Democrats are coming off a 2024 beating. Will their rising stars block a Republican trifecta?


Democrats are coming off a 2024 beating. Will their rising stars block a Republican trifecta?

Published 16 November 2024 Coming off a brutal bruising in the 2024 election, Democrats in Washington are poised to play defense for much of the next two years against President-elect Donald Trump and the resurgent GOP. But before they can try to counter a Republican trifecta, Democrats have an important question to answer: Who's in charge? The leader of the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden, will leave the White House in January, and Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to be largely sidelined after her 2024 defeat. On Capitol Hill, both of the party's leaders will be in the minority and have limited power to stop the Trump agenda. As Democrats face a leadership vacuum, lawmakers and organizers told USA TODAY they will find a path forward and have colleagues ready to step up. “We've got to figure out what went wrong," said Jim Manley, a longtime Democratic strategist and former aide to one-time Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. “But in the meantime, we don't have a leader. We've got a lot of people that contribute to the debate." “It's going to be really important to give the next generation of leaders a bigger microphone, because I think we've seen the last generation just can't cut it,” added Amanda Litman, a former Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaign staffer and now the co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, a progressive organization recruiting and supporting young candidates. Who are the rising Democratic stars set to go toe-to-toe with their Republican colleagues and the Trump administration – at least until the 2026 midterms and the start of the 2028 presidential campaign? And how will they work with Republicans to try to avoid government shutdowns and pass pivotal legislation? Here's what to know.