Bustos elected to lead Democratic campaign arm

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) was elected chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday, beating out Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Denny Heck (D-Wash.).

Bustos received 117 votes, compared to 83 for Heck and 32 for DelBene.

{mosads}Bustos represents a district where President Trump edged out Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, carrying it by 0.7 percent four years after former President Obama won it by 17 percentage points.

Bustos won reelection this year by nearly 24 points. 

Bustos said she was “humbled” by the support from colleagues, asserting that she plans to work to build on the successes House Democrats saw in the midterm elections.

“Over the next two years, our charge is to build on this progress to fortify our new Democratic Majority so we can deliver bold change for the American people,” she said. “We will do this by placing a new emphasis on incumbent protection while going on offense in the districts where we came up short this year – we must do both.” 

Bustos dropped out of the assistant leader race to run for the DCCC position. She is slated to succeed DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján (N.M.), who was elected Wednesday to serve as the next assistant leader.

Bustos currently serves as the co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee and was the committee’s recruitment vice chairwoman during the 2016 election cycle.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who has been hospitalized with a bacterial infection, dropped out of the race on Wednesday.