The centrist New Democrat Coalition’s newly elected leaders are making it very clear: They have Hakeem Jeffries' back.
“We’ll be a critical voting bloc to make sure that he is the next speaker,” Rep. Nikki Budzinski of Illinois said Tuesday in her first interview after being elected the coalition’s chair. “He will be the next speaker of the House.”
“Unequivocally and without hesitation,” added Rep. Marilyn Strickland of Washington, the group’s next vice chair of communications, who was also elected Tuesday along other coalition leaders.
The New Democrats, already House Democrats’ largest ideological caucus, will have significant clout next term with over 140 members. The next group of leaders — which also includes Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico as policy vice chair and Rep. Kim Schrier of Washington as outreach vice chair — are framing themselves as agenda-setters for top leaders and foot soldiers in brokering consensus inside the larger party caucus.
Their top priorities are already in line with Jeffries’ vision for the early days of the next Congress: restoring expired Affordable Care Act tax credits, repealing President Donald Trump’s tariffs and rolling back GOP Medicaid cuts. But after voting on those consensus measure in the next session's opening days, the New Democrats will have to wrestle with a competing vision of how to tackle affordability from progressives.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus is also swelling to over 100 members next term and is similarly vowing to flex its muscle. Many incoming progressives campaigned on advancing a “Medicare for All” health plan, and senior progressives are pushing for committee action.
The New Dem leaders said they support “universal health care” but were skeptical of Medicare for All, which is commonly interpreted as a single-payer system akin to Canada and the United Kingdom.
“The devil's in the details here,” Schrier said. “Like, three words does not make policy, and so we're going to work through this as a big family caucus.”
Budzinski said the New Democrats will “roll out a series” on health care and “do a lot of member education” on the subject.
“We believe in competition in the market, that competition can create better outcomes with health care, can lower costs,” she said.
The new leaders say the coalition is oriented around compromise and that they are open to negotiating with Republicans — even in the White House. Referencing Trump’s comment on Sunday’s “60 Minutes” episode about seeking an immigration deal with Democrats, Vasquez said he saw “an opening.”
“And as the pragmatic coalition of legislators that we are, we need to offer proactive solutions on immigration,” he said. “So we're going to continue to push that immigration and border security framework that we developed.”
Before House Democrats take the majority, they have to navigate a contentious lame-duck period where the party will have to weigh whether to compromise with Republicans now or wait until they have more leverage next year.
The question is most pressing on the pending Senate-brokered permitting bill. Jeffries has said he wants the bill revised, but negotiators believe it cannot be enacted if it moves too dramatically in Democrats’ direction.
Leaders of the New Democrats have spoken positively about the recently revised Senate deal, but the group has stopped short so far of an outright endorsement. Budzinski said Tuesday the coalition is “very closely watching those negotiations” while emphasizing the need to “lower utility bills and show the American people that we can work together on a bipartisan way to deliver for them” even before Democrats take the majority.
“We believe that the American people told us on Election Day they want us to get to work now,” she said. “So where there are opportunities now, even in the lame duck … we want to be a part of those conversations and start that work.”
