This rising House Democrat is a voice for the angry middle - Ignatius, WaPo [View all]

The day after Democrats swept this month’s voting, a group of jubilant Democratic congressional candidates gathered on Capitol Hill to listen to Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado) explain how they could triumph in next year’s midterm elections, too. Crow, dressed in jeans, boots and an open-necked shirt, urged them to campaign next year as if they were running for mayor: Be local, be authentic, don’t listen too much to campaign consultants, he argued, and be ready to separate from an often-unpopular national Democratic Party brand.

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Crow illustrates a new approach — let’s call it the angry middle — that could dispel the sour taste many Democrats feel after this week’s retreat by Senate moderates to end the government shutdown without a win on health care. He told me this capitulation was a “massive mistake.” But at the same time, he credits President Donald Trump for connecting with working people, changing trade policies and trying to avoid no-win wars like the ones Crow fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The gathering at the National Democratic Club was a snapshot of how Crow thinks the party can return to its working-class, pro-defense roots — while also mobilizing young voters seeking change. The group arrayed around him included a farmer, a part-time waitress, an emergency room doctor and a half-dozen veterans. They all said they planned to follow Crow’s advice and focus on local issues — and they all seemed convinced that their GOP-held districts were “flippable.”

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I’ve been spending time with Crow — we’ve done a half-dozen interviews over the past few months — because I think he should be taken more seriously as a leader in the Democratic Party, perhaps even a presidential candidate. One sign of his rising profile is that he was supported by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (New York) to be a co-chair of 2026 candidate recruitment for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In our conversations, he seemed like someone who might bridge the huge gap between the party’s centrist and progressive factions.

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Crow bluntly described this Democratic Party failure during one of our conversations: “There is a perception that Democrats talk down to certain folks in this country. There is a perception that Democrats are weak and scared of their own shadow, and you see that playing out in elections. We have lost vast swaths of rural America and working-class America, largely because of the way we’ve communicated with folks.” Crow’s task over the next year will be helping to find candidates who can flip the roughly 35 Republican-held districts that party strategists see as winnable. He cautions that this will require intense local focus: “Folks in those districts are not going to go to the ballot box and say, ‘Wow, the Democrats are just totally crushing it right now.’ … You win by having great candidates with local messages.”

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https://wapo.st/47ZU95F

free. I hope