The next Congress will include eight members backed by the Democratic Socialists of America or its local chapters, and outsize media attention has been focused on this DSA contingent. But what about Team MBA? At least 19 House Democrats who won last week, including incumbents, have a master’s degree in business administration. The diploma isn’t an ideological credential, but it’s a promising indicator that at least some on the blue side of the aisle understand how firms raise capital, manage risk, price products, allocate resources and compete. An MBA offers an antidote to the DSA fantasy that prosperity can be legislated, or taxed, into existence.
The DSA mostly made blue seats bluer while newly elected MBAs defeated GOP incumbents in battlegrounds. Rep.-elect Rebecca Bennett (D-New Jersey) earned her master’s degree at the Wharton School and became an executive at a digital health start-up after flying helicopters in the Navy. Rep.-elect Paige Cognetti (D-Pennsylvania), a Harvard Business School graduate, worked briefly at Goldman Sachs before becoming mayor of Scranton. Cait Conley received her MBA at MIT after 16 years in the Army and went into the Biden administration. Before challenging Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York), she consulted for an enterprise software company and a firm that makes anti-drone technology.
The Senate offers another good example. Political junkies know Sen.-elect Josh Turek (D-Iowa) as a Paralympic gold medalist. He also earned an MBA from the Keller Graduate School of Management, part of DeVry University, and worked for Numotion, a provider of customized wheelchairs.
This new crop is partly the result of recruitment efforts. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington), who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, earned her MBA at the University of Washington. She spent 12 years at Microsoft, helped launch drugstore.com and served as CEO of a software company before winning a House seat in 2012.
In the current Congress, 18 Democrats and 26 Republicans hold MBAs, according to the clerk. But 11 of the 26 Republicans will not return next year, and the number of incoming GOP members with the degree isn’t clear.
Possessing an MBA does not automatically translate into having economic common sense, of course, and too many business executives have a misplaced faith in central planning or develop a dependency on government subsidies. But the essential insight needed for any Democrat trying to deliver on promises to make life more affordable is that economic growth is not a zero-sum contest between workers and businesses. When companies do well, so do their employees and the communities where they operate. MBAs are far more likely to understand this intuitively than left-wing ideologues marinated in the us-versus-them politics of grievance and redistribution.
The DSA is explicit about its ambitions to nationalize large corporations and industries such as energy and transit. Republicans have eroded confidence in capitalism by straying from historic principles of free markets and limited government. Too many on the right have embraced tariffs and state ownership of private enterprises. It’s unclear how many MBAs will remain next year in the House GOP Conference. But network exit polls last week showed that 56 percent of voters nationally viewed capitalism favorably, compared with 33 percent for socialism.
The New Democrat Coalition, which identifies as pro-growth, pro-innovation and fiscally responsible, counts 114 members in the current Congress. Its ranks next year are projected to expand to 142. These folks can serve as a counterweight to the roughly 105 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, though there is some overlap between the groups. If Democrats want to preserve their majority, they would do well to focus on making markets work rather than trying to usurp them.
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