Rep. Henry Cuellar’s top staffer in his Laredo office welcomed the chance to work for the conservative Democrat, despite the fact they came from different parties and managed one of the worst-paid offices in Congress.
But Cuellar’s vote against Republican-led
So Sanz resigned and weeks later announced a bid for the Republican nomination to challenge Cuellar in November.
“When I saw things like that, I knew there wasn’t a spot for me at his office anymore, and that I had to fight for what I thought was right,"Sanz said in an interview. He favors a ban on transgender girls in school athletic programs for women and girls.
Cuellar declined comment.
Congressional staff like Sanz are increasingly challenging their own bosses in a bid to shift the balance of power on Capitol Hill, representing a sea change in the relationship between lawmakers and the legions of workers who ensure the House and Senate function.
A combination of factors, ranging from the Jan. 6 attacks to generational divides, are propelling unprecedented levels of organizing and activism among staff and leading to questions about the limits of those activities and convincing some to give up their jobs.
“They’re asserting themselves more,” said Bradford Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation.
Organizing on the Hill
Perhaps the most prominent example of staffer activism in recent years is the creation of the Congressional Workers Union. Eighteen offices of members or committee staff have unionized since the House voted in 2022 to protect aides who collectively bargain (
The union is in part the product of younger, more tech savvy staff who have begun to challenge their bosses online. Aides have exposed toxic lawmakers publicly, especially on the anonymous social media forum “Dear White Staffers,” and leveraged the visibility into hostile work environments to petition for better and more transparent pay and workplace protections.
No current unions have ratified new contracts, even in offices led by lawmakers who say they support their employees’ decision to bargain as a group. But even the presence of a union can prompt lawmakers to hit pause on new initiatives or seek greater input on the office’s budget.
“It has an effect on the relationship,” Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) said of his office’s unanimous decision to unionize. “I guess it’s easier not to, but I don’t know if it’s better, and I respect their right to engage in collective bargaining.”
Read More: Union Negotiations for Hill Staff Hit Roadblocks, Delaying Deals
Taking Stands
The latest war between Israel and Hamas, now in its fourth month, exposed a generational divide on Capitol Hill and across America.
Younger Americans — who don’t remember a time Israel wasn’t a regional superpower — want Israel to end its military campaign, according to polling by the New York Times and Siena College. Adults over 45 in contrast are more likely to support the war effort.
The same dynamic is playing out in Congress, where lawmakers that average about 60 years old employ junior staff that are typically in their 20s or 30s.
“Younger people have looked at it that way rather than the more traditional way of how Washington has looked at Israel-Palestine,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), who has called for a ceasefire. “That’s just matching the national trends.”
Masked staffers held a vigil on the steps of the Capitol last year to urge Congress to call for an immediate ceasefire and greater solidarity with Palestinians in the war zone. Staff, fellows, and interns have signed anonymous letters, distributed leaflets to offices, advised colleagues on how to protest without disclosing their identity, or even confronted lawmakers directly.
Congressional staffers calling for a ceasefire are mainly comprised of junior staff who lack the power to challenge their bosses directly, according to pro-ceasefire Hill staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their career prospects.
The day-to-day work of aides farther down the ranks also regularly puts them in touch with constituents by phone or email urging their boss to appeal to US and Israeli militaries to stop the fighting. Rote pledges to pass along concerns “started feeling increasingly like a lie,” one pro-ceasefire intern said.
Advocacy spread even to the official business of Congress and the Supreme Court, especially through the work of nonpartisan staff associations.
- Hispanic staffers want Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children so they can work on the Hill.
- LGBTQ+ staffers have called out House lawmakers for denigrating the transgender community, applauded passage of legislation codifying federal protections for same-sex marriages (
Public Law 117-228 ), and rebutted a Supreme Court case carving out religious exemptions for contractors to those weddings. - Staff associations representing staffers of color opposed legislation eliminating the House’s diversity and inclusion office, and one representing Korean-Americans on the Hill applauded introduction of a non-binding measure condemning discrimination against Asian-Americans during the pandemic (
H. Res. 153 ).
Challenging Authority
Lawmakers’ staff have always challenged their bosses’ positions, albeit behind closed door or by leaking to the press.
Staff are usually remiss to take on more power than they’re allotted, and senior staff are quick to remind their reports that undermining their boss violates office rules. It’s the lawmakers, after all, who have won the confidence of voters back home.
“At the end of the day, your boss’ name is the one that’s on the door,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), a former chief of staff to her predecessor, former Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.).
This new uptick in advocacy could represent structural challenges for Congress, where management has had to grapple more frequently with objections to lawmakers’ positions.
Michael Thorning, director of structural democracy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said staffers’ authorship of letters, even anonymously, could be “potentially really harmful to the institution” if it reveals internal operations or deliberations. He said training for staffers and members alike could help offices navigate these new dynamics.
“You have to, I think, either be willing to accept your boss’s decisions or be willing to find somewhere else to work,” Thorning said.
Congressional organizers have operated anonymously for fear of personal or professional retaliation. Most don’t even mention their office affiliations for their own sake and to save their bosses the headaches of headlines about a rebellion within their ranks.
Congressional leadership has found some of the protests go too far. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said government employees who walk off the job to protest the war “deserve to be fired,” though such decisions for congressional staff are ultimately left to individual lawmakers.
Deepening Polarization
Congress watchers trace the uptick of advocacy to the turn of the decade, when the turmoil of the Trump administration ended with the global outbreak of Covid-19 and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol itself.
Staffers were left to navigate the uneven application between offices of mitigation measures or ranging reckoning with election denialism that prompted the insurrection in the first place.
“It is impossible to diminish the impact of that day and those events on the collective psyche of those in the congressional community,” Fitch said. “The stakes just got so much higher.”
The insurrection has motivated a new crop of candidates to jump into the political fray, including the building’s former support staff. Former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn (D) gave up his pension to launch a campaign for an open House seat in Maryland to better rebut Republican lawmakers who praise the rioters he helped repel.
“Until there’s nothing that can be done, there’s always something that can be done,” Dunn said. “And this is my something.”
Some Republican lawmakers’ defense or dismissal of the rioters also alienated some of their former staff. Kurt Bardella, a former Republican House staffer, said GOP staffers bashing the more populist turn in their party speak to just how different the party has become under Trump’s leadership.
“Some of that reflects the nature of how the political parties have changed,” Bardella said.
Staff usually try to keep their name out of the spotlight so as not to diminish their boss. But direct reports to lawmakers regularly talk on the record about their personal experiences sheltering in offices from the rioters.
“People are much faster to speak up about our own personal safety,” said Sharon Eliza Nichols, communications director for Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who has spoken about her experience sheltering from Jan. 6 rioters with Norton’s blessing. “That’s the primary thing, right? We have to be safe — our bosses do — in order to do good work.”
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