Contact The Editor
Articles By This Author
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is engaged in a major effort to redefine what his unpopular party stands for, readying a new Democratic agenda intended to turbocharge efforts to recapture the House in 2026 and make him speaker.
Jeffries (D-New York) has heard the many complaints from Democratic lawmakers clamoring for a proactive agenda following the party's devastating losses in the 2024 election - one that doesn't revolve entirely around fighting President Donald Trump. He's racing to release a plan to revive a depressed base and sell voters on a Democratic Party that hears their concerns on affordability, safety and helping the working class.
But the effort is running up against the harsh political realities of the moment, from Trump's aggressive efforts to revamp the congressional map through redistricting in Republican-led states to a tarnished Democratic brand with abysmal approval ratings, according to polls. Jeffries has launched listening sessions around the country and commissioned his own polling to map a way back from the wilderness.
"In 2024 there was a failure to adequately address the high cost of living environment, and as a result, a price was paid. ... That's a mistake that can never be made again," Jeffries said in an interview after attending a session with party leaders in Las Vegas.
Before leaving for August recess, House Democratic leaders introduced an initial set of principles based around affordability, health care and ending government corruption, which Jeffries and other strategists believe is a key opening for Democrats. Democrats have seen recent success in attacking Republicans for failing to secure the release of the files surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, for instance.
"The biggest problem we had in 2024 was Democrats weren't seen as being on the right side of cost of living and nothing else mattered when we're on the wrong side of that," said Jesse Ferguson, a strategist who previously worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "The combination of health care, taxes, Medicaid cuts, tariffs all put together, Democrats now have a real story we can tell about how Trump's agenda has betrayed people, and we have to be relentless in telling it."
Interviews with over a dozen House Democratic lawmakers, aides and strategists suggest that Jeffries has his work cut out for him.
"Our brand is really toxic right now," Rep. Tom Suozzi (D), who represents a New York swing district, said. "Everybody's registering as independents because they're fed up with this whole thing."
Suozzi added that an agenda proposed earlier than August of the midterm year - which is typical for House Democrats - is necessary for voters to recognize what Democrats stand for versus Trump.
Previous campaign agendas such as then-Minority Leader Newt Gingrich's (R-Georgia) "Contract with America" have served as rallying cries for lawmakers as they clearly outlined policies to be implemented if the party running on them takes charge.
But the issues Democrats are likely to include - health care and lowering costs - are hardly novel, and they've run on them before. Those involved in crafting the 2026 agenda say the problem, however, has been in how they've previously communicated and that they've also avoided issues - like crime and immigration - that splinter their party.
The list of principles currently don't contain any stances on crime and immigration, either. The agenda is not final and will change, Democrats say.
"It's imperative that immigration becomes one of the pillars of Democrats' policy priorities going into the next Congress ... we cannot shy away from this issue," said Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-New Mexico), who recently put together a proposal on immigration.
Republicans aren't especially concerned about a Democratic agenda, believing they have the edge on policies like crime and border security that helped them win in 2024. But they are worried that without Trump on the ballot, voters may not turn out for the party. They are hoping passage of their tax-and-immigration bill could help motivate their base - but that's not a sure bet.
"Democrats think they can slap a new label on the same rotten product and fool voters," said Mike Marinella, a spokesman for the House GOP's campaign arm. "No rebranded ‘policy agenda' can cover up the train wreck that is the Democrat Party."
Besides winning over swing voters, Democrats recognize they need to regain trust with their base - including an effort by Jeffries to travel to local communities and talk directly with their leaders. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nevada), who represents a part of Las Vegas, encouraged Jeffries to hold listening sessions in swing states after hearing such concerns from members.
"We have to lead towards the change that our constituents want. And to be clear, that doesn't mean the status quo before Donald Trump," he said. "We have to be honest. There are places where Democrats have fallen short, and we need to be able to say that, too."
Jeffries said members will hold multiple conversations to shape "precise aspects of the legislative agenda" based on what they heard in their districts now that lawmakers are back in Washington.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Michigan) - who chairs the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee - said one word she heard frequently in August from constituents was "security," meaning Americans do not "want to be worried every minute" about an unstable or unpredictable future. She said it could become a part of Democrats' final agenda.
