On the third night of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, Democratic members of Congress took the stage and urged voters to give the party control of the House of Representatives in the November elections.
House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Party Leader Hakeem Jeffries were among the lawmakers who highlighted a stark contrast between their policies and those of the Republicans.
“The parable of January 6 reminds us that our democracy is only as strong as the courage and commitment of those entrusted with it,” Pelosi said. “And we must elect leaders who believe in free and fair elections and respect the peaceful transfer of power.”
Pelosi called on voters to reject the kind of ideologies and violence that prompted a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol more than three years ago as lawmakers sought to certify the Electoral College vote for President Joe Biden.
Pelosi recalled that federal police were able to complete their task after they had evacuated the building and lawmakers had returned.
“In this election, we are called to do the same: stand together, reject autocracy and choose democracy,” Pelosi said.
“And we’re going to do that by electing a Democratic House of Representatives with Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker of the House,” she added. “We’re going to elect a Democratic Senate. We’re going to elect Tim Walz as Vice President of the United States. And we’re going to elect Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”
Jeffries said that in the United States, someone who works challenging and follows the rules “deserves a living wage.”
“You have a right to an affordable place to call home. You have a right to a good public school that is free from gun violence. And you have a right to quality, affordable health care, and you deserve the chance to retire one day with dignity and respect,” Jeffries said.
“But for far too many people in our great country, living paycheck to paycheck is a struggle, and that’s why the American dream is unattainable,” he added.
Democrats, who control the House, Senate and White House, would look for ways to “fix our broken immigration system and secure the border,” “strengthen the relationship between police and community” and “continue to combat the climate crisis with the most urgent need of the moment,” he said.
Narrow GOP majority
The Republicans have a particularly narrow majority in the House of Representatives and hope to expand this in the next Congress. The Democrats, who hold 212 seats, only need a net boost of four representatives to gain the majority.
Experts who closely follow the 435 races for seats in the House of Representatives say the outcome of the election can go either way.
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter Prices 22 seats are still open during Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics categorized 19 races can be won by either the Democrats or the Republicans.
Speaking to the DNC on Wednesday evening, Democratic lawmakers said a Democratic Congress would lead to votes on reproductive rights, an expanded child tax credit and investments in the middle class.
Florida State Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz urged voters not to allow the rest of the country to follow the path her home state took under the administration of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.
“Today, Florida state policy requires that children be taught racist lies about the so-called benefits of slavery, books be banned, teachers be censored, and our LGBTQ+ community endure endless state-sponsored hate,” she said. “Today, in Florida, where we are grappling with record heat and rising sea levels, extreme MAGA Republicans have removed mentions of climate change from state law. Today, in Florida, a near-total ban on abortion is putting women’s health and lives at risk.”
Earlier, Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington State and Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine issued a joint statement expressing dismay at the throwing out of a Florida school library of a book about women in the United States Senate.
“We were stunned to learn that the State of Florida has decided to remove ‘Nine and Counting’ from its book collection at New College. This is a book we wrote with our Senate colleagues to tell our stories as women senators at a time when there were far fewer of us and to inspire the next generation of women to aspire to public service,” Murray and Collins said in the statement.
In her opinion, the ban on books “violates our constitutional values and the idea that our universities should be places where freedom of expression can flourish and views of all kinds can be heard.”
Representative Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and U.S. representative from Washington state, said during the DNC that giving the party control of the House of Representatives would prevent baseless challenges to Congress’s certification of the presidential election.
“A Democratic majority means lower costs and growing the middle class, expanding and perpetuating the child tax credit, and 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 refute Republicans’ portrayal that Harris is not well positioned to address immigration and border security issues.
Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar said in her speech that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers had tried to operate the border “as a political opportunity rather than as an issue to be resolved.”
Escobar chided Republicans for blocking a border security and immigration package negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators, but the package stalled after Trump signaled he did not want to lose it as a campaign issue.
“All the Republicans have to offer is demonization and bluster,” Escobar said. “The Democrats have solutions. With Kamala Harris as president, we can fulfill the promise of America. We can strengthen legal immigration pathways. We can secure our borders. And we can treat with dignity those seeking a better future within those borders.”
Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy – one of three senators who negotiated the border security bill after Republican leadership insisted it was necessary to pass another round of aid to Ukraine – said that if elected, Harris would renew her efforts to get the bill through Congress.
“Trump killed that bill,” Murphy said. “And he did it because he knew that if we fixed the border, he would lose his ability to divide us, his ability to stoke the flames of fear for people coming from other places.”
