U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Austin) knows a thing or two about backlash to progressivism.
In his seven years on the Austin City Council, policies that progressives championed to cut police funding and decriminalize homelessness were so politically unpopular, voters in one of Texas’ most liberal cities overwhelmingly supported backtracking on both ideas. Republicans across the state campaigned against the idea of a “defund the police” movement, while Austin was up as a cautionary tale of Democratic leadership.
As national Democrats now find themselves in a similar position — reeling from the rejection of a social agenda that even some of the party’s most loyal voting blocs deemed out of touch in the Nov. 5 election — lessons learned from Casar’s political upbringing in bright red Texas will help shape their path forward in Republican-controlled Washington D.C.
On Wednesday, the Congressional Progressive Caucus will elect a new chair to replace U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington), who termed-out after six years in the role.
Casar, who now represents south Austin and most of downtown San Antonio in Congress, is running unopposed for the position — making him the first chair in caucus history to come from a red state.
“Being a progressive in Texas definitely gives me a different kind of perspective than progressives that come from blue states with sympathetic governors,” Casar said in a Nov. 26 interview with the San Antonio Report. “I know that the cost of [President-elect Donald] Trump being elected is that [Gov.] Greg Abbott’s going to keep shoveling money out of our schools and into more prison camps on the border. I know that Kamala Harris losing means that we’re going to have more women die in our hospital beds in this state.”
“I think that just really ramps up the urgency for me, and it puts me in a position to say, ‘Look, I’m a progressive’s progressive, and we can’t keep losing as a Democratic Party.’”
When lawmakers return to work in January, Republicans who spent tremendous resources attacking Democrats over social issues last election cycle will not only have control of the White House, but they’ll assume a majority in the U.S. Senate and retain power in the U.S. House.
The nearly 100-member Progressive Caucus makes up one of the largest voting blocs on Capitol Hill, and will play a major role in determining how and when Democrats fight back when Trump returns to power.
To Casar, that means pushing his party to refocus around the economic issues he says the majority of voters agree with them on.
At the same time, they have to avoid political landmines while pushing back against GOP attacks on social issues that voters in last month’s election disagreed with them on, but are still core to their values.
“The Progressive Caucus should make sure that the Democratic Party, one, still holds the center of the country, and two, stands up against oppression and injustice,” Casar said of his approach.
“Right now, [we have] this whole finger-pointing argument, [where] some people are saying you can only do one of the two,” he said. “Our country is in real trouble if we can’t figure out how to do both.”
A lesson in politics
Casar’s perspective comes as his own personal politics have also undergone some rebranding in recent years.
After college, the Houston native moved to Austin, was active in the Democratic Socialists of America and started his career as a labor organizer representing construction workers. He launched his first council campaign at age 24, to represent one of the underserved parts of the city.
Fresh off the creation of single-member districts, he came into office with a class of council members who brought an unapologetically progressive agenda.
But Casar quickly learned there’s a difference between garnering enough political support for your ideas, and making sure the public has bought into major policy priorities.
In 2019, the council voted to ease the rules on public camping and panhandling — a move supported by housing advocates who said the rules created an unfair financial burden and effectively criminalizes being homeless.
“I know that changing these ordinances will be unpopular with some people,” Casar said at the time. “I’m not trying to downplay the challenges that we’re going to face, but we can take on those challenges in a better way.”
In the wake of George Floyd’s killing, which spurred heated disputes between law enforcement and protestors both in Austin and across the country, Casar spearheaded a plan to redirect a third of the city’s police budget to fund other social programs.
As the COVID-19 pandemic set in, however, backlash against both ideas far exceeded Casar’s expectations.
The city voted to reinstate its public camping ban. In response to an understaffed police department, its new mayor partnered with Texas GOP leaders to have state troopers patrol the streets. Republican lawmakers passed laws banning public camping statewide and punishing cities that try to reduce their police budgets.
Looking back, Casar said Republicans exploited the effects of the pandemic, and he called Austin’s expanded housing access and recent decrease in rent prices some of his greatest accomplishments.
Yet the experience spurred a critical shift for an ambitious young political leader, who has now already personally lived the Democratic Party’s excruciating reckoning over whether to shelve principals they believe in, but saw used against them with terrifying effectiveness in the November election.
“I’ve learned what a political beating feels like, and I don’t want the Democratic Party to take another political beating like we just did this year,” Casar said.
“…The job of those of us who are trying to help and tell the truth, is to make sure that our policies, even when they’re right, are also majoritarian, and also bring most of the city or most of the country along with us.”
A political reboot
When U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) moved districts in 2022, Casar got a chance to test his new approach.
Casar said he refocused his message around reducing corporate price gouging and taxing billionaires. Around the same time, he also dropped his affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America.
To the dismay of some San Antonio business leaders, the champion of controversial Austin policies, advanced from a field of Democrats, winning outright in the primary to represent a deep blue district.
“We were scared to death,” said Jeff Webster, President and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, who has since worked closely with Casar on a number of local issues that needed federal help. “We’re not going to agree all the time… but he’s been a great partner.”
As he assumes a new role in D.C., Casar believes he’s found a model for navigating a tough landscape.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has already declared that Congress’ first trans member shouldn’t be able to use the bathroom of her choice. Other lawmakers are eager to make good on Trump’s plans to deport asylum-seeking migrants who arrived under the Biden administration.
“Those who suggested that Democrats should just simply back off of those issues, that’s just not realistic,” Casar said. “One, because we stand for the civil rights of all people. But two, the current iteration of the Republican Party is going to keep on picking on vulnerable people, and so Democrats are going to have to respond.”
“But we should recognize that there’s persuading to do in the country, and go and work on figuring out what the policies are and what the messages are that can bring more people along with us.”
A Bernie-inspired leader
On another of the GOP’s top issues, tax reform, Casar thinks Democrats have a ripe opportunity to play offense.
“I think progressives’ first test will be, can we hold the entire Democratic Caucus together against a billionaire tax scam?” Casar said.
“The vast majority of the country is with the Democrats on taxing billionaires, rather than giving billionaires a tax cut,” Casar said. “We, the Democratic Party, need to fully lean in on saying we’re not going to give Trump a penny of money to give billionaires a tax break.”
Like his political mentor, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Casar has zeroed in on the nation’s billionaires, with a particular interest in one who’s set up shop in his district.
Hours after winning his first Congressional race, Casar was calling for the Department of Labor to investigate safety violations at Musk’s Tesla factory just outside of Austin — something he said was an immediate crowd-pleaser even with conservative constituents.
Fast forward to 2024, Musk spent an estimated $200 million helping elect Trump.
While Musk is taking on a new White House role aimed at government efficiency, one of his biggest critics, gears up to make him the center of Democrats’ opposition efforts.
“[Democrats need to] shift our focus away from being offended by what Trump says, and make it really clear to the American people what Trump does to make your economic life harder,” he said. “At the end of these two years, I think Democrats will have been successful politically if the everyday person knows that Trump tried to help his friends, like Elon Musk, while Democrats were trying to help you.”
