We interviewed Democrats and Republicans — on the record and anonymously — about life on Capitol Hill, what broke Congress and a whole lot more.
Illustration by Jade Cuevas/POLITICO (source images via AP, Getty Images and iStock)
By POLITICO Magazine
This article was compiled from interviews conducted by Ben Jacobs, Jasper Goodman, Jordain Carney, Jennifer Scholtes, Hailey Fuchs, Emma Dumain, Lisa Kashinsky, Connor O’Brien, Holly Otterbein, Adam Wren, Daniella Diaz and Nicholas Wu. Juan Benn Jr. contributed to this report.
It’s hard to find an institution the public loathes more than Congress. But guess what? A lot of the people in Congress aren’t so happy with it either.
To get an inside look at what it’s like to serve on Capitol Hill — after years of gridlock, government shutdowns and now another Donald Trump stampede through Washington — we sat down with 25 lawmakers who were ready to dish.
We talked about what they hate and love about Congress, why it’s broken and how to fix it (one suggestion: bring back the powdered wigs). They also told us what would really shock the public if they knew the truth about life as a lawmaker (it’s what’s for dinner).
We had delicate conversations about aging lawmakers’ increasingly public deterioration (one member said he has up to a dozen colleagues who aren’t up to the job) and whether people are actually showing up drunk on the floor (it’s not a “no”), as well as the survival mechanisms that get them through a grueling day. And we talked politics, including whether Democrats have learned any lessons at all from their 2024 defeat and whether Mike Johnson would still be hanging on as speaker at the end of the year (maybe!).
We spoke with Democrats and Republicans, men and women, members of the House and Senate. And to get as candid a view of the truth as possible, we allowed lawmakers to withhold their names from attribution on any comment they’d like, though only a couple people took us up on the offer. Most were eager to let loose on the record.
Here’s what they said, edited for length and clarity.
Daily Life
To be a member of Congress is to be in an exclusive club. But it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be. We asked lawmakers what aspect of congressional life would really shock people if they knew the truth.
“How absolutely lame it is. You honestly think that life is full of House of Cards or snappy dialogue out of The West Wing. And it’s sad. You’re constantly living out of a suitcase.” — Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)
“It is an endless grind that is far less romantic than people might think.” — Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.)
“Everybody thinks that we fly around on Air Force One and dine at the French embassy every night. But the reality is, I’m eating burritos and McDonald’s more often than I’m dining in any embassies. It’s also a lonely life. It’s really hard to establish friendships, just because the pace is so breakneck.” — Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.)
“The members’ salary [$174,000] has not been adjusted for inflation in 15 years. Some would argue that if you have a body that only the very wealthy and the very poor can be part of, you’re locking out the great American middle class.”
— Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
“If people knew the truth about the compensation of a congressman, they would be shocked. I have people who land in the airport here and call me and ask, can I send my car for them. I mean, my first term up here I didn’t even own a car.” — Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.)
“I got elected in 2018, and one of the first things I had to do was to go sit in a classified briefing. I’m sitting there and I’m furiously taking notes. And I look at Elissa Slotkin and raise my eyebrows to her, and she raises her eyebrows back at me. In my head, I’m thinking, ‘Man, I’m swimming with the big fish now. I’m vibing with the CIA officers.’ And we walk out and she goes, ‘The fuck are you doing taking notes in a classified briefing?’ You effectively get a security clearance without a background check.” — Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.)
“It’s common to book out members’ time in 15-minute increments. I can just be getting into a conversation with people that are sitting down with me, and then there’s the knock at my office door: ‘Congressman, we need to be wrapping up.’ It’s alien to me.” — Rep. Jefferson Shreve (R-Ind.)
“How good of friends some of us are, whose political ideologies are totally separate from each other. Some of my best friends up here are members of the progressive caucus. We go out, have dinner and a beer, and we can even tell jokes with each other, as long as nobody’s listening.” — Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)
“A multitude of people in this body are committed to finding common ground, or when they share a goal on an issue, getting in the room and figuring out a pathway forward.” — Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.)
“I was surprised at how thirsty my colleagues are.” — Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.)
Serving in Congress can be a grueling job, with long hours, plenty of stress and frustratingly little to show for it. Many lawmakers have developed survival mechanisms or have adopted some sort of (modest!) vice or guilty pleasure to get them through the day.
“I just drink massive amounts of caffeine all the time.” — Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.)
“When things are going bad or when things get ugly, I’ll try to find me a thrift store. I’ll hit a thrift store in a heartbeat, walk around in the midst of all the things in those places. It’s soothing and quite comfortable.” — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.)
“Watching old episodes of Columbo. Growing up, I used to watch reruns with my dad. Peter Falk’s character is maybe the greatest in TV history.” — Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.)
