Blue Dog Democrats are poised to play a crucial role in the next Congress

By Josh Rogin
Columnist
December 13 at 7:45 PM

The Democratic Party spent enormous amounts of time and money recruiting and supporting moderate, centrist candidates as part of its strategy to take control of the House in last month’s midterm elections — and it worked. Now, these very lawmakers are organizing to assert their influence. If they succeed, they might just keep their jobs and save the Democratic majority in the process.

The Blue Dog Coalition began in 1995 after Democrats lost power in the most stunning electoral defeat of that era. Originally made up of mostly older, white, Southern men, their name was inspired by the iconic yellow-eyed blue dog painted by artist George Rodrigue. A post-Reconstruction adage had stated that Southerners would rather vote for a yellow dog than a Republican. But by the 1990s, Southern Democrats said that yellow dog was being “choked blue” by the extreme sides of both parties, hence the name Blue Dogs.

The forming principle of the group was that fiscally conservative, national-security-minded Democrats needed to stick together — and occasionally stick it to their own party’s leadership — to survive and get stuff done. But the Blue Dog Coalition will look a lot different in 2019 than it did in 1995: It now includes Northerners, young people and veterans. It is led by an Asian American woman who served in the Pentagon and just won her first reelection in a purple Florida district that supports both gun control and gay rights.

“The makeup of our coalition has changed,” Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) told me. “It’s not your Southern Democratic Blue Dog Coalition anymore.”

-snip-