Congresswoman Cheri Bustos Statement on Being Elected to Serve as the Next Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee

Statement

Today, in the Democratic Caucus' Leadership Election, Congresswoman Cheri Bustos was elected by her colleagues to serve as the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in the 116th Congress. Bustos, who won on a first round ballot vote, will be tasked with defending and expanding the new Democratic Majority in the 2020 election cycle.

Chairwoman Cheri Bustos issued the following statement:

"I'm humbled to have earned the support of my colleagues to serve as the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Under the tremendous leadership of our new Assistant Democratic Leader, Ben Ray Luján, the entire Democratic Caucus worked together to flip 40 seats from Red to Blue.

"Over the next two years, our charge is to build on this progress to fortify our new Democratic Majority so we can deliver bold change for the American people. We will do this by placing a new emphasis on our Frontline program while going on offense in the districts where we came up short this year -- we must do both.

"As Democrats, we are going to keep our focus on getting real results for the American people by lowering their health care costs, raising their wages and cracking down on the corruption we've seen from Washington Republicans. While I am hopeful that we can make some progress in this next Congress, we need to win back the White House and the Senate while defending our House Majority to completely deliver on our promise. Failure is simply not an option, we will protect this house."

With an incoming class of 62 Democratic freshmen, 31 of which come from districts that President Trump won, this is a task that Bustos is uniquely qualified for. During the last election, Bustos won Illinois' 17th Congressional District by 24 points, this was the largest margin of victory of any Democrat from a Trump district. Bustos, who first won her seat in Congress by defeating a Republican incumbent in 2012, is now just the second woman ever to lead the DCCC.

Bustos worked extensively at the DCCC over the last four years where she held four leadership positions. During the 2016 cycle, she served as the Vice-Chair of Recruitment, Co-Chair of Red to Blue and Co-Chair of Women Lead at the DCCC. In the 2018 cycle, she served as the Chair of Heartland Engagement at the DCCC where she mentored several candidates across 12 states. Also in the 2018 cycle, she served as a Co-Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee on the governmental side where she worked to develop the House Democrats "For the People" agenda.

Prior to serving in elected office, she spent nearly two decades as a reporter in the Quad-Cities. Afterward, she worked as a healthcare executive at one of the nation's largest non-denominational, non-profit health systems in the world.

Source