Nevada Congresswoman Susie Lee wins Democratic House leadership role

Even though Republicans will retain control of the US House for now, Lee told colleagues that electing battle-tested members like her to Democratic leadership could help the party retake control of Congress in 2026. 

Less than two weeks after winning her fourth term to Congress, Nevada US Rep. Susie Lee has won a leadership position within the House Democratic Caucus. 

The House Democratic Caucus announced Tuesday that Lee had won her election for Battleground Leadership Representative, a position created by House Democrats in 2022 to ensure Democrats in tough-to-win swing districts are part of the party’s leadership apparatus. 

Elections for House Democratic leadership positions took place Tuesday, and the position Lee is running for is elected by returning members of party’s “Frontline” flank as well as incoming Democratic freshmen, according to Lee’s office. Others who ran for the post included Reps. Kim Schrier of Washington and Greg Landsman of Ohio, according to Axios. 

In a statement last week announcing her candidacy, Lee said her experience winning campaigns in Nevada’s most-contested congressional district, coupled with her ability to negotiate with Republicans in Washington, make her well-suited to be a leader for other Democrats in competitive areas. 

“I first won my seat during the 2018 midterms, so having already served as a Frontline member during a [Donald] Trump presidency, I understand firsthand the tactics and challenges that we will face,” Lee said. “The majority of our caucus will be intent on fighting back at every step of the way. And while our party will ask us to join in these partisan fights, we all know that the people we represent expect a more nuanced approach.” 

Lee continued: “I am a battle-tested perennial Frontliner from a swing district in the swing state of Nevada — both of which have a plurality of non-partisan voters — so I understand the high expectations of our constituents and the delicate balance each of us must keep when making every voting decision.” 

Lee earlier this month won her third re-election bid after defeating Republican challenger Drew Johnson, a conservative policy analyst and opinion writer. Lee received 51.3% of the vote to Johnson’s 48.7%, a margin of about 10,000 votes. Since winning her first election in 2018, Lee, who is an educator by trade, has won re-election bids by about 13,000 votes and 10,000 votes in 2020 and 2022, respectively. 

Outside political groups have recognized Lee for working in a bipartisan fashion, too. Using a composite score measuring just how much lawmakers work across the aisle, the Lugar Center at Georgetown University ranked Lee as the seventh-most bipartisan member of the House, while the nonpartisan Common Ground Committee in June named Lee as one of the four US lawmakers who worked across the aisle the most over the last Congressional term. 

Lee’s victory over Johnson was also the tightest of Nevada’s four US House races. Democrats Dina Titus and Steven Horsford and Republican Mark Amodei all easily bested their challengers, and Democratic incumbent US Sen. Jacky Rosen narrowly staved off an upset from Republican challenger Sam Brown. 

Republicans, however, rode big gains elsewhere across the nation on Election Day to maintain control of the House and flip control of the Senate. And while it’s unclear which priorities will be pressing to Democrats while they remain in the minority in Washington for at least the next two years, Lee in her letter this week stressed to colleagues how important it will be for Democratic leaders to learn from races like hers and in other battlegrounds to shape the party’s future platform.

“As we emerge from disappointing results at the top of the ticket, I know that all of us in battleground districts have already begun the process of assessing what happened and planning for the future,” Lee wrote. “As members who represent the most competitive districts in the nation, it’s critical that the House Democratic Caucus hears and respects our voices because 2026 will certainly prove to be the election of our lifetimes. In the interim, should House Democrats once again be in the minority in a stacked Republican government, our leadership will be more important now than ever.”