The party is confronting its lack of real power in the capital after a summer of town halls and rallies.

President Donald Trump with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune after the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol on Feb. 6.

Congressional Democrats returned to Washington earlier this week, fresh off of a lengthy summer recess where they heard one prevailing message from constituents in town halls and other events: Do something.

Now, Democratic lawmakers — in the minority in the Senate and the House as well as out of the White House — are confronting the limited number of things they can do while trying to appease party members desperate to see some action.

Democrats from battleground states and districts told NBC News near the end of the congressional recess that constituents repeatedly urged them throughout August to keep resisting Trump and his congressional GOP allies. But they acknowledged that there’s little they can do to fight the president’s agenda with no power in Congress, instead focusing on how they can raise the profile of some issues and also organize ahead of the midterm elections.

“I think that the prevalent mood we’re hearing right now is: Keep fighting back. And that is true of not just the Democrats — and I’ve heard from a lot of Democrats, certainly — but also a lot of the independent voters out there that we talked to,” said Rep. Dave Min, D-Calif., who won his Orange County-based district by less than 3 percentage points in 2024.

Democratic members of Congress from California, Nevada, Oregon and Indiana told NBC News that some of the issues that most concerned their constituents over the recess was the impact of tariffs on the rising cost of living, rising medical costs and access to health care.

“What I’ve heard across the state — I don’t care where you live — they want lower costs. They want to keep our community safe and healthy. They want good paying jobs. They want to expand and increase jobs and be able to grow the economy. That is the focus for everyone,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., told NBC News. Cortez Masto was re-elected in 2022 by less than 1 percentage point. In 2024, Trump won her state by over 3 points.

The “universal” issue that Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Ore., heard from her constituency, which she said is about evenly divided among Democrats, Republicans and independents, is health care.

“What that looks like is the viability of rural hospitals, the availability of medical providers and the cost,” Bynum told NBC News. The first-term congresswoman won her seat by less than 3 percentage points in 2024.

Limited power

All of the lawmakers NBC News spoke to emphasized the tough position they’ve faced since the start of the year.

“Well, they want a fighter, but they want somebody who’s going to get something done,” Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., told NBC News. “So I say, ‘Yeah, I’m doing all I can.’ We’re doing amicus briefs, we’re doing rallies, we’re introducing legislation, we’re doing discharge petitions, but we don’t have the numbers.”

Bynum pointed to the dozens of town halls that House and Senate Democrats organized across the country during their recess as one way for members of her party to keep fighting and showing up for their constituents.

One way to do something “is varying the ways in which we are showing up,” Bynum said, adding that since the start of her term, she’s hosted in-person town halls and tele-town halls.

“It’s hard to see, unless the room is packed out. It sometimes can make people feel like they’re alone and they’re concerned if not a lot of people show up,” she noted. “But here’s the thing, on my last [tele-]town hall, we had 16,000 people on the line. … And so, telling people, ‘Hey, you’re not the only one. This is how many people also showed up with that concern,’ that has been effective, as well.”

Bynum added that one of her top messages for constituents showing up to her events is that numbers count.

“The math is important,” she said. “I can’t put roadblocks in place, except through the courts and except through public opinion, unless we have the numbers. And so the midterms are key to putting some speed bumps in Trump’s way.”

Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Ind., said that, when speaking to constituents at home, he’s also highlighting the power that Democrats could gain if they win the midterms.

“By creating a checks and balances system, you’re going to be able to negotiate on every front with the administration,” Mrvan said. He won his seat in 2024 by more than 8 points. In the same election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by less than 1 percentage point. It is also a potential target for Republican-led mid-decade redistricting before the midterms.

Titus noted that the turnout at town halls across the country is an encouraging sign for next year’s midterm elections.

“We’ve gotten really good turnout,” she said. “People are interested in what’s going on. And one thing that I noticed is the turnout is so high and the energy level is so great that usually you don’t find this until an election year, but people have not disconnected since the last election, and so we’ve got to just sustain that energy.”

A prescription for 2026

Though Democrats are looking ahead to next year in the hope of taking back Congress, and with that, the tools to curb some of Trump’s agenda, they do face headwinds, including low ratings. A number of surveys, including an NBC News poll earlier this year, have found the lowest positive rating for the Democratic Party in 35 years.

Cortez Masto, who has twice won a competitive Senate race in a battleground state, dismissed the idea that Democrats aren’t best-positioned to make gains in the House and Senate next year.

“I’m really frustrated with the national tone here, that it’s all about Democratic infighting,” she said. “This isn’t about Democratic infighting. This is about all of us as Americans, where we stand at this moment in time, and how we fight back against an administration who wants to be a dictator.”

Cortez Masto emphasized the need for Democrats to work in traditionally battleground and Republican areas, something she’s working with almost a dozen other Democratic senators to do via her ModSquad PAC, which has already endorsed Democratic candidates for the Senate in New Hampshire and North Carolina. Her advice for fellow Democrats in battleground states and districts includes focusing on the issues that constituents raised as most important to them in town halls in August.

“It’s about common sense, lowering prices. How do we make their lives a little bit easier with less stress? How do we show we’re focused on working families, and not the billionaires and the big corporations who are getting all the permanent tax cuts and shifting the wealth to them,” the Nevada senator said. “There is an opportunity for us to get out there. We’ve got to talk to everyone. There’s enough room in the Democratic Party for all of us, and our focus should be together on those commonsense issues.”

Mrvan, who is facing another tough re-election fight next year, plans to focus on speaking to his constituents about how Trump’s tariff agenda affects them.

“What we have to be able to do as a member of Congress who’s a Democrat, is be able to, one, absolutely talk about how … indiscriminatory tariffs and tariff wars do not benefit the consumer or our economy,” Mrvan said.

Nevada’s Titus advised her fellow swing-district and swing-state Democrats to ignore the national dynamics beyond their races.

“I think they need to remember that all politics is local, and not everybody’s watching MSNBC. So instead of trying to get on TV there, you need to try to get on TV back home in your district. And the way you do that is by talking about something that’s happening in the district,” Titus said. “You know, you can have all these national battles, and everybody and his brother is running for president, but the way to win your district is to focus on what’s happening in your district.”