Trahan wins spot on Democrats’ messaging team, replacing Phillips

House Democrats on Wednesday elected Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) to join their official messaging arm, a seat that opened up last month when Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) stepped down from party leadership to challenge President Biden in the 2024 primary. 

Trahan, a third-term lawmaker who currently sits on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, defeated Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) by a vote of 132 to 71 in a closed-door, secret-ballot election of the Democratic Caucus in the Capitol basement.

Her victory fills out the roster of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC), headed by Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), which is charged with honing the party’s message to voters heading into the 2024 elections, when Democrats are hoping to flip the House back to their control.

Neguse has focused his chairmanship on efforts to highlight the struggles facing the majority Republicans — who recently ousted their Speaker and are now scrambling to prevent a government shutdown — and carve a distinction between the GOP’s “dysfunction” and Biden’s legislative track record. He quickly welcomed Trahan to the team. 

“[Republicans] continue to waste time with petty political games — they simply cannot govern responsibly, or in the interests of everyday Americans — and that difference, that contrast, certainly couldn’t be any clearer,” Neguse told reporters Wednesday. “As I’ve communicated to Lori, that certainly makes our job a whole lot easier.”

Trahan, for her part, welcomed the challenge. 

“I ran for this position because I want to do everything in my power to defeat Republican extremism, retake the House and return the American people to the center of everything that we do,” she said after the vote. “We have a remarkable story to tell in between now and the next election.”

Trahan, 50, has a long history in Congress, having previously served as chief of staff to former Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) before joining the private sector as a consultant. In 2018, she ran successfully to replace retiring Rep. Niki Tsongas (D) in Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional District, which borders New Hampshire to the northwest of Boston. She made history in the process, becoming the first Portuguese American woman ever to serve in Congress.

“Certainly, our lived experience is a huge part of our legislative agenda and our priorities,” she said. “I don’t need to read another study to know that better decisions are made when we have more diversity at the table.”

Phillips was a DPCC co-chair before ceding that spot in early October amid his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Trahan now joins the two other co-chairs, Reps. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) and Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), who sit just beneath Neguse.