Last Tuesday night was the fulfillment of 10 years of effort on the part of a left-aligned coalition of activists and party volunteers. Everyone who participated in any way during that decade should feel immense pride in what we accomplished together. But we’ve had a week to revel in the joy and now it’s time to think about what’s next.
Governor Shapiro has already outlined what he would like to see from our state legislative bodies within the first hundred days of the new term. The big ticket items he listed include raising the minimum wage, fully funding mass transit, codifying abortion rights, and making investments in housing, schools and small businesses. With Democrats in control of the governor’s office and both legislative houses for the first time since the early 1990s, all of that is within the power of those we just elected to serve us in Harrisburg.
Our federal political ecosystem is more complex. The number of lawmakers that we elected to our federal government is amazing, but those 56 senators don’t come anywhere near a 67 vote veto-proof margin, and the same goes for the House. We’d need 290 Democrats in the House to overcome a veto and it looks like we’ll have 260. That means what we can accomplish in our federal legislature will be curtailed by the power of President Trump’s veto. So we do need to reign in our expectations for what is going to get done in Washington during the 120th Congress.
I expect the next two years are going to see our Democratic lawmakers focused on six different lines of activity:
1️⃣ Ending the Iran War
2️⃣ Pushing Democratic legislative priorities on health care, limiting data centers, regulating AI and ethics reform to give American voters a preview of what they will get if they elect a Democratic president in 2028
3️⃣ Blocking Trump’s judicial nominees
4️⃣ Oversight investigations and hearings on corruption and lawbreaking in the federal government
5️⃣ Lawsuits to stop Trump actions
6️⃣ Funding fights, and withholding appropriations to stop Trump’s excesses
Our activist community is going to play a key role in supporting those actions from our lawmakers. It is critical that we all be communicative with our elected representatives. It’s up to you to make sure your elected lawmakers know what you want. Part of being a good constituent is to be communicative!
When I encourage folks to communicate with their elected lawmakers, I always get pushback about contacting Senator John Fetterman. I understand the antipathy, but I’ll tell you what I say to my fellow Indivisible members – Fetterman’s unwillingness to fulfill his responsibilities as a lawmaker does not excuse you from fulfilling your responsibilities as a constituent. Even if he’s not a fan of listening, his staff still sees what we submit. They hear our voicemails. Our feedback still shapes what they convey to him. So keep sending your feedback, even to Fetterman.
There are priorities we can pursue today, even before our newly elected lawmakers are seated.
Indivisible’s national organization is asking for members and groups to play an active role in the coming elections for the leader of our Senate Majority. In the campaign “No Schumer Coronation,” we are asking for folks to contact their Democratic senators “to call for an open and transparent process for choosing new Democratic leadership.” You can flex your constituent contact muscles by reaching out to Senator Fetterman about that issue today.
READ: Rep. Ro Khanna Proposes Bold Agenda in Case Democrats Take Control of Both the House and Senate
But the biggest ask I have is for folks to stay involved. We all need a break after this grueling election season, but please come on back to activism after a relaxing pause, because we need each other if we are going to get the better future we’ve all been working towards. We learned a hard lesson here in Bucks County about the cost of disengagement after the 2020 presidential election. A low blue turnout 2021 election cycle ushered in Moms for Liberty onto our school boards, and gave us a MAGA sheriff who put us into that awful 287(g) partnership with ICE. It would be great for us to learn that lesson as a community, and keep pushing forward together.
So let’s stay focused.
Let’s keep in mind the breadth of what is possible when one holds a trifecta like we have here in Pennsylvania, as well as the limits of divided government in DC. Let’s keep communicating with our lawmakers, and keep flexing the powers of collective action via groups like Indivisible.
And above all, let’s all stay involved. Because the possibilities of a Democratic trifecta in DC are right around the corner, but it’s going to take all of us working together to achieve that goal!
