Dems face closing window for legislative wins before midterms shut down House, Senate floors

The midterm elections are less than seven months away and the window is quickly closing for Congress to add to its list of accomplishments before business largely shuts down for campaign season. 

That makes next several weeks key for congressional Democrats who want wins to tout on the campaign trail. The Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation, the March 2021 American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure bill are their major achievements so far. 

But it’s not clear how much more they can actually pass with partisanship and campaigning soon to take precedent over deal making and legislating. And it’s even murkier whether any congressional action wins could actually make a difference with voters in the fall. 

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“They can spend a lot of time praying that the Fed figures out the right thing to do,” on inflation, University of Virginia Center for Politics Larry Sabato said what Democrats can do to boost their chances in the midterms

That’s because average Americans, Sabato said, “don’t follow Congress. They have no idea what they’re doing. They get impressions.” 

But R Street Institute senior fellow for governance James Wallner said members of Congress aim to use votes they take to create those impressions in voters through their campaign rhetoric. 

“Members are gonna seize on anything they do, and they’re going to try to tout that,” Wallner said. “And members also have a wonderful ability of convincing themselves of certain narratives in their own mind as to the importance of various votes.”

And opportunities for members to do that before the election are quickly running…