ICYMI Transcript: New Democrat Coalition Holds Press Conference Introducing Leadership for 119th Congress & 23 Members-elect
As New Dem Chair Kuster prepares to retire, Rep. Brad Schneider will serve as the Chair for the 119th Congress, Rep. Nikki Budzinski, Salud Carbajal, Josh Harder, and Marc Veasey will serve as Vice Chairs, and Rep.-elect Kristen McDonald Rivet will serve as the Freshman Leadership Representative
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Today, the newly-elected New Democrat Coalition Leadership team – including Chair-Elect Brad Schneider (IL-10), Vice Chairs-Elect Nikki Budzinski (IL-13), Salud Carbajal (CA-24), Josh Harder (CA-09), and Marc Veasey (TX-23), and Freshman Leadership Representative-Elect Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08) – joined outgoing NDC Chair Annie Kuster (NH-02) and the Members-elect of the New Dem freshman class to discuss the Coalition’s role in the upcoming 119th Congress.
You can read a full transcript of the press conference below:
Chair Annie Kuster:
Good morning, everyone! Thank you for joining us as we announce our New Dem Leadership team for the 119th Congress and welcome our 23 New Dem Members-elect.
I’m Annie Kuster and I’ve served as the Chair of the New Democrat Coalition for the last two years, and have represented New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District since 2012. Before I turn it over to our next Chair Congressman Brad Schneider and Vice Chairs, I would like to say a few words about my experience with New Dems.
I’ll be retiring at the end of the year, and I couldn’t think of a better way to cap off my career on Capitol Hill than lead what I like to call the “Can Do Caucus”.
Over the last decade, I’ve seen our organization reach new heights. Not only are we bigger than ever, representing over half the entire House Democratic Caucus with 108 Members, but our Membership is more diverse than ever, and that is where our caucus’ true strength lies.
From coastal and rural communities to suburban and urban districts, New Dems’ different backgrounds and shared common sense approach to politics is what makes this organization so powerful. Let me be clear: there’s a reason New Dems’ ranks are growing, even during a tough year for Democrats.
New Dems’s pragmatic approach to politics and economy-first messaging worked in red, blue, and purple districts alike. As a result, New Dems have denied House Republicans an effective governing majority for the upcoming Congress.
As we look to the next two years and the future of the Democratic party, we should learn from the New Dems who delivered both inside and outside of Congress by focusing on the issues that matter most to the American people – including lowering costs, improving public safety, and securing our border.
I am so proud of the work we have accomplished together, from the CHIPS and Science Act to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and Inflation Reduction Act, and look forward to seeing how our Members build on and protect this progress.
Now, it is my honor to pass the torch to the next Chair of the New Democrat Coalition, Brad Schneider, and the next Vice Chairs, Nikki Budzinski, Salud Carbajal, Josh Harder, and Marc Veasey!
Chair-Elect Brad Schneider:
Good morning. I am so pleased to be here. I am honored and excited to have been chosen by my colleagues as the Chair of the New Democrat Coalition in the 119th Congress. I want to first thank my predecessor, Annie Kuster, for her extraordinary work in leading the New Dems throughout the 118th Congress, keeping us united in a common purpose, a united cause, and working to make a significant and positive difference for the American people.
I also want to congratulate our incoming Vice Chairs. Being a Vice Chair for the past term has been a great honor and privilege. I was happy to join Sharice Davids, Salud Carbajal, and Derek Kilmer, and I'm excited in the coming Congress to be working with Nikki Budzinski, Salud Carbajal again, John Harder and Marc Veasey, as well as our Freshman Representative, Kristen McDonald Rivet. This is a fabulous team that I know is going to do fabulous things leading the New Democrat Coalition.
As Annie mentioned, New Democrats – as the tide flowed against us in the recent election – for the New Dems, we pushed forward. In fact, New Dems not only helped reelect 85 of our returning members, we’re bringing in 23 – or maybe 24, or maybe 25 – new members of the Coalition.
We will total 108 to 110 members of the Coalition in the new Congress for the first time, meaning New Dems will be a majority of the Democratic Party. New Dems message and our ability to listen to and hear what voters were telling us – to understand what they wanted us to do in Washington to make their lives at home better – is the key to our success. And I think having that understanding, and the breadth and diversity of our Coalition, is going to help us bring Democrats back into the majority in the next Congress in 2026.
We know what voters are looking for. We know how to tackle their challenges.
