Rep. Barbara Lee has long been on the political periphery, but the party may now be coming around to her.

After finishing two votes shy of breaking into House Democratic leadership in 2016, the left-leaning California Democrat is counting on a stronger start — and a liberal base clamoring for hard-edged resistance to President Donald Trump — in her bid to win election as Democratic Caucus chair.


In an interview with POLITICO, Lee touted the “new wave” of progressive energy and noted that Democrats have never had an African-American woman in leadership.

“I want to be a voice at the table that really hasn’t been at the table,” she said.

Whether Lee gets the chance may depend on her ability to win over younger House Democrats calling for generational change in leadership.

The 72-year old Lee has been in Congress for 20 years and praises the caucus’ longtime leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. That’s in stark contrast to her opponent in the race: Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.), who is demanding turnover at the top and who defeated Lee two years ago for the post of Democratic Caucus vice chair.

As Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) noted, “It’s a rematch.”

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The leadership post became vacant last month after progressive insurgent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stunned Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley of New York in a primary. Ocasio-Cortez, who recently had a low-key Capitol Hill visit, name-checked Lee as someone who belongs in party leadership in an interview after her election win.

But as she hunts for votes, Lee is also casting herself as someone who can work with both the centrist and left wings of the party. She touts her work with allies of Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to craft a progressive Democratic platform in 2016 and has occasionally reached across the aisle to find common ground with Republicans.

Her most well-known stand was serving as the lone vote against the Afghanistan War in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But now she’s winning GOP support for new oversight of the president’s war powers.

“I’m known for being able to put together coalitions,” she said. “That’s what I’m doing in this instance.”

Lee is also pitching herself as a leader who would effectively represent members’ interests and ideas and help them better connect with their constituents.

She said Democrats have to speak directly to voters to get their message across, especially in the chaotic Trump era. She’s adamant that the party must promote an agenda that gets people out of poverty and talk about connecting with those in rural communities, white working-class communities and communities of color.

“I think that it’s important that we stay focused on what people really need in their daily lives because a lot of people are really suffering out there,” Lee said.

Lee attributes her two-vote loss for vice chair in 2016 to a false start. She formally launched her run 18 months before the 2016 leadership elections but delayed campaigning to members because “it was so far off they didn’t want to talk about it.”

The problem, she said, is she waited too long.

“That was a lesson I learned,” Lee recalled, “because many members told me, ‘If you had only talked to me first.’”

This time around, she reached out to members for weeks as she mulled another leadership run and made it official before a key deadline: the House’s five-week August recess, when it will be harder to reach colleagues.

“You can’t wait,” she said, “especially when there’s an open seat like this.”

There isn’t much daylight between the two California Democrats. As Thompson points out, “Both candidates represent the new face of the Democratic Caucus: minority and female.”

Lee is a former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and ex-Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair, while Sánchez is a past chairwoman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The biggest difference between the two is their positions on the current party leadership.

While Lee didn’t take a position on whether Pelosi should be speaker next year if Democrats win the House — “The elections are gonna tell a lot,” she said — she credited Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn of South Carolina for doing “a phenomenal job on all fronts.”

She said the trio have broadened opportunities for newer and younger members and have been “working day and night” to win back the majority so Democrats “can be that real wall of resistance from this administration.”

Sánchez, meanwhile, said publicly in October that it was “time to pass the torch to a new generation of leaders,” a point she reiterated in June.

“I think it’s time for that generational change,” Sánchez, 49, told reporters last month. “I want to be part of that transition, because I don’t intend to stay in Congress until I’m in my 70s.”

Like the current Democratic leadership, Lee is a septuagenarian, but she didn’t respond directly to Sánchez’s remark, saying she’s focused on the midterms and how she and the party can move forward.

“I think that’s the most important part, not what other members or candidates are saying or who’s gonna run or who’s saying this or who’s saying that,” she said.

Lee also praised Crowley as “a very effective caucus chair” and expressed confidence that she could step into his shoes as chair and fundraiser. While she’s an advocate of campaign finance reform who wants to get money out of politics, she said: “Quite naturally, I’m gonna do what I can do to make sure we elect Democrats to the House. Whatever that takes.”

For now, it’s a two-woman race. But Democrats believe more candidates will enter. Several have been floated as potential candidates, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, another California Democrat, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who holds a lower-tier leadership position as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee.

“Hopefully, we all will be able to present ourselves to our colleagues in terms of who we are, our agenda and what we can do to help strengthen the caucus and move the country forward,” Lee said of all the candidates who throw their hats in the ring.

In addition to allies in the CBC, Lee has Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Ro Khanna of California on her side. Khanna, a freshman who represents Silicon Valley and endorsed both Ocasio-Cortez and Crowley, threw his support behind Lee before she announced a run and has said he’ll rally the 78-member CPC to back her, too.

Lee is also looking to secure support from incoming members, saying she’s working with a number of younger House candidates.

That energy and enthusiasm from young progressives coupled with her long track record is what Lee is banking on to put her over the top this time.

“Experience counts for something,” Lee said. “It doesn’t mean that because I have experience I should be elected. But I think that’s a big part of it.”