House Democrats aren’t looking forward to the chaos of the 119th Congress. But they see an upside.
Democratic lawmakers predicted that the division within the GOP, which was on full display during Friday’s speaker’s vote, will force Speaker Mike Johnson to turn to Democrats more in the future.
Republicans “are going to continue to have difficulties that emanate from philosophical differences within their ranks,” Rep. Al Green told NOTUS. “They’re not going to be easily dealt with. That means the ideal thing for them is going to be to do what they do often when they can’t get the votes for themselves, and that’s negotiate with Democrats.”
While Republicans struggled to firm up enough votes to reelect Johnson as speaker, Democrats emphasized their unity, standing one by one to cast their votes for Hakeem Jeffries. At one point, he led Johnson in votes.
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“The GOP Civil War is in full swing,” the Democratic leader posted on X at the time. “And it’s only Day 1.”
The entire situation gave some Democrats flashbacks to the Republican infighting that colored the 118th Congress.
“The 119th Congress picked up where the 118th left off,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz said.
Rep. Yvette Clarke told NOTUS that the day felt “like déjà vu.”
“This is going to be very difficult for him to govern under these circumstances, because if he’s required to have a majority or solely Republican votes in order to advance legislation, clearly he’s putting himself at a disadvantage,” she said.
Democrats said they expect the speaker will need their help just like he did in the past.
“The best predictor of future performance is past performance,” Rep. Nikema WIlliams told NOTUS. “We saw what happened in the last Congress, where Democrats repeatedly had to come in and bail out the majority party just so that we could keep our government open.”
“The only way things get done is with the majority of Democrats,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia told NOTUS. “We are here to govern.”
But that doesn’t mean rubber-stamping Johnson’s requests. Democrats said they expect more negotiations as must-pass bills come up.
“I hope that Johnson continues, on important issues, to understand the only way he can pass them to work with us,” Rep. Steny Hoyer said. “The only way he can work with us is to have a compromise and cooperation.”
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Tinashe Chingarande and Calen Razor are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.
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