House Democrats are hoping to solidify their legislative agenda on affordability as midterm campaigning starts to heat up. So far, they don’t know what’s in it.
But lawmakers have gathered in Leesburg, Virginia for their annual policy retreat these past few days to try and hammer out the details.
“We know it’s not enough to just lay out the issues and what the problems are,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) told reporters. “Our goal is to have simple solutions that we can put out and lay out that vision — that if you give Democrats the gavels back, this is exactly what we’re going to do.”
So far, that message has centered on reversing President Donald Trump’s policies. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, said undoing the administration’s aggressive new tariffs is one of the top priorities Democratic candidates should communicate this fall.
Democrats also pledge to revive Obamacare health insurance subsidies that lapsed last year and reverse cuts to federal safety-net programs Republicans made in last year’s megabill.
They’re less set, however, on what their platform should be beyond simply opposing the policies of the party in power. Outside of Trump-related rollbacks, Democrats are discussing evergreen proposals such as expanding the child tax credit and increasing the federal minimum wage.
The New Democrat Coalition — the largest ideological group in the caucus composed of more centrist members — laid out an affordability agenda with more robust proposals, addressing matters like broadband connectivity and data center construction. The group is hoping it catches Democratic leaders’ attention, said Vice Chair Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.) in an interview: “We want our agenda to be what comes top of mind for them.”
In the Senate, having a specific affordability agenda could be especially critical for Democrats’ uphill battle to flip the chamber.
“I feel very strongly that if Democrats do not put forward a positive affirmative message and vision of what we wanna do — what we will do when we’re in power, what our value proposition is to the American people — it’s hard to win elections,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told POLITICO on “The Conversation.” “I think that was part of why we lost in this last presidential.”
What else we’re watching:
Former President Bill Clinton will sit Friday for a deposition on Jeffrey Epstein in front of House Oversight Committee members in Chappaqua, New York. It comes a day after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified for nearly six hours in front of the panel and appeared to offer little new or relevant information for its investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
Dasha Burns, Maya Kaufman, Gelila Negesse and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.
