Politics for the National Journal and she covers washington and politics for the washington the articles of impeachment will be delivered on tuesday. Did you look at the 435 house seats up for grab, from the democratic perspective will impeachment be a factor in democrats keeping the majority in congress . Bethe biggest factor will that we right now have 42 freshman in the Democratic Caucus who were in some of the toughest districts anywhere in the country who have proven themselves to understand what is important back home. Before we started airing this we talked about something i do at home called supermarket saturday. You can multiply that by all of these freshmen who go home and do things, whether they call it supermarket saturday, they are using their two ears and one mouth proportionately. The people want health care, not impeachment. They stay hyper local focused. Isn i advise anybody who running for congress or anybody who will be running for their first reelection i always say run your office like you are a mayor and run your Campaign Like you are running for mayor. Everything has to stay hyper local. Impeachment is not hyper local and it is not a thing people sit around and talk about day in and day out when they dont have Health Insurance and cannot afford to go fill their prescription at walgreens after they leave the doctors office. They are having to work two or more jobs without benefits just to make ends meet. It is not the number one issue that people talk about back home. Our freshman members of Congress Know that very well. They are staying focused on what matters. Take why did you decide to on this added responsibility as the chair of the dccc . Greatustos to have a time. I come from a Congressional District natalie has been to my district. Early in your career you worked in the Congressional District i am from at a tv station. I represent the northwest corner of the state of illinois. In illinois we have 18 members of congress, 13 are democrats and five are republicans. 12 of the 13 are from chicagoland. I am the 13th. I am what is called a downstate illinois in. Thes by the nature and makeup of downstate illinois is more rural and much more republican leaning. I served in a district that it hastrump won, moved 18 points from president obama to President Trump in 2016. Last year i won by 24 points. The biggest margin of any democrat in the country in a trump district. I share that background because this was the first year in the history of the Democratic Caucus where we had a competitive race to figure out who is going to chair the democratic campaign. I would argue that my colleagues wanted somebody in this position who understands how to win in the tough districts. We have one of the biggest freshman classes in about a generation, but certainly the 42 people that i mentioned who are democrats in the u. S. House of representatives are from tough districts. I happen to be one of the 31 from the trump district. Colleagues thought i was as far as why i wanted this, i wanted to hang on to this majority that i consider a fragile majority. Job is why i wanted this and i hope beyond hope that we can be successful in november of 2020. Host let me turn to natalie. Natalie on the impeachment, some of those 30 lawmakers in the districts that trump won they campaigned on working with the president and are the fastest to criticize the president. How should they be talking about impeachment in their districts in a way that resonates with people who may still vote for trump in the fall . I would argue again, if you come from a trump district it is not like we leave washington dc and fly home to our districts to talk about impeachment. We talk about it when it is asked of us. We want to talk about our legislative successes. You get back to what i talked about and what matters to people. I know a lot of your viewers know this, we have passed more than 400 pieces of legislation the vast majority of them bipartisan. If i can draw attention to one we passed one of the most momentous pieces of healthcare legislation in many years. Something that allows medicare for the first time in the history of medicare be able to negotiate the price of Prescription Drugs. When you drill down on that peaceful legislation it caps the outofpocket expenses for seniors at 2000. It allows for the United States to not be totally out of sync with like countries in the prices they pay for Prescription Drugs. It puts us on more of a level playing field. Billion dollars in savings by negotiating these prices of drugs. We funnel much of that back into medicare. Thenhe first time we would provide hearing, dental, and vision care for those on medicare. The prices that we negotiate trickle down to anybody who was insured. Just one of the pieces of legislation, the 400 plus pieces of legislation that are gathering dust on Mitch Mcconnells proverbial desk. I dont know what he does with these bills. I can tell that he is not acting on them. The call to action for americans is to ask Mitch Mcconnell to act on meaningful legislation. Whether it is cleaning up corruption in washington or making sure that people can afford Prescription Drug costs. It is out of control and we are doing something about that. This is a long way of saying how we talked about impeachment. You talk about what matters to people. Impeachment is not usually the first thing on peoples minds when you go to a district like i represent. I was going to ask how you talk about these 400 bills when they are unlikely to pass the senate. Do you feel i constituents understand that they are getting legislation done, even if it is not bipartisan it is not likely to become law . Rep. Bustos as far as understanding it, people are busy with their lives. Obsessed with