Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, has a mantra for the second Trump era: “A rally a day keeps the fascists away.”
Mr. Raskin, who developed a following for his role on the House select committee on the Jan. 6 attack, has attended 52 rallies and marches since President Trump’s inauguration, and regularly speaks at town halls in red districts where Republicans are no longer showing up.
“There’s a regime of fear that’s been brought down on society,” Mr. Raskin said in an interview. “People need to see leaders and organizers standing up and speaking with authority against what’s happening.”
As Mr. Trump approaches the 100th day of his presidency, Democratic leaders in Congress, who were slow out of the gate to stand up to a president unbound, are beginning to find ways of using what little leverage they have to fight back.
Hundreds of lawmakers have signed onto half-a-dozen court briefs challenging Mr. Trump’s unlawful executive directives; others have held “shadow” hearings highlighting administration moves that have trampled on the rule of law and eliminated crucial federal programs. In the Senate, they have used rules to slow down the confirmation of some lower-level administration officials.
Even when they are destined to lose, some Democratic lawmakers have succeeded in spotlighting their resistance to the administration. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey drew outsize attention with a record-breaking, 25-hour speech on the Senate floor, a physical feat of stamina and bladder control that resonated widely — racking up millions of likes on TikTok — even if it did not actually block the president from doing anything.
This week, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland grabbed headlines by flying to El Salvador to press for the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who had been living in his state until he was wrongly deported. The Trump administration has made clear it has no intention of bringing Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is now in a Salvadoran prison, back to the United States, but Democrats cheered Mr. Van Hollen on for showing up and at least trying to put up a fight.
Still, it is not yet clear whether Democrats are making much tangible headway. Mr. Trump’s approval numbers have barely budged despite their efforts to frame his actions as part of an unlawful billionaire takeover of American democracy that is making life more expensive for working people.
And many Democratic activists still want a stronger show of resistance from their leaders in Washington and are convinced that a younger, more combative generation could do better. Many progressives view Senator Chuck Schumer, the 74-year-old New York Democrat serving as minority leader, as out of step and entrenched in the status quo at a time of historic constitutional challenge. They have called for him to go.
“There’s a massive vacuum of leadership available to Democrats willing to take risks to fight Trump,” said Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist. “But social media posts and floor speeches won’t cut it. Voters are watching closely for who’s willing to fight like democracy depends on it — because it does.”
Democrats have been trying to use their limited power on Capitol Hill to do just that.
At one shadow hearing this month, led by Mr. Raskin and Senator Adam B. Schiff of California, the testimony of a former Justice Department pardon attorney, Elizabeth G. Oyer, detailing her abrupt firing received more than half a million views online.
Mr. Raskin said it was “just as good or even better” than an official hearing Democrats could convene if they were in the majority because “we don’t have to waste our time hearing propaganda from Republicans.”
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii has placed holds on hundreds of Trump administration nominees, including a blanket blockade on would-be State Department officials, while Democrats slow down the confirmations of dozens of others. And the party’s progressive stars are on a nationwide “Fight Oligarchy” tour, drawing tens of thousands of supporters at every stop.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of the tour’s headliners, raised $9.5 million in the first three months of the year, an eye-popping number for a lawmaker who has not announced a run for higher office and whose average donation was $21.
Less attention-grabbing have been some modest but meaningful local victories. After a Social Security office in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was listed on the Department of Government Efficiency’s permanent closure list, the district’s congressman, Pat Ryan, teamed up with other local leaders to protest the move and ultimately succeeded in having it spared.
None of it has done much to make a dent in Mr. Trump’s standing or quell frustration that many Democrats feel about their party.
Among Trump voters, 57 percent said the president had performed better than they expected him to, and just 9 percent said he had performed worse, even while the vast majority of all voters said that “chaotic” was an accurate description of his leadership style, according to a recent survey conducted by Third Way, a Democratic group.
Mr. Trump is still getting credit with voters for taking actions, analysts said, even if he is not moving things in a direction that makes life better for them. And working people across the country still do not trust the alternative to Mr. Trump.
“There are a lot of folks in rural areas and red areas that don’t believe the Democratic Party understands their life or respects their culture,” said Representative Jason Crow, the Colorado Democrat who in 2018 flipped his district from red to blue. “Clearly we just can’t be the anti-Trump party. That’s not to say we don’t call him out and hold him accountable, but talking more about what we stand for is really important.”
Mr. Crow said the only way for Democrats to mount an effective opposition to Mr. Trump is to win the midterm elections next year. There is a long-term repositioning of the party that needs to happen, he said, “but the 18-month project is to find the candidates who can fight and win.”
That may not be satisfying for frightened Democrats who are looking for an immediate sign that their leaders in Washington are up to the fight right now. Many activists have vented about Mr. Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader, for failing to do more to stop Mr. Trump — even if they have yet to articulate what more they should be doing.
“What people can learn from Cory Booker and Chris Van Hollen is there is an incredible hunger for putting the body down in the tracks,” said Zephyr Teachout, the progressive Fordham Law professor who has run unsuccessfully for governor and attorney general in New York. “What Jeffries publicly suggests is a kind of impotence. There’s a hunger for leadership and a sense that the two most powerful Democrats aren’t there.”
Mr. Schumer has said repeatedly that his red line for taking “extraordinary action” to stand up to Mr. Trump would be if the president defies the Supreme Court.
But he has yet to explain what “extraordinary action” would look like. And despite the Trump administration’s refusal to comply with the Supreme Court’s order that it “facilitate” the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia, Mr. Schumer has not outlined any extreme measures Democrats plan to take.
David Axelrod, the Democratic strategist who for years has criticized party leaders for their strategies, said the situation they face now is particularly challenging because of Mr. Trump’s brazenness and their lack of power in Washington.
“There’s unrealistic expectations on the part of activist Democrats who want a catharsis,” Mr. Axelrod said. “The truth is the tools are limited. There are consequences to elections, and unless Democrats can take back one or both chambers of Congress, this is largely a rhetorical exercise and a question of where do you focus your rhetoric.”
Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times. She writes features and profiles, with a recent focus on House Republican leadership.
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