What will Democrats do with their power?

By Carolina Lumetta 
Real Clear Wire

In the past week, President Trump has reopened the Lincoln Reflecting Pool, which he shut down last year for repairs, put his signature on a ceremonial steel beam raised in his new ballroom, and authored a proclamation to designate the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room as national monuments. The builder-in-chief said it would protect the walls from future presidents hoping to come in with a demolition crane.

“It’ll make it impossible for anybody to ever destroy this incredible space,” Trump said, as construction machines could be heard in the background working on the former site of the East Wing to construct the ballroom. “We certainly had some good years so far, six years. And I just thought it was very important that nobody be allowed to come in and take it down.”

The president may be focused on renovations and new construction, but Democrats are already measuring for curtains on Capitol Hill. The political renovations from the midterm elections will officially hit in January, but the groundwork starts now for not only the Democratic agenda but also the White House’s to-do list.

“We’re going to do a lot of things,” Trump said when asked how he would use executive orders over the next two years. “You’ll be seeing a lot of things over the next week, two weeks. We have a lot of things cooking, doing very well.”

The scope of the blue wave grows more astonishing as more data becomes clear. In Iowa, for instance, a Democratic candidate for state House who had suspended his campaign due to health reasons was still elected over his Republican opponent, in a district Trump won by 20 points in 2024. In North Carolina, former Gov. Roy Cooper won his race for the Senate even before Election Day. More voters selected him in early voting (just over 1.7 million) than the entirety of Republican candidate Michael Whatley’s supporters (1.6 million). In Texas, every single county moved in the Democrats’ direction.

Hakeem Jeffries, the presumptive House speaker in the 120th Congress, will enjoy not only a majority but also a wide berth with at least 250 members in his caucus. Although Jeffries will oversee a comfortable margin, he will also oversee a vast caucus with opposing viewpoints.

Of the incoming freshmen members, five are members of the Democratic Socialists of America. In an era of intense polarization, Jeffries will have his work cut out to define the party’s agenda and strategy and then to get everyone on board.

“I think the Democrat Party made a horrible decision, going further away from the center,” former North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler told RealClearPolitics. The Blue Dog Democrat was first elected in 2006 and ousted in 2012 when his district was redrawn to favor Republicans. “The party that will get back to the middle will be able to win back better.”

Shuler’s politics didn’t fit in perfectly with the Democratic Party when he was in Washington. Shuler was a pro-life Democrat and opposed same-sex marriage. Since his time in Congress, Shuler said the Democrats have grown too used to narrowing the tent. Now that it’s a larger one, they’ll need to re-learn how to work toward the center.

“The Democrats have to figure out that they didn’t get voted in because they had the best policies of the election,” Shuler cautioned. “They got voted in because they were the better of two evils. It was more of an anti-vote.”

Some Democrats disagree. At an event with the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said voters gave his party an affirmative mandate to pursue anti-corruption measures, among other priorities including universal medical care.

“If people didn’t like what the Democrats were offering, they could have just stayed home,” said Raskin, a former impeachment manager against Trump – and the member in line to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “I think a lot of people like what the Democrats have been doing recently, which is standing up for democracy and freedom, the rule of law, and the idea that the government’s got to be an instrument for the common good and not an instrument for the private, self-enrichment of the president and his family and his friends.”

If Democrats do have a broad mandate, the question remains how they intend to pursue it. Voters said they were frustrated with the Iran war, but what to do about it is more complicated. Democrats also face the task of figuring out how to block executive initiatives ranging from Trump’s tariffs to the administration’s deportation policies. But they must also tread carefully with an eye toward 2028 when the pendulum could swing back for Republicans.

“If anyone knows how to screw up a lead, it’s Democrats,” political strategist and Principles First executive director Brittany Martinez told RCP. “I don’t know that Americans want to go through another impeachment proceeding. Even when Republicans tried it, it turned into a conflict in the House. I don’t know that anyone wins.”

Already, congressional Democrats seem divided over how to handle subpoenas, investigations, and potential impeachment. On Election Night, several House members posted social media messages warning every Cabinet secretary to “lawyer up,” while Jeffries and Sen.-Elect James Talarico of Texas were saying publicly that the American people did not elect them to seek revenge. Strategists say finding the right balance could be a key element in keeping the midterm voters happy, but that Democrats must prioritize the main issue they ran on – affordability – as well. Democratic strategist Jenifer Fernandez Ancona told RCP she sees the party wins as ushering in a new era of “inclusive, economic populism.” For that, she urged the next Congress to focus on corporate accountability and addressing the economic system.

“I don’t think we have to be cautious about how hard we go after the corruption,” Fernandez Ancona said. “But I think we have to be cautious if the story is that all we did was go after Trump and the Republicans and it looks really partisan.”

“My top investigative targets are corruption, authoritarianism, violence by the government,” Raskin said when asked about his priorities. But he held the rest of his cards closer to his chest.

“I’m not telling you my top priority,” Raskin pushed back. “It’s three months away … that’s probably 10 scandals from now.”

When pressed by moderator and CNN reporter Manu Raju, Raskin confirmed that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, Middle East envoy, and businessman with contracts in the Middle East, is on his target list, along with Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Other areas of the administration are gearing up. War Secretary Pete Hegseth posted a five-minute video to X on Thursday, insisting that he will continue to push the president’s agenda – even in the face of impeachment threats against him.

“We need every vote from every patriotic member of Congress,” Hegseth said. He ran through a list of department wins, particularly in kicking out diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities from the previous administration. “You see, they attack me, they attack us because we’re effective. It’s not going to work. We’re not going to back down. We put America and the warfighter first, always and without apology. And that fight continues in the lame duck Congress, especially our historic and vitally important budget.”

Carolina Lumetta is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics. Follow her on X @CarolinaLumetta.