LEESBURG, Virginia — Democrats’ plan to retake the House in 2024 is building on the electoral success of defending abortion access and championing a broader agenda of defending freedoms.
During their annual conference in Leesburg, Virginia, last week, House Democrats outlined their messaging strategy, expressing confidence in their ability to seize control of the lower chamber as Republican leaders struggle to unify all corners of their conference. Democrats hope to seize on that intraparty tension to declare themselves the party of stability and freedom.
Democratic lawmakers met for a series of closed-door briefings throughout the week to discuss messaging and campaign strategy on a slew of key topics such as housing, childcare, and climate. But party leaders made clear what they considered their secret weapon — reproductive rights.
“There’s no more pressing issue than the fight for reproductive freedom,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) said. “Wherever we travel across the country, whoever we talk to, abortion is top of mind for our constituents and for voters.”
Democrats managed to fend off a predicted red wave during the 2022 midterm elections, losing only nine House seats and flipping three red districts. The better-than-expected performance was due largely in part to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which ended nationwide access to abortion.
Democrats seized on that matter to accuse Republicans of taking away voters’ freedoms — a winning message the party is now looking to apply across the board.
“There’s an interesting connection that the Republicans don’t get, and I almost don’t want you to tell them,” Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH) said with a laugh, “which is the dog that caught the car on reproductive rights — and how that issue is connected to the other issues in terms of both costs and this freedom agenda and our democracy.”
Kuster pointed to this so-called Freedom Agenda released by the New Dem Coalition last year, a caucus of centrist House Democrats of which she serves as the chairwoman. Through that framework, Democrats are encouraged to connect all voter concerns, such as healthcare, the economy, and education, to the overarching theme of freedom.
On top of that, Democrats are likely to go on the offensive to flip the script on Republicans, accusing the GOP of seeking to take certain rights away. One way to do that, Kuster said, is by pointing to the party’s likely nominee: former President Donald Trump.
“What I found is that when it becomes an existential choice between two people, Donald Trump’s view of the world and Joe Biden’s view of the world, the voters respond to our message about freedom,” Kuster told the Washington Examiner.
However, there may be one topic Democrats still will struggle with as they trot across the campaign trail: immigration and border security.
Despite meeting in several briefings throughout their retreat, there was not a specific meeting for lawmakers to discuss border security — even as the matter was exploding in the Senate on Capitol Hill just 38 miles away.
Republicans have long dominated the border conversation, especially as the country has experienced a surge in illegal immigration under the Biden administration. However, Democrats argued conversations were occurring among members even if there wasn’t a panel during their annual retreat.
“At the caucus level in the Congress at the Capitol, we always have immigration groups come in,” Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragan (D-CA) told reporters on Thursday. “So the fact that there’s no panel, I don’t think, is a reflection of the fact that we’re not continuing to fight on this or that it’s not a priority. Not at all.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Still, Democrats acknowledged that despite their legislative wins under the Biden administration, not all voters may be feeling the effects of the policies they have passed, particularly those related to the economy. As a result, Democrats are looking to turn their focus to “the work that remains ahead of us.”
“House Democrats are united, and we’re coming together around an economic agenda that builds off of the progress that we’ve made since the pandemic began in 2024,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said. “But we know that not everyone is feeling the benefits of that economic recovery yet, and House Democrats are ready to finish the job.”
