Sen. Charles Schumer is plotting the Democratic Party’s return to power in Washington but could face opposition from liberal hardliners.
The incoming Senate minority leader began holding strategy sessions the day after President-elect Trump won the White House to assess the fallout and determine how the party should operate in a Republican-dominated government.
Schumer is well suited for the job, having led Democrats back to power in the Senate in 2006 as Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman after losses in Congress and the re-election of President George W. Bush appeared to augur a generation of Republican control in D.C.
But some Democratic insiders worry that the New Yorker won’t have the same freedom to maneuver that he did a decade ago as he attempts to position for the 2018 midterms.
Outside agitators are signaling that they’re ready to crack down on Democrats if they attempt to chart the sort of pragmatic course Schumer might pursue to put Republicans on the defensive and protect Democratic senators up for re-election.
“We encourage all Democrats to follow Elizabeth Warren’s lead. Don’t cave; fight,” said Kaitlin Sweeney, a spokesman for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, referring to the Democratic senator from Massachusetts who is revered on the left.
Schumer’s developing strategy to maintain unity and keep outside groups at bay hinges on taking a no-comprises approach to defending and preserving Obama’s legacy. That means, for instance, refusing to work with Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
“We don’t feel compelled to compromise for the sake of compromise, which I think the Left is afraid of,” said a senior Democratic Senate aide, who requested anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations.
Schumer expects that this approach will satisfy the hardliners in his party and grant him the license to act with tactical and ideological flexibility when he believes a pragmatic approach would benefit his goal of picking up seats in 2018.
That could involve compromise with Senate Republicans, or at least giving vulnerable Democratic senators like Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota; Joe Manchin of West Virginia; and Claire McCaskill of Missouri the freedom to do so.
It also could involve triangulation.
Schumer is prepared to work with the Trump to secure liberal priorities and sideline congressional Republicans. The president-elect and the incoming minority leader are both New Yorkers — Trump from Queens, Schumer from Brooklyn — and have a pre-existing relationship.
Democrats have long supported spending taxpayer dollars on infrastructure, and Schumer personally is a critic of China’s monetary policy, accusing Beijing of manipulating its currency. Both of those views appear consistent with what Trump believes.
Schumer figures that Trump will either be exposed as offering empty promises on issues like trade and infrastructure, or Democrats will work with him to fashion progressive legislation. Either outcome would bolster their position in the midterm elections, Democrats predict.
“Republicans have a much bigger problem with unity than we do,” McCaskill said. “They’ve got a president who’s preaching infrastructure spending to a caucus that has preached debt, debt, debt and I’m not sure how they’re going to reconcile that,” she said.
“Sen. Schumer is great at basically making the case that we can be ideologically pure and be in the minority, or we can ultimately preserve most our values — not all of them — but do it through the [strategy] that can win a majority,” Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told the Washington Examiner.
“I think that was a compelling case when he made it the last time, and I think it will be a compelling case again,” added Menendez, a Schumer ally who previously served as chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the party’s senate campaign arm.
Schumer was the DSCC chairman in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles, when the Democrats flipped 14 seats, many in what at the time was considered Republican territory. He did it partly by recruiting pragmatists and centrists, in some cases actively working to defeat unelectable liberals vying for the nomination.
Senate Democrats in interviews this week downplayed the potential for conflict between leadership and progressives, both inside the caucus and among outside advocates. They’re claiming more unity among their factions, particularly on how to proceed tactically, than has existed among Republicans.
It’s not unlike what Republicans have dealt with periodically under President Obama.
Outside groups like Heritage Action for America and the Club for Growth, through proxies on Capitol Hill like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, often succeeded in thwarting GOP leaders’ attempts to forge deals with Democrats in Congress and the White House that they deemed insufficiently conservative. Democrats watched with amusement during the Obama years as Republicans tied themselves in knots and squandering opportunities win Senate seats and secure better deals on legislation.
They concede that they could face the same pressure under a Trump administration, and some are worried they might suffer the same fate should progressive groups collaborate with Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to stymie Schumer.
After Louisiana votes on Saturday, Republicans will likely finish 2016 with a 52-46 Senate majority. And 2018 is shaping up to the GOP’s advantage, with few Republicans vulnerable and Democrats threatened in conservative-leaning states like Missouri, North Dakota and West Virginia.
