There may be no second acts in American lives, but American politics is full of sequels. And 15 years after they starred in an electoral bloodbath, Democrats who faced tea party-filled town halls in the past say they’re watching a party-swapping reboot unfold today.
“There are some eerie similarities,” said Chris Carney, a Democrat whose Pennsylvania seat was one of 63 his party lost in the House in 2010.
In recent months, Republican lawmakers have been heckled and booed in some of the reddest parts of the country by constituents demanding they do more to oppose President Donald Trump’s moves to raise tariffs, fire federal workers, cut cancer research and pursue a “big, beautiful bill” that, according to the Congressional Budget Office, could kick 11 million people off their health insurance and add $2.4 trillion to the national debt.
