Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, who flipped deep-red Kansas for Democrats, said Sunday that he hopes to prioritize lowering costs for his constituents in the next Congress and that he would be “deeply disappointed” to spend two years investigating members of the Trump administration.
“The bigger priority for me, and I think for most people in America, especially people living paycheck to paycheck, is ‘please help us with the cost of living,’” Hamilton told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Specifically, he said the new Congress should immediately focus on ending the war in Iran and “claw[ing] back tariffs policies.”
“If I spent the next two years — my first two years in the Senate —in investigations, I’d be deeply disappointed. I want to get to work helping the people in my state and helping the people across the country,” Hamilton said.
After Democrats’ landslide victories Tuesday, which granted them control of the House and Senate in the next Congress, newly elected leaders and those who were re-elected are turning to focus on their priorities for the next two years.
Many are calling on colleagues to focus on an affordability agenda, but some senior leaders have said that they’ll also prioritize oversight and investigations into possible corruption by President Donald Trump and his allies.
“Whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court and entangle him in legislative razor wire,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday.
Several Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who served as an impeachment manager for one of Trump’s impeachments during his first term, have floated potentially impeaching the president for a third time.
“I’m not as interested in impeachment as setting up guardrails,” Hamilton said Sunday, though he added, “I understand the move and the desire to do this.”
The senator-elect also warned fellow members of his party about focusing too much on investigations and oversight over making life more affordable for Americans.
“Let’s focus on helping the American people,” he said. “And I’ll tell you, the Democrats, if they don’t, if we don’t figure that out and get to work on helping people, this is going to be a one and done, kind of, you know, kind of blue wave.”
Appearing later on the program, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., agreed with Hamilton.
“I think the senator-elect Hamilton made a good point,” Sanders told “Meet the Press,” adding: “we cannot spend all of our time investigating Trump. We have to stand up for working class families, make a real difference in their lives.”
With Democrats winning in 54 Senate seats and two more Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi still uncalled, Schumer could be poised to take over as Senate majority leader in the next Congress if a majority of the Democratic members of the Senate vote in his favor.
Hamilton has said that he doesn’t plan to support Schumer’s bid to be majority leader.
On Sunday, he said he has “no disrespect for Chuck Schumer,” but “I just really don’t [want him as majority leader], and I’ve told him that as well.”
The senator-elect cited the volume of TV ads during the campaign linking him to Schumer, which he said addressed the fact that, “a lot of people in Kansas feel, who may not know Chuck Schumer personally, who don’t know him personally, but you know that that they perceive him to be further to the left, and somebody who’s a divisive figure.”
He demurred when asked who he might support over Schumer, saying, “I know probably 10 senators personally, and even those I only know from brief conversations. So, you know, I’m not at a place where I can tell you, ‘these are, this is my short list.’”
Hamilton added: “There are a handful of people that I think are probably, you know, lead more from the center, but I don’t know enough yet to be able to say, ‘these are the people I would endorse.’”