Democrats: Giving D.C. to Trump won't get you re-elected

The House will consider bills that would reshape D.C. to the president's liking. Supporting these wildly undemocratic bills will not make Democrats seem moderate.

Photo by Tsiky Raharinaivo on Unsplash

By Ankit Jain

As people from all corners of the Democratic Party make intelligent arguments about the best way for the party to move forward, congressional Democrats are actively considering taking an approach no one is recommending.

It appears several swing-district House Democrats are seriously considering voting to support President Donald Trump’s further takeover of Washington, D.C., on the theory that this could help them get re-elected. Such a vote would be a sign that the Democratic Party has not learned the lesson that the way to win elections is to obsessively focus on issues—such as the cost of living—that voters actually care about, rather than performative moderation on side issues such as D.C.’s local criminal justice laws that their voters know nothing about. The Democratic Party and its elected representatives must learn this lesson—before they take misguided votes that could directly harm my constituents–and theirs.

The House of Representatives will bring to a vote five bills beginning today that would reshape D.C.’s criminal justice system to Trump’s liking—furthering his takeover of D.C. If those bills clear the House, they would face a Senate filibuster, giving Democrats the ability to block these bills from reaching the president’s desk.

Already, one swing-district Democrat, Rep. Dave Min (Calif.), voted for several of the bills when they advanced out of committee last week.

I am a D.C. non-voting senator, elected in November. As D.C.’s advocate before the U.S. Senate, I know all too well the consequences of a lost election and how important it is for Democrats to do well in the midterms. That is why I desperately want swing-district Democrats to pursue strategies that actually will get them re-elected.

The last several election cycles have shown that voters respond to candidates who focus intensely on issues that are important to their daily lives. Central to these concerns right now is the high cost of living. This country elected a far-right authoritarian to the presidency because he focused on the cost of living, and New York City will most likely elect a Democratic Socialist as mayor because he is focusing on the cost of living. The positions candidates take on side issues that voters don’t care about do not swing elections.

Most voters don't care about what goes on in Washington, D.C. That is understandable; they don't live here. Therefore, whatever position Democratic members of Congress take on D.C. laws will not determine if they get re-elected. If they focus on issues that matter to their voters and offer credible solutions, they will win; if they do not, they will lose. Some Democrats seem to think voting to support the Trump takeover of D.C. might suggest the moderation that can get them re-elected. But less than two months ago, we witnessed how ineffective a strategy it is to focus on the actions of another jurisdiction that has nothing to do with constituents. If this strategy worked, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s focus on Zohran Mamdani’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict would have made Cuomo the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City. Instead, Cuomo lost by 12 percentage points.

This misplaced approach to winning elections might be fine if it didn’t have serious consequences. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The congressional focus on D.C. threatens my 700,000+ constituents. If these bills become law, they would rewrite D.C.’s entire criminal justice ecosystem. Not only would Democratic members of Congress show their disregard for our elected legislators, but they also would be essentially holding the door for Republicans to mold a city that did not elect them. This means that members of Congress who are not accountable to the people of Washington, D.C., would decide the fate of this city’s residents and their families.

Perhaps more important for congressional Democrats, the Trump administration is planning to do to other cities what it is doing to D.C. Trump said as much in his press conference announcing the takeover of D.C. He said on Friday that he is planning on sending the National Guard to Memphis. And Republicans are now talking about pushing a federal crime bill that would impose their far-right agenda on the whole country—at least half of whom don’t support those drastic measures.

If swing-district Democrats vote for the Trump takeover bills and Republicans succeed in remaking D.C.’s criminal justice system in their image, they will be emboldened. They will have evidence that attacking blue cities unites them and divides Democrats, and they will keep pushing, targeting cities in swing districts next. The only way to stop this is to unite in opposition to attempts to micromanage local policies in any city, including Washington, D.C.

Do Democratic members of Congress really want to encourage the Trump administration to rewrite the laws of their cities and put their constituents at greater risk so as to appear moderate on an issue none of their constituents care about? For a Democratic Party still searching for its path forward, this would be a decisive turn in the wrong direction. Rather than symbolic displays of moderation, the party needs to focus on real solutions to issues Americans think about every day: the price of housing, groceries, and energy, for example. The party and its elected officials must seize the opportunity to show they have learned that lesson when they vote on Wednesday. I hope, for the country’s sake, that they have.

Ankit Jain, a Democrat, is a D.C. shadow senator.

---