A New Year's Reality Check for Democrats: Vulnerable Democrats tack right on immigration. [View all]

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-new-years-reality-check-for-democrats

Item number one for Mike Johnson and the GOP in 2025? A vote on the Laken Riley Act—an illegal immigration crackdown that would require Homeland Security to detain migrants arrested for burglary, theft, or shoplifting. The quick move from the newly (and narrowly) re-elected Speaker was no surprise. Voters handed the GOP unified control of the federal government in no small part because of their promise to control illegal immigration. And unsurprisingly, the bill received unanimous support from House Republicans—an easy win on an important issue.

More interesting is the fact that the bill was quite bipartisan. Forty-eight House Democrats crossed the aisle and voted for the bill. The overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats voted for cloture and Senators Ruben Gallego and John Fetterman even co-sponsored the bill.

Policy implications aside—and Democrats do have legitimate complaints about the bill’s content (namely protections for Dreamers)—voting for the bill was likely a smart political move. In November, three in four voters cited “the situation at the US-Mexico border” as an important factor in their presidential choice. These voters backed Trump by 24 points. Nearly a third of the electorate cited it as the single most important factor in their vote. These voters backed Trump by a staggering 63 points. For better or worse, Americans are demanding changes to immigration policy and Democrats must respond.

The House Democrats most likely to join their GOP colleagues? Those bound for tough races in 2026. Forty-one of the 48 “defectors” represent districts that voted for Harris by less than ten points. All but two Trump-district Democrats supported the bill (Nellie Pou and Gabe Vasquez were the holdouts). Also among the “yeas” are the strongest performing Democrats—members like Jared Golden, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Frank Mrvan, and Marcy Kaptur. Time and time again they’ve shown that beating the presidential baseline requires bucking the party line on losing issues.

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