Moderate House Democrats are warning they're prepared for "war" if incoming progressives and democratic socialists try to hijack the House floor to secure ideological concessions.
Why it matters: This strategy would mean even more work for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to tamp down divisions and keep his caucus unified come 2027.
- Despite being generally more closely aligned with Jeffries than the progressive wing, these centrists say they cannot allow their party to be dragged to the left without a fight.
- "Clearly there has to be organization," one centrist House Democrat told Axios. "You can't just wring your hands on this stuff."
- "There's going to be a war," a second centrist lawmaker said, calling the incoming leftist members "bomb-throwers, not problem solvers."
State of play: The New York congressional primaries on Tuesday were a wake-up call for many Democrats on Capitol Hill.
- DSA members Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez both won hotly competitive primaries, and progressive Brad Lander ousted Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.).
- The trio joins over half a dozen other left-wing candidates who have won primaries this year and another half-dozen vying to unseat more moderate Democratic incumbents.
- Add that to the current "Squad" members in the House and their allies, and you start to get Congress' most sizable left-wing bloc in the 21st century.
Between the lines: There is a good chance these lawmakers, moving en bloc, would be able to kill party-line votes to get their demands met.
- Mid-decade redistricting has reduced the historically small number of battleground House seats, meaning any Democratic majority in 2027 would likely be small.
- The right-wing House Freedom Caucus has used this strategy repeatedly over the last few years, taking advantage of slim GOP majorities to try to get concessions from leadership.
What they're saying: "What you're seeing in these elections across the country is voters who are saying, 'I am sick and tired of your loyalty to the establishment,'" progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) said in an interview.
- Ramirez said the Congressional Progressive Caucus has a "responsibility ... to be the strongest voter bloc to take a stand, not for the establishment, but for working people who send us to fight like hell for them."
- "This is why it's important to get many real progressives in there. ... We have some real fighters that will stand up for what's right," said Adam Hamawy, the Democratic nominee in a safely blue House seat in New Jersey.
What we're hearing: Moderate Democrats say they are prepared to use their own large numbers to enact the same strategy.
- Said the second centrist House Democrat who spoke to Axios anonymously: "If we have a tight enough majority, you're going to see a group of moderates do exactly the same thing: 'We won't vote for X unless we get Y.'"
- A senior House Democrat, asked about the possibility of the left moving collectively to force concessions, similarly said "you'll see Blue Dogs" do the same — referring to the centrist Blue Dog Coalition.
The intrigue: Some Democratic centrists are also floating breaking a potential logjam by doing what their moderate GOP counterparts have done repeatedly under Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — signing onto discharge petitions.
- "The margins may force bipartisanship — you already see what's happening on the floor with discharge petitions," a third Democratic centrist told Axios.
- The lawmaker argued that, rather than fight this strategy, leadership should go along with it: "Negotiating with these guys [on the left] never works out well because they'll never be satisfied."
The bottom line: "At the end of the day, Hakeem's got to realize what his real base is," the third centrist lawmaker said.
- "The people who are going to be with him, not the people who are going to go after him."
