., who chairs the House Democratic panel convening the listening sessions. At the same time, she cautioned that “we can’t make promises we can’t keep.”