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WASHINGTON Rep. Trey Gowdy is known as a dogged investigator of Hillary Clinton. Now Democrats wonder whether the South Carolina Republican will pursue President Donald Trump with the same vigor he used in going after the Democratic presidential candidate.

Later this month, Gowdy, 52, is set to become chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he will lead official scrutiny of the Trump administration, including a budding investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump's campaign.

Gowdy led a two-year investigation into the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, focusing heavily on Clinton's role as secretary of state. It was the committee's probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross in her campaign.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans say the four-term lawmaker and former federal prosecutor is the right man for the job. Democrats are not convinced.

"When push gets to shove, I think Trey's a reliable partisan and that's why Ryan picked him," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va.

In 2014, House Speaker John Boehner selected Gowdy "as a very junior member to head up the Benghazi panel to go after Hillary Clinton. That was not an accident," Connolly said. "Having done his duty well, Paul Ryan has now tapped him to head oversight, where your job obviously is to protect the man in the White House. So vigorous oversight is not on the agenda."

The House Republican Steering Committee on Thursday recommended Gowdy for the chairmanship, replacing Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is leaving Congress on June 30. Gowdy beat out Oklahoma Rep. Steve Russell. The full House Republican conference is expected to confirm the choice next week.

Rep. Mark Sanford, another South Carolina Republican who briefly considered running for the oversight post, said Gowdy has "a steady prosecutorial mind" and a keen understanding of issues facing the committee.

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a close friend and former colleague of Gowdy in the House, said "no one works harder and is more committed to the truth and the rule of law than Trey."

Connolly, a member of the oversight panel, stressed that he likes Gowdy personally and praised his skills as a former prosecutor and lawmaker. But he said Gowdy knows his role in the GOP leadership.

"I don't think Paul Ryan is worried about that streak of independence showing itself any time soon and certainly not in the context of Donald Trump and the Russia thing," he said.

Ryan, in a statement, said Gowdy "possesses the experience and deep commitment to transparency and accountability" needed as oversight chairman. "He has proven that he will always look out for taxpayers and seek answers from the bureaucracy. Trey has my absolute confidence, and I know he will do an outstanding job," Ryan said.

Gowdy led the Benghazi inquiry from May 2014 through last July. The committee's 800-page report accused the Obama administration of lethal mistakes, but it produced no "smoking gun" pointing to wrongdoing by Clinton, even as Gowdy threatened to seek a federal investigation into whether she lied to the committee under oath in 2015.

In the end, Gowdy did not sign a perjury complaint against Clinton filed by House Republicans. The July 2016 complaint to the Justice Department was made by Chaffetz and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

Gowdy said in a statement Thursday he was "grateful" for "this opportunity to serve." The statement focused on the committee's institutional responsibilities and made no mention of specific lines of inquiry.

Sanford, a Trump critic, said some constituents have expressed concerns about the partisan focus of the Benghazi investigation.

"I try to convince them my experience with Trey has been most even-handed, and it's my hope and expectation that he has the same approach to the committee at large," he said.

Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the senior Democrat on Oversight, served with Gowdy on the Benghazi panel, where Cummings also was the top Democrat. While the men initially pledged to work together, their relationship descended into partisan bickering by the time the investigation ended last summer.

Still, Cummings congratulated Gowdy in a statement and promised to "support his efforts whenever we can."

Gowdy takes over the oversight panel just as it is poised to investigate Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI director amid the FBI's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign.

Gowdy is already familiar with the questions over Trump's Russia ties due to his seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which has conducted a probe of its own since allegations of Russian efforts to influence the presidential election surfaced late last year.

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Democrats: Will new GOP oversight chairman pursue Trump? - Fox News

Democrats and progressives see lessons in the unexpected success of Britains Labour Party in this weeks snap election, and plan to use some of the winning strategies to make similar gains in the United States.

The Conservative Party of British Prime Minister Theresa May lost 12 seats in the election, while Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party gained at least 31 seats a surprise, given Corbyns unpopularity even in his own party.Democrats said that the British election shows a wave turning against the populism of Europes far-right, and that their party could win in the U.S. by running unabashedly on progressive positions.

Corbyn promised a range of progressive policies, including new taxes to pay for college tuition, ahigher minimum wage, and nationalization of mail, energy and railways. His success shows that U.S. Democrats should run on what they actually believe, said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Policy and Economic Research.

The conclusion from the U.K. election that I think is most obvious is that ...1990s politics of error-avoidance and poll-testing each and every increment of communication strategy or policy is just over, Hauser said in an interview. The argument for sincerety-driven politics is really strong. I think you see that in Bernie (Sanders), you see that in