After sweeping midterm wins, here's what Democrats hope to get done in the majority

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks as House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., look on during a press conference at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee headquarters on Nov. 4, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Democrats will soon have that chance when they take control of the House and the Senate after a rout of Republicans at the ballot box. Most legislation still needs 60 votes to avoid a filibuster to pass the Senate, and President Trump has vacillated between promising to be "Mr. "I want us to get to the work of passing legislation," Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senator-Elect from Michigan, said in an interview last week. But I think you're going to see a whole lot of Republicans thinking twice about whether they want these Medicaid cuts for example to go through." Congress has other tools, like withholding funding for the war through the appropriations process, must-pass legislation that will require some compromise across the aisle despite Democrats now being in the driver's seat, says Molly Reynolds, an expert on Congress at the Brookings Institution. Number three Senate Democrat Brian Schatz of Hawaii, told CNN, "If we want to be more aspirational, if we want to make more bold policy changes … that's for 2028. A new class of progressives is also preparing to join Congress, some who also flipped Republican-held seats. There are Democrats across the spectrum, for example, who want Congress to move on reigning in artificial intelligence and data centers. Brad Schneider, who chairs the New Democrats caucus, said in an interview. As Joel Rutherford, a local Democratic activist in Macomb County, Michigan told NPR in an interview over the summer, "If the Democrats, hopefully, take the Senate and take the House, they better do something, OK?