Partisanship Has Worked for Democrats Before. It Can Again.
Starting on January 20, congressional Democrats must be ready to fight Republicans with hammer and tongs.
In late December, a budget battle offered a template for Democrats to act with some partisan spine. Democrats saw the way that partisan unity can cause immense problems for President-elect Trump. After the dynamic duo of Trump and Elon Musk attempted to subvert the bipartisan budget deal that would keep the federal government afloat until March, House Democrats refused to agree to Trump’s alternative, which included a temporary extension of the debt ceiling (conveniently set to expire when his term ended). Even as some Democrats nervously spoke about making concessions to avoid political and financial disaster, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries stood firm. Chants of “Hell no!” were heard from the room where they caucused. By the end of the next day, GOP Speaker Mike Johnson pushed forward a version of the original legislation, without Trump’s support, opening the first major rift within the GOP. With Trump starting his second term, and Republicans feeling that Trumpism has been legitimated, this is not the time to focus on illusory bipartisanship and conciliatory centrism.
Instead, Democrats need to embrace the power of partisan polarization. Over the next two years, the party will have one shot to block the radical retrenchment of core government policies, the erosion of cherished American values, and the aggressive exercise of presidential power. They will need to use all the procedural and financial weapons available to keep their own members in line and to reward those who stand firm in their opposition all the while communicating a compelling message through new media to win back voters before 2026.
Ironically, Democrats can look to Republicans for some guidance. Through the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the GOP has never struggled with acknowledging the reality of our 50-50 nation and the virtues of partisanship. During the presidencies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, most Republican leaders focused on maintaining a united front against Obama and then in favor of Trump. Refusing to yield on key issues, Congress wielded procedures and rules to attack their opponents. Rather than running away from Tea Party and MAGA activists, the GOP worked with them to build a formidable partisan infrastructure that had deep roots in the electorate.
Democrats certainly don’t want to replicate the destructive, hyper-partisan style that has characterized the GOP. As a party that is committed to the continued role of government in American life and the imperative of governance, Democrats must rightly insist on maintaining guardrails that contain their own fiercest instincts. They don’t want to become a second party willing to send the nation into financial default simply to score partisan points; nor do they want to undermine the integrity of democratic institutions in the short-term pursuit of power.
But in the space between bipartisanship and hyper partisanship, there is a wide-ranging world of responsible partisanship within which congressional Democrats can operate as became clear in the recent struggle over government funding.
What are some of the partisan strategies Democrats they can deploy in the year ahead?
Most important will be for congressional Democrats to remain disciplined. Voting the party line and remaining on the same page will be essential if the House and Senate caucuses want to act as a coherent bloc, as they did with this battle over the continuing resolution, thereby forcing narrow Republican majorities into taking the difficult positions that Trump will push on them. Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer need to make clear that any member who decides to go rogue will lose support from the party. Jeffries and Schumer must work closely with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to leverage the purse strings as rewards for loyalty.
Given the stakes of the battle ahead, they must make clear to all Democrats that any serious dissension will come at a high cost. Democrats should work in unison to force issues onto the floor, such as proposals for additional federal investment in deindustrialized areas, to push Republicans into uncomfortable positions that will reveal the limitations of their populist agenda.
Priorities and timing will be essential. As Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel told Ezra Klein of The New York Times, “You’re going to have to look at the whole field . . . what puts them in the weakest position vis-à-vis the American people?” Each battle that Democrats take on, starting with nominations and moving on to legislation, must be evaluated with the broader perspective of trying to strengthen Democrats for the midterms. The party must concentrate its firepower on the fights where the odds for victory are highest and where the anticipated political payoff will be greatest. Other issues should be let go for the time being.
Sometimes that will mean supporting bipartisan bills. Trying to deflate the immigration issue that caused so many electoral problems in November, Senate Democrats recently kicked off the year by working with the GOP on the most controversial of all issues: immigration restriction. When the Senate voted on a procedural vote that moved forward the Laken Riley Act, which clamps down on undocumented immigration, 31 Democrats supported the measure. But decisions like these have to be weighed carefully with long-term partisan gains in mind, keeping front and center the goal of regaining power to step on the brakes of the Trumpian train. Some will see this as a misguided act in a moment of panic which will produce bad policy results and do little to ameliorate the political attacks from the GOP. When Democrats choose bipartisanship, there needs to be a good strategic rationale for doing so and it should be a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Confirmation hearings, legislative deliberations, and investigations will all create visible moments when Democrats can use their platform. Democrats must treat these as must-see broadcasts, using them to confront opposing views and frame debates in favorable ways. Most important will be to throw a spotlight on how extreme many Republican policy positions are while simultaneously exposing evidence of corruption and the abuse of power.
Democrats must also use legitimate procedural tools. While the Senate filibuster is not something that Democrats should champion over the long-term, as critics have rightly noted, as long as the procedure remains on the books, Senate Democrats should use the 60-vote super-majority requirement to make progress difficult for the GOP.
Finally, Democrats need to develop a coherent counter-narrative to combat Trump’s immigration-fueled explanation of why Americans are struggling. They can’t count on voters to find them as they spread their message. As they learned in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, the party needs to make up considerable lost ground by getting on outlets such as podcasting, nonprofit local news, and X-alternative social media.
Fortunately, there are precedents to show how responsible partisanship can be highly effective. Following the 2004 election, many Democrats felt deflated after the controversial President George W. Bush won reelection despite the revelation that Iraq had not possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction and that the administration had no plan for what to do once Saddam Hussein fell from power. Even revelations that the military had engaged in torture were not enough to dissuade many Americans from voting for the president’s reelection—as well as a Republican Congress. “We begin the new Congress with a sense of purpose and optimism,” boasted the Republican chairman of the House Rules Committee David Dreier. “It’s been a long time since Republicans have had this much power in Washington.”
Though despondent, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid did not give up. The stakes were too high. When Bush attempted to use his political capital to push legislation that would privatize Social Security, Democrats rallied. Rather than act from a position of fear, the party stood firm, refusing to engage in negotiations and publicly calling Bush’s proposal “immoral, unacceptable, and unsustainable.” The plan never moved forward. When Bush grossly mishandled the response to Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Pelosi and Reid refused to participate in Republican efforts to whitewash the failure and fought to increase support to residents of Louisiana and Mississippi so that they could begin the recovery. Democrats stayed away from contentious issues that would aggravate internal divisions or turn public attention away from the GOP.
Democrats focused on bread-and-butter concerns. They called for more federal money to go to education while proposing health care reforms to lower costs and increase access. While President Bush talked about being tough against terrorism, Democrats pushed for money that would go to first responders who were suffering physically as a result of their work after 9/11. In contrast to President Bush’s supply-side economic agenda, Democrats demanded a higher federal minimum wage. Since Pelosi kept her party united, Republicans struggled with holding their own factions together since they could not afford to lose any votes.
Democrats also zeroed in on corruption. They seized on the scandals around Majority Whip Tom DeLay and the investigations into lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Congressman Mark Foley to build an argument that the GOP was fundamentally corrupt.
Responsible partisanship paid off. In 2006—without threatening to throw the nation into default or spreading disinformation about the legitimacy of the democratic process—Democrats regained control of Congress, carving out the path that would result in Barack Obama’s historic election in 2008.
The 2026 midterm elections will be the first test to see if congressional Democrats can effectively wield partisanship to their benefit.
Now is the time for Democrats to turn to responsible partisanship to reclaim political power from Republican majorities and prevent the entrenchment of a rightward agenda that will be difficult to undo.