BALTIMORE — House Democrats ditched Washington this week to find their voice. But the rifts opened by their brutal Election Day defeat — and President Donald Trump’s tumultuous ascension — keep drowning them out.

While members held upbeat sessions at the Hyatt Regency on this city’s Inner Harbor, progressives privately vented about being lectured to by a speaker from a moderate think tank. And several lawmakers worried that the Democratic leadership would be too dependent on consultants and data to chart a course forward, rather than focusing on a clearer vision for the party.


Party leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), sought to project unqualified unity within the caucus. In session after session, members insisted the wounds from a disappointing election and messy caucus leadership race had healed. One member even accused a reporter of promoting “fake news” for suggesting there’s any discord among Democratic lawmakers.

Aides said post-election post-mortems presented by Reps. Ben Ray Lujan and Sean Patrick Maloney were well received by their colleagues, several of whom offered dues commitments to help with the next election cycle. Leadership aides said no consultants were hired to work on the post-mortem, which was handled by Maloney and his staff.

But it’s obvious from private and public conversations with members and Democratic aides that the caucus is still struggling, trying to unite on a path forward while still fighting about how they got here in the first place.

“We need to stop doing the autopsies, stop doing all this metric data stuff and listen to the visionary voices,” lamented freshman Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who represents Silicon Valley. He repeatedly suggested that liberal economic thinkers like Robert Reich and Paul Krugman should be included in the party’s conversations.

Khanna said Democrats could even learn a lesson from Trump’s extraordinary victory.

“He didn’t have deep-dive data. He bragged about not polling,” Khanna said. “He offered a vision based on what he thought was his vision.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, center, answers questions alongside Reps. Jamie Raskin, left, and Judy Chu during a session at the Democratic Issues Conference in Baltimore, Md. on Feb. 8. | John Shinkle/POLITICO

“One of the things we have to do is stop listening to the consultants who continue to lose,” Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio said. “I think at some point we have to listen to the people who win.”

Caucus tensions are “definitely still simmering,” a House Democratic aide said Thursday. “[The] problem is that it was such an ass-kicking up and down the ballot that no one knows who is right anymore.”

Democratic leaders, though, dismissed the notion that members are divided on the party’s way forward. Pelosi insisted that there’s no strife inside the retreat.

“Maybe it’s more fun to think there’s some deep division,” Pelosi said, brushing aside a reporter’s question about progressive unrest within the caucus.

Others lawmakers agreed.

“I think the press is doing their own — I’m going to sound like Donald Trump — trying to pit us against each other a little," said Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan. "We know who we are, and we’re fighting for what we stand for.”

Still, signs of frustration from some of the party’s more liberal members emerged early in the retreat. Several members groused about leaders’ decision to invite a speaker from the moderate think tank Third Way, a group progressives feel is too aligned with Wall Street interests, without offering a counterpoint from the left. There were several other panels featuring progressive speakers, but the frustrated members said Third Way's speaker should have been paired with at least one other voice to offer counterpoints and challenges.

Liberal groups railed against the decision and warned that it’s a signal the party missed the message of the 2016 election: economic populism works.

Again, Pelosi dismissed the concerns: “We’re the Democratic Party. It’s the vitality of the party that people have differences of opinion. And if people don’t feel like listening to one thing or another, we don’t bar the door.”

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut said it’s risky for progressive Democrats to try to shut out voices from other corners of the party just because they don't agree with the message.

“We need to be really careful about convincing ourselves that the right answer is to have ‘the perfect message,’” said Himes, who chairs the moderate New Democrat Coalition. He added, “We bristle a little bit at the idea that ‘my gosh, this person shouldn’t even be allowed in the room.’”

But even Democrats’ insistence that they’ve learned a lesson from four disappointing election cycles and are getting back to basics rings hollow.

“I think what we’re developing is the single message of the Democratic Party,” Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island said during a news conference here Thursday. Pelosi and others echoed those comments: “We believe that America should have an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.”

Democrats can’t seem to agree on that broad-brush slogan.

“I think this whole economic message thing is real overblown, and I don’t think it’s accurate. We have been losing blue-collar workers for years — 20 plus years — and our message has always been the right message,” Fudge told reporters.

“I think we have to look deeper. Because if we only talk about an economic message, we’re not going to win the next election. We have to figure out how to get to the hearts of these people.”