washington, d. C. Like members of congress who go to washington for every session or members of the media that cover us nonstop. They are busy at their two jobs and figuring out how to afford insulin for their diabetic twoyearold. They are trying to navigate life. The answer to that is we were hyper focused on bringing down the cost of health care, of making sure that we do something about cleaning up the dysfunction in washington, d. C. And that we play a part in bringing peoples wages up. We all ran on that going into 2018. Whether you are a brandnew member of Congress Running for the first time or somebody who is running for the fourth or 10th term. Democrats all ran on that. We have delivered on our end of the bargain. Mitch mcconnell, who has called himself i cannot imagine taking pride in this, calling himself the grim reaper. Taking pride in killing meaningful legislation. The call to action for americans is lets ask Mitch Mcconnell to act on the meaningful pieces of legislation that would bring about real change. I cannot be more serious about that. I am not trying to be hyper partisan about this. The democrats who serve in the swing districts. I can tell you that we worked very hard to work in a bipartisan fashion. The vast majority of the 400 plus bills. 275, were passed in a bipartisan fashion. Turn to josh from the National Journal, he is a politics editor. I know you want to focus on breadandbutter issues, but a lot of voters care about impeachment. According to a new poll it is showing that impeachment in the swing districts is not all that popular. I know youre district is next to iowa. A poll from the Des Moines Register showed only 30 of voters support impeachment and that state has three swing district democrats in the top races in 2020. How worried are you that you you have how worried are that impeachment will be a real liability come november . Rep. Bustos everybody who cast the vote for the articles of impeachment did it in a very somber and serious way. We read the articles of impeachment thoroughly and we have followed the report that came out of the Intelligence Committee and the judiciary. Everybody went into this with no sense of glee or joy. We cast the votes we did because in whatved to our core the Founding Fathers set out to make sure that we accomplished. Whether you are a senator or a house member. You wouldws have to not be paying attention at all if you did not know that we impeach the president of the United States and now these articles will be sent over to the senate. I am telling you that people are not obsessed about this. Nearly everye weekend when you are not in congress, like these freshmen do week after week and listen more than you talk and take what you have learned and go back out to washington dc and make sure you understand those issues and that you are supporting people. We have done that with these big bills that i talked about. A brandnew freshman member from california who is focused on what is called a swamp rat, this great big ugly no offense to the animals but these things are ugly he brings this giant stuffed swamp rat to hearings to tell people this is a local issue that i am going to address. They are ruining crops for local farmers. Or people like Joe Cunningham out of South Carolina , a freshman in the trump district who is focusing on offshore drilling. He is getting real results on that. Remainingk with the time we have left about impeachment. I will keep getting back to our freshmen are doing what it takes to be successful. They will have the resources to make sure they can tell people back home what they have accomplished and what they will accomplish when they are reelected. Money than ever in the history of the Democratic CongressionalCampaign Committee in an off year. We finished the year raising 125 million. Onlinelion of which came , through letters that people sent in, and averaged just 17. Raisedreshmen numbers 91 million members raised 91 million last year. As much as we dislike money in politics you have to have the resources to tell voters what we have done and what we will do. We will be wellprepared into november of 2020. It does seem like there have been two approaches by freshman democrats. Some have been making the argument for impeachment at town hall and in the media, really persuading voters headon. A lot of the members are avoiding it talking about local issues. Which approach is better . She has a National Security background and is an expert on middle east policy. Shews that this issue knows this issue inside and out. The other freshmen have backgrounds in the military and Public Service as well as the department of justice. We have an amazing freshman class and whatever approach they take i can tell you they are doing that through their background that they bring to congress or what the residence at home want them to talk about. I think it is worth mentioning that someone like her, i campaigned with her when she was running for the first time, she had one of the most unique programs that i have ever seen as far as finding out what was on peoples minds. For anyones running, who knows midwestern winters especially michigan, she used her background in the cia along with being a candidate and instead of calling it boots on the ground she called it snow boots on the ground. Her volunteers would knock on doors and rather than hand a piece of literature saying vote for me they would say, what is on your mind . If she becomes your member of congress what do you want her to focus on . She could go down to the precinct and know that the potholes in one precinct and National Security in another. Maybe health care a couple of miles down the road. She brings that special expertise on the middle east and she also knows what it means