The Democratic Party at some point will have to grapple with the question of whether to impeach the president — something Nancy Pelosi has largely resisted so far. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Congress Dems face opportunity — and pitfalls — in new House majority How Pelosi and her caucus wield their power will help determine the party’s prospects in 2020.

Democrats won the House. Now comes the hard part.

When the 116th Congress convenes Thursday, the new majority will immediately begin pushing both an ambitious legislative agenda and an aggressive oversight campaign of Donald Trump’s presidency. But the potential for Democratic infighting also looms large.


There’s vast disagreement about how far left the party should lean on issues ranging from health care to climate change, not to mention the question of whether to impeach the president. And this clash — amid a broader battle over the future of the party — will take center stage in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s caucus this year. How Democrats ultimately decide to wield their power will help determine whether they can take out Trump in 2020 — and hold onto their majority.

Even within the party’s left flank, there’s conflict over how quickly to move on progressive legislative priorities like “Medicare for all.” The leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said in recent interviews that they’re focused more on growing support in the caucus for a single-payer health care proposal rather than forcing their colleagues to vote on it right away.

“We don’t have the support that we need,” said CPC Co-Chair Pramila Jayapal of Washington state just before the holiday recess. “There are some people out there who are like, ‘We need Medicare for all today.’ And we do, we do. I feel the urgency. However, we’re probably not there in terms of the votes. … I understand we have to build the movement; we have to get people on board.”

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Of course, it’s not clear that the incoming freshmen class — including some who vanquished more accommodating Democrats in primaries last year — will stand for waiting. And even before members were sworn in, tensions between young progressives and leadership bubbled to the surface Wednesday over an obscure rules package set to pass the first day of the session.

Some of the party’s most outspoken liberals — Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and newly elected progressive superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — took to Twitter to decry the package because it would make it harder for the House to pass key legislative priorities for the left like Medicare for all and their “Green New Deal.” The duo’s tweets on the matter sent senior Democratic lawmakers and aides scrambling to avert a rebellion on a day Democrats should have been celebrating their new power.

Now, many in the caucus are waiting to see how Ocasio-Cortez and her freshmen allies might upend the new Democratic majority in other ways, including possibly turning their fire on their colleagues.

Ocasio-Cortez has reportedly weighed a 2020 primary challenge to New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the No. 5 Democrat, who some on the left say isn’t progressive enough. Ocasio-Cortez has since denied Jeffries is on her target list.

But first, Democrats will start the year focusing on areas of agreement. In the coming weeks, lawmakers and aides say, the House will pass a series of anti-corruption and campaign finance proposals. Then they’ll turn to health care proposals aimed at bolstering Obamacare and protecting people with pre-existing medical conditions — a central campaign promise that led to Democrats’ 40-seat romp on Election Day.

Early in the spring, House Democrats will also vote on a series of gun proposals that will expand background checks. A caucus split could rear its head then, as some Democrats push for more aggressive language banning certain types of assault weapons.

Even as the party veers left, some House Democrats also say they hope to work with Trump on a massive infrastructure bill and legislation lowering prescription drug prices — two rare areas of accord with the Republican president who often defies his party’s traditional policy stances.

“We have a zillion other issues where we disagree with President Trump, where Democrats can have free rein to criticize him or disagree with him,” said Transportation Chairman Pete Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). “We don’t need to disagree over the long-term delayed investment in our national infrastructure, which is an embarrassment.”

“We would love to work with [Trump] on prescription drug pricing,” added Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.)

But the window for passing such bipartisan bills is narrow. The government shutdown over Trump’s border wall with Mexico — now entering its 13th day — has sucked up all the oxygen in Washington. And with the next presidential campaign already kicking into high gear, Democrats say they probably have only a year or less before the partisanship of 2020 grinds everything to a halt.

That is, if it doesn’t happen before then. Trump has threatened to stop working with Democrats as soon as they start investigating his administration.

That doesn’t give both parties much time. On CBS “This Morning” on Wednesday, incoming House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) warned that he would subpoena acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker this month if he continues to dodge scheduling requests for a hearing. The New York Democrat’s panel wants to question Whitaker — a vocal critic of special counsel Robert Mueller — on the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the job amid concern it was an attempt on Trump’s part to obstruct the Russia investigation.

Other committees are also eager to start their investigative work. The Ways and Means panel will at some point request Trump’s tax returns. The House Oversight Committee has already sent more than 50 document preservation letters to agencies as it readies a series of probes on everything from conflicts of interest in the administration to Trump’s immigration policies.

One challenge Democrats will face is prioritizing those investigations. Some Democrats have suggested, for example, that probing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s claims during his confirmation fight, or Ivanka Trump’s private email use, for example, aren’t the best use of their time.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, said the panel shouldn’t be calling in Trump’s bankers but passing a flood insurance bill.

“Because we haven’t had any [oversight] for the past two years, when you start having it, people say, ‘Oh, all they want to do is investigate,” added Cleaver (D-Mo.). Better, he said, to focus on something like affordable housing.

California Rep. Eric Swalwell has a strategy for Democrats: “Do a few things. Do them well. Don’t chase every ball. Focus on what matters to everyday people, not palace intrigue.” | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo

“Do a few things. Do them well. Don’t chase every ball. Focus on what matters to everyday people, not palace intrigue,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), outlining how he’d like to see the Democrats proceed this Congress.

The party at some point will have to grapple with the question of whether to impeach the president — something Pelosi has largely resisted so far.

Trump has already been all but accused by federal prosecutors of breaking campaign finance laws to silence two women he allegedly had affairs with — though Justice Department rules suggest a sitting president cannot be indicted. And Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference and potential collusion with the Trump campaign is also drawing ever closer to the president’s inner circle.

But even as much of the Democratic base supports trying to oust the president, senior Democrats are already concerned about overreach and want nothing to do with impeachment talk.

Not everyone sees potential splits in the caucus as a weakness.

“I think it’s too early to be overly concerned about fractures and fissures within the Democratic Caucus,” said moderate Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “Are there differences in opinion and approach? Yeah. Are they fundamental in a way that divides us? I see no evidence in that.”

Progressives, meanwhile, are already readying a plan to make their case to their colleagues on some of their top legislative priorities. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), the Progressive Caucus co-chair, said the group has put money aside to invest in polling on Medicare for all so they can “prove the case that this is where the country’s at.”

“That’s not going to happen overnight, so a lot of it is building the support for what we think is the ultimate best answer to health care,” he said.

And Jayapal predicted the matter is going to be a “top issue” of the 2020 campaign.

“There’s so many things that fall into this bucket of who we want to be president,” she said. “But will it play a major role in the conversation? Absolutely.”

Alice Miranda Ollstein contributed to this report.