Democrats were not surprised by an August memo released by the center-left think tank Third Way that suggested striking the use of words from Democratic lingo that "no ordinary person would ever dream of saying" for electoral success. The terms Third Way pinpointed include "privilege," "cultural appropriation" and "the unhoused." Dingell's organization has encouraged Democrats worried about offending others when speaking publicly to "just be yourself. Don't measure every word," she said in an interview.
• Democrats face significant headwinds
House Democrats largely outran Vice President Kamala Harris to shrink Republicans' already narrow hold on their majority in 2024, but not enough to give Jeffries the speaker's gavel. In 2026, Democrats should be in a better position to win the three seats needed to secure the majority, given that the party out of power historically gains seats in the midterms.
During his first term in 2018, Trump oversaw the largest House seat flip since 1994 as Democrats, powered by angry voters, gained a whopping 41 seats in the House and recaptured the majority. Jeffries said that even if everything went Republicans' way in 2026 "in terms of their corrupt scheme to gerrymander," referencing a Trump-led effort to gain additional House seats via redistricting, "they cannot mathematically stop us from being able to take back the House."
But repeating that success in 2026 is far from guaranteed.
Democrats' approval ratings have never been lower, they face a voter registration lag for the first time in decades and lawmakers are ringing the alarm that voters don't know what the party stands for.
Recent polling shows the size of the hole Democrats must dig themselves out of. Surveys conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Gallup in July showed that despite voters disapproving of Trump's handling of numerous issues, they still trust House Republicans on those issues more than Democrats.
Yet an August Economist/YouGov poll found that if congressional elections were held today, 41 percent of respondents, including 16 percent of independents, would support Democrats while 33 percent would vote Republican.
"At the end of the day, that's the most important thing that matters: Who do the American people want to see holding the gavels?" Jeffries said. He acknowledged "that the overall Democratic brand remains challenging," which is "to be expected in the aftermath of a very disappointing loss in November of last year."
Complicating matters is the Trump administration's aggressive bid to redraw congressional maps in Republicans' favor, which could make it impossible for Democrats to catch up. After adding as many as five new seats in Texas, the administration is pushing Missouri and Indiana to follow suit. Democrats responded in California and are expected to counter in Maryland.
Suozzi echoed several House Democrats in saying the redistricting push threatens to bump up against history. And Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas), who warned early this year about a possible redistricting battle, said it was "naive" to assume Democrats can recapture the majority given the current climate.
"Nothing matters at all ... if you are not prepared to fight the way [Trump] is fighting and if you are not prepared to engage the way he is engaging, then this is not your fight," Veasey said. "If we don't play in that game, we are going to be in big trouble as Democrats."
• Crafting an agenda
House Democratic leaders shared a loose set of principles with members at the start of the recess including three pillars: affordability, health care and rooting out government corruption. Their message to voters: "You deserve better" than Trump and House Republicans.
In a caucus call at the start of the recess, Jeffries and Dingell asked lawmakers to stress bringing down the cost of housing, groceries, child care, prescription drugs and other essentials, while also pushing to restore Medicaid funding and nutritional assistance for families, which were cut in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Several advisers to Jeffries said tackling government corruption was a personal priority for the leader, with Dingell noting Jeffries "feels very strongly that we have to be willing to show we'll fix the system."
Jeffries has asked Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-New York), the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee, to propose reforms to government functions that go beyond what Democrats have already endorsed, including a stock trade ban for congressional lawmakers and limiting dark money in elections.
Molly Murphy, a Democratic pollster who also advised President Joe Biden's 2024 campaign and now works with House Democrats, stressed that credibility can be earned with voters who still very much believe Washington is "looking out for everyone except for them."
"It's a huge opportunity for Democrats to show that they are the party who is willing to take on the broken system and make changes," she said. "It's a big driver of trust."
In Nevada, Jeffries listened as Brian Knudsen, a Las Vegas council member, said he's heard constituents wishing the federal government could finally provide stability on multiple fronts.
Astrid Silva, an immigration activist who founded Dream Big Nevada, an organization that helps immigrant families, commended Jeffries for his eight-hour speech on the House floor in July condemning the passage of Trump's legislative agenda. But she bluntly told him "real humans don't watch that" because they are busy with their lives.
"If we are not communicating with them, we are not connecting with them," she said, as Jeffries nodded in her direction.
(COMMENT, BELOW)