Local Races

As a debate about generational change rages the Democratic Party, Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina), who turns 86 this year, hasn’t decided whether to retire but knows whom he’d like to succeed him: his daughter.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) March 7, 2026 at 3:30 PM

At the Washington Post, Buzzfeed / Semaphor alum Kadia Goba tries to bait Rep. Clyburn into betraying himself, or preferably the entire Democratic Party. So he responds sarcastically:

As Democrats debate whether it’s time for a new generation of leaders, one party elder is deliberating whether to run again. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-South Carolina), who will turn 86 this year, hasn’t made up his mind, but does know whom he wants to replace him, should he decide to retire: his daughter, Jennifer Clyburn-Reed.

“You are a daughter,” Clyburn said in an interview with The Washington Post. “What would you think of your dad if you decided to do something and your dad didn’t support you?”

It’s unclear whether Clyburn-Reed would run. There are other figures — some with statewide, and even national, name recognition — would who likely jump in if Clyburn leaves his seat.

In addition to Clyburn-Reed, potential candidates include former Democratic national chair Jaime Harrison; former Biden administration official and Columbia mayor, Stephen Benjamin; state House Democratic leader Todd Rutherford; and former state lawmaker and political commentator Bakari Sellers…

Clyburn’s endorsement has been critical before. He famously gave life to then-candidate Joe Biden’s waning 2020 presidential campaign when he endorsed Biden days before the South Carolina primary. His backing was less effective during the 2024 race, however, as Biden, then the president, faced calls to step aside due to his age…

In the wake of 2024, young and middle-aged Democrats have been increasingly vocal about calling for the party’s septuagenarian and octogenarian officials to retire from public service. And that dynamic is shaping many races in the 2026 primaries.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee), a two-decade incumbent, faces a legitimate challenger in state Rep. Justin Pearson, 31. Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas), 37, has made the need to pass the torch a part of his message against Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who at 78 has spent more than two decades in Congress. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), 47, launched his campaign against Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Massachusetts), 79, by centering the need for generational change…

Clyburn has largely avoided those same calls to step down, and remains well respected on the Hill. As the dean of South Carolina’s delegation, he’s earned the admiration of fellow colleagues who represent the state. Even Rep. Ralph Norman (R-South Carolina), who has hinged a portion of his governor’s campaign on redistricting Clyburn out of his seat, said the lawmaker has respect throughout South Carolina. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) characterized Clyburn as capable.

“He’s spry,”” Mace said. “For an old man, he’s spry. Nobody tells Jim Clyburn what to do.”…

Clyburn was the last of a leadership team that included former speaker Nancy Pelosi and former majority leader Steny H. Hoyer — both of whom are retiring from office after their terms end — to relinquish his leadership role. He stepped down as Democratic whip in 2023 to take on the role of assistant Democratic leader to Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York). Clyburn left that role in 2024, but still serves as ranking member on subcommittee chair on the House Appropriations Committee.

He also leads a fellowship program offering policy and campaign training to the next generation of politicos in South Carolina. Last week, participants heard from Biden for during an hour-long seminar Clyburn said helps bridge the party’s older and young generations. He called it “biblical.”

“That’s what it takes to succeed in life,” he said. “Scripture suggests the young are called because of their strength and the older because of their knowledge. What does it matter to be strong enough to do it and not know enough to do it?”

Or, as the modern saying goes: Youth and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery — just ask any of the many geriatric Republican ‘leaders’ that somehow never get dinged for hanging onto office.

As a parochial sidebar: Seth Moulton is a very nice man who would be a Republican in any state that still elected Republicans. He’s tired of representing the cranky HOA members of his current district (as who wouldn’t be?), but if he doesn’t want to try for the governorship, he’s got no path to moving up in Massachusetts politics. It is very, very unlikely that he will be able to unseat Ed Markey, whose voters love him for his ferocious constituent service skills… but running against The Dem Establishment will, at the very least, allow him to spend the next few years on cushy sinecures, collecting media attention & honorariums while he publicly dings ‘his’ party.

Open Thread: Rep. Clyburn Will Not Be Hustled OffstagePost + Comments (155)

Props to Crockett for keeping her eye on the ball and locking in for what's coming. Anyone thinking of dwelling on the primary should take note.

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— Andy Vitek (@avitek.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 10:55 AM

I am back in D.C. to hear from cruel Kristi Noem on why she is complicit in the chaos happening at DHS, vote on a War Powers Resolution to rein Donald Trump in, and vote against a DHS funding bill that does nothing to address the reckless actions we’re seeing from ICE.
The work continues.

— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@crockett.house.gov) March 4, 2026 at 11:25 AM

We are seeing the best possible outcome that Democrats could want: Talarico gets a clean win and gets a six-week head start while Paxton and Cornyn cut each other up for two weeks.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a…

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— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 10:29 PM

“A perfect storm is lining up for Texas Democrats,” @mmckinnon.bsky.social tells @adamwren.bsky.social. “They have a nominee who can appeal to moderates and soft Republicans. Talarico could be Moses who leads the Lone Star Democrats out of the desert they’ve been in for 35 years.”

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— Michael Kruse (@michaelkruse.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 6:42 AM

From a long, very relevant pre-election thread:

Long thread breaking down the arguments around electability, James Talarico, Jasmine Crockett and how we got to the point where we are tomorrow. So bear with me. I know a lot of people On Here™ think I am anti-Crockett. But I've actually always had an incredibly productive relationship with her. 1/

— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 11:17 PM

I profiled Crockett in 2024 as her star began to rise on the Oversight Committee. Two things stood out to me in this profile: One, she didn't want to initially be on the House Oversight Committee. She wanted Judiciary, but Jamie Raskin convinced her. 2/
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a…

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— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 11:19 PM

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Open Thread: Texas PoliticsPost + Comments (28)

Few, if any, candidates running this year other than Sherrod Brown have as consistent a record of appealing to what’s become a kind of holy-grail constituency for Democrats: the coveted “working-class voter.” I love a good @markleibovich.bsky.social profile.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202…

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— Eric Michael Garcia (@ericmgarcia.bsky.social) February 26, 2026 at 1:08 PM

A little uplift, amidst the endless screaming. From the Atlantic, “Sherrod Brown Is Grinding It Out” [gift link]:

… Brown was sitting in a Toledo coffee shop, having just finished a roundtable discussion about rising health-care costs. A small group of Ohioans had expressed all manner of concerns about how they would afford their medical bills, co-pays, and prescriptions. This was the kind of event that Brown used to do a lot of before he departed the Senate after losing reelection in 2024.

Now that he’s running again, Brown, 73, seems to be satisfying some pent-up appetite for these interactions. He is the same aggressively rumpled figure who was a fixture around the Capitol for more than three decades (seven terms in the House, three in the Senate), and around Ohio politics for five decades. He conveys the frenetic bearing of an over-caffeinated college professor happily returned from a forced sabbatical…

Brown, however, represents a wild card on the national map: He is probably the Democrats’ best hope of flipping a seat that otherwise would likely stay Republican. Few, if any, candidates running this year have as consistent a record of appealing to what’s become a kind of holy-grail constituency for Democrats: the coveted “working-class voter.” Once the cornerstone of the party base, they have abandoned Democrats in droves over the past decade. Despite Ohio becoming more Republican during the Trump era, Brown has had more success getting elected in the state than anyone else in his party over the past 20 years.

While national Democrats are obsessed with finding leaders—ideally new ones—conversant in the language of affordability and economic insecurity, their garrulous guy in Ohio has been around forever, talking about just these things. From what I can tell, the major themes of Brown’s campaign in 2026 are pretty much indistinguishable from those of the 1990s and 2000s.

Brown told me he did not expect to run again this year, but found himself shocked at how quickly President Trump’s second term had devolved. He listed multiple factors: the parade of tech billionaires who were seated prominently at Trump’s inauguration, the “No Kings” protests against the administration, the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. What he didn’t mention is probably the most straightforward explanation for his campaign: wanting his job back…

… Brown started a foundation last year (not a gap year!) called the Dignity of Work Institute. He also wrote an essay in The New Republic titled “Democrats Must Become the Workers’ Party Again,” in which he declared that it would be “my mission for the rest of my life” to help Democrats reconnect with their working-class roots.

But it is perhaps another element of Brown’s appeal that he tends not to get bogged down in hifalutin theories or sociology (his Yale degree notwithstanding). He prides himself on being an unglamorous advocate, who has earned enough trust with enough voters to defy Ohio’s Republican trend lines. At least until he didn’t. Trump’s double-digit victory in Ohio over Kamala Harris in 2024 was too much for Brown to surmount, and he wound up losing to his Republican opponent, Bernie Moreno, by 3.5 points.

“Without Trump on the ballot, Sherrod would have won handily,” Ted Strickland, the Democratic former Ohio governor, told me. Strickland said that Brown’s gritty approach to governance is well suited to Ohio at this moment. “He’s not terribly inspiring in his speaking style,” Strickland said. “But he is who he is. I’ve known him a long time, and he’s been terribly consistent over the years.”…

Everywhere I go in Ohio, I hear the same thing: Ohioans are working harder than ever but still can’t get ahead.

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— Sherrod Brown (@sherrodbrownoh.bsky.social) February 26, 2026 at 7:34 PM

Upbeat Open Thread: Sherrod Brown, Doing the WorkPost + Comments (84)