What Democrats Should Do if They Take the House Next Year

By Thor Benson | September 23, 2025 | 10:05am

Photo by Martin Falbisoner

Congress 2026 Elections

What Democrats Should Do if They Take the House Next Year

There are many questions surrounding the 2026 elections, including if they will be free and fair, as we’ve previously reported. However, if the 2026 elections do end up being relatively normal, to whatever extent, there’s a good chance that Democrats will retake the House. The Senate currently seems less likely.

“The 2026 elections will be hotly contested. Typically the out party does well against the incumbent president’s party in House elections,” Wendy Schiller, a professor of political science at Brown University, told Splinter. “But with GOP mid-decade redistricting, the bar gets a little higher for the Dems to pick up seats even when they do the same thing in states like Maryland or California.”

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If Democrats do retake the House, what should they do from there? Obviously, they could impeach Trump again for any number of reasons. He’s certainly given them a lot to work with. The Senate won’t convict him, but they could send a message by impeaching him a third time. They can pass legislation, but the vast majority of it probably won’t even get a vote in a Republican-controlled Senate.

Schiller said she doesn’t think impeaching Trump would be a smart move if Democrats retake the House, because it might “galvanize the MAGA Trump base.”

The main things Democrats will be able to do if they retake the House are to prevent Trump from getting legislation passed and launch investigations. They can use their power to slow down his agenda and dig deep into his administration’s actions. Another thing that is being debated by many Democratic voters is the current Democrats leadership in the House and Senate, as many believe House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer have been ineffective in their opposition to Trump.

The Democratic base has made it clear that they’re not happy with the party leaders and might be looking for fresh faces, and that comes as no surprise. At a time when voters are looking for “fighters,” they’ve seen Jeffries and Schumer regularly talking about things like writing “strongly-worded letters” or simply dismissing reckless behavior from this administration as a “distraction.”

However that part turns out, Democrats will have some power to impede Donald Trump if they do retake the House next year, and Trump knows this. One of the reasons this administration has been moving so swiftly implementing its policies is that it knows that it might only have two years to get most of the things it wants to get done accomplished or partially accomplished. Without both chambers of Congress, they can’t solely rely on compliant Republicans to go alone with whatever they want to do. Trump is trying to avoid that fate with his redistricting scheme, but it remains to be seen how that will play out.

What might Democrats investigate if they get their chance? They’ll have plenty they can look at. They might decide to investigate Trump’s corrupt crypto empire, ICE’s abuses of immigrants, the attacks on the media and free speech, the actions of DOGE, the administration blowing up boats in the Caribbean and much, much more.

Voters want to have a discussion about who’s leading the party, they want investigations and they want Democrats to slow down the harmful actions of the Trump administration wherever they can. These are the things that will be expected of the party if they are given back power just over a year from now. The Democrats would be wise to keep these things in mind going forward. First, they’ve got to make sure they win back power in the first place.