New DCCC chair Bustos vows to stay on offense in 2020

Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) rose to prominence as one of just a handful of House Democrats from Trump districts. Now, it’s her job to protect — and even expand — that growing caucus.

Bustos, the newly elected chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, ran through the numbers of the new House of Representatives in an interview: Democrats captured a whopping 22 out of 25 GOP-held districts that Hillary Clinton had won in 2016, but they also expanded their ranks in districts President Donald Trump carried from 12 to 31, cementing a House majority.

Bustos’ primary task is to defend that majority. But the four-term Democrat says there is also room for her party to expand: Fully 50 House members won by less than 5 percentage points in 2018 — 24 Democrats and 26 Republicans — and Bustos intends to press into those marginal districts in the next two years.

“Look, I’m not going to be satisfied until half of Congress is women,” Bustos said at the DCCC’s headquarters near the Capitol.

Bustos has ambitious plans for the DCCC, vowing to create a structure unlike any House Democrats have ever “seen in history.” She plans to unveil the first round of members in the DCCC’s Frontline program, which protects incumbents in vulnerable districts, as early as January.

“There will not be one battleground district, not one, that we will leave unprotected or uncontested,” Bustos said. “Any chance we have to pick up a seat, we will go in full force. For all of what we call our Frontline members, the brand new members who are in these tougher districts, we will go in full force.”




https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/06/dccc-chair-cheri-bustos-2020-1058174