What a Senate floor clash between two Democrats says about where the party is headed

NBC News

18 hours ago

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., clashed with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., this week when Booker, in a fiery floor speech, tried to block a package of police funding bills as he called for greater resistance to President Donald Trump's policies.
Afterward, Booker alluded to his efforts in the face of criticism from Cortez Masto saying, 'What's bothering me right now is we don't see enough fight in this caucus.'
In an interview, Cortez Masto had her own message.
'I don't need a lecture from anybody about how to take on and push back and fight against Donald Trump,' Cortez Masto said.
She took a shot at 'long speeches' as a form of resistance, calling them ineffective as Democrats seek to win back Congress and eventually the White House. In April, Booker broke a Senate record by speaking for 25 hours, warning of the 'grave and urgent' threat Trump's administration posed to the country.
He posted a personal record fundraising haul after that speech.
'If we really are going to take on Donald Trump, we need to win. It's not long speeches on the floor,' Cortez Masto said. 'It's showing the American public that we're there fighting for them, that we're passing commonsense legislation that they care about.'
Booker's office declined to comment.
The whole spat, a rare intraparty clash that played out in public, is indicative of a larger question vexing Democrats as they look toward the midterms and 2028: Is the party hankering for a fight, or does it just want its lawmakers to get the nuts and bolts done for their communities, even if it means working with Republicans?
Cortez Masto, who also heads ModSquad, a political action committee that works to elect moderates to the Senate, is leaning into a Sen. Lisa Murkowski-like strategy that makes bringing home the goods priority No. 1. Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the deciding vote on Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' because of provisions she believed benefited her state — even as she said she didn't overall like the legislation, which heavily cut Medicaid.
Just this week, Cortez Masto and fellow Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada were the only Democrats to vote to confirm Republican Sam Brown as undersecretary of veterans affairs. Cortez Masto then asked Brown for an update on the construction of a national cemetery in rural Nevada to benefit veterans and their families.
Cortez Masto said the path to a Democratic majority is paved by moderates, those who oppose Trump but still work across the aisle to specifically address their states. She pointed to former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's Senate candidacy and the new ad her group just released. It focuses on Cooper's getting 'stuff done' and doesn't even mention Trump.
"In North Carolina, it's not about Republican or Democrat. It's about what you'll do for our families," the ad says.
To Cortez Masto, who faces re-election in 2028 in a battleground state that Trump won in November, the answer is less about taking hard-line stances against Republicans or disruptions on the Senate floor than about sticking to 'kitchen table' issues that drove the narrative in the last presidential election.
The state of the economy, public safety and health care are among the issues dominating conversations with constituents in her home state of Nevada, Cortez Masto said. Some small-business owners fear closing or facing debilitating losses due to Trump's tariffs, grocery prices haven't relented, and gas prices — nearly $4 a gallon in the Reno area — are still too high (though lower than their peak in 2022), she added.
"Yes, we want to fight Trump and push back on him and hold him accountable and take him on," she said. "But that doesn't mean at the same time we are doing that we are stopping and harming the people in our states."
She didn't think the humanitarian crisis in Gaza or the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files ranked high on the list of issues she would talk about back home.
'If you're asking me is it the No. 1 issue I hear in my state, no, it's not, but do some of my voters care about it? Yes, they absolutely do,' she said of the war in Gaza. On Epstein, she called for transparency while protecting victims but reiterated that she didn't hear her constituents asking about it.
Cortez Masto was among a group of senators who sent a letter to the White House calling for greater action to get aid to people starving in Gaza. But in a sign of support for Israel, she voted against resolutions put forth by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that would block the sale of weapons to Israel.
'The arms sales all already occurred. So it was, most importantly, a symbolic gesture. At the same time, I understand why they're doing [it]. … I don't think we all have to be on the same page for everything,' she said in explaining her vote.
To Cortez Masto, the moderate path means supporting border security but taking a stand against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that she described as 'absolutely extreme.'
'There's fear in my community. I see it. I talk and visit with them all the time. Rightfully so; we have less people going to church, going to school. Some of our workforce are gone. They're too afraid to come forward,' said Cortez Masto, whose state is roughly one-third Latino. 'These aren't hardened criminals. These are people who came to our country for a good life and opportunity. They're paying taxes. They want a better life for their kids. They haven't committed violent crimes, but they're being swept up intentionally by this administration because that's what they want to do, and that's where I think this administration has gone too far.'
Separately, Cortez Masto said she fully supported any Democratic efforts to redistrict and create additional seats in Congress for her party the same way Republicans have done in Texas.
'Right now the process is Republicans are going to redistrict so that they can gain control. The Democrats should, too. Why wouldn't we fight to take control?' she said. 'Does the general public, do we all like the way that redistricting is played for that power? No, we don't, and we should change the laws, ultimately. But they're not changing now."
"The Republicans aren't going to change them," she added. "Republicans are going to benefit, and so until we can gain control and win some of these races, we should be playing by the same rules that the Republicans are using against us and fight back.'