House Democrats face epic power struggle over their massive majority

House Democrats channeled anti-Trump fury into a landslide victory over Republicans. Now comes the hard part: Figuring out what to do with their huge majority . Why it matters: That question is already igniting a power struggle between Democrats' ideological factions as they lay out contradictory visions for what the next two years of governing looks like. This story is based on interviews with more than a dozen sitting and incoming House Democrats from across the political spectrum. "Last night was a rebuke of the status quo," progressive Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Axios, adding that "for the left it was an affirmation and a validation that we are on the right track." There is "absolutely no excuse," Ramirez said, for House Democrats not to do "the most over the next two years, and as quickly as possible." Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a centrist, said Tuesday was a "gigantic night for the middle ground," and that the mandate is far more modest: "We need to crush high costs and corruption." State of play: House Democrats are on track to win more than 250 seats, which would give them a comfortable majority of dozens of votes. That blows up the plans of a cohort of incoming progressives known as the "Bloc" to demand concessions from leadership in exchange for voting with the party. The potential concessions included changes to House rules, plum committee assignments and votes to enact Medicare-for-All , defund ICE and cut off U.S. aid to Israel. What we're hearing: The left's new tactic is to try to convince the Congressional Progressive Caucus to, as one sitting House Democrat put it, "assert its authority in a way it has never done before." "That should definitely be part of the game plan," an incoming Bloc member told Axios, "we've got so many members of the CPC and I think we're adding 25 more." Said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former CPC chair: "We have certainly used our power many times ... and we will do that again." The CPC is currently around 1