Haley Stevens was among the many women galvanized to run for Congress after Donald Trump’s election in 2016.
Eight years later and with Trump back in office, the Michigan Democrat is tasked with helping her party flip the House as the head of the campaign arm of the largest Democratic coalition in the chamber.
Stevens, now a fourth-term congresswoman, is hoping to be a “steady and stable force” within the Democratic Caucus while leading the New Democrat Coalition Action Fund.
“What we’re looking at is, frankly, how we get back into the governing chair and how we hold gavels,” she told reporters at a pen and pad last week. “It really is going to be through the New Democrat Coalition.”
With a membership totaling 110, the coalition, known around Capitol Hill as the “New Dems,” sees its members as crucial to winning the House, which Republicans now control by a thread-bare majority. Ten of the 13 House Democrats in seats that Trump carried in November are coalition members, and there’s likely to be more overlap later this year when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee releases its initial list of “Frontline” members, who are defending competitive seats.
“In a year when the tide went out for Democrats, the New Dems swam against the tide and actually grew our ranks,” said Illinois Rep. Brad Schneider, the coalition’s chair. “That’s a reflection of the message that we’re delivering to the American people. Understanding that we’re the ones that roll up our sleeves and get stuff done, but we’re also the ones who are [in] those swing districts.”
The group is trying to elevate its members as Democrats try to move forward in the second Trump administration. But politically, other groups are also trying to make their mark in the fight for the majority. Justice Democrats, an outside group with ties to the party’s progressive wing, recently indicated it would look for candidates to run in primaries for open seats and for safe blue seats.
Contending with Trump
Stevens, who worked in the Obama administration on the team that helped to rescue U.S. automakers from bankruptcy, was first elected to Congress in 2018. She flipped an open swing seat in the Detroit suburbs as Democrats rode the “blue wave” to win control of the House.
Four years later, redistricting turned her seat into a Democratic stronghold, but first, she had to get through a member-vs.-member primary fight — and won by double digits.
But while Trump’s first election was a strong motivating factor for Stevens and many other Democrats elected in 2018, their party’s response to his second White House win has so far been more muted. There hasn’t been the same Democratic “resistance” that greeted the president eight years ago.
Instead, Democrats are trying to chart a new course in the face of unified Republican control of government as the party looks to win back voters who supported Trump in November.
“Midterms are a different game,” Stevens told reporters last week, “and it’s a different electorate that comes out.”
Democrats hope to follow past midterm trends that have seen the party out of power having a strong election cycle, just as they did in 2018. But Stevens acknowledged that the past is not always prologue.
“A lot is still untold right now. It is really early days,” she said in an interview. “We know we’re going into the first 100 days of this administration. There’s just going to be broad, sweeping actions around policy.”
Stevens pointed to a few states where Democrats see pickup opportunities based on last November’s results: New York, where Democrats clawed back a few seats after a disappointing 2022 midterms; Michigan, where Republicans flipped a key open seat; and Pennsylvania, where Republicans ousted two Democratic incumbents.
Tariffs, Stevens said, and other economic issues that affect peoples’ daily lives could emerge as strong issues for Democrats this cycle just as health care was key to the 2018 midterms.
California Rep. Josh Harder, who said his Trump-voting district swung nearly 15 points in the president’s direction between 2020 and 2024, cited the Republican agenda as a potential influence on voters’ choices, even if they backed Trump last year.
“Republicans seem to be banking on the fact that this realignment is going to be permanent. It’s going to be up to us to win back our voters and I think that is imminently still possible, especially when I look at the actual governance agenda that we’re starting to see,” said Harder, who is also a New Dems vice chair.
Praise for Stevens
Several of Stevens’ colleagues pointed to her experience flipping a competitive district that will come in handy as she leads the New Dems’ political action committee this cycle.
“She’s someone who brings experience. She’s whip smart and has a way of sharing her perspectives that brings other people to her, which I think is a real key attribute,” Schneider said.
The coalition’s PAC has grown each cycle since its inception in 2005. It raised and spent more than $4 million during the 2024 cycle through Nov. 25, including disbursing $100,000 on independent expenditures, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Stevens said she expects recruitment for this cycle to come from Democrats seeking out strong candidates and others stepping forward on their own. Some conversations have already begun, she said, as potential candidates feel out whether to launch campaigns.
Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene, the DCCC chair and a former head of the New Democrat Coalition, said Stevens was the “exact kind of partner we need” to win back the House.
“I’ve seen firsthand over the years — most recently when she was a Frontline Co-Chair for the DCCC — how committed she is to helping our candidates win, and thoughtful in advising them to be authentic and tireless advocates for working families,” DelBene said in a statement.
Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, the New Dems’ freshman leadership representative who won a competitive Michigan district that Trump carried last year, said it made “infinite sense” for Stevens to move into the role leading the PAC.
“She started running in a really tough district,” said McDonald Rivet, who described her fellow Michigander as practical, straightforward and fun to be around. “She understands what’s important, particularly to working families. She advocates for it really hard, and she brings other people along with her.”
With the number of competitive House districts shrinking after the 2022 redistricting cycle, Stevens conceded that winning the majority won’t be easy. But she remains hopeful.
“When you’ve got states that are sending Democratic senators but voting for Donald Trump, they are thinking about the presidency differently than how they are thinking about the U.S. Senate position and the U.S. House,” she said. “That’s what gives me a lot of hope around holding some of these Trump seats, as well as hope about picking up some seats as well.”
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