“Practicing radical self-care and recognizing that every person here is not an adult. Saying no is very important. Laughing. If you don’t laugh and you take it all too seriously, you’ll be in a fetal position on the floor in the corner.” — Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.)
“I’m grabbing my Cheez-Its and my cashews as my go-to late-night diet. I consider them to be very close friends in my pursuit of fulfilling my congressional duties.”
— Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
“The National Archives. I find it the most amazing thing of my midlife crisis. I think I’ve been there five times already, and I’ve only been here for 10 months.” — Rep. Mike Rulli (R-Ohio)
“Going to the gym is a big part of my day, but I also found that Whole Foods has some really good snickerdoodle cookies.” — Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
“I love to shop. I love shoes. It’s a good thing, good for the soul. My mother was a garment worker in the old sweatshops in New Haven. She made all of my clothes — coats, even hats, berets, etc. She was a real stickler for style, for color, for dress. It rubbed off.” — Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)
“I would start out with cigars and clean liquor. But no, seriously, I think you really either love your job or you don’t. I don’t think people that think they’re doing the country a favor, or that they’re sacrificing to serve, last very long.” — Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.)
Capitol Hill, like high school or your office, has plenty of different personalities, and people don’t always mesh. We asked members of Congress: Who is your least favorite fellow lawmaker? Most took a pass on that one, but a few at least acknowledged they had someone in mind.
“There’s a handful of my colleagues who, when they talk, it’s like fingernails on the chalkboard. But I can’t figure anyone in particular, because I’m not perfect either.” — Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
“Right now, my least favorite lawmaker would be Mitch McConnell.” — Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
“Well, my least favorite is not here anymore. I’ll leave it at that.”
— Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.)
“The single least impressive person I have ever met in this job or any job I’ve ever had is Kevin McCarthy. He is just a vapid shell of a human being who stands for nothing, who never took his oath seriously.” — Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.)Politics
Democrats are completely shut out of power in Washington, and it’s unclear how long they’ll be in the wilderness as debate still rages over why they lost to Trump and what they should do next. So we asked Democrats: Has the party learned any lessons from their 2024 defeat?
“I’m hoping to find out real soon.” — Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.)
“It wasn’t eggs. People got eggs for brains, if they think it was eggs. It was social issues.” — Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
“We cannot afford to cede the issue of border security to the Republican Party. I feel like that is a lesson that has been widely internalized.” — Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.)
“Every democracy in the world voted to throw the bums out in ’24, because every democracy in the world was faced with global inflation. The Democrats did better than the Tories, we did better than the LDP in Japan, we did better than the Dutch, we did better than Macron’s party in France. But everybody voted against the incumbents.” — Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.)
“We really got our asses kicked in. If we don’t get our shit together, then we are going to be in a permanent minority.”
— Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.)
“I’ve always thought of the Democrats as the party of the little guy, the party of working Americans, and I think we are very much seen now as the party of the well-educated coastal elite.” — Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.)
“They should have been less dismissive of Bernie. They should not have run a status quo campaign. We should always run as change agents.” — Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)
“We would be well served to present a more coherent, better integrated view of the world and vision for the future, rather than constantly trying to read the tea leaves and say what we think people want to hear.” — Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.)
Republicans have churned through speakers in recent years — John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy — and now it’s Mike Johnson’s turn. With a threadbare majority and plenty of restive hard-liners, how long he’ll hold the gavel is anyone’s guess. So we asked GOP lawmakers: Will he still be speaker at the end of the year?
“Absolutely.” — Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)
“Probably.” — Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.)
“I think it has everything to do with whether or not he falls out of favor with the president. The only reason Mike Johnson’s a speaker right now is because the president saved him multiple times.” — Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
Donald Trump’s grip on the GOP is tighter than ever, and he’s gotten little pushback from congressional Republicans. He’s quickly sought to remake the federal government, even trying to grab Congress’ power of the purse. Is there anything Trump could do that would push GOP lawmakers to impeach him?
“Never.” — Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.)
“As of now, no.” — Rep. Mike Rulli (R-Ohio)
“He’s never done anything so far that I thought was an impeachable offense.” — Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.)
“If he completely went off the rails, yeah. I don’t want to put anybody on a pedestal and give somebody a pass for completely unlawful, unconstitutional behavior. But I have not seen that from the president. He would have to completely break with everything that he’s doing.” — Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.)
“That’s impossible to answer.” — Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.)
The polarization that exists throughout the country shows up on Capitol Hill, and while bipartisan friendships do exist, there’s also a sharp divide. We asked lawmakers what the worst thing was about the other party and got some answers dripping with disdain.
“The worst thing about the Democratic Party is that I think there’s a number of them in the conference who honestly don’t like this country. I think some of them border on hating it, even down to our foundational documents, such as the Constitution.” — Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.)
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