U.S. Rep. Greg Casar is a politician in demand.
On Tuesday, the 35-year-old Austin Democrat flew to California for fundraisers and a meeting about the party’s strategy for the upcoming midterm elections. Then he was off to Colorado for a rally Thursday evening in a congressional district that Republicans narrowly won in the last election, after an appearance in Arizona last month with progressive stars U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, during their “Fighting Oligarchy Tour.”
“We’ve had to increase the size of the venue,” said Shad Murib, chair of the Colorado Democratic Party. “The congressman has a fan base here for sure.”
Less than three years after he was elected to represent Texas’ 35th Congressional District, which stretches from Austin to San Antonio along Interstate 35, Casar has gone from a virtual unknown in the national political scene to chairman of the House Progressive Caucus and has become a sought-after messenger in Democrats’ efforts to bring working-class voters back to the party.
Casar has been visiting GOP districts in Texas and around the countryin response to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s direction to Republican members to stop holding town halls, to avoid potential confrontations with protesters.
U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, holds a March 29 town hall meeting in the district of Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy using a cutout of the Central Texas lawmaker as a prop. Casar has been visiting GOP districts in Texas and around the nation in response to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s direction to GOP members to stop holding town halls.
He has also appeared on Fox News and other conservative platforms, criticizing moves by President Donald Trump to reduce services for low-income Americans.
“Right now, the fight isn’t right versus left. It’s Trump, Elon Musk and the billionaire class versus everyone else,” Casar said in an interview this week. “That means going places where people don’t think of progressives going.”
Since Trump appointed Musk to head his Department of Government Efficiency, Casar has rallied Democrats around calls to “fire Elon Musk” before the end of May — amid polls showing Americans at large are worried about Musk’s methods.
In the process, Casar is starting to build a national brand alongside a team of young progressives in Washington, including Ocasio-Cortez, who is being discussed as a likely presidential candidate in 2028.
“Depending on who you ask he’s either doing stunts or drawing attention to important issues, but either way he’s getting attention,” Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston politics professor, said of Casar. “The Democrats are searching for an identity, and Casar is pushing a new progressive vision for the party.”
In Colorado, Democratic leaders are hoping Casar can help swing back working-class voters in a heavily Latino district with large numbers of Trump voters.
Murib, the state’s party chair, said they had learned their lessons from losses sustained in last year’s election and settled on a strategy centered on economic issues, something Casar has been urging Democrats to focus on.
“He has a way of talking to folks that’s in line with our message,” Murib said. “‘Let’s get rid of the purity tests and work on bringing back working-class voters.”
Rep. Greg Casar speaks at an Oct. 1 voter rally at Texas State University in San Marcos. Casar has gone from a virtual unknown in the national political scene to being a sought-after messenger in Democrats’ efforts to bring working-class voters back to the party.
Casar is one of a number of Democrats, many with bigger name recognition, working to rally resistance against Trump. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey warned during a 25-hour-long speech on the Senate floor that the “country is in crisis.” U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a lawyer from Dallas, appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” this week to challenge Trump to an IQ test after he called her “a very low IQ person.”
Earlier this year, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged members to keep the pressure up on Trump in Washington and in their home districts and “to connect directly with our constituents and discuss the challenges we are decisively addressing on their behalf.”
And Casar, with his impassioned speeches punctuated by fist pumps and Spanish mantras, has clearly found a moment.A former labor organizer with the Workers Defense Project in Austin, he has long had a reputation of being a rising star within Texas’ Democratic Party.
Casar caught the attention of political observers shortly after being elected to Congress when he stood on the steps of the Capitol on a hot summer’s day for almost nine hours without water, to bring attention to his calls for a federal rule protecting workers from extreme heat.
Before heading to Washington, Casar beat a slate of better-known liberal candidates for a seat on the Austin City Council in 2014, running a shoestring campaign out of his apartment that included handwritten notes to constituents with his cellphone number included, said John Lawler, Casar’s former campaign manager.
“He’s gotten here because he works harder than anyone else. He puts the holes in his boots; he stays up writing letters,” Lawler said. “And he has an exceptional mind for figuring out the widget that needs to be turned.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Democrats turn to U.S. Rep. Greg Casar to rally working class voters