Swing-State Democrats Move to Counter Party’s Drift Toward Left

(Bloomberg) -- Moderate House Democrats are going on the offensive.

For weeks, the swing-district Democrats most responsible for the party’s House majority have fretted that progressive lightning rods like New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are distracting the party with proposals that will alienate independent voters.

Now centrist lawmakers, many of whom flipped GOP-held seats, are elbowing into the spotlight with policies aimed at building the bipartisan consensus necessary to become law. They’re focusing on issues like health care and climate change that are increasingly important to voters, offering measures that at the very least will put Republicans on the record regarding broadly popular solutions.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been protective of her moderate members, even as part of the Democratic base clamors for bolder progressive action. This week’s renewed policy focus on bills to shore up the Affordable Care Act, lower drug prices and reduce greenhouse gases allows more vulnerable members -- especially freshmen -- to get out of the shadow of controversial ideas like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

"We have been active behind the scenes but we are trying to be a bit more vocal," said Florida’s Stephanie Murphy, a leader of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition of 27 Democrats. "The majority lays in the hands of members who unseated Republicans and are representing moderate policies."

‘Getting Things Done’

Democrats like Murphy have also sought to shift the conversation away from controversies surrounding President Donald Trump, especially after Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election didn’t deliver a clear condemnation of the president. Even before the Justice Department summary of the report was published Sunday, Pelosi was already warning Democrats to talk to voters about policy, not impeaching Trump.

"Some members may be focused on making a point, we are focused on getting things done," said California’s Pete Aguilar, who is part of the pro-business New Democrat Coalition.

The Democratic pivot to health care was aided by the Trump administration’s support Monday for a Texas court that found the entire Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, to be unconstitutional. House Democrats railed against that decision Tuesday as they introduced a bill designed to strengthen protections for patients with pre-existing conditions, which was a winning issue for them in November’s midterm election.

The Energy and Commerce Committee continued this policy push Wednesday with four bills aimed at reducing prescription drug prices and six bills to preserve and expand key ACA provisions. Moderate Democrats say they encouraged leadership to focus on shoring up Obamacare, including a letter from 76 centrists urging committee chairmen to make it a priority.

"These are pragmatic solutions that have an opportunity to be passed," said Pennsylvania’s Chrissy Houlahan. "These are the sort of things that people who brought us here, who elected us as purple people from purple places, are asking for."

‘Embrace the Enthusiasm’

Meanwhile, Pelosi managed pressure from the party’s progressive wing by promising hearings on a Medicare for All bill, but not in the committees that actually write health-care legislation.

On Wednesday evening, Representative Rashida Tlaib raised another subject that Pelosi would rather avoid: impeachment. Tlaib introduced a resolution “directing the House Judiciary Committee to begin investigating” whether the president “has committed any actions constituting impeachable offenses” since his inauguration.

Centrist Democrats are careful to say they welcome the debate progressives have initiated, emphasizing that the party is united around the goals of expanding access to health care and protecting the environment.

"I embrace the enthusiasm of the grassroots across this country and the thought leaders in our party that are pressing for major change," said New Hampshire Democrat Annie Kuster, another member of the New Democrat Coalition. Still, she said the party must "speak to all Americans and have the broadest coalition possible."

Kuster said seeking consensus within their own party allows Democrats to differentiate from Republicans instead of highlighting disagreements among themselves. Only 28 percent of her constituents are registered Democrats, and she is one of the 44 members of the majority identified as most politically vulnerable.

Slow Start

The Democratic-led House got off to a slow legislative start due to the 35-day government shutdown over Trump’s demands for more border wall spending. With Pelosi focused on winning the shutdown battle with Trump and House committees naming new members, a handful of progressives gained an out-sized influence early this year.

After some initial legislative wins, Democrats spent the better part of a week debating how to respond to comments from Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar that were widely viewed as anti-Semitic. She, with Ocasio-Cortez, has become one of the favorite targets for conservative media outlets.

The advocacy of Ocasio-Cortez, who has 3.7 million Twitter followers and 2.8 million Instagram followers, also helped draw attention to divisive policies such as replacing the private medical insurance industry with government-run health care and drastically curtailing the fossil fuel industry through the Green New Deal.

"It definitely has felt like the tail wagging the dog in our caucus as far as who is getting the attention," said Wisconsin’s Ron Kind, a member of the moderate New Democrat coalition of 101 lawmakers. "These are things that doable that will have an impact on health care and climate change instead of some aspirational goal that may feel good but as far as legislative achievements is not going to go anywhere."

Socialist Charge

Republicans have used Ocasio-Cortez’s ambitious climate proposal to paint Democrats as socialists, bashing them in tweets and political ads as leftists who want to end air travel and meat consumption, while paying the unemployed not to work.

“In the name of environmentalism and social justice, Democrats will destroy our way of life,” the GOP-aligned Club for Growth said in a video on the plan that invoked images of nuclear war and has been viewed over 300,000 times.

Moderates downplay any personal animosity toward more progressive colleagues, but they bristle when Republicans insinuate that the party has lurched toward socialism.

"The vast, vast majority of these folks who came into office in this last cycle, on the Democratic side certainly and frankly on the Republican side as well, are pragmatic people," Houlahan said. "I am hopeful that we will be able to get that message out now."

Kind said socialism is "certainly the narrative the other side is trying to develop."

"By and large we are believers in capitalism and the free market economy and don’t support state control of the means of production," Kind said, while allowing that “the laws of supply and demand and greed do require guard rails and adult supervision."

‘Aspirations Aren’t Enough’

The Green New Deal is a non-binding resolution backed by 91 of the House’s 235 Democrats. While Pelosi says she welcomes the “enthusiasms” of bold ideas, she didn’t mention the Green New Deal Wednesday as she introduced a less ambitious bill to require the U.S. to meet greenhouse gas emission-reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement, from which Trump withdrew.

Moderates said the effort is not just about reacting to the Green New Deal but searching for some climate policy that can become law.

"I actually really applaud Alexandria for moving climate change to a crisis footing because it is a crisis,” said Jim Himes of Connecticut. “But aspirations aren’t enough. We have to attach policy to that."

Ocasio-Cortez urged her colleagues not to be intimidated by Republican attacks into thinking small.

“I hope they realize that we could propose having a ham sandwich for lunch and they are going to call it socialist,” Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman from New York, said in an interview. “This is not new; this is what they did with the ACA, this is what they did with Obama.”

--With assistance from Alexander Ruoff.

To contact the reporters on this story: Erik Wasson in Washington at ewasson@bloomberg.net;Ari Natter in Washington at anatter5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton, Laurie Asséo

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