On Nov. 6, people went to the polls to decide our country’s track for the next two years, and it couldn’t have been more of a rebuke of the ruling party.
In a record turnout for a midterm election going back to 1966, 53.1 percent of the electorate voted for Democratic House nominees. High voter turnout helped produce a blue wave in the House by flipping 39 seats, almost double the minimum of 20 seats needed for Democrats to regain the chamber.
Republicans were able to retain the Senate due to the fact they were playing offense in several states like Missouri, Indiana, and North Dakota where President Trump won by double digits. While Republicans picked up four seats, Democrats flipped both Nevada and Arizona, keeping Republican gains to a minimum of one seat (now two, with the outcome of the Mississippi runoff election going in favor of Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.)
The Democrats’ win in the House can be attributed to many states like California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New Jersey.
I might be a tad bit biased because I’ve lived my entire life in New Jersey, but it truly did help Democrats get across the finish line.
People often think New Jersey is a liberal paradise situated on the east coast, but Republicans still have a decent amount of influence at the federal level. At the start of the 155th Congress, the state’s Congressional delegation was split 7–5. Prior to that, it was split evenly at 6–6 until Democrat Josh
Gottheimer unseated incumbent Republican Scott Garrett in the 5th District during the 2016 election.
The 2018 election swept four of the five Republicans out leaving New Jersey’s Congressional delegation at 11–1.
Democrats were able to win in districts that have supported Republicans in the past, but are made up of a large amount of educated voters. These voters, especially white women, don’t have a place in Trump’s modern Republican Party. They have started moving over to the Democrats, allowing the party to flip key districts centered around the suburbs. The 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 11th Districts are all centered around the suburbs of New York City or Philadelphia. If you had told any New Jersey operative prior to 2016 that those districts, except the 2nd, were winnable, they would’ve laughed in your face.
These four new representatives, along with those from across the country, will determine the tone of not only Congress, but also the Democratic Party itself. Their first task, electing a new Speaker of the House, has already turned into a huge debacle.
Nancy Pelosi, current House Minority Leader and former Speaker from 2007–2011, wants a second chance at the job, but some Democrats think that it’s time someone younger picks up the gavel for the next two years.
One of the those people is Rep.-elect Mikie Sherrill from the 11th District. “I have been talking about how important it is we have new leadership in Congress right now,” Sherrill told
MSNBC
. “So I won’t be voting for Nancy Pelosi.”
While I am not a huge Pelosi supporter, it cannot be refuted that she has been behind landmark bills like The Affordable Healthcare Act, The Dodd-Frank bill, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
At this point, I believe Nancy Pelosi is the best candidate for the Speakership, but she needs to help prepare the next generation and incorporate them into leadership positions. Eventually, Pelosi will need to pass the torch, and it’s her responsibility as Leader of the House Democrats to help build those candidates.
The 116th Congress is the most diverse group of federal elected officials in our country’s history. We not only elected a landmark number of women and Millennials, but also saw the election of the first bisexual U.S. senator, first Native-American, and first female Muslim representatives.
Pelosi’s leadership team needs to look more like modern America: more people of color, women, and members of the LGBT community. If she can do that, she has my full support.
While Rep.-elect Sherrill and I might disagree on Pelosi assuming the Speakership, at least we have shared reasons for hesitance. There are people like Rep. Josh Gottheimer, my representative, who oppose Pelosi for no reason other than power.
Gottheimer is co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a bipartisan group of forty-eight so called representatives. While this group is made up of so called “moderate” politicians, according to
The Washington Post
, “the caucus’ Republican members have on average voted in line with The White House’s position 93 percent of the time.”
The group is proposing changes in House rules titled “Break the Gridlock” which would give more power to back-benchers and the Republican Party. One of the main components of the package is that if any amendment receives 20 co-sponsors from both parties, it will be put up for debate and voted upon.
This would effectively cede power to the same “moderates” that vote with Trump 93 percent of the time and the entire Republican caucus. Even when Democrats regain a chamber of Congress they haven’t held since 2011, they actively seek to diminish their own power.
In reality, the Problem Solvers Caucus has accomplished almost nothing. Out of the five bills the group has put forward, only one has passed. You would think such a “bipartisan” group would have passed more bills than that, right?
It turns out that the Problem Solvers Caucus is closely tied to an organization called No Labels. This group spent almost $2.5 million to help protect vulnerable incumbent Republicans during the 2018 election, almost double the amount they spent on Democrats.
Since the group is now threatened by a somewhat progressive Speaker Pelosi, they are trying to limit the amount of progressive legislation she can pass. Let’s be clear, Problem Solvers are trying to hijack the Democratic Party and not many people are realizing it. All their members use the group to attempt to show how moderate they are, but it’s simply not true.
Josh Gottheimer and the Problem Solvers are solely looking for power and it’s disgusting. During the March for Our Lives, I stood in front of my county courthouse disavowing Gottheimer’s opponent’s over their stances on gun reform. It’s hypocritical for me to call them out and not a member of my party.
What I’ve come to realize is that Gottheimer might talk about how he’ll implement “common-sense” gun reforms, but there is nothing behind it. Gottheimer and his group only care about power, they don’t care about how dirty they have to be to obtain it.
Gottheimer and nine other Democrats from the Problem Solvers Caucus have promised that they will oppose Pelosi if she does not support all of their demands in writing, even though she has stated that she supports parts of the package.
Even supposed rebel Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has put her support behind Pelosi because she realizes she is what the Democrats need right now, even if Pelosi doesn’t support all of her demands.
Out of the four new representatives that were elected in New Jersey, two have said they will oppose Pelosi, one said they will support her, and Andy Kim still says he’s undecided.
It’s very likely that these freshmen representatives will decide the outcome of the speakership race. They are representative of the current split between the incoming Democratic class: those who can’t afford to be associated with Pelosi and those who realize the amount of money she can raise.
Pelosi and her opponents will be trying to pressure the freshman to vote their way, but the representatives will still have to answer to their constituents and other elected officials back home.
Recently, a group of influential New Jersey women including the Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, and Democratic Party Vice-Chair Lizette Delgado-Polanco penned a letter in support of Pelosi.
In the letter, the group quotes Pelosi when she was trying to pass the Affordable Care Act. “We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”
Right now, we need her to focus the Democrats on passing liberal reforms that will improve the lives of everyday Americans, not the wealthy donors of No Labels.
Unlike Republicans, it seems like Democrats will roll over at the sign of any controversy, but Nancy Pelosi has already played this ball game. The Republicans have tried to use her as a weapon and she has survived; you can’t get rid of her that easily.
It’s time that Josh and his Gang of Nine take a cue from the women in their state: It’s time to get over these petty political power grabs and focus on governing. The Democratic Party belongs to the people, not those who are willing to throw them aside.
