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By Analilia Mejia
Congresswoman
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If the polling and news chatter are correct, Democrats are on the verge of a historic win in the House and potentially the Senate. We are winning. But when the time comes, what will we do with the governing power?
The polls have been clear: voters across the country are using our democratic process to express their discontent with an economy that's failing them and are turning away from Trump. Progressive victories point to the frustration felt across the country. Voters may give us a mandate, and the question is: what will we do with it?
Returning to the status quo will not be enough. Voters will not be patient with excuses, nor will they be satisfied with the adage "that's just not how things get done.” If we fail to really address the concerns that keep voters up at night, we risk reinforcing the belief that the system doesn’t work and that nothing in Washington ever really changes.
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History doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but it sure does inform.
In 2020, President Biden won, but economic anxiety continued to fuel voter dissatisfaction throughout his term. By 2024, Kamala Harris’ insistence that there was little daylight between her and Biden only reinforced the sense among many voters that all they could expect was more of the same.
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I saw that frustration firsthand. As co-director of a national network of grassroots organizations that engaged voters before and after the 2024 election, the number one issue expressed at doors was the sense that the economic anxieties of everyday people were invisible to those in power. Renters were struggling with the housing crisis but only heard proposals around homeownership. Seniors on fixed incomes worried about losing ground with ever-rising costs. Young people were increasingly uncertain that they could build a better future.
And as a result, in 2024, a shocking 90 million people stayed home for the election. While not all of them would have voted for Harris, analysis shows that disengagement played a major role in the outcome.
If voters hand Democrats power on November 3, they will expect us to use it.
Voters will rightfully expect accountability and action. For many, tackling the affordability crisis begins with lowering costs at the gas pump and grocery store. Ending this illegal war will be a key factor in achieving that. For others, fighting the culture of corruption and stopping billionaires from further raiding public coffers is top of mind. What's more, my fellow Democrats will be best served if we remember that addressing the affordability crisis is not just about lowering costs; it's about putting more money in people’s pockets. That’s why I proposed raising the minimum wage to $25 an hour, because there isn’t a place in America where you can live on $7.25.
Far from out of touch, these proposals carry strong support.
Recent polling shows 66 percent of Americans support a national health plan, 76 percent say health care should be guaranteed as a right, and 75 percent worry about food affordability, while 83 percent say tariffs raise prices. A September Wall Street Journal poll also found bipartisan support for capping drug prices and credit card interest rates and restricting institutional investors from buying single-family homes.
The American people are not afraid of bold ideas. They are hungry for them. That is the lesson I took from my own election, where even in a special election held on a Thursday in April, 136,000 people turned out.
We must recognize that organized people can beat organized money. And since my race in New Jersey, we have seen that lesson play out across the country as progressive candidates have won primaries up and down the ballot. Voters are practically begging us to reject politics as usual.
But winning differently only matters if we are willing to govern differently.
Six months in Congress have taught me that winning an election is not enough. We have to be willing to fight for the people who sent us here, even when the establishment tells us we can’t.
If voters give us governing power, then we have to govern. Democrats across the ideological spectrum should be prepared to put a popular agenda on the president’s desk and dare him to veto it. Make him explain why billionaires deserve another tax break while working families struggle.
For too long, Washington has taught politicians to think about power as something to hold rather than something to use.
In the short time I've served, I’ve learned that far too many politicians view survival as an individual endeavor. Protect your seat. Protect your title. Protect your donors. Don’t rock the boat. Do just enough without upsetting the apple cart. But that’s not what our voters want, and it sure won’t change the lives of any of our constituents.
In the richest country in the world, working people are choosing between groceries and rent, splitting pills to make prescriptions last, and sending their children to school in shoes with holes, all while we spend billions on an endless war that nobody wants.
This is not the moment for cowardice.
This November, voters may put their faith in Democrats again. We should understand what that faith means. It is not permission to go back to business as usual. It is a demand that we stand up to MAGA extremism and use the power voters give us to materially improve their lives.
We cannot ask people to save democracy every two years while giving them a government they do not believe can change their lives.
If voters entrust us with power, our responsibility is to use it.
And if we expect voters not only to elect us in November but to keep us in power for the long haul, we have to give them a reason to believe their vote changed something.
Democrats cannot just stand by.
I sure as hell won’t.
Analilia Mejia represents New Jersey's 11th District.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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