House Democrats: 2016 will be all 'about the middle'
House Democrats will hammer home the message of âmiddle-class economicsâ in hopes of reviving their fortunes in 2016. After three months of griping that their partyâs midterm-election message was too complex and often too diluted, lawmakers who gathered here for a three-day Democratic retreat hope they have found the formula for reversing the losses they took in November. Story Continued Below Weâre âabsolutely unified on three essential messages going forward: Itâs middle class, middle class, middle class,â said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who had just surveyed 90 Democratic members about what they want to see in 2016. âEverybody agreed that it has to be about the middle.â Israel, the new chairman of the House Democratsâ messaging arm, said another problem in 2014 was that news on Ebola, Ukraine and Islamic militants knocked domestic concerns from votersâ minds. âWhen we focus on middle-class values, we win,â Israel said. The New York Democrat added that Democrats will fare better in 2016 now that President Barack Obama is standing up as âour messenger-in-chief.â The president repeatedly invoked the phrase âmiddle-class economicsâ during last weekâs State of the Union address. âHe is our messenger-in-chief â¦ and he needs to continue to be our messenger-in-chief,â Israel said. Obama used last weekâs nationwide address to outline an economic message with a more populist strategy that focused on job creation, raising the minimum wage and âpaycheck growthâ â the theme of the Democratsâ retreat. Of course, much of the Middle East remains in turmoil, and thereâs no way to keep unrest abroad from capturing the headlines again. But Israel argued that if Obama stays focused on the middle-class agenda, Democrats will be better positioned to punch through any international news. Itâs an optimistic goal â Democrats would need to sweep 30 seats to regain the majority. But Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Ben Ray LujÃ¡n, who outlined the partyâs political strategy during the retreat, argued that the GOP is overextended going into 2016. According to a source in the room, the New Mexico Democrat told members that the DCCC has identified 26 House districts that Obama won in 2012 that are now occupied by a GOP lawmaker, and another 23 where Obama got at least 48 percent of the vote. But Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the Democratic whip, expressed cautious optimism that the party would win back the House in 2016. âI think we can take back the House in 2016,â Hoyer said. âBut if you were betting a whole lot money, would I tell you to bet a whole lot of money that we can take back the House in 2016? I wouldnât.â In the survey results released Thursday, Democrats widely said they had lacked a unified message to cut through the noise of the midterms, in addition to failing to appeal to the middle class or capitalize on good news about the economy. The survey was designed to help Democratic leaders examine what went wrong during the midterms, in which the party ceded 13 seats to Republicans, sinking it further into the minority than Democrats had been in decades. Democrats hope that in 2016, demographics and the excitement of a potential Hillary Clinton presidential ticket will aid their chances. During a closed-door meeting Thursday, former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told lawmakers that during the midterm campaigns, âI listened to your policy discussion and my eyes glazed over.â âYou canât repeat them outside your rotary club,â Dean told the lawmakers. âKeep it simple. You donât win on policy. You win on values.â Other speakers said during the breakout sessions that Democrats need to focus on growth, not redistribution of wealth, when talking to voters. The results from the survey are not shocking. Members have been griping for weeks that the partyâs message, including the wider economic message from the White House, didnât reach middle-class voters during a busy election cycle headlined by an unpopular Obama. âThere is a sense, I believe, that many people in the middle class have that if youâre very rich the government will bail you out, and if youâre very poor that the government will help you out,â Israel said. In the survey, House Democrats highlighted five things that went wrong in 2014 with the partyâs message, including complaints that lawmakers âdidnât talk enough about the middle class, jobs and economic opportunities,â the message was âtoo narrow, need[ed] broader ideas and a vision for the future,â and the party didnât put enough emphasis on the âeconomic progress weâve made.â Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) argued that with the economy on the mend, Democrats will be better situated to hawk their middle-class plans to voters. He said the message got muddled in 2014 in large part because of Senate candidates who wanted to distance themselves from Obama. These candidates wanted to ârun their own state-based campaigns, trying to carve out their own message and in many cases distances themselves from the presidentâs economic record,â Van Hollen said. Obama, in a speech to the lawmakers Thursday night, is expected to expand on his State of the Union address to explain âhow we can invest in his vision for middle-class economics by making paychecks go further, creating good jobs here in the United States, and preparing hardworking Americans to earn higher wages,â according to a White House official. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a news conference Wednesday that Democrats will spend the next months outlining how the party would grow paychecks and create security for middle-class voters if they were in the majority. Already, lawmakers like Van Hollen are introducing legislation focused on the middle class. âItâs not that the Democrats didnât have a message, itâs that we had too many. The public didnât see the clarity and the focus of the message,â Pelosi said. âIt is going to be a presidential year, so we hope to put on the table what we see as the big contrast in the House of Representatives.â But the partyâs unity could be tested if White House policies bump up against the priorities of the more liberal House. Already this week, Obama was forced to retreat from a proposal to tax 529 college savings accounts after Pelosi and Van Hollen aggressively protested the effort. The House Democrats ultimately won out, and the proposal has been scrapped from the budget due out Monday. On Thursday, Van Hollen said the 529 proposal was a âbig distraction.â âNow that [Obama] has very clearly and unequivocally said itâs no longer part of the plan, itâs no longer part of the plan,â the Maryland Democrat said. âThe good news is the presidentâs plan did more to help college students, but the 529 proposal was a big distraction from that.â The Democrats are also embroiled in a debate over trade. In his State of the Union address, Obama asked Congress to give him broad authority to negotiate trade deals with foreign governments. But many House Democrats are uncomfortable with the environmental and labor standards likely to be included in a trade deal with Pacific countries. Democratic leaders in the House have stressed they are seeking a âpath to yesâ from the administration.