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A number of frustrated House Democrats who said their party had a \u201cweak and undefined brand\u201d announced on Tuesday that they were seeking to form a new group to dig out of their crisis, informally referred to as the New Economic Patriots.<\/p>\n
The group is the brainchild of Representative Chris Deluzio, a 40-year-old second-term congressman from a competitive district in Pennsylvania, who criticized members of his own party as wimps in a speech on the House floor on Tuesday and called for Democrats to channel a \u201cfighting spirit of economic populism\u201d that he argued could lead them out of the political wilderness.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many in our party have lost their way and it\u2019s time to wake the heck up,\u201d Mr. Deluzio said, later declaring: \u201cThe era of a spineless Democratic Party must end.\u201d<\/p>\n
The answer, he said, was for the party to focus on appealing to working people on economic issues, but it was not immediately clear how his plan was different from what many in the party have already been advocating. Still, Mr. Deluzio\u2019s effort is the latest sign that Democrats, relegated to the minority in Washington and desperate to find a more coherent message after their devastating 2024 losses, are still mired in a politically fraught debate about how to move forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Deluzio has highlighted his status as a young lawmaker who outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election in a critical district in a key battleground state as he makes the case for why he is the right person to help lead his party out of its funk.<\/p>\n
In an interview, Mr. Deluzio said the \u201cprogressive\u201d and \u201cmoderate\u201d labels did not work anymore given that his entire tattered party needed to be restructured around an economic populist message that he said had been co-opted by the right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not interested in a wimpy Democratic Party,\u201d Mr. Deluzio said. \u201cThe party for years has put too much stock in avoiding fights, avoiding naming big corporate villains.\u201d It is time for Democrats to turn back to their working-class roots, he said.<\/p>\n
The new group includes a disparate group of Democrats, including Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, a former chairwoman of the Progressive Caucus, and Representative Pat Ryan, a moderate New York Democrat from a swing district. The group who spoke on the House floor notably did not yet include any Democrats who won Trump districts in 2024, or any members whom the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has identified as its \u201cfrontline\u201d members who are considered the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat people are asking for is to transform the party in a more populist direction,\u201d said Representative Greg Casar, Democrat of Texas and the chairman of the Progressive Caucus, who is also a member of the new group. \u201cPopulist means we are for working people across the spectrum, even if they disagree with us. The way we bring in conservatives is that we\u2019re economic populists that are willing to be on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Casar, who made his debut appearance on Fox News over the weekend in an attempt to reach out to conservative-leaning voters, argued that Democrats could not be the party representing vulnerable people until they were seen as the party for all working people.<\/p>\n
The New Economic Patriots have been meeting every other week to hash out a new platform, and some have been circulating among their colleagues a five-page memo trying to address what they see as a crisis in the party.<\/p>\n
\u201cA few of us believe that we have to focus on the economy,\u201d said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, who is a member. \u201cWe have to focus on issues that affect people\u2019s pocketbooks, and the Democrats haven\u2019t done this effectively for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Khanna added: \u201cOur message in 2024 did not recognize how much anger there was with the status quo. We did not recognize that offshoring of jobs was taking place, we did not recognize the pain people were still feeling, and our message wasn\u2019t transformational enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Deluzio said Democrats had both a messaging and policy problem to fix.<\/p>\n
\u201cVoters don\u2019t think Democrats put lowering costs first, and this group does,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just putting the economy first; it\u2019s being clear about why you\u2019re being ripped off. We\u2019re very clear about who those villains are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But Democrats for months have been talking about Elon Musk, President Trump\u2019s billionaire ally who is leading an aggressive campaign of slashing government, as the main villain of the young administration.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday as the group made its debut by delivering a series of speeches on the House floor, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, made remarks that did not sound any different from dozens of others that she and other Democrats have given in recent weeks railing against Mr. Trump\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n
Mr. Deluzio brought with him a poster board that read, simply and unspecifically, \u201cAnti corruption, pro American Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some of their colleagues were skeptical of what, exactly, the group was trying to achieve. Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Democrat of Washington, has for years been making the argument that her party is not in tune with the needs of working-class voters<\/a>. Ms. Gluesenkamp Perez was invited to participate in the new group\u2019s meetings and its performance on the House floor, but she declined to speak on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with her thinking.<\/p>\n Mr. Deluzio said that Tuesday\u2019s floor action was simply an \u201copening salvo\u201d and that the group would put forward a clear platform to resuscitate the Democratic Party at a moment when voters are desperate for leaders to show an effective way to push back against the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Over the weekend, the progressive stars Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York drew tens of thousands of supporters on their \u201cfight oligarchy\u201d tour, focusing on the needs of working people.<\/p>\n Mr. Deluzio and his colleagues said theirs was the right message for Democrats, and that voters were primed for a bigger revamp of the party. (Neither Mr. Sanders nor Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is part of his group.)<\/p>\n \u201cToo many Americans felt Democrats had become the party of the elites and stopped meeting people where they are,\u201d Mr. Ryan said on the House floor. \u201cThis moment is not ideological. It\u2019s about who fights for the people and who fights for the elites.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n