How Dems are feeling down-ballot

Jul 26, 2024

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With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team

Rep. Suzan DelBene is pictured.

Inside Congress caught up with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) to talk about the down-ballot effect of having Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

DELBENE ON THE DOWN-BALLOT VIEW

Just a week ago, House Democrats were openly despairing about their chances to flip the House with President Joe Biden at the top of the ticket. Then Kamala Harris injected some new life into the party.

And that came in tangible metrics, too: Biden’s decision to step aside sparked a surge in fundraising, including giving House Democrats’ campaign arm its best 24-hour fundraising period of the entire cycle — nearly $1 million. Most House and Senate Democrats quickly lined up behind Harris.

Inside Congress caught up with Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) to talk about the down-ballot effect of having Harris at the top of the ticket.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity:

IC: How does Kamala Harris on the ballot change the calculation for other races?

DelBene: There's a lot of energy right now, just excitement across the country. … Clearly, the vice president is a strong voice, a strong voice to prosecute the case versus Donald Trump, but also to stand up for the issues that we know have been important throughout this cycle – in particular, abortion rights and reproductive freedom. She's got a strong voice.

IC: Should incumbents in tough House races avoid talking about Harris? What do you make of incumbents like Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) signaling they might not even vote for her?

DelBene: It's important that they are speaking for their communities, that they are talking to voters throughout their communities and addressing the issues that are there. That's always been true and continues to be true. One thing that is a stark contrast is we have folks who are independent thinkers fighting for their districts, and Republicans can't do anything without asking Donald Trump what to do first.

IC: Have you spoken to the vice president about winning back the House?

DelBene: I just spoke with her once right after the announcement. … It was a very positive conversation. … She just wanted to convey that she knows what's at stake this election and is very focused on making sure that she earned the support of folks across the country and was going to work hard to earn the nomination.

IC: Have you given any thought to Harris’ vice-presidential pick and who might be able to help you win down-ballot?

DelBene: She has a lot of great options and we have races everywhere. So I think just having a strong partner to make the case on how critical this election is, standing up for our rights and our freedoms and our democracy and building a strong future, having a partner — that will be really, really important. I know she knows that.

IC: Does Harris at the top of the ticket make her a more potent messenger on abortion?

DelBene: She has been an extremely strong voice across the country, talking about the Republicans’ desire to put in place a nationwide abortion ban and how critical it is that we stand up for reproductive freedom. That's very, very important. And, as you know, we've seen in special elections all throughout the cycle – from Ohio, Kansas, Virginia, Wisconsin, New York, in Alabama, a state legislative race right after their Supreme Court's IVF decision – we've had huge Democratic over-performance since November of 2022.

IC: Has the map changed?

DelBene: Our map is the same. We have 31 frontliners across the country, the folks running for reelection in purple districts. And now we have 27 red-to-blue candidates across the country, looking to keep or flip districts, I always say keep because we have a couple — like Katie Porter’s seat or Elissa Slotkin — where we have red-to-blue candidates, we’d like to keep those seats … we have races all over the country where [we see] great opportunities and huge enthusiasm.

— Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu

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GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Inside Congress, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Friday, July 26, where we’re keeping our fingers crossed for a break from the insane news cycle this weekend.

QUIET END FOR THE BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

We’ve already written about how House Republicans left Washington for the August recess this week with their spending priorities largely unfinished. Let’s look at another high-profile item on their list that’s still open: Their months-long impeachment effort against President Joe Biden.

And there’s little reason to think they’ll meaningfully pick it back up during the fall.

“I’d say we’re finished with that. It’s so late now and we’ve got legislation we’re trying to get passed,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a conservative member of the Oversight Committee, told us.

Two of the three leaders of the impeachment inquiry – Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) – also make it sound like the investigation is basically over.

Comer told us he’s been done for a while, both on the investigation and his part of the report. Meanwhile, Jordan said the work left on his end was “largely” focused on finishing the report on their findings — which he said would be released “soon.” (The inquiry has overshot initial estimates for when it would wrap by months.)

What comes next? Comer indicated that it was up to House GOP leadership if the inquiry report will be released, while Jordan suggested that it will be made public.

“I’ve never said we should impeach. I’ve said all along I think there’s a compelling case there but here we are now, what, 105 days before an election. It’s probably in the peoples’ hands now, but that doesn’t mean we don’t let the country know what we found out,” Jordan said.

But it seems unlikely that the House would do much more than that. They could still hold some sort of formal presentation to the conference, but that won’t change Republicans’ fundamental math problem: They’re dozens of votes short on impeachment.

"The reason that [former Speaker Kevin] McCarthy went to the impeachment inquiry phase was to try to have better standing in court to get documents, it didn't have anything to do with impeachment. … I never asked for impeachment inquiry status, but I didn’t object to it either,” Comer said, indicating he doesn’t plan to have hearings on impeachment.

There had been festering pressure among the conference’s right flank, including members of the Judiciary Committee, who wanted to see that panel hold hearings on impeachment articles. There’s still pressure from that faction to move forward, but it’s a lot softer than it was before.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is a member of both Oversight and Judiciary, told us that he still believed there was plenty of investigating to do on Biden, adding it doesn’t “go away just because you’re too old and feeble to run for office.” But he said there wasn’t a need to hold “hearings just for hearings’ sake” on impeachment articles.

It’s a quiet end to one of the House GOP’s most high-profile investigations, reflecting a long-held view among a swath of the conference that investigators never found clear evidence that Biden had committed a crime or an impeachable offense. And Republicans are now pivoting to focus more on Harris.

Still, Republicans are continuing with an investigation into Biden’s mental acuity. And as we’ve previously noted, some are betting their Biden family investigation becomes newly relevant in January if Trump wins.

— Jordain Carney

Pro Briefing: Kamala Harris and the World. What we expect on foreign policy and trade. Join POLITICO Pro for a deep-dive conversation with our specialist reporters about the vice president’s approach to foreign policy. Register Now.

HUDDLE HOTDISH

Maybe it’s time for a Capitol Hill fashion lesson. (Or maybe just let people live during recess.)

QUICK LINKS

Some House Republicans slam Vance as Trump’s VP pick: ‘The worst choice’ from The Hill’s Mychael Schnell

House Democrats’ hidden strength: challenger fundraising from Madison Fernandez And Jessica Piper

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TRANSITIONS

Laura Stevens Kent will be VP of federal affairs at DeBrunner & Associates. She most recently was SVP for advocacy and external affairs at the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, and is a Charlie Dent/Tuesday Group alum

MONDAY IN CONGRESS

The House is out.

The Senate is in session.

A message from the Small Business Payments Alliance:

MONDAY AROUND THE HILL

Zzz.

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TRIVIA

THURSDAY’S ANSWER: This was a freebie due to a human error on our end. In case you didn’t catch it though, it’s 1860, Abraham Lincoln.

TODAY’S QUESTION, from Brad Fitch: Which successfully elected president got the lowest percentage of support in the state in which he was born?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@politico.com.

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