At a Denver Conference, Democrats Split Over How to Work With Trump

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

Democrats gathered in Denver on Thursday and Friday for their first major meeting since the Nov. 3 midterm elections, united in wanting to lower costs but split over how to do it and how combative to be toward President Donald Trump, who retains veto power for two more years, Reuters reported. The two-day "What's Next" conference was hosted by Majority Democrats, a group that advocates for younger party leaders and against left-wing activism, Reuters said, and was held at the Mission Ballroom, NPR reported.

Reuters said Saturday that Democrats are projected to hold at least 255 House seats to Republicans' 169, with 12 contests still undecided, and at least 55 Senate seats to 44, with one more possible in Alaska as counting continues. NPR described the result as the party's best electoral performance since Watergate. Some speakers warned that voters had not fallen back in love with Democrats, but had turned to them out of frustration over high prices, the Iran war, and concerns about government corruption, the Associated Press reported.

Stephanie Valencia, co-founder of the Latino voter research group Equis, told the AP, "I did not expect to be coming here with so much hope." She added, "For the first time we can see the outlines of a post-Trump era." Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said, "Everybody's happy about the results, but everybody's looking over their shoulder saying, 'Can we really be happy about this?'" according to the AP.

Texas Sen.-elect James Talarico urged the party to cooperate. "The American people cannot wait two years for change, so we must work with President Trump," he said, according to NPR. "We should make the final two years of his presidency the most productive of any American presidency." He also said, "We're tired of being pitted against each other." Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin said, "If slapping Trump's name on it and putting it in gold letters would get it through - hell yes, I would do that." New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill warned that Trump acts in bad faith and said, "My advice to Sen. Talarico is if Trump wants to work with us, we will lay out the agenda, and he can sign it."

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told Reuters that voters "don't give a damn" about ideological litmus tests and care about whether Democrats can deliver. He told the AP the party should aim higher than "going out and scrapping for 270" electoral votes and should be "fighting hard to swing for 370." Colorado Rep. Jason Crow said, "We won races in places where we haven't won in a long time, even in some places where we've never won. And the message shouldn't be that [voters] are fully embracing the Democratic Party," he told NPR. "It took us decades to dig ourselves in a hole and to push people away from us, and it's going to take us more than one cycle to earn that trust."

Hakeem Jeffries of New York, set to become House speaker, was heckled by protesters who accused him of being too timid, Reuters said. The AP reported that Sunrise Movement demonstrators protested outside, calling the host group too centrist and funded by wealthy businesspeople, and interrupted Jeffries to demand a Green New Deal and an arms embargo against Israel. One man called him a "traitor" while being led out. Jeffries replied, "I'm from Brooklyn," and, "This is light work."

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, said, "We're going to reassert all of the powers of Congress that have been surrendered and abdicated by the MAGA Congress to King Trump." "We're going to enforce the Constitution against him." Eric Holder, attorney general under President Obama, said, "If we retreat into caution, if we operate out of fear, if we take refuge in the niceties of the old Washington and seek approval from those who have been and are actively dismantling our institutions, we will fail." California Rep. Ro Khanna urged Democrats to stop chasing the political center and to embrace universal health care, a wealth tax, a $25 federal minimum wage, deep Pentagon cuts, and abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Reuters said.

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego said many Hispanic voters who backed Trump in 2024 voted Democratic this month, but added, "It was not, though, a love letter to the Democratic Party." "It is a short-term loan that we need to keep paying, or we will lose it," he said. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told the AP, "A new day is dawning in America." Republican rebuild efforts are already under way, including a plan by Saving Texas for an Austin headquarters.

Opinion:

Voters did not send Democrats a love letter. High prices, the Iran war, and a sense that government had slipped its leash drove this election. That is not a mandate to abolish ICE, ram through a Green New Deal, or treat a midterm rebuke as a blank check. A loan has to be repaid in results, not in slogans.

Working with a sitting president on costs is not surrender. Trump still has the veto. If Democrats want cheaper food, medicine, and housing, they will have to pass bills he can sign, or they will spend two years performing for the base and delivering nothing. The country is tired of being pitted against itself. That does not require anyone to pretend Trump is a choirboy, and it does not require Congress to give up its powers. Oversight is a duty. Vengeance is not a governing plan.

A new day is not dawning just because a conference hall in Denver felt hopeful. Trust takes more than one cycle to earn. Parties that confuse a rebuke of the other side with a marriage usually get the next rebuke themselves.