Home Democrats returned to the Capitol on Tuesday, dejected and licking their wounds after an election drubbing every week earlier that may put Donald Trump again within the White Home and Republicans in charge of all of the levers of energy in Washington subsequent yr.
Whereas Democrats within the decrease chamber outperformed Vice President Harris on the polls — a dynamic that may go away Republicans with one other razor-thin majority within the 119th Congress — that ethical victory was a dim comfort for a celebration that had hinged its marketing campaign on warnings that Trump posed a cloth menace to America’s foundational democratic traditions.
Confronted with Trump’s runaway victory for a second time period within the White Home, Democrats are actually within the early phases of a autopsy reckoning about what went incorrect and the right way to flip the ship round — a somber dialogue that’s already featured loads of finger-pointing about the place the blame ought to fall.
“It’s catastrophic,” mentioned Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), a 30-year veteran of the Home who was the primary Democratic lawmaker to name on President Biden to step apart. “There have been other challenges in the past, but this is certainly the greatest one of my political life.”
Home Democrats misplaced quite a lot of members who received’t be returning subsequent yr. Lots of these are retirements, and a few are lawmakers who ran — and received — races for greater workplace. However others have been defeated on the polls final week, together with two veteran Pennsylvania lawmakers — Reps. Matt Cartwright and Susan Wild — who had 20 years of expertise between them.
Assembled on the Home ground Tuesday evening, Democrats of all stripes lined as much as consolation their vanquished buddies — a biennial ritual that felt much more momentous this yr due to Trump’s imminent return to the White Home.
Wild — a six-year veteran of the Home who misplaced re-election by one proportion level final week — obtained a hug from Rep. Lori Trahan (Mass.) on the ground. Home Minority Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.) embraced Rep. Colin Allred (Texas), who misplaced his bid for Senate final week. And Rep. Kathy Manning (N.C.) was seen hugging Rep. Mary Peltola (Alaska), who’s at the moment trailing in her contest.
There have been, to make certain, some vivid spots for the Democrats this cycle that exposed themselves on the ground.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.), Delaware’s senator-elect, was taking images with a bouquet of flowers on the ground. Rep. Dean Philips (Minn.) gave a congratulatory high-five to Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), who received a troublesome contest to develop into Michigan’s junior senator. And Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) hugged Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), who received his race to fill an open California Senate seat.
Nonetheless, Democrats have been devastated by Trump’s victory. And Tuesday’s scene within the Capitol bore some echoes of Congress’s return to Washington in late 2016, after Trump surprised the nation by defeating Hillary Clinton to win his first flip within the Oval Workplace.
Then, as now, Democrats have been able to have fun the primary feminine president within the nation’s historical past. After which, as now, Trump dashed these plans when voters flocked to his “America First” message of populist nationalism.
This time round, Democrats thought that they had an extra benefit due to Trump’s authorized woes, which embody 34 felony convictions since he left workplace. This yr was additionally the primary presidential race for the reason that Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, which led on to Trump’s second impeachment.
As an alternative of celebrating an enormous win, nonetheless, Democrats have been left to research how Trump — regardless of all the luggage — was capable of persuade voters that he was the higher candidate.
“It is healthy for us to have this conversation,” mentioned Rep. Adam Smith (Wash.). “I know a lot of people [say], ‘Well, let’s not be critical.’ No, no. … I believe in after-action reports.”
Many Democrats have pointed fingers at Biden, whose disastrous debate towards Trump in June had prompted different occasion leaders to persuade him to not search a second time period. Some now say Biden and his group ought to have acknowledged his limitations earlier, and never sought reelection in any respect.
“That’s the only scenario I can think of where we might have had a chance, is if Biden had just never run for reelection,” mentioned Rep. Jared Huffman (Calif.). “The White Home did a fairly good job of maintaining appearances and concealing the issue. And it is a disgrace, it is a horrible disgrace that there wasn’t extra self-awareness there.
“Ego, ambition, these other human qualities are powerful factors.”
Smith, who was among the many first Democrats to name for Biden to drop off the poll, agreed, saying the president’s lengthy delay in making that call left Harris within the tough place of explaining why she hadn’t sounded the alarm on Biden’s health sooner.
“He was struggling for months there, and a lot of people asked Vice President Harris, ‘Well, you saw him struggling, did you think that was OK?’ It put her in a very, very bad position,” he mentioned.
Some, nonetheless, put the onus on themselves for not calling on Biden to name it quits sooner.
“I only regret I didn’t do it earlier,” Doggett mentioned of urging Biden to step apart. “I think it’s unfortunate that he took three weeks to decide.”
“I believe that the only person in our caucus who doesn’t share some responsibility for the outcome is Dean Phillips, who came out early,” he continued, referencing the Minnesota Democrat who mounted a failed major problem to Biden. “I accept responsibility as well that there’s more that we could have done.”
With hopes of clinching management of the Home gone, Republicans set to take the reins within the Senate, and Trump headed again to the White Home for 4 years, Home Democrats are looking forward to the 2026 midterm elections — what they are saying is their subsequent finest hope of placing a examine on the GOP’s management in Washington.
“It’s gonna be a long four years and we have to take it a day at a time, as I’m doing today,” Doggett mentioned. “But the most important period will be these first two years, that’s when he’ll set the tone of how much of a tyrant he’ll be, and when our pushing back will count for the most.”
“But it’s also the two years that leads up to the greatest opportunity for us to have an effective check on him with the midterm elections,” he added.
