Balint, Becca

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    Congressional Freshmen’s First Fight: Landing a Good Office

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    Representatives-elect cheered and sneered as they drew buttons in a lottery that would decide the order in which they could choose their new offices on Capitol Hill.WASHINGTON — Representative-elect Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida, took a whiff of a Vicks nasal stick his mother had given him.Representative-elect Erin Houchin, Republican of Indiana, played “The Final Countdown” by Europe on her phone.Representative-elect Becca Balint, Democrat of Vermont, ran to the front of the room with her arms raised to rally the crowd, only to return to her seat with her head downcast and feet dragging after learning her fate: She would be the ninth-to-last newly elected member of Congress to choose an office.The cheers and sneers filling an ornate room on Capitol Hill on Friday came from 73 soon-to-be freshman House members who were participating in one of the most anticipated events in their orientation to Congress: the lottery for selecting their new offices.The congressional equivalent of a college room draw, the ritual can be a stressful and sometimes raucous affair. It was done in person this week for the first time in four years — the process went remote during the pandemic — and the participants brought back beloved traditions like dancing, chanting and sign-waving for good fortune.A New U.S. Congress Takes ShapeFollowing the 2022 midterm elections, Democrats maintained control of the Senate while Republicans flipped the House.Divided Government: What does a split Congress mean for the next two years? Most likely a gridlock that could lead to government shutdowns and economic turmoil.Democratic Leadership: House Democrats elected Hakeem Jeffries as their next leader, ushering in a generational shift that includes women and people of color in all the top posts for the first time.G.O.P. Leadership: After a midterms letdown, Representative Kevin McCarthy and Senator Mitch McConnell faced threats to their power from an emboldened right flank.Ready for Battle: An initiative by progressive groups called Courage for America is rolling out a coordinated effort to counter the new Republican House majority and expected investigations of the Biden administration.The newly minted lawmakers have spent the last two weeks attending an elaborate orientation in Washington, meeting one another and learning how to navigate the tunnels that snake underneath the Capitol and its surrounding buildings and grounds. They got crash courses in how to set up their offices, but it wasn’t until Friday that they had the chance to actually choose one.“The box we picked from is over 100 years old,” said Representative-elect Wiley Nickel, Democrat of North Carolina, who credited his luck in getting a good draw to refusing to look at the number he had pulled from the mahogany container. “Any time you get to stand in the shoes of people who have come before you is an amazing honor.”The box dates to the early 20th century, when a blindfolded House page would draw marbles for lawmakers. On Friday, newly elected members took turns pulling buttons bearing the numbers that would determine the order in which they could select an available office.Over the span of an hour, they cheered and heckled one another, sneering with envy when a colleague pulled a low number and whooping with schadenfreude when someone pulled a high one.After the draw they left, armed with floor plans, to survey both empty and occupied offices. Staff aides briefed their uninitiated bosses on the pros and cons of each House office building: Longworth, a neo-Classical building lined with Ionic columns, has low ceilings but is more central; Cannon, the Beaux-Arts marble and limestone edifice next door, is the most recently renovated and therefore the most desirable.Representative-elect Max Miller, Republican of Ohio, was among the lucky first few who landed an office there. He waved a single finger in the air for luck as the crowd cheered him on, chanting, “No. 1.” To his surprise, he drew the first pick, eliciting raucous applause.A member-elect drew the number 42 from the mahogany box that has been used for the office lottery since the early 20th century.Kenny Holston for The New York TimesMr. Frost drew a middling 23. He held out hope he could still get a Cannon office, joking to a reporter at one point about starting a dirty-tricks campaign to persuade his colleagues to go elsewhere.“We should talk smack on Cannon,” he said.As Mr. Frost browsed through the halls of Longworth, one staffer warned him that mice run there. He was in the market for a newer office to accommodate his allergies, with a large room for staffers.Representative-elect Robert Garcia, Democrat of California, said he wanted a blue carpet in his office as a symbol of his pride in his party.When members were done shopping, they returned to make their selections, huddling around laptop computers that showed the remaining available offices.Nikki Rapanos, chief of staff for Representative-elect Nick LaLota, Republican of New York, stomped when she heard Representative-elect Derrick Van Orden, Republican of Wisconsin, claim her boss’s top choice: a corner office in Longworth with ample space for staff.Ms. Rapanos had even played “My Way” by Frank Sinatra to channel the spirit of Mr. LaLota, who was not in attendance, and bring her office luck when drawing a number.Representative-elect Seth Magaziner, Democrat of Rhode Island, who drew the fourth-to-last pick, raised both his hands in resignation after the selection. He tried to make the best of his misfortune.“They say the best office is the one you’re in,” Mr. Magaziner said. More

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      With House Majority in Play, a New Class Takes Shape

