Good afternoon. Schumer’s 100-day plans; revenge of the freshmen; Secretary of Defense Dan Sullivan?; a boost for Southern members. Also, Senate bean soup.
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THE LATEST
We’re told Chuck Schumer has been pitching his caucus on a plan to take rapid-fire action on health care, affordability and other top issues from the midterm election. Huge, grab-all bills are out; he wants to put single, rifle-shot measures on the floor week-by-week and dare Republicans to filibuster or Donald Trump to veto.
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“He’ll have two choices: to sign it because it’ll be popular, and he’ll know it’s popular ... [or] if he vetoes it and constantly does what he did this year, what they did this year, obstruct, it’s going to make election night of 2026 look tame, and you know it’ll really make it much more likely we get the trifecta,” Schumer told The Sun’s Paul Kane this week.
Schumer’s strategy hinges on careful coordination with Hakeem Jeffries in the House, which will have to move first. And it requires peeling off at least four Republican votes, including some who are facing reelection in 2028. Which might those be? Well, Democrats just flipped seats in Kansas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Mississippi, so you can do the math.
And what happens if Schumer’s strategy fails and he can’t find enough Republican votes to overcome a filibuster? Democrats would turn quickly to reconciliation, and potentially multiple reconciliation bills, to move their agenda. With Scott Colom’s win in Mississippi and Alaska trending in Mary Peltola’s direction, Democrats will have a comfortable majority to do just that. One thing we’re sure of? All the Senate newbies are gonna love vote-a-rama.
Thom Tillis scoffed at Schumer’s plan to pressure Republican senators, warning it will backfire if Democrats go it alone and put partisan legislation on the floor.
“The best hope that we have to dull the edge of the 2028 election cycle is for them to continue to behave the way they sound like they have in the 10 days since the election. If they do that, we got a mandate,” Tillis told us.
“Politically, I think they’re at risk of doing exactly what we did the last two years,” he added.
FRESHMEN WANT CHANGE
House Democrats leading committees better watch out. The freshmen are coming for you.
Susie Lee’s proposal to impose term limits on committee leadership positions is quickly gaining support among the incoming Democratic lawmakers.
“It’s healthy to have turnover in these positions,” Dan Koh, who’s running to be Democratic freshman class co-president, told us. “It’s definitely something I’ve talked to members of the freshman class, and they certainly believe that.”
“We would be silly as a class to not use our leverage and our size,” Koh added.
Don Leonard concurred: “We’ve got an exciting new class of members with great ideas, and they shouldn’t have to become 10-term congressmen and women in order to potentially get a committee chair.”
“Nothing in our founding documents suggested that it takes 20 years in Congress in order to be able to figure out how to run a committee,” Leonard added. “Fundamentally, the Democratic brand is bankrupt right now, as is the Republican establishment brand. We need new ideas.”
Melat Kiros, who said she was supportive, felt somewhat competitive about it: “This is something the Republicans figured out a long time ago, and the fact that they’re outdoing us on this is unacceptable.”
TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL
Speaking of freshmen, we noticed that a couple of people missed their class photo this morning: Colin Allred, Hilda Solis, Leticia Gutierrez, Bobby Pulido and Anthony Constantino.
Maybe the best reason to miss it: Pulido is nominated for a Latin Grammy tonight. Wish him luck.
The House Administration Committee did not take attendance, so if there’s anyone we missed, email us.
THE NEXT FRONTIER
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, at least not yet. But if he left the Trump administration, and if Dan Sullivan loses reelection in Alaska, some senators think the retired Marine Corps Reserve colonel is, as the president likes to say, straight out of central casting and would make a good replacement.
“I sat on Armed Services with him. He knows the department well. Honestly, Hegseth couldn’t carry his bag,” Hegseth hater Tillis told us. And Sullivan might be able to win some Democratic support: Mark Kelly called him qualified.
Another thing Sullivan may have going for him? He’s not a “beardo” nor a “weirdo.” Whew.
Asked if anyone had talked to him about the job, Sullivan did not say no.
“I’m 100% focused on winning my election, which I plan on doing,” he told The Sun’s Joe Gould.
NRCC IS CHANGING, CAN DCCC?
The new NRCC chair, Brian Jack, is reportedly in favor of getting involved in primaries to protect GOP incumbents. A source familiar with the matter told us: “Jack has offered to be helpful to members in building out reelection plans — from their primaries to their generals — but to what extent NRCC resources will be deployed remains to be determined.”
Now the question is whether the DCCC would do something similar, particularly with nine of their incumbents losing their primaries this cycle.
“DCCC’s goal has to be protecting the majority,” Brad Schneider, who is among the names floated to lead the Democrats’ campaign arm, told us. “The primary battles on the fringes, whether it’s Republican on Republican, Democrat on Democrat, doesn’t change the formula.”
The job of protecting incumbent Democrats from Democratic challengers should fall on the caucuses instead, Schneider added, explaining how the New Democrat Coalition’s political arm “aggressively and actively protects incumbents.”
Greg Stanton, another name floated, was noncommittal, saying it was up to Jeffries and whoever will be DCCC chair. “Protection of our frontline is going to be critical in this election,” he said.
Meanwhile, Steven Horsford did not want to make any news right now: “I don’t want to comment on DCCC operations, as you may know, I’m under consideration for the role.”
“But come back to me if it happens,” he added with a laugh.
A SOUTHERN SURPRISE
House Democrats from the South gained way more power than they expected, and the change will likely be reflected in leadership positions.
Let’s break it down: Democrats currently separate the 50 states and the territories into 12 regions. Internally, the regions are critical to how Democrats wield power and move up into more influential posts. Each region elects a member to the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which decides committee assignments.
Currently, most Southern states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) are paired with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
But Steering members announced in a letter, viewed by The Sun’s Kadia Goba, that in the 120th Congress, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are no longer paired with the Southern states, a sign that many more House Democrats are representing districts in the South. It’s a surprise silver lining for a group that thought they were going to lose members this election.
The two territories are now paired with New York, home to large populations from these communities.
PROXY VOTING IS BACK?
Jeffries indicated today that he would support a rule change to allow proxy voting for “expectant mothers and new parents,” reversing Mike Johnson’s staunch opposition to the practice, The Sun’s Chase Pellegrini de Paur reports.
Anna Paulina Luna led a bipartisan push last year to allow parents to vote remotely for 12 weeks after birth but ultimately struck a deal with Johnson to allow for “vote pairing” instead.
Next question for Jeffries: Sneakers in the Speaker’s Lobby?
MAKING HISTORY
When the new Congress is sworn in, the Senate will boast seven Black senators. To underscore how unusual (and extremely overdue) this is, there have only ever been 14 elected or appointed Black senators in U.S. history.
It wasn’t until 2013 (with Cory Booker and Tim Scott) that more than one Black senator served together.
STEVENS WATCH
We spotted Haley Stevens today hanging out on the Republican side of the House chamber, chatting it up with James Gallagher and then getting a hug from a staffer. The Sun’s Reese Gorman reports she was again seen in the Republican cloakroom during Wednesday night’s votes.
SOUP OF THE DAY
Senate bean soup.
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