U.S. Reps. Greg Casar (at left) and Lloyd Doggett are looking to help keep Trump in check (art by Zeke Barbaro / Getty Images (Casar / Doggett Photos by Jana Birchum))
Austin’s two progressive congressmen flew to Washington, D.C., earlier this week and found their Democratic colleagues in various states of alarm and despair.
They are at opposite ends of their political careers. For more than 25 years, Lloyd Doggett has represented the meandering, gerrymandered districts Austin has belonged to. At age 35, Greg Casar is among the youngest members of the chamber.
Yet, in conversation about the moment this country finds itself in, the two representatives strike much the same tone. They are far from optimistic and far from defeated. While some members of the party, including Nancy Pelosi, emphasize the few seats that flipped blue and opportunities for collaboration, Doggett and Casar describe this election as a devastating loss and Trump’s next term as an existential threat.
“Some people’s coping mechanism is to deny what Trump might do,” Casar said Tuesday, having landed in D.C. the night before. “For many of the people who are really dismayed, they feel and know that Trump could make decisions that are permanently devastating for our climate and our planet, that he will deport people and separate families that we can’t get back, and that some of his decisions in the U.S. and in the world could lead to lots of people dying who don’t need to die. People need to know the truth.”
Doggett, for his part, not only expects Trump to follow in the footsteps of modern authoritarians like Viktor Orbán in Hungary and Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Egypt – he already sees it happening.
His focus recently is on a repackaged bill that would give Trump the power to designate nonprofits as terrorist organizations, stripping them of their 501(c)(3) status.
On the House floor earlier this month, he asked members of Congress to consider how expansive the term “terrorism” can be. “The foreign tyrants who Donald Trump so much admires have imprisoned journalists, academics, and rights activists by claiming that they are supporters of terrorism,” he said. Nonprofit news organizations like The Texas Tribune could be targeted, Doggett told the Chronicle this week. Organizations housing refugees could be dismantled for allegedly harboring terrorists. Hospitals could be cut off at the knees over the alleged terror of abortion. Private universities that allow students to protest Trump’s policies could be targeted.
“I’m very concerned about that, and see it as the first step forward in the march to fascism,” Doggett told us.
Doggett’s other top concern is global instability. He describes Trump’s first term as “all about rejecting multilateralism and international institutions and going it alone. And I think that’s a very dangerous course for our country.” Europeans are preparing for the possibility of the U.S. leaving NATO, but even without such a historic fracture, it appears likely that Trump will pull the U.S. out of Ukraine. Meanwhile, JD Vance has outlined a “peace” deal that would benefit Russia.
“The foreign tyrants who Donald Trump so much admires have imprisoned journalists, academics, and rights activists by claiming that they are supporters of terrorism.” – U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin
“There are a few Republicans who have been strong supporters of Ukraine and who believe in international order, and I hope that that’s an area where we can find some common ground,” Doggett said. “At the same time, there’s probably even less opportunity to restrain what the administration does on the international front than on the domestic front.”
With stakes this high, it’s no surprise that many Americans are in fight-or-flight response. Doggett said he’s hearing from constituents who are considering leaving the country or civil disobedience. He cautions against both.
To those considering emigration with the means to do it, he said, “Democracy is a constant struggle to preserve and enhance. We need engaged citizens now more than ever.” To those who have floated the idea of disruptive demonstrations with a goal of removing Trump from office, he said: “There are times when civil disobedience is a last resort, but I think it’s really important that those who share my concern about a Trump presidency not engage in conduct that simply helps Trump. The goal of all protest should be to bring more people to our ranks.”
art by Zeke Barbaro / Getty Images
And bringing people into the Democratic Party’s ranks is top of mind for both Casar and Doggett.
Much of their work in the coming months will be, at best, damage control. So they’re already thinking about midterms.
Recent history suggests that with the House, Senate, and White House under Republican control, U.S. voters could swing left in 2026. Whether the party still has enough appeal for such a swing is unclear. There is some division in the party over its approach to working-class voters. Earlier this month, Nancy Pelosi criticized Bernie Sanders’ analysis, telling The New York Times, “I don’t respect him saying that the Democratic Party has abandoned working-class families.”
Casar and Doggett both say it’s clear that Democrats’ messaging to lower-income Americans did not connect in 2024.
“I don’t mean that we should throw vulnerable people under the bus, but we should be known as the party that’s for working people, whether they are rural or urban; whether they are white, Black, or brown; whether they are more liberal or more conservative – we have to fit all those people in the Democratic Party tent,” Casar said. “Otherwise, you know, right-wing populists and billionaires are going to come together and beat us and take away everything that we want.”
Doggett said he wants to see the party underscore bread-and-butter issues, and how Trump’s policies fail to deliver the economic promises he’s made on the campaign trail.
In Casar’s view, Trump’s election is a call to action for every individual to do what they can to defend vulnerable people. In Austin, the former Austin City Council member recently met with Eastside Council members to relay what he could about Council maneuvers during the first Trump administration: establishing the deportation defense fund, for example.
“It’s okay and important for people to mourn and feel and self-reflect right now,” Casar said. “But we’re gonna need a big movement again, because the best way to stop autocracy is with more democracy.”