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      The Republican ranks grew more extreme and slightly more diverse, while Democrats added several young liberals to their caucus.WASHINGTON — Whoever holds the House majority in January, the new lawmakers will include a fresh crop of Republican election deniers, including a veteran who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; a handful of G.O.P. members of color; and a diverse group of young Democratic progressives.As vote counting continued across the country on Wednesday, with Republicans grasping to take control and Democrats outperforming expectations in key races, the contours of a new class of lawmakers began to emerge.It featured a sizable contingent of Republicans who have questioned or denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election, many of them hailing from safely red districts, adding to an already influential extreme right in the House. At least 140 of the House Republicans who won election this week are election deniers, at least 15 of them new additions.A handful of Black and Latina Republicans also won, adding a touch more diversity to a mostly white, male conference — though far less than leaders had hoped as many candidates they had recruited for their potential to appeal to a broader set of voters in competitive districts fell short.For Democrats, the election ushered in younger, more diverse members to fill the seats of departing incumbents. Many of those candidates had held state offices or previously sought seats in Congress and are expected to back many of the priorities of the Democratic left wing.Here are some of the new faces:Kristen Zeis for The New York TimesThe RepublicansJen A. Kiggans, a Navy veteran and state senatorAs a woman with military experience, Ms. Kiggans was regarded by Republicans as a prime recruit to put up against a centrist Democrat in a conservative-leaning area. She defeated Representative Elaine Luria on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, propelled in part by state redistricting that tilted the district more decisively to the right.She focused her campaign narrowly on inflation and public safety, and was bolstered by top Republicans, including Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader who is running to become speaker should his party retake the House, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin. That suggested that she would be more likely to serve as an acolyte to Republican leaders than a thorn in their sides.But though she ran as a mainstream candidate, Ms. Kiggans declined throughout her campaign to say whether she believed Mr. Biden was legitimately elected.Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York TimesDerrick Van Orden, a veteran at the Capitol on Jan. 6.A retired Navy SEAL who rallied at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Van Orden flipped a key seat for Republicans in western Wisconsin, in a largely rural district currently held by Representative Ron Kind, a 13-term centrist Democrat who did not seek re-election.Who Will Control Congress? Here’s When We’ll Know.Card 1 of 4Much remains uncertain. More

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      Becca Balint Wins Vermont House Primary, With the Backing of Bernie Sanders

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      Becca Balint, a progressive leader in the Vermont Legislature who had the support of the state’s most influential political figure, Senator Bernie Sanders, won the Democratic primary for the state’s lone seat in Congress, according to The Associated Press.Ms. Balint, 54, defeated Lt. Gov. Molly Gray, and if successful in November, she would be Vermont’s first female member of Congress. Their contest was seen as a proxy battle between Democrats’ progressive and moderate wings, with Ms. Gray supported by Senator Patrick Leahy, who is retiring.Ms. Balint is seeking an open seat being vacated by Representative Peter Welch, a Democrat who is running to replace Mr. Leahy, 82. Mr. Leahy is the last member of the Democratic congressional wave of 1974, elected after the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate scandal.Vermont’s at-large House seat has not been filled by a Republican since 1992, making Ms. Balint a strong favorite to retain it for her party in November.She will face the Republican nominee, Liam Madden, a Stowe native who is a former Marine and Iraq war veteran, according to The Associated Press.A middle school teacher before she entered politics, Ms. Balint, who is gay, described in a campaign video moving into her home in Brattleboro with her partner (now her wife), across the street from a neighbor with an anti-gay sign. Eventually she made peace, “and the sign came down,” she says in the video.Ms. Balint is the president of the State Senate and is a former majority leader. She supported expansion of gun safety measures and was a lead sponsor of an amendment to the state Constitution to guarantee abortion rights, which will be on the state ballot in November.In her congressional race, she ran on support for a progressive punch list: Medicare for all, the Green New Deal and paid family and medical leave.“We’ve got to bring people together around an agenda that works for all and not just the few, and that’s what Becca’s campaign is about,” Mr. Sanders said while campaigning for Ms. Balint last month.Ms. Balint acknowledged on the same campaign swing that Vermont’s deep-blue lean in federal elections meant the primary was the more important election.“In this race, the race is in the primary,” she told a crowd in Rutland, according to VTDigger. “Whoever wins this primary is going to be the next congressperson, and I hope it’s me.”There were few policy differences between Ms. Balint and her rival, Ms. Gray, though Ms. Balint was seen as somewhat more progressive.Ms. Gray, 38, is a Vermont native raised on a farm in Newbury, and she skied on the cross-country team for the University of Vermont. She was an assistant attorney general for the state and was elected lieutenant governor in 2020. Along the way, she worked as an intern for Mr. Leahy and a congressional staff member for Mr. Welch.Mr. Leahy disclosed that he had voted for Ms. Gray, although he repeatedly said he trusted Vermonters to make their own decisions.Outside progressive groups poured money into the state to help Ms. Balint, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC and the LGBTQ Victory Fund. That support prompted The Boston Globe to ask, “Will the next member of ‘the squad’ come from Vermont?” More