Good afternoon. Chris Van Hollen wasn’t always a progressive “it” guy; House Dems don’t think Jeffries has anything to worry about; senators-elect want windows. Plus: A Latin Grammy winner in the House. Also, Senate bean soup.
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Chris Van Hollen didn’t start out as the progressive “it” guy leading a shake-up of the Democratic Party. But he’s seizing his moment to position himself as a change agent, The Sun’s Paul Kane writes in.
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Recall that Van Hollen, who has been in Congress since 2003, was hit by his primary opponent Donna Edwards for being too much of an insider — quick to compromise and a regular supporter of trade deals. Edwards came up well short to Van Hollen in the 2016 primary to succeed liberal icon Barbara Mikulski. Van Hollen deflected her criticism by talking about how he worked the D.C. game to advance liberal causes while accusing Edwards of being a more performative legislator.
And what was Van Hollen’s first big job in the Senate? Joining Chuck Schumer’s leadership team as chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, following his two terms chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2008 and 2010 at the request of Nancy Pelosi.
Let’s be clear: Van Hollen — who announced a progressive challenge to Schumer’s bid to return as majority leader last night — was never a moderate.
His ideological demeanor might best be described as reliably liberal but nonconfrontational. In the 117th Congress, for example, Van Hollen was tied for the 13th most liberal Democrat, in the same spot as Sheldon Whitehouse and Kirsten Gillibrand but nowhere near as liberal as Ed Markey.
That image has changed a good deal in recent years. He’s emerged as one of the leading critics of the war in Gaza and Benjamin Netanyahu and was one of the most high-profile members to visit with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration, in El Salvador.
Until this week, all these emerging progressive credentials had led Van Hollen to start, in his own words, “kicking the tires” on a long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination in 2028.
Now he says he’s focused entirely on his Senate leadership bid and “no longer pursuing” a presidential run.
“I believe the size and scale of these majorities provides an opportunity for the United States Senate to answer the call with the American people,” he said Friday at the “What’s Next” conference in Denver, otherwise known as Demchella.
WILL JEFFRIES GET A CHALLENGE, TOO?
For once, Democrats are in disarray in the Senate and not in the House. The House lovers among us say: Huzzah.
With the House Democratic leadership elections next week, some members don’t think that Van Hollen’s challenge will inspire any House Democrats to run against Hakeem Jeffries for speaker.
“He’s been way too good, raised way too much money and the win was way too big for anyone to complain about, much less run against him,” Glenn Ivey told us.
“I don’t think Hakeem is as at risk of a challenge as Schumer,” Susie Lee texted us. “It just frustrates the hell out of me. Hakeem led a unified caucus for two years … led a legal strategy where we defeated many of Trump’s illegal actions; kept our caucus together with strong message discipline; and most importantly, delivered a generational change majority.”
“Now, you get these outside groups whipping up activists against him. It’s absolutely bonkers,” Lee added.
Gil Cisneros concurred: “I don’t see anyone challenging Jeffries. He led us to our biggest victory since Watergate and he deserves to lead us as our Speaker. The caucus is behind him and all this noise is coming from outside groups.”
There are still some incoming freshmen who are not committing to backing Jeffries as speaker. And the Democratic base has been pressuring lawmakers to not support him: There’s even currently a Change.org petition with nearly 90,000 signatures calling on lawmakers to support Ayanna Pressley for speaker of the House.
A spokesperson for Pressley said she is “in active conversations with Leader Jeffries about how to leverage this majority, meet the moment, and deliver for the people. She is aware of and appreciates the groundswell of support from people in her district and across the country lifting up her leadership.”
So, Jeffries seems safe … for now.
SENATORS LOVE THE SUN
Newly elected senators have been posting photos of themselves cheesin’ in front of their temporary subterranean offices while they wait for nicer permanent suites to open up.
Adam Hamilton, the senator-elect from Kansas, isn’t minding the “Backrooms” vibes from his office. Except for one thing.
“I don’t really care that much. But I do want windows,” he told us.
LOCK IN
Senate Republicans are feeling the heat to confirm as many of Donald Trump’s executive nominations before the lame-duck clock runs out.
The plan is to get as many hearings and committee votes as possible on the books to grant Trump what could be his last large batch of confirmed officials before Democrats take over in January and the party stops, The Sun’s Avani Kalra and Hunter Riggall report. There are currently about 160 civilian, nonjudicial nominations gathering dust. Of those, only 30 have been reported to the floor so far.
“We’ll get them out and then up to the floor into the tranche,” Shelley Moore Capito said. “I think that’s what a lot of other people are trying to do.”
GRAMMY-WINNIN’ CONGRESSMAN-ELECT
Bobby Pulido missed the House freshman class photo yesterday to attend the Latin Grammy Award ceremony in Las Vegas.
If paid off: The congressman-elect won the Latin Grammy for best Tejano album, a little over a week after he defeated Monica De La Cruz.
“I’m retiring from music, and I leave filled with gratitude,” Pulido said in his acceptance speech in Spanish. “We have to get to work to use our voice for something else.”
But we want to correct the record for the award hosts, one of whom was heard on the mic saying, “He won the Senate and he won the Grammy.” He won a seat in the House, a far better chamber. (Oriana wrote this; Igor does not endorse the message.)
LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Senate Republicans appear more open to compromise on passing a farm bill before Democrats take control of Congress in January, signaling a willingness to give Democrats a two-year delay on cuts to federal food aid.“Everything is on the table,” John Boozman told The Sun’s Tyler Spence. “Hopefully we can come to an agreement that everyone can live with.”
HALL MONITOR
Jodey Arrington appears to be the latest member of Congress to violate the federal disclosure requirements, The Sun’s resident STOCK hawk Dave Levinthal reports. Records indicate Arrington disclosed selling up to $50,000 worth of a fund holding oil leases more than a year past a federal deadline. Arrington’s office did not respond to phone and email messages.
SOUP OF THE DAY
Senate bean soup.
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