The prospect of House Democrats armed with subpoena power and an appetite for payback is clearly giving President Donald Trump fits.

But as far as New Jersey's newly elected freshmen are concerned, he has nothing to worry about.

At least for now.

"I hope the president's tone is not what the tone is in Congress, because I know we have so much to do,'' said Mikie Sherrill, who won the Morris County-centric 11th Congressional District on Tuesday.

"We need to move forward with bipartisan legislation. We need tax reform in New Jersey. We need to get quality, affordable health care,'' she continued shortly before a veterans' memorial service in Newark. "We have to have some spending on the Gateway tunnel, and the best way we can do that is if we all work together on that."

Trump made it clear Wednesday that he's worried about spending the next two years as a target of an impeachment-obsessed House Democratic majority, probing his tax returns, his ties to Russians during the 2016 campaign and his questionable business entanglements.

Trump has reason to fear: Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader, signaled in a post-election victory speech Tuesday night that Trump could be in the House Democrats' cross hairs once they resume power.

"Today is more than about Democrats and Republicans," said Pelosi, who is expected to seek a second stint as House speaker. "It's about restoring the Constitution and checks and balances to the Trump administration."

That kind of talk set Trump on edge Wednesday in a wide-ranging, and at times erratic, post-midterm news conference, veering from a pledge of cooperation and endorsing Pelosi's return as speaker to promising retaliation if Pelosi & Co. go for his jugular with subpoenas.

“They can play that game, but we can play better because we have a thing called the United States Senate, and a lot of questionable things were done, between leaks of classified information and many other elements that should not have taken place,” Trump said.

Yet the incoming New Jersey class of House Democrats did not campaign by vowing to make life a living hell for Trump. While buoyed by grass-roots, anti-Trump anger among suburban voters, Tuesday's three Democratic winners (and a possible fourth) ran as pragmatic moderates in traditionally Republican swing districts.

MORE:Election turnout surpasses 2014 midterm voting throughout North Jersey

LOWRY:How Mikie Sherrill won

They lowered the volume on anti-Trump rhetoric and stuck to generic, bread-and-butter issues, like ending the much-reviled limit on the state and local tax deduction of Trump's signature tax overhaul.

They promised to use their newfound leverage to somehow prod the Trump administration to finance the stalled Gateway rail and tunnel project. And instead of vowing to wage a political jihad on Trump in the run-up to his 2020 reelection, the New Jersey newcomers see an opportunity to negotiate with Trump and the (small) bloc of Republican moderates in the Senate to stabilize health insurance and prescription costs.

"My view is to focus on unifying issues,'' said Tom Malinowski, the former State Department official who ousted longtime Republican incumbent Leonard Lance from the 7th Congressional District, which stretches from affluent Union County suburbs to the rural hamlets in Warren County.

To a certain extent, New Jersey Democrats had no choice. The political realities forced them to avoid Trump bashing when possible.

Sherrill was fighting a longtime Republican lawmaker, Jay Webber, to inherit a district that had been held for 22 years by moderate Rodney Frelinghuysen, the scion of a New Jersey political dynasty dating back to the Revolution.

Jeff Van Drew, the Cape May County Democrat, captured the historically conservative 2nd Congressional District, being vacated by veteran Republican Frank LoBiondo, who is stepping down after 22 years.

Van Drew, a right-of-center Democrat, was supposed to cruise to the victory. But Seth Grossman, a pro-Trump gadfly who was disowned by state and national Republican Party campaigns after his controversial remarks about diversity, lost by only six points. Van Drew can't afford to wage war on Trump if he wants to hold the seat as a vulnerable freshman seeking his second term in 2020.

Democrats around the country who routed Republicans faced the same realities. The I-word was rarely mentioned.

"The Democrats nationally did not run on impeachment or, really, even the Mueller probe,'' said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst who tracks House races for Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia. "Investigations in the House will be directed by the committee chairmen, so the rank-and-file members won’t really have to do anything about these investigations one way or the other."

Malinowski did note, however, that the focus could shift after the much-anticipated results of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the possible Russian and Trump administration collusion in the 2016 campaign are made public. It's an issue that has already taken on more urgency after Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigned Wednesday under pressure from Trump. That move could eventually make it easier for Trump to fire Mueller.

"I think what we will be militant about is protecting the Justice Department, protecting Bob Mueller and his investigation, protecting the FBI from political interference from the White House,'' Malinowski said at a campaign event at a Somerset County farm. "Let's protect the institutions and then wait to see what the facts and law require."

It is worth noting that Republican attack ads warned voters with sometimes ghoulish imagery that Democrats would become rubber stamps for Pelosi and a "far-left agenda" if elected.

But Sherrill, Van Drew and Andy Kim — the challenger for the South Jersey 3rd District who had a long wait for the tally of mail-in and provisional ballots in his too-close-to-call challenge of Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur — went on record opposing Pelosi's return as speaker. Only Malinowski left the door open to supporting her.

Sherrill reaffirmed her opposition to Pelosi on Wednesday, even though Pelosi attempted to contact her.

For the most part, Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor, remained on message Wednesday, sounding at times like a candidate still cautious about every utterance. And her message was simple. Voters want results, not partisan gamesmanship.

"I think people here — the expectation is that we get some work done [and] Congress gets back to work," she said before a crush of cameras.