Cárdenas spotlights his track record as he angles for DCCC chair appointment

As election day drew near in November, Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) was focused on supporting Democratic candidates in tough districts, but he had another priority on the back burner: a second run at leading the House Democrats’ campaign arm.

In 2020, Cárdenas was riding high after a strong stint as head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s (CHC) campaign arm, Bold PAC, when he announced his candidacy to run the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) blocked Cárdenas’s path, narrowly defeating him for the post.

Cárdenas was preparing for a comeback, challenging Maloney, when the first of several twists hit: Maloney was defeated in his reelection bid by Republican Mike Lawler, in one of several upsets for Democrats in New York.

Then, Democrats did surprisingly well in the 2022 midterms, holding off a “red wave” that Republicans paraded as a done deal for months.

Shortly after the election, Cárdenas officially announced his bid for DCCC chair, praising Maloney’s hand in keeping Republican gains to a minimum at a national level.

But House Democrats then voted to make DCCC chair an appointed position, giving incoming leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) the responsibility of picking the next campaign chief.

That decision changed the dynamics of a race that had become increasingly political, ever since now-Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) won a caucus vote in 2018 to serve his second term after serving his first by appointment.

“I was appointed and elected … was appointed in ’16, and then it was changed after that cycle to be an elected position,” Luján told The Hill.

While traditionally the DCCC chair is not a leadership position with many takers — it implies a heavy workload that can be thankless — both Cárdenas and fellow California Democratic Rep. Ami Bera have thrown their hats into the ring for the 2024 election cycle.

But the new Democratic Caucus rules shifted the dynamics behind the selection process, with members wary of stepping on their new leader’s toes.

“I’m not going to speak beyond what I know is important in this process, which is to make sure that we reclaim the Democratic majority in 2024. And I trust our new Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, to make the best, most informed decision to have someone lead the D-trip who understands how to win,” said Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.).

A fundraising track record

Still, Cárdenas is pursuing the DCCC post, in large part because his top successes as a politician have come from recruiting, fundraising and campaigning for his colleagues.

In 2013, during his freshman year in the House, Cárdenas had dinner with Sen. Bob Menéndez (D-N.J.), at the time the only CHC member in the Senate. Cárdenas pitched Menéndez a game plan for Bold PAC, which at the time was about to undergo its most aggressive expansion process with Luján as chairman.

The pitch was aggressive almost to the point of being unrealistic, even compared to Luján’s expansion of Bold PAC beyond a campaign arm dedicated solely to protecting its incumbents.

“My experience I think is different than Representative Cárdenas’s experience at Bold PAC. And here’s why: I had the honor of helping to grow Bold PAC to help more candidates when I was there. Tony blew the roof off,” said Luján, who ran Bold PAC before his appointment as DCCC chair for the 2016 election cycle.

Under Cárdenas, Bold PAC fundraising took off, going from just under $1 million in the 2014 cycle under Luján to $6 million in the 2016 cycle and almost $12 million in the 2018 cycle.

For the 2020 presidential election year, Bold PAC under Cárdenas raised more than $18 million. The expansion of the group’s reach has continued under current Chair Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), with new investments in competitive primaries and an independent expenditure program led by Cárdenas.

Unlike some of his peers, Cárdenas didn’t learn the ins and outs of political fundraising until later in his career. 

Cárdenas, who grew up in Pacoima, a poor neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles, entered politics in his 30s.

In California, he lived through drastic changes in fundraising rules, going from an open system where individual donors could single-handedly fund a candidacy to a system with contribution limits.

Managing those reforms drove one of Cárdenas’s mantras for Bold PAC: hire lawyers first, make fundraising plans later.

But Cárdenas usually refers to Pacoima when discussing his successes in recruiting political allies, not in fundraising.

On the stump, Cárdenas routinely rolls out a bit about his first campaign manager, a then-22-year-old engineer who grew up a few blocks away in Pacoima: Alex Padilla, now California’s Democratic junior senator.

​​“I’ve been fortunate to have a front row seat to Tony’s career in public service, from managing his first campaign for California State Assembly in 1996 to now serving together in Congress,” Padilla told The Hill.

“In his decades in office, he has never forgotten Pacoima and the working class community we come from in serving as their voice at all levels of government.”

Cárdenas’s DCCC pitch

Like the Padilla story, Cárdenas often reminisces about Hispanic Democrats he’s helped get elected.

Lately, Cárdenas has been focusing on his success in getting non-CHC Democrats to Washington.

It’s at the center of his pitch for DCCC chairmanship, in contrast to Bera’s focus on his work with front-liners.

But with Democrats winning more races in diverse districts throughout the country, the definition of a front-liner has changed.

In Nevada, for instance, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s victory somewhat overshadowed the party’s success at defending three competitive House seats, including Horsford’s.

“What we have learned in Nevada is you win through that coalition. That’s how President Biden did so well, and why Nevada is number two now in the selection process, why we got moved up. It’s how I won. And my other two colleagues in the House, it’s how Catherine Cortez Masto, the first Latina ever elected to the U.S. Senate, was able to win her reelection,” said Horsford.

“And you know, one of the things I gotta say about Tony Cárdenas is, he understands that – he came out to my district several times. And it was always about being great engaging with volunteers, canvassers, and people that were talking to voters at the door. Because in the end, that’s how you win elections. So that’s the recipe for success for us,” added Horsford.