As Trump steamrolls Washington, Democrats search for a strategy – and a voice
They knew it would be bad. And yet somehow, the first month of President Donald Trump’s second administration has exceeded many Democrats’ worst expectations.
Mr. Trump is signing executive orders at a head-spinning clip – banning diversity initiatives, attempting to end birthright citizenship, and more. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is taking a wrecking ball to the federal bureaucracy, freezing funding and culling the workforce. Republicans in Congress are swiftly confirming even Mr. Trump’s most controversial Cabinet nominees.
In the face of the onslaught, Democratic officials have been trying to do something – anything – to throw sand in the gears and gin up party enthusiasm ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Why We Wrote This
Shut out of power in Washington, the Democratic Party is struggling to find a comprehensive message. The biggest challenge may be getting voters’ attention.
So far, it’s been rough going.
Without control of either the House or the Senate, Democrats by their own admission are largely powerless in Washington. Congressional leaders have been organizing protests outside endangered agencies, only to be met with chants of “Do your job!” Last week, more than two dozen lawmakers pulled an all-nighter on the Senate floor to try to block Mr. Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget – and then watched that nominee, Russell Vought, get confirmed the next evening.
At a telephone town hall Wednesday updating his constituents on the party’s “efforts to fight back,” Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said a top priority will be to protect Medicaid. An amendment he’d introduced earlier in the day to do just that, however, had already failed along party lines.
“We’re the minority party. We don’t have the power to pass legislation. We don’t have the power alone to block nominees,” says Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, in an interview. Senator Murphy, who took the 2 a.m. shift during last week’s all-nighter, has taken to relentlessly posting on social media, launching daily broadsides against the Trump administration’s actions. “There was an election and we lost. There are consequences that come with that.”
The only real victories being notched by the “resistance” right now are coming from activist groups and the states – with Democratic attorneys general and organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union bringing lawsuits. So far, judges have paused a number of the administration’s actions, as cases move through the courts. Congressional Democrats may finally gain a bit of leverage next month, when Republican leaders will likely need their votes in their efforts to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government before a March 14 deadline.
Right now, though, Democrats are finding it a challenge not just to respond – but even to be heard, as Mr. Trump’s daily barrage of actions and “what-did-he-just-say” pronouncements suck up all the oxygen. With the president putting forward different measures seemingly designed to outrage different segments of the Democratic base on any given day, the party is struggling to elevate a single message that can cut through all the noise.
“We have to be strategic about what we fight, even if we hate all of it,” says Rodell Mollineau, a Democratic strategist. “If we as a party attack everything the president does, it’s going to fall on deaf ears. We need to pick one or two positions that we have credibility on, and we need to drive that narrative.”
Democrats need “more discipline”
Senator Murphy, for one, says he doesn’t believe “it was coincidental” that Mr. Trump made a shocking statement about wanting to take over Gaza just as Democrats felt they were gaining traction with their attacks on DOGE and with what was happening to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The statement effectively changed the conversation on a dime.
“The leader of the Republican Party spent years as a reality TV star,” agrees Mr. Mollineau. “Holding the viewers’ attention and manipulating the media is something that the president does well.”
Democrats need to be more disciplined, says Pat Dennis, president of the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century. Instead of allowing Mr. Trump to perpetually keep them on their heels with what former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has called a “flood the zone” strategy – making the speed of news so fast that Democrats can’t address it all and voters disengage – Mr. Dennis says Democrats need to keep it simple. Focus on three issues, he says: health care, the economy, and public safety.
In the meantime, Mr. Dennis says groups like his will be focused on making sure moderate Republican lawmakers who side with Mr. Trump – like Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina – “pay a price” in next year’s midterm elections.
Options before the midterm elections
Political history would suggest that Democrats have a reasonable shot at gaining back some ground in elections later this year and next. After Mr. Trump’s first victory in 2016, Democrats gained 40 seats and took back the majority in the House of Representatives in 2018.
But that chance at redemption is still nearly two years away. And in the meantime, their options for fighting back are limited.
“We’re going to try to stop some of their agenda. We’re not just punting to the elections,” says Mr. Murphy. “Obviously I don’t think we should make Republicans’ life easy inside the Senate.”
In some cases, a strong pressure campaign alone can influence the course of legislation. Mr. Murphy and other Democrats point to 2017, when the party raised “such a public outroar” about Republicans’ attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act that the effort ultimately failed.
Only barely, however. The repeal passed the Republican-controlled House but went down in the Senate by one vote, after the late GOP Sen. John McCain voted against it. Independent-minded Republicans like Senator McCain have mostly been rooted out of the party since then.
“The base doesn’t want to hear this, but this is not 2017,” says Mr. Mollineau. “There are not as many Republicans willing to stand in his way. Trump didn’t understand how this town worked.”
Indeed, this time around Mr. Trump appears far more emboldened by what he calls a mandate from the American people. He won the popular vote in 2024, unlike in 2016, and is beginning his second term with higher approval ratings than he had during his first term.
Democrats, meanwhile, are looking at the highest unfavorable ratings for their party since Quinnipiac University began polling in 2008.
Turning to Democratic leaders in the states
To Ben Wikler, the Wisconsin Democratic Party chair who recently lost a bid to become the next Democratic National Committee chair, Democrats need both a better message and a better mechanism for delivering it.
“The problem is (a) when Democrats talk, no one can hear, and (b) when they can hear, Democrats are selling the ingredients and not the brownies,” he says.
He and other strategists argue that Democratic leaders at the state level have an increasingly important role to play. Mr. Wikler points to his own state, where Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul joined 22 other states in a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s freezing of federal grants and loans. This week, a judge responded by issuing a temporary restraining order.
Democratic governors also need to keep putting forward a positive vision, Mr. Wikler adds, showing voters with concrete actions what the party stands for, even as they keep up the pressure on the Trump administration. Governor Evers, for example, recently released a proposal to provide free breakfast and lunch for all students.
“This is a moment when state-level Democratic leaders have an extraordinary responsibility, and opportunity, to demonstrate an ultimate vision,” says Mr. Wikler. “Demonstrate what Democrats can do when they are entrusted with the keys.”
