Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) is ready to negotiate to implement facets of Republican priorities, a move that breaks with his home state’s fierce and public opposition to President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.
California Democrats, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), set in motion costly efforts to resist Trump after he won a second term in November, vowing to spend an estimated $25 million in lawsuits to keep the president-elect’s policies from touching the Golden State.
However, Bera, a Sacramento Democrat, signaled he would not fall in line with his state’s anti-Trump battle plan during a NewsNation interview on Monday. Instead, he suggested voters had given Trump a decisive mandate to enact economic and immigration reforms that lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, should “work together” to pass.
“I think we’re going to try to work with Republicans. My colleague, Mr. Zinke, he just pointed out this is very different than 2017. 2017, I think a lot of us felt like many people didn’t like Secretary Clinton, our nominee, and voted against her and took a chance on Donald Trump. This election, everybody in America knows President Trump’s agenda. He didn’t try to hide anything, and they voted for him,” Bera said.
“I think there’s a deal to be had there, so I’m going to approach this very differently,” he said.
When pressed on whether Democrats would work with Republicans to pass Trump’s priorities, such as renewing his 2017 tax cuts and enhancing border security, Bera agreed. The California lawmaker said that while the entire Democratic caucus is unlikely to embrace compromise, he thinks that if Republicans take a middle-of-the-road approach, Trump can get “40 or 50” on board to help pass his agenda.
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“The American public clearly wants more secure borders. Great. Let’s meet at the 50-yard line. I’d even say, since they’re in the majority, we’ll go to the 40-yard line. But negotiate with us. What does that look like?” Bera said. “If we can negotiate in the middle, I think there’s a deal to be had. I would just say, let’s do it in the context of the debt and the deficit, and that is a major problem.”
Bera was first elected in 2012, flipping a purple district blue and ousting nine-term Republican incumbent Dan Lungren by fewer than 10,000 votes. He handily won his latest election in California’s 7th Congressional District in November.
