After two years of a lot of talk and consternation, Democrats finally got their time to celebrate.
Fronted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan chair of the House Democratic campaign arm, and a cadre of House Democrats at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Washington, Democratic jubilation was evident. Pelosi was greeted with chants from all comers of “Speak-er!” as she took the stage to celebrate their return to power.
“Thanks to you, tomorrow will be a new day in America,” she told supporters after walking on stage to “Simply The Best” by Tina Turner. “Remember this feeling. Know the power to win.”
[Opinion: Why Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump will want to work with each other (a bit)]
With the chants and celebration underway, however, it was not long before Democrats turned to what they plan to do once January rolls around. After declaring that he feels “terrific” with the win, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., declared that oversight of the Trump administration was coming down the rails, something House Republicans and the White House have dreaded.
“I think we have an oversight responsibility that obviously hasn’t been pursued by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and we’re going to do that. That’s our responsibility … We will pursue that.”
Multiple House Democrats, including Pelosi, listed infrastructure as something that will sit atop the to-do list in the next Congress after Republican-led congressional chambers decided against pushing a package from the outset of the Trump administration.
House Democratic leadership also came to the forefront, with Pelosi, Hoyer and Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., slated to run and likely remain in the top three positions atop the caucus. The battle, however, is for the bottom three spots, with Lujan, D-N.M., Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., and Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., vying for the fourth position in leadership with Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., departing the chamber. Additionally, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., are pushing for the fifth spot, setting up battles in the next month ahead of the post-Thanksgiving leadership elections.
Nevertheless, the top three are expected to remain the same despite vows from some incoming House Democrats that they will not support Pelosi.
“I come from the school that if you win the Super Bowl, it’s kind of hard to fire the head coach and the coaching staff,” said one House Democrat.
Despite the talk of what’s to come, the mood at DCCC celebration was wasn’t going to be dampened two years after the debacle at the Javitz Center in New York. On multiple occasions, including when one outlet declared Ron DeSantis the Florida gubernatorial victor, the sound was flipped over to music that blared throughout the ballroom instead of non-positive news. Attendees roundly danced as if there wasn’t a care in the world.
As contest after contest got called by various networks, loud cheers erupted, including wins by Colin Allred in suburban Dallas and Antonio Delgado in New York’s Hudson Valley.
“Our democracy, it’s a five-alarm fire! You are all first responders!” DNC chair Tom Perez told scores of onlookers.
House Democrats won in the unusual way for an opposition party: with a sitting president in the mid-40s in approval ratings and a group of voters more than willing to vote for the party of power.
And in another normal move, Pelosi is back. The belle of the ball Tuesday night, the longtime California Democrat is likely to assume the speakership eight years after losing it in the 2010 election and reveled in the celebration.
Shortly after outlets began calling the House for Democrats, she emerged from the holding room wearing an ear-to-ear grin and greeted a couple reporters with a jazz-hands wave, with one one supporter immediately congratulated her and called her “Madam Speaker.”
“By the way, right now, I have 87 percent of the vote in my district. Isn’t that wonderful?” Pelosi told reporters as she left the Hyatt. “That means a lot to me.”
When a reporter asked what percentage of the House Democratic caucus she currently holds, she was curt.
“Oh, I’m okay,” she said with a smile.
