A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
House Democrats are looking ahead to the 2026 midterms, hammering out a strategy to take back the majority. One person helping shape that strategy is Representative Suzan DelBene of Washington state. She chairs House Democrats' official campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Her party needs three more seats to win back the majority from Republicans. And when we spoke yesterday, I asked DelBene what the maps look like right now for House Democrats.
SUZAN DELBENE: We've got opportunities all across the country, multiple seats in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona. And this represents swing districts. It represents districts where Republicans are not serving their communities, with representatives that are much more extreme than their communities. We're recruiting great candidates to run in all of those districts. So we've got 35 districts that are on our map so far across the country.
MARTÍNEZ: OK, 35 districts. Is there an overall unifying message that the Democratic Party wants to send to the voters of these districts?
DELBENE: Well, the No. 1 issue in the last election was about lowering costs. Absolutely, the economy is top of mind right now. And what they've seen from Trump and Republican Congress is anything but a focus on costs. It's a broken promise from Republicans. Costs have gone up. Tariff policy has really created an uncertain economy and is a drag on the economy right now. Prices are going up for families. So that would absolutely be a No. 1 issue. And the attacks on health care, including proposed cuts they have to Medicaid, massive cuts to Medicaid, will also be devastating for families across the country.
MARTÍNEZ: The vice chair of the Democratic National Committee is David Hogg, and he says he plans to invest some $20 million from his political action committee to back primary challengers to Democrats. Do you agree with him that Democrats need a big shakeup in order to win?
DELBENE: I think we are united in one incredibly important goal, which is taking back the majority in the House of Representatives. We only need three more seats to do that, and we've already seen in those Florida special elections at the beginning of April the margins that Republicans have held onto seats like those diminish rapidly. That was just a few months since the November election, so we know the American people are with us. And our goal is to make sure we take back those gavels, make Hakeem Jeffries speaker of the House and have a voice that's going to stand up for the American people in Congress.
MARTÍNEZ: But does challenging incumbent Democrats give the perception that the party is fighting within itself, as opposed to just only trying to take down Republicans?
DELBENE: Well, I think we are united in taking back the House. We're going to be focused on making sure that our current incumbents who are in those swing districts across the country have the resources to run their strong campaigns, get reelected. And then we're going to be on offense across the country to make sure we pick up seats.
MARTÍNEZ: Even if Democrats do take the House, Donald Trump will still be president, and the Senate majority is not guaranteed. What are House Democrats able to deliver even with a balance of power like that?
DELBENE: Well, in the House, having the gavels makes an incredible difference. We can have hearings. We can move legislation. We can stop legislation. Right now, we're not having debates in Congress. Republicans aren't holding hearings. You haven't seen Elon Musk in a hearing talking about the damage that he's done. They're hiding. They're just rubber-stamping the actions of this administration. Having a Congress that actually will stand up and do its job can make an incredible difference. And when we have the majority, we can do that.
MARTÍNEZ: Suzan DelBene represents Washington state's first congressional district, and she also chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Congresswoman, thank you very much.
DELBENE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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