New Dems have long been the caucus, the coalition that gets things done, that rolls up our sleeves. We work with the entire Democratic caucus, and we reach our hands across the aisle to find solutions – bipartisan solutions – that serve our nation. But we've also always been the majority makers, and we'll continue to do that. I look forward to doing that in the future.
I also look forward to supporting our leadership. Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar. They held our Caucus united over the last two years, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so in the 119th Congress. And I can speak for all 108, 109, or 110 new Members – we stand united with our leadership and are excited to work with our entire Democratic caucus, to put the interests of our nation first and foremost, to stand up to the extremism we see from the other side, to hold this administration accountable, to protecting the Constitution, to observing our laws, and to treating all Americans as a part of the fabric of our nation, and people that we can celebrate and protect. Our diversity is our greatest strength, our unity is always our greatest power.
I welcome everyone here who is a part of this new Coalition. We have 23 confirmed new members, hopefully two more. They bring a wealth of experience. They bring a whole host of new ideas. They're going to make the New Democrat Coalition even stronger.
All of our members will have a chance to succeed. We will help them shine. We will help them make sure that they advance the interests and priorities of the districts they represent. The New Dems are at the center of the future for the Democratic Party, and will be at the center of moving our nation forward. Thank you very much.
Vice Chair-Elect Nikki Budzinski:
Good morning, it's great to be with everyone today. I'm excited to have this new opportunity to serve as the New Dems Vice Chair for Policy in the 119th Congress. I want to first of all say a huge thank you to our Chair, Annie Kuster, she has been a tremendous leader for all of us. And I'm looking forward to continuing in a leadership role in building on the great work she did.
Since arriving in Congress, New Dems quickly became a home for me, both because of my incredible colleagues, but also the practical approach – often bipartisan – of finding common sense solutions to the challenges and opportunities we face at home.
In this next Congress, I believe New Dems are well positioned to continue to grow our influence and ability to produce results. It's why I decided to run for Vice Chair of Policy for the New Dems, as I've worked my entire career to try to bring people together, to the table, to find common ground.
As New Democrats, we believe in working across the party aisle, focusing on the issues that matter most to working people, and delivering real results. And that's even in the minority. As Vice Chair, I will be working with our leadership to find the opportunities to play offense next Congress.
We will always fight back to defend our freedoms, of course, but I also believe we can continue the work to find common ground with our colleagues. New Dems, also, I believe, must be forward-looking. This Congress, we should be preparing a legislative agenda that is also actionable in 2026, when we take back the House majority.
We can do this by building on the tremendous work of the 10 Task Forces, that our New Dem Coalition was able to complete and make clear recommendations – often bipartisan – in this Congress. I look forward to collaborating with my fellow Vice Chairs and with the leadership of our new Chair, Brad Schneider. Thank you so much.
Vice Chair-Elect Salud Carbajal:
Good morning. First and foremost, I want to thank our former Chair – not former yet, but outgoing Chair – Annie Kuster for her past service and leadership really elevating New Dems to what we are today. Thank you Annie for your service, thank you for your leadership.
I look forward to working with the new Chair, Brad Schneider, who’s going to bring a lot to the table, and my fellow Vice Chairs: Nikki Budzinski, Josh Harder, and Marc Veasey.
The results of this election are clear: the New Dem playbook and agenda are the direction we need to go as a Democratic Party. Don’t forget: if the remaining two California seats flip, Republicans will have a one seat majority in the first 100 days, thanks to New Dems.
New Dems are stronger than ever, but we are not here just to be the “party of no” with the new Administration. I was the freshman New Dem standing here 8 years ago – I remember 2017 and 2018 too well. New Dems used those years in the wilderness to develop ideas and present an alternative vision for governing. Those ideas won us the majority, went on to form things like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS Act, and I can go on.
We will work with anyone who wants to govern, to build a better future for the American people.
Vice Chair-Elect Josh Harder:
Good morning. Thank you. This may be a summer breeze in New Hampshire or Chicago, but this is freezing cold all for those of us in California. So I'll be very brief. It's an honor to be the Vice Chair-Elect for Member Services, and I'm thrilled to have a chance to work with our new chair, Brad Schneider and my fellow Vice Chairs.
I've lived the values of the New Dems every day. When I first got elected in 2018 we flipped the Republican held seat with the backing of the New Dem Coalition, and I've had a chance to spend the last two years as recruitment co-chair alongside Representative Pat Ryan. And so it's so exciting for me to be standing up here with many of our 23, hopefully 25 as you keep hearing, incoming New Dem Members that I think are going to bring so much energy, vitality and wisdom to our Congress this year.
