Barack Obama wanted Xavier Becerra in the White House.
It was November of 2008, and the president-elect asked the California Democrat, already an established party star and assistant to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), to join his administration as U.S. trade representative.
The offer took Becerra by surprise. He mulled the switch, discussed the post with Obama personally — and then turned it down.
{mosads}The decision — a rare rejection of a presidential offer for a Cabinet-level position — surprised many in Washington. But with the economy in the tank — and Obama vowing to prioritize a recovery package, healthcare reform and an immigration overhaul — trade simply wouldn’t be a focus of the new administration, Becerra reasoned. He thought he’d have greater influence staying in House leadership and keeping his spot on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, where he’d spent years working on the very budget, health and immigration issues Obama was poised to tackle.
“How could I give that up?” Becerra said this month in an interview with The Hill in his Longworth office on Capitol Hill.
The episode could be insightful as Becerra considers his future. After two terms as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, Becerra’s term is set to expire at the end of the year, raising questions about where the ambitious liberal — the highest-ranking Hispanic on Capitol Hill — might find himself in 2017.
Several Democratic leaders won’t be returning in the next Congress, but they all rank lower than Becerra does now. And the imminent turnover in the White House, combined with Becerra’s long hours campaigning this cycle for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, have stirred early buzz that he might be headed for an administration position.
Becerra, for his part, is leaving every option open.
“I’m not sure where the next day will take me, what adventures I’ll get to be on, but I just want to be ready,” he said. “I now have enough years under my belt that I know what can be done, how to do it, and where best to do it. And the best way I can tell you is that I’m just going to be on my toes.”
A 12-term veteran of the House, Becerra this year declined a run to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). If the trade representative episode shows anything, it’s that Becerra won’t accept just any offer.
“I want to look closely, because I want to be sure that whatever I do, I’m doing something where I can make the biggest difference,” he said. “Right now I see an opportunity to continue to do good work in the House. But after Nov. 8, who knows?”
Becerra’s expiring term will launch the game of musical chairs Democratic leaders play after every election. Above him, Pelosi, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Assistant Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.) are all firmly in place and expected to remain.
But Pelosi has a history of carving out leadership posts for loyal lawmakers otherwise destined for the rank and file. She performed that trick for Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) in 2006 when she created the Speaker’s assistant position. She did it again for Clyburn after the Democrats lost the House in 2010; and yet again in 2014 for Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), who shifted from head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) to lead the party’s new campaign messaging arm. Some Democrats see a similar option available to Becerra.
“She could always carve [out] something,” said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas). “They vote alike; they’re progressive; they’re from the same state, so I’m sure she’s going to be kind to him.
“I don’t think he’s hit the ceiling.”
Another possibility is that Becerra might vie for a spot atop a powerful committee. That was the case for Van Hollen, a close Pelosi ally who rose to ranking member of the Budget panel in 2010 after a stint leading the DCCC. Van Hollen is now running for the Senate, meaning the Budget post will be vacant once more next year.
Some say Becerra’s experience dealing with fiscal matters — including stints on the Simpson-Bowles Commission and the deficit reduction supercommittee — might draw him to the Budget post. And Becerra himself hinted that it’s on his radar.
“Those committees that deal with economics and fiscal policy are going to be very busy [next year],” he said. “So I’m hoping to be very busy doing something like that.”
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), who preceded Becerra as caucus chairman before being term-limited back into the rank and file in 2012, said there’s “no shortage of opportunity” for Becerra. But Larson also suggested there are advantages to stepping out of the leadership bustle.
“He’s a ranking member [of the Social Security subpanel] on the Ways and Means Committee, with the potential to be a chairman in the next session,” Larson said. “And there’s far more opportunity — in fact even a modicum of relief — from [leaving] the grind of … the day-to-day job of being the chairman of the caucus, at the beck and whim of people who have concerns on a daily basis.”
But numerous voices say Becerra has even bigger things in mind.
“Leading the chairmanship of the Caucus I don’t think is going to relegate him to anonymity,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.). “I think he’ll be fine.”
Becerra was on a short list of candidates when Clinton chose her running mate this summer. And he’s leaning on that experience as a reason not to play his hand too early this year.
“There was a lot of speculation, [but] for me to be talking about anything like VP back then, clearly now, in hindsight, we would have looked and said, ‘Clearly there’s no reason to talk about it,’ ” he said. “So no reason to talk about anything that we don’t know yet will be available until it’s upon us.”
That hasn’t stopped other Democrats from lending some advice.
“I hope a major role would be assured for him, either in the House or the administration,” said Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. “My hope is that it would be in the House.”
Levin suggested another reason Becerra declined to become Obama’s trade ambassador: It would have forced him to focus on just one topic.
“He just has a broad interest in policy, and I don’t think he was sure that he should carve out one single area,” Levin said. “And I agreed with that.”
Considering that the top Democratic leaders are all a generation older than the 58-year-old Becerra, Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) predicted the outgoing Caucus chairman would be the natural fit to fill their shoes — “if and when” the Democrats win back the House. To entice Becerra away from Capitol Hill after 24 years, Honda said, would require an offer too good to refuse.
“It’ll have to be something that’s really high profile — not a deputy,” Honda said. “If it’s a Cabinet spot it’ll probably have to be a very influential Cabinet spot.”
Not all Democrats give Becerra the same glowing reviews. Some members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), of which Becerra is a member, have been rankled by his refusal to endorse Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) in the California Senate race. And when Becerra in July opposed a CHC ad campaign targeting a Texas supporter of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, some CHC members were incensed.
“I see no way in hell that I could support him for Democratic leadership,” Rep. Filemon Vela (D-Texas) said last month.
The more common refrain, however, is that Becerra has a bright future ahead.
“Since I’ve known him, he’s been mentioned for everything from mayor of Los Angeles, to United States senator, to the governor to succeed Jerry Brown, to vice president of the country,” Larson said.
“When you’re on a short list to do all of those things, it’s not a bad place to be.”