After Midterm Sweep, Democrats Gather in Denver Split Between Affordability and Accountability

Thousands of Democrats — lawmakers, strategists, pollsters, creators, organizers, staffers and 2028 presidential hopefuls — are trying to answer one question at a three-day gathering in Denver after a sweeping victory in the 2026 midterm elections: what's next?

James Talarico, the senator-elect from Texas, told the 'What's Next' conference on Thursday that Democrats must deliver immediate, bold relief during the affordability crisis.

Hakeem Jeffries, the congressman from New York, said on Friday that the party would have the collective responsibility to get to work fighting for an affordable America, driving down the high cost of groceries, gas and housing.

The consensus at the conference is that Democrats need to act quickly when they become the majority in January. But how is much more complicated, with a looming question over whether lawmakers should focus more on accountability and investigations into the administration, or on legislation to make life more affordable for Americans.

Rob Sand, the governor-elect of Iowa, told reporters on Thursday that the focus should be on delivering tangible economic relief, questioning why things already reported in the media needed further investigation instead of productive action to better people's lives.

Jamie Raskin, the Maryland congressman expected to lead the House judiciary committee, told reporters he believed lawmakers could do both.

A fight is also brewing over party leadership in the Senate. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is challenging Chuck Schumer, the party's longtime leader, as Senate majority leader. Elissa Slotkin, a senator for Michigan, told reporters on Friday that she is not voting for Schumer.

The mood at the gathering, planned months in advance by a new group called Majority Democrats, was mostly celebratory. Attendees reveled in massive wins in longtime Republican strongholds that handed the party sizable majorities in both chambers of Congress and expanded Democrats' control of governorships and state legislatures across the country.

A six-piece jazz band welcomed attendees to an outdoor plaza on Thursday afternoon. Many attendees wore 'Talarico for Texas' shirts and 'Jamie Ager for Congress' pins, others wore 'pay your taxes' hats. Most attendees were young, and many of the organizers and strategists joined Democratic groups or campaigns in or after 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected.

Beneath the excitement, however, was a fear that Democrats would fail to seize the moment. 'We can't fuck this up,' one Democratic strategist said.

Reminders of tensions within the party were present throughout. Leftist protesters interrupted Jeffries multiple times during his Friday event on the main stage, calling him a traitor and accusing him of not pushing back enough on the Trump administration and of ignoring younger Democratic voters. Outside the venue, a small group called on Democrats to reject Schumer and elect new leadership, while a larger group expressed support for Palestine and denounced billionaires.

Anderson Clayton, the 28-year-old chair of the North Carolina Democratic party, questioned why Democrats had not invested in the South, especially in Black districts, saying on Thursday that the party calls Black voters its base yet had not invested in a region that on Tuesday night proved what is possible.

Aftab Pureval, the mayor of Cincinnati, warned Democrats not to take the recent wins as a sign that the party was popular, saying victory has a tendency of clouding judgment and that voters had not come around to the Democrats — they had given the party one more chance to come around to them.

Asked about a potential split between Democratic factions, many attendees dismissed the concerns. Yasmin Radjy, the executive director of the progressive grassroots organization Swing Left, said the progressive–moderate binary was insufficient for understanding the moment, and pointed to talk at the conference about the politics of addition and making sure Democrats deliver in a major way.