I'm excited about this role and the future of New Dems for a couple reasons. First, I think there is no chance, given the dysfunction on the other side of the aisle, that anything can really happen or move forward without working with the New Dem Coalition and Members of our caucus.
We're going to be a huge part of what governance looks like over the next two years. I believe we also will be at the heart and center of the effort to retake the house in 2026 and also to make sure that we have a Democratic Party that is listening to our voters, that is responsive to their concerns, and is putting the values and principles of the folks right here behind me, at the heart of what we're going to be doing as a Democratic Party in the years to come.
That's exactly what the news has been focused on. That's why we're so successful in growing our caucus and coalition to now be for the first time ever, a majority of Democrats in Congress. And so I'm so excited that our Coalition is stronger than ever. I look forward to working with all of you and the 119th Congress, and let's go out and get it done. Thank you, with that, I'll leave it over to our Vice Chair-Elect Marc Veasey.
Vice Chair-Elect Marc Veasey:
Thank you very much. Good morning – buenos dias – to each and every one of you, it is great to be out here with you this morning. And before I get into my comments, I would like to first of all say that it has been a privilege and an honor to serve under Annie Kuster’s leadership. She was my classmate in 2012, we are going to miss her. She has been a great leader for New Dems, and I look forward to also serving under my other classmate, Brad Schneider from Illinois, who has been a long time friend and who is going to do a great job at leading this organization.
I've been honored to be chosen as Vice Chair of Communications for the upcoming Congress for the New Dem Coalition. I want to first of all thank the people of the Fort Worth-Dallas area that have elected me once again to serve in Congress in the 33rd Congressional District. I got to tell you, I'm very proud of this leadership that we have here in New Dems, from California to the Midwest and New York. We have everyone here, this Coalition that we've built that is really going to be a real player in the 119th.
And I think that the results of this election show our message resonates nationwide, from small business owners to working families, blue collar workers. New Dems did well across the board, and despite a challenging map, we emerged even stronger, with 108 Members, including over 20 freshmen, and the potential, as was pointed out earlier, for us to add even more to those numbers.
America wants pragmatic leadership, and New Dems is what offers pragmatic leadership here in Washington, DC. Look, there's going to be a razor thin majority and several races, again, still have been uncalled. And so it's essential that our colleagues work across the aisle with us on policies that will improve the lives of everyday Americans, and that includes creating better paying jobs that Americans want. That means lowering energy costs; that means rebuilding our infrastructure; making sure that there's access to quality healthcare for each and every American family; and we have to absolutely push back on any of the disastrous economic policies that Donald Trump and Elon Musk have talked about.
When Musk says that the economy has to suffer in order to get better, that's absolutely ludicrous, and we're going to fight against that. And we will always stand firm to defend our Democratic values, especially against extremism, and we absolutely have to make sure that we do whatever we can to make sure that people have equal access to the polls. And so I'm excited to help lead this Coalition. As the largest Democratic Caucus in the House, we are ready to lead on priorities that matter the most to Americans, while combating extremism that threatens the values that each and every one of us hold dear. And so with that, thank you very much.
Freshman Leadership Representative-Elect Kristen McDonald Rivet:
My name is Kristen McDonald Rivet, and I have the honor of being the representation from the freshman class to the New Dems.
I'm going to start by saying that it's been a long two weeks of orientation, and my voice is barely there, so my comments are going to be short. But, on the very first day where I announced my campaign in a battleground state, in a battleground district, one of the very first phone calls I received was from Chair Annie Kuster. As a state senator, I have been a middle of the road, pragmatic, let's-get-some-things-done kind of legislator, and I immediately knew I had my home in the New Dems.
What we know is the American people are very frustrated with our political process as a whole. They want to see things move forward. There is a very real economic pain happening across the country, and especially in Michigan, and especially in my district.
When I arrived here in Washington, I was so pleased and excited to meet my fellow Members who are amazing. We have small business owners, doctors, prosecutors, people who have lived the life like their constituents that they are representing, who care very much about the direction of our country and ensuring that every single person in the country has an opportunity to get to and stay in the middle class. And at the end of the day, that is why we are here.
So there will be a lot of partisan bickering, there will be these dramatic moments. But what we know is that many of those are distractions, and we're here to get something done. Thank you.
Chair Annie Kuster:
Great, thank you everybody. As you can see, I’m handing off to an outstanding team.
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