Reps. Barbara Lee (pictured) and Linda Sánchez are squaring off in the race to become vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus. | Getty House Dems court votes in leadership battle

While Capitol Hill is largely hibernating during the closing weeks of the presidential race, two House Democrats are racing behind the scenes to lock up votes in an inside-baseball leadership election that will help chart the future of a caucus long ruled by Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer.

Reps. Barbara Lee and Linda Sánchez are squaring off in the race to become vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, a normally obscure affair that’s getting more attention this year because it’s likely to be the only real contest in House Democratic leadership — and it could help determine who’s next in line to run the caucus.


Right now, Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House minority leader, and Hoyer (D-Md.), the party’s whip, have a hammerlock on the top spots, positions they’re not likely to relinquish in the coming Congress.

But for younger members frustrated by the lack of churn in leadership and opportunity for advancement — Pelosi, 76, and Hoyer, 77, have ruled the caucus for more than a decade — the pick for vice chairman, often a key step for climbing the party hierarchy, carries with it a message about what they see as the future of the caucus.

“Sánchez is a doer, while Lee is an ideologue,” said a Democratic aide with knowledge of the race. “So even though Lee has progressives … younger members are likely going to be with Sánchez because she’s at least open-minded.”

Behind the scenes, Lee has made the pitch to colleagues that she has taken on responsibilities in various House Democratic factions for years and that now is her time to jump into leadership, according to several members. Sánchez, on the other hand, has been making a more “low-pressure” pitch for why she would be a good vice chair, lawmakers said.

Both candidates are grounded in the left, but that doesn’t mean the pick is obvious — or easy, especially for moderates who want to make sure their voices aren’t diminished in a caucus that already tilts leftward with Pelosi at the top.

Lee and Sánchez are both progressive leaders and represent key minority groups — Lee as a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Sánchez as current chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Both also come from California, the state with the largest bloc of House Democrats, making up about 20 percent of the caucus.

“These are always difficult races,” said Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), a former caucus vice-chairman and then chairman. Larson, a close friend of Sánchez who introduced her to her husband and officiated at their wedding, is helping lead her whip operation.

And members, still reeling from bad feelings stirred up during a messy public fight over the ranking spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2014, are reluctant to publicly wade into the vice chair race too much.

“When you have two people, two progressives, two women of color who are liked by members of the caucus, people don’t want to read their name in the paper. It just creates all kinds of bad feelings,” Larson added.

The main job of the vice chairman is to help run caucus meetings. The position — sometimes referred to as a “hall monitor” or even the “potted plant” at news conferences — sits at the bottom of leadership hierarchy, but lawmakers say the job is important for the opportunity it represents down the road.

The lawmaker who members select as vice chairman in November could one day be whip or even House speaker. Hoyer, now-Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) all served as vice chair and used the gig as a launching pad for moving higher in the caucus.

“From a member standpoint, you’re voting for the vice chair of the caucus. But ultimately, you move up, which has been the case in almost every example,” Larson said.





Lee, first elected in 1998, is known as one of the caucus’ most liberal members. She was the sole member of Congress to vote against a blanket military authorization in the days after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Rep. Linda Sánchez has been making a more "low pressure" pitch for why she would be a good vice chair, lawmakers said. | Getty

And she has deep ties within the caucus. She’s led more than a dozen congressional trips abroad, often called codels, and has served as chairwoman of both the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Lee told Politico she thinks now is her time to join leadership, pointing out that she initially ran for vice chair in 2012 but ultimately endorsed Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), the favorite in the race.

“It’s been something that I’ve had in mind and that I wanted to do since the first time that I ran,” Lee said in a recent interview in the Rayburn cafeteria.

Sánchez supporters describe her as someone who, since coming to Congress in 2003, hasn’t been afraid to jump in and get her hands dirty, even if she doesn’t agree on the issue.

“She appreciates that every district is not the same. Her politics are way to the left of mine, but I think she understands that we need a lot of diversity in our caucus,” said Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat who represents parts of San Diego.

Peters said Sánchez stood up for him when labor unions were assailing his pro-trade positions after last year’s fast-track trade promotion authority (TPA) vote, even though she opposed the measure.

“I lost a lot of labor support over the TPA vote, and I think Linda told a few of the representatives of organized labor that they should lay off, they should not be hammering me for being pro-trade, because my district is different,” he said.

Beyond heading the Hispanic Caucus, Sánchez is also the ranking member on the House Ethics Committee, a prominent position that requires discretion and is given to a member trusted by leadership.

“I’m the kind of person that you can either complain about something … or you can try to get in there and try to get your hands in there and help fix it,” she told Politico during an interview in her office before recess.

Both Lee and Sánchez were jockeying to lock up commitments from lawmakers the past few weeks, trying to secure support before members headed back to their districts until after the election.

The two women pitched the New Democrat Coalition on Wednesday, a group of about 46 moderates who could help determine the winner.

Multiple sources in the room said they heard two very different pitches — one from Lee underscoring that she thinks this is her time to join leadership and another from Sánchez that members said was more about how she would represent all views in the caucus, not just those of progressives.

“The bottom line is: How will you serve the members, not how will you serve yourself?” said New Dem Vice Chairman Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).

But some members say Lee’s ultraliberal bona fides are exactly what make her the best candidate. She would be an appropriate foil to Crowley, the current vice chair who is expected to ascend to Democratic Caucus chairman, and she’s true to the progressive spirit on which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) capitalized during the presidential race.

“When I look ahead, our chair will be Joe Crowley, who I like a lot,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.), a Lee backer. “Barbara, yes, she is progressive, but I think she represents a very, very large swath of the Democratic Party today, and I don’t think we should be ignoring that.”

Other members say they haven’t made a decision yet and probably won’t until right after Election Day, when their own races are over. Privately, multiple lawmakers told Politico they think the race is still close and could ultimately come down to fundraising prowess.

“You need to earn your spot at the leadership table. How do you do that? Fundraising,” said one member, who requested anonymity.

Both Lee and Sánchez have donated to Democratic incumbents and candidates, who, if they win, will be able to vote in the vice-chair election. But Sánchez has a major fundraising advantage — a leadership PAC affiliated with her gave $167,000 to Democratic candidates through June, while Lee’s campaign says she donated more than $70,000 through the end of September. (Sánchez’s third-quarter numbers weren’t available at time of publication.)

Still, sources close to Lee told Politico they think she has 90 to 100 hard commitments within the caucus. But other members, pointing to past races in which both sides inflated their numbers, said if that were the case, Lee would’ve already had the race locked up.

Sánchez is holding her whip count close to the vest, telling Politico “you don’t win these elections in the press.”

“I feel very good that my whip count is solid, and out of respect for members’ wishes I will not release our whip numbers at this time,” she said.

Both Pelosi and Hoyer plan to remain neutral in the race. Many other members say they are keeping quiet in an effort to avoid dredging up any comparisons to the nasty battle between Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) in 2014.





The two members squared off for the top Democratic spot on the Energy and Commerce Committee in a race that’s been described as a proxy war between Pelosi and Hoyer.

Frankel said she’s not surprised so many members are keeping mum. “After the contest between Anna Eshoo and Frank Pallone, nobody wants to talk about it, nobody wants to be counted. People don’t like that,” she said.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) co-chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which voted in September to back Lee. But even he doesn’t put much stock in endorsements right now.

“Endorsements are good, but as [former Rep.] John Dingell once told me,” Grijalva said, “the only people you can trust in this process are the ones that told you no.”