Once "cocky" Democrats recalibrate ambitions in Congress amid election setbacks

“I believed the pollsters when they said that the Republicans had only a 25% chance of keeping the Senate and that Democrats would pick up seats” in the House, Lofgren said. Now “I don’t know that we’re going to have the opportunity to do that with the very thin margins.”…

Advertisement

“People were talking in a really cocky way before that Democrats were going to take the trifecta [White House, Senate and House], and we were not ever going to talk to Republicans about anything. We were going to ram all this policy down their throats,” said Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego), a moderate.

Ambitious liberal policies like Medicare for all and the Green New Deal are likely to be pushed to a back burner, though Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other progressives have signaled they will continue to advocate for their movement.

Pelosi (D-San Francisco) had said before the election that Democrats would expand the Affordable Care Act by using a special procedure in the Senate that required only 50 votes, but it’s unclear now she will have even that.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement