I wont call for healing.
Im calling for resistance.
Casar has long opposed Trump and Texas Governor Greg Abbotts inhumane crusade against undocumented immigration.
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) speaks at a rally on Oct. 2, 2024 in Austin, Texas.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
4 a law that wouldallow Texas police to arrest undocumented migrants.
He wonhis district againwith 63 percent of the vote this November.
Casar recently spoke toRolling Stoneabout his belief in a way forward.
What do you think the party should be focusing on right now?
Ill caveat this with two important points.
So the question is: What do Democrats do if thats what Republicans are going to continue to do?
If you want to win, you just cant have that happen.
I think its a moment of soul searching in Washington for Democrats.
There are some of us that are really trying to figure out what we should have done differently.
We shouldnt throw trans people under the bus or throw immigrants under the bus.
Weve heard moderate pundits say Democrats should have focused more on housing and child care, for example.
Theyre popular among Republican voters and independent voters.
So we have to lean in on those issues.
We can take a look at Trumps last term.
We need to start decoupling the Democratic Party from some of those big corporate special interests.
How would you like to see Democrats handle the incoming administrations immigration crackdown?
Especially given how the Harris campaign and some Democratsshifted righton the border.
Trump told a very clear story to people.
Housing costs are up.
Trump lied and said you’ve got the option to blame immigrants and the Democratic Party for it.
He said food costs are up: Blame immigrants.
He clearly identified a problem and then created a villain, even if it wasnt true.
They want to see the system work.
And a lot of times people are just going to choose the real thing at that point.
We should be talking about legal migration and giving people the chance to actually apply and legally come here.
Republicans say all the time: Well, go get in line.
There needs to be attention on Texas year round, for the full cycle.
We know its the big funders of Greg Abbott that are driving things like abortion bans.
Weve got to be willing to tell that story.
Speaking of corporate bigwigs who rake in a ton of money while abusing their workers.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been granted unprecedented influence as unelected civilians within this incoming administration through DOGE.
In your view, is this the correct approach to be taking with someone like Musk?
Or is it detrimental to legitimize a project like DOGE through participation from the caucus?
Most of us should be out there calling it for what it is.
I think that Musk is bound to fail while he tries to cosplay as co-president with Trump.
Theyre gonna get sick of each other.
Theyre incoherent, theyre incompetent.
I dont have high hopes for Musks experiment here.
I think hes going to mostly have stupid or terrible or hurtful ideas.
I just dont have high hopes that hes going to be for anything thats any good.
Im afraid that Elon is going to find dollars within the Pentagon that he wants spent on himself.
They thought they were going to be successful.
Democrats were able to tie Republicans shoelaces together.
I think that we can again expose that.
The good news and the bad news is that Republican leaders arent very good at what they do.
So we can hopefully expose them for that and have them trip over themselves in the process.
