Democrats Are Still Refining Their Midterm Policy Agenda

LEESBURG, Va. — With a chance to retake the House just months away, Democrats know they need to offer a proactive agenda.

“It’s not just enough to be against Donald Trump,” Rep. Maxwell Frost said. “But we have our own agenda that’s actually going to work for our constituents and for working people in this country. To transform this economy, to work for them, not work for the billionaires, not work for the corporations that for years and years and years have exploited us.”

The affordability message served as the political fulcrum of House Democrats’ annual three-day “Issues Conference” retreat at a resort in Northern Virginia. But when reporters pressed lawmakers for the specifics of their legislative road map should they retake the majority in 2027, Democrats said they are still working out the details.

“We will, at the appropriate time, take all the work from here and be rolling out what our agenda is for this year,” Rep. Debbie Dingell, the chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, told reporters.

That’s not to say that Democrats aren’t coalescing around the rough contours of their 2027 plans to lower costs.

House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark riddled off a number of proposals during a Wednesday press conference, including those to cut child care costs to $15 dollars a day and slash health care premiums with a permanent tax credit. She also listed policies decreasing housing costs by building “new affordable homes” as well as shrinking utility bills by “making corporate users pay their fair share.”

“We know it’s not enough to just lay out the issues and what the problems are that we’re hearing,” Clark told reporters. “So our goal is to have simple solutions that we can put out and lay out that vision — that if you give Democrats that gavel back, this is exactly what we’re going to do.”

But Clark left reporters with a cliff-hanger about precisely what those solutions would look like or how they would be packaged, adding simply: “Stay tuned.”

Democrats have doubled down on “affordability” as the cornerstone of their 2026 messaging since last year’s election wins in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City, where the focus helped campaigns for both progressive and centrist candidates. The Virginia gubernatorial winner, former moderate Rep. Abigail Spanberger, centered much of her campaign on that platform. She spoke to House Democrats on Wednesday evening about her campaign strategy.

The retreat has historically provided a forum for Democrats to gather and meet with experts to align behind an agenda. Multiple House Democrats told reporters that they expect the specifics of their midterm platform to roll out over the next several months as the party workshops proposals to find areas of consensus between the moderate and progressive wings of the party.

“All of the items are up for discussion,” Rep. Brad Schneider, the chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, told reporters of the status of interparty policy talks.

The New Dems offered reporters perhaps the most expansive and detailed vision for the party’s 2027 agenda at the retreat. In a 13-page policy packet titled, unsurprisingly, the “Affordability Agenda,” the largest Democratic caucus in the House outlined a series of proposals to cut the cost of living focused on groceries, health care, housing, energy and caregiver assistance, which members say could garner by bipartisan support.

The packet, which the caucus rolled out earlier this month, endorses policies ranging from permitting reform that accelerates “energy transmission and generation infrastructure” to codifying “universal pre-K access to support working families.”

Yet, when a reporter asked a panel of New Dem leadership about its top legislative priority next term, Rep. Nikki Budzinski sidestepped the question, saying, “That’s the work that we’re still to do.”

Schneider said the fact that the Issues Conference focused on the same set of affordability topics as the New Dems is evidence that Democratic leadership has bought in on their blueprint for the party.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also raised “affordability” as the central element of its messaging on the campaign trail.

In response to a question from NOTUS, Rep. Suzan DelBene, the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said even compared to other topics like the unspooling saga around officials’ connections to the late convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, “affordability has been number one, and people are talking about that.”

Even with affordability as the Democratic Party’s north star going into November, Rep. Lauren Underwood, the DCCC recruitment co-chair, said there is plenty more refining to do.

“This week, as we’re here at the Issues Conference, I would characterize what we are working to develop is, like, the closing message that we will roll out to the American people. ”