Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arrives to speak on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images)
Democratic members of Congress took the stage throughout the third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, urging voters to give the party control of the House during the November elections.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries were among the lawmakers who drew a stark contrast between the types of policies they’d pursue and those of the GOP.
“The parable of January 6 reminds us that our democracy is only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with its care,” Pelosi said. “And we must choose leaders who believe in free and fair elections, who respect the peaceful transfer of power.”
Pelosi called on voters to reject the types of ideologies and violence that led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol more than three years ago as lawmakers tried to certify the Electoral College vote for President Joe Biden.
Pelosi recalled that after federal law enforcement officers cleared the building and lawmakers returned, they were able to complete their task.
“In this election, we are called upon to do the same; to stand together, to reject autocracy, to choose democracy,” Pelosi said.
“And we will do so by electing a Democratic House with Hakeem Jeffries as speaker of the House,” she added. “Electing a Democratic Senate. Electing Tim Walz as vice president of the United States. And electing Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”
Jeffries said that in the United States, when someone works hard and plays by the rules, they “deserve to earn a living wage.”
“You deserve to have an affordable place to call home. You deserve to educate your children in a great public school that is free from gun violence. And you deserve high quality, affordable health care, and you deserve the chance to one day retire with grace and with dignity,” Jeffries said.
“But for far too many people in our great country, they are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck, and as a result, the American Dream is out of reach,” he added.
Democrats in control of the House, Senate and White House, he said, would look for ways to “fix our broken immigration system and secure the border,” “strengthen the relationship between the police and the community” and “continue to combat the climate crisis with the fierce urgency of now.”
Slender GOP majority
Republicans hold an especially thin majority in the House and are hoping to grow those ranks during the next Congress. But Democrats, who hold 212 seats, only need to get a net gain of four members to become the majority.
Experts closely tracking the 435 House races say the election could go either way.
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter rates 22 seats as toss-ups, while Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics categorizes 19 races as winnable by either the Democrat or the Republican.
The Democratic lawmakers speaking Wednesday night at the DNC said a blue Congress would lead to votes on reproductive rights, an expanded child tax credit and investments in the middle class.
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz urged voters not to let the rest of the country follow the path her home state has taken under the tenure of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Today in Florida, state policy requires that kids are taught racist lies about so-called benefits of slavery, books are banned, teachers are censored, and our LGBTQ+ community endures endless state-sponsored hate,” she said. “Today in Florida, as we grapple with record heat and rising seas, extreme MAGA Republicans deleted mentions of climate change from state law. Today in Florida, a near-total abortion ban endangers women’s health and their lives.”
Earlier in the day Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins released a joint statement expressing dismay that a book about women in the United States Senate had been thrown out of a Florida school library.
“We were stunned to discover that the state of Florida chose to discard Nine and Counting from its collection of books at New College — this is a book we penned together with our Senate colleagues to tell our stories as women senators, at a time when there were far fewer of us, to help inspire the next generation of women to pursue public service,” Murray and Collins said in the statement.
The act of banning books, they said, goes “against our constitutional values and the idea that our universities should be places where the freedom of speech is allowed to flourish and perspectives of all kinds are heard.”
Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and a U.S. representative from the state of Washington, said during the DNC that giving the party control of the House could head off unfounded challenges to Congress certifying the presidential election.
“A Democratic majority means lowering costs and growing the middle class, expanding the child tax credit and making it permanent, protecting reproductive freedom — and yes, a Democratic House means Speaker Jeffries will certify the 2024 election,” DelBene said.
Immigration reform
Democratic lawmakers also sought to upend the narrative from Republicans that Harris is not well positioned to address immigration and border security.
Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar said during her speech that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers have sought to use the border “as a political opportunity to exploit instead of an issue to address.”
Escobar rebuked Republicans for blocking a border security and immigration package that was negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators but stalled after Trump signaled he didn’t want to lose it as an election issue.
“All Republicans have to offer is demonization and bluster,” Escobar said. “Democrats have solutions. With Kamala Harris as President, we can live up to the promise of America. We can strengthen legal pathways to immigration. We can secure our borders. And we can treat with dignity those who seek a better future within them.”
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy — one of the three senators who negotiated the border security bill after GOP leaders insisted it was necessary to pass another round of aid to Ukraine — said that if Harris is elected she’ll renew the push to get that legislation through Congress.
“Trump killed that bill,” Murphy said. “And he did it because he knew that if we fixed the border, he’d lose his ability to divide us, his ability to fan the flames of fear about people who come from different places.”
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Source Agencies
