The Democrats Who Are Stunned to Find Themselves in Congress
Many, though, had not allowed themselves the luxury of picturing what a victory would bring, because most of them had organized their life around a single date: November 3, Election Day.
Key points
- I didn’t know that we would win,” said Paul Barringer, who flipped a North Carolina district that President Trump had won in 2024 by nearly 17 points.
- For one thing, he had to Google how much members of Congress make ($174,000 a year—more than 10 times what he was paid to serve as mayor).
- But so far 15 Democrats have flipped House seats in districts that President Trump carried by double digits just two years earlier.
He’d bought a bunch of button-down shirts and crammed them into his messenger bag before running back to pose for a photo with the Blue Dogs, a group of moderate Democrats.
Barringer, who lives on a tree farm in Sanford, told us he was exercising in the dark on Election Night when he heard whooping coming from near his house.
Additional details
- Ford, an Indiana state senator who ousted a Republican who’d won by nearly 19 points two years ago, told us.
- “Isn’t it strange for someone who’s 64 years old to be going to freshman orientation?” Hubbard asked us.
- House seat, but never actually pictured himself in Washington as a newly elected member of Congress.
- (Even members of Congress need to figure out their health plan.) “I knew that we could win.
- Orientation for incoming members of Congress is a little like the first day of school.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 1 article from 1 outlet
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.