Congressional Democrats are meeting to devise an economic strategy for the off-year elections with an emerging populist flair that won't just run inveigh against President Trump.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, who in his writings has urged his party for years to focus on kitchen table issues, has called for a 'a strong, sharp-edged, bold economic message.'

He has been meeting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who is trying to replicate her 2006 strategy that helped Democrats recapture the Republican House, Politico reported, after resisting calls for new House leadership.

Schumer said at a press conference Tuesday the party was focused on building a trade package partly intended to counter Trump. He said trade – an issue that was at the top of Bernie Sanders' 2016 playbook – was among the top five reasons Trump won.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks at a campaign rally on February 6, 2016 in Rindge, New Hampshire. Democratic leaders are hashing out a populist new economic message for 2018

Schumer rapped Trump for failing to achieve trade concessions during his meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago.

'When it comes to China, President Trump has been all talk and no action,' Schumer said.

Schumer, who has pressed China on currency manipulation issues for years, said Trump came home 'empty handed,' the Hill reported.

The message that emerges will be “populist” and is meant to “unite both wings of both caucuses, a Democratic aide told Politico.

The machinations come amid multiple signs that the driving forces among Democrats are coming from the fired up Sanders faction and base voters angry about Trump.

A Morning Consult poll this week showed Sanders with the highest approval rating of any senator in his or her state, with a 75 per cent approval rating.

Senate minority leader Charles Schumer called for 'a strong, sharp-edged, bold economic message' for 2018

House Minority Leader Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., helped craft her party's strategy to take back the House in 2016

Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center October 3, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts. Thousands of people attended the rally, one of the biggest in recent state history for a politician

In the latest fundraising figures, liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren raised $5.2 million in the first quarter.

Although Republicans prevailed in Tuesday's special election, GOP candidate Ron Estes defeated Democrat James Thompson by 8.3 percentage points in a Wichita-based district President Trump carried by 27 points.

Democrats are also hearing calls to not lurch too far from the center. 'It's less important what our national message is right now, given that Donald Trump is sucking all of the oxygen out of the room,' moderate Democratic Rep. Ron Kind told Politico. 'Quite frankly, the less we have to say about it, the better.'