to stay hyper local. Host turning back to natalie andrews. Natalie as we watch the democratic primary, which candidates are you watching that would help front liners . We have seen an endorsement for joe biden, it seems that several of the front liners are talking about Pete Buttigieg or joe biden. Who are you watching . Who would be best at the top of the ticket to help the front liners also win . You sit theree of and as i sit here in new york city today in an empty room staring at a camera, none of us know what is going to happen. I know that democrats will be united with whoever the nominee is. We know that we cannot be divided when we come out of the convention, that we have to be supportive of whoever the nominee is. It is worth noting that donald trump is literally the best candidate recruiter i have ever seen. Look at the people who made a decision to run for congress for the first time that they have run for any office back in 2018. The amazing candidates that we have going into 2020. He is the best fundraiser we have ever had. You dont and an off year with 125 million that we raised and the small dollar donations aggregate 17 without folks being motivated. I am confident that we will come together and support whoever the nominee is. People running for reelection for the first time, the people who are running for congress and hoping to be our colleagues in the Democratic Caucus will have the resources to get their messaging out. They will have people on the ground to help knock doors and make phone calls, to build up the grassroots enthusiasm. I feel good going into november of 2020. Bernie sanders is leading the polls in iowa and new hampshire. He calls himself a socialist democrat. Would you welcome him to campaign for frontline members in swing districts if he was the democratic nominee . Rep. Bustos that would be up to each of the freshman members as to if they want to invite Bernie Sanders, joe biden or Amy Klobuchar. Making a decision to endorse joe , also out of iowa. Abby and dave are across the mississippi river. This is very he is endorsing Pete Buttigieg. Whoever they want to invite in, that is their call. I am not a micromanager. I never was in my previous professions. That is up to them. We do not have to be overly prescriptive with these freshman members. The vast knowledge that they bring to this job, to congress because of their past professions, just the success that they have had with one year of governing experience under them, i will leave that take them to make that decision and trust their judgment. Which democratic surrogates would you welcome into districts that trump won comfortably . Who is a democrat that can win over those trump voters . Rep. Bustos i am not going to be endorsing the democratic primary in illinois on march 17. I am looking forward to seeing who comes out of that. Our primary season and caucus season will begin in about three weeks. There are so many unknowns right now. Congress weterm in had joe biden as a guest speaker. This was very early in an off year and he talked about how Many Political lifetimes we were away from the next election. I dont know who the nominee is and i dont think any of us do at this point. We will be ready for whoever it is. About health care and other domestic issues. Stockstark market market and record low unemployment, how do democrats run against that . Rep. Bustos i think the fact that we have record low unemployment should be celebrated. That is a great thing. Mineu go to districts like where a family of four makes less than 50,000 and you do things like supermarket saturday , virtually every saturday that i am home i go to Grocery Stores all over my Congressional District, sometimes in towns of 1200 people and sometimes in towns of 3000 people. All over my Congressional District. These Grocery Stores are all of six aisles wide. To make eye contact with people. If they are not rushed i tell them who i am and that i will be flying back to washington and i want to know what they want me to know. I can go all the way back to when i was first elected in 2012 and tell you that the stories have not changed a lot. It is mostly about health care. Economy, howo the many people have to work more than one job to make ends meet . I made a decision to ask the question in a poll in my Congressional District last september and i found out that overall one in six people in my Congressional District worked two or more jobs. I share that with you that while unemployment is low i think the followup question is, how many people have benefits, health benefits, will have a pension or a retirement benefit . That gets to the real story of how families are doing. I hear story after story about how People Struggle to pay their another thing i do is where i job shadow people all over my district. Inill do my 99th one here the next several weeks. I am looking forward to the hundredth. I will do something awesome. Let me tell you about a home care nurse from illinois who is married to a gentleman who works fulltime. I like to ask the question of what people do for fun. The reason i ask that question is because it gets to peoples disposable income. It is not an impolite way to say, do you have extra money at the end of your pay period . This home care nurse thought about it for a second and she and her husband have two young kids. Cableid that we have television. My followup question was that is what you do for fun . She said that they watch Disney Channel and movies together. I said, you do not go to the theaters . She said that by the time they buy soda and popcorn they cannot afford that. It is family after family like hers that cannot afford to go to disney world, the best they can do is afford the Disney Channel. That is the kind of story t