WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse is in a hurry, squeezing in a media interview after the last votes of the week before rushing down the halls of the Rayburn House Office Building for a meeting with senior Rep. Bobby Scott, then catching a ride to the White House state dinner for the Kenyan president.
It’s all still a little surreal to the son of Eritrean immigrants, who now represents Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District.
“I’m reminded each and every day the profound honor and privilege that I have to be able to serve in this capacity as someone whose parents came here with very little as immigrants over 40 years ago,” Neguse said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office. “It’s incredibly meaningful to me, and I think a reflection of everything that makes our country so exceptional.”
The next morning, Neguse met with Democratic congressional nominees Sarah Elfreth and Johnny Olszewski in Maryland, then caught a flight to Charleston to join his mentor, longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., for political events.
For the charismatic Coloradan, who just celebrated his 40th birthday, Neguse’s jam-packed, fast-paced schedule is emblematic of his broader political career. Already a member of Democratic leadership, he’s wasting no time and eager to climb the leadership ladder. And his colleagues have taken notice.
“He’s in the mix; he’s had a meteoric rise,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., who served with Neguse on the Democratic impeachment team that prosecuted former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 attack.
But with a slew of other talented, equally ambitious young leaders ahead of him in the pecking order, it’s unclear how exactly Neguse will navigate the bottleneck in the coming years.
In 2022, he ran unopposed for the job leading Democrats’ policy and messaging operation, then ran unopposed again in March in the race to succeed Clyburn, who unexpectedly stepped down as assistant leader, the No. 4 or No. 5 job in House Democratic leadership depending on who you ask.
Given his rapid rise during his first three terms in Congress, it’s unlikely Neguse will patiently wait his turn. But for now, it’s too soon to know whether he will try to leapfrog potential rivals in the leadership pipeline or launch a bid for governor or senator. Should the Democrats take back control of the House in November, colleagues expect Neguse to run to be assistant speaker, a job previously held by Ben Ray Luján (now in the Senate) and Katherine Clark (now the minority whip and No. 2 leader).
Neguse, always cautious about how he chooses his words, demurred when specifically asked what his next political moves might be and whether they could include a bid for the Senate or governor’s mansion, where Democrat Jared Polis is facing term limits in 2026. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., 72, has said he’ll seek re-election that same year; while Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., 59, is up in 2028.
“I haven’t spent much time thinking about the long term, sort of my long-term plans, to be honest,” Neguse said. “As you know, I have a 5-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son and have the honor of representing the people of Colorado and serving our caucus as the assistant Democratic leader.”
“So my focus is on doing the best job that I can, and figuring out summer vacation plans for my daughter, who’s very insistent that we’ve got to get that in the books,” he continued. “The rest can all be figured out later.”
A steppingstone
Unlike other top leadership jobs, the assistant leader post is pretty ambiguous. It was created under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as a way to add another seat at the leadership table as other young Democrats in a hurry looked for a way to get ahead but found a similar bottleneck at the top.
Then known as “assistant to the leader,” then-Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., held the title before climbing the ladder and serving as California attorney general and now Health and Human Services secretary. Former Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., also filled that role before a successful Senate bid. After Democrats were swept from power in the 2010 “Tea Party wave,” Pelosi helped install Clyburn as assistant leader to avert a messy intraparty battle between him and the No. 2 leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Neguse appears to be taking the job in a new and more visible direction — and he’s catching the eye of some potential rivals for future leadership roles. Just 60 days in his new role, he’s holding monthly news conferences to promote his colleagues’ work, including one in April on blocking cuts to Social Security and Medicare and another in May on protecting reproductive rights and other freedoms. Those have been followed by “special order hours,” led by Neguse, where members can amplify those issues on the House floor.
The Colorado Democrat is also hosting events where members can get to know key Biden administration members — something that Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., had been doing as Democratic Caucus vice chair. Neguse recently held a dinner for colleagues featuring Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan and will host a member breakfast with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in the coming weeks.
And twice a week, Neguse sends emails to members, highlighting individual members’ work and floor speeches, offering helpful tips and reminding them of upcoming events he’s organized.
“I think people have taken notice of what he’s working on,” said a senior House Democratic leadership aide. “Ruffling feathers is probably the nicest way to say it because it’s really not anger; I’m not sensing people outraged. It’s more like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting. Joe’s doing that now.’”
As assistant leader, Neguse said he’s there to help Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., another mentor and Congressional Black Caucus colleague, in any way he can, from campaign travel to member services. Next month, his office will lead the annual gathering of Democratic district directors in Washington, he said.
Neguse is equally active on the campaign trail as Democrats try to win the small handful of seats needed to recapture the House.
This cycle, he’s raised $1.7 million for incumbent front-liners and candidates in the “Red to Blue” program and transferred $6 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party’s campaign arm. Starting in June, Neguse will travel to Arizona, New Mexico and Ohio to stump and raise cash for Democratic candidates, said a source close to Neguse.
“I’m optimistic about November. At the end of the day, I think the extreme agenda that House Republicans had pursued over the course of the last 15 months is deeply out of step with the American public,” Neguse said in the interview.
“I think if you ask most Americans, they would be deeply distressed that House Republicans have spent an inordinate amount of time on the Refrigerator Freedom Act and Liberty in Laundry Act, and a variety of extreme policy conversations that are, in my view, very much focused on undermining fundamental freedoms, whether it’s reproductive freedom, the freedom to vote, so much more. And then not addressing the core economic issues that American people have cared about.”
‘Many paths forward’
It didn’t take long for Neguse to stand out, even among the accomplished collection of his peers who were elected in the 2018 midterms and helped deliver Democrats control of the House.
Not long after arriving in Washington, the young lawyer who had served as executive director of Colorado’s consumer protection agency was elected as the freshman class representative to leadership. He remained in that circle, serving as one of three co-chairs of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) in the next Congress and then leading that group after the 2022 midterms.
He was well-liked by the old guard of Democratic leadership, too. Then-Speaker Pelosi selected Neguse — regarded as one of the caucus’s most talented orators — as one of the nine lawmakers to manage Trump’s second impeachment trial, making him the youngest of the group. Only Pennsylvania Rep. Madeleine Dean, also elected in the class of 2018, had as short of a tenure in the House of Representatives.
The next Democratic leader, Jeffries, handpicked Neguse as one of four Democrats to sit on the powerful House Rules Committee, which steers legislation to the House floor.
As for his future, some colleagues say that question can wait.
“He’s got many paths forward and he works very hard at staying in tune with his colleagues, knowing what they’re thinking and being an advocate for them. And he’s young. So he’s got lots of options,” said Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell, who served on the DPCC with Neguse and succeeded him leading that committee.
She noted that her late husband, John Dingell, who served in the House for nearly 60 years, wrote countless pieces of legislation that touched people’s lives.
“Being a leader in the House and making a difference for the people that send you to Washington is not a bad thing,” she said.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, who also worked alongside Neguse at the DPCC, called him a “talented leader” and “natural communicator,” and said she hopes he “continues to move up the leadership ladder.”
And moderate Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., described Neguse as “very policy savvy” but also someone who has a “good political sense.”
“He understands the political context in which it all unfolds. You take those qualities and combine it with how well he knows the members individually, I think he’s well-suited to contribute to leadership,” Peters said. “He’s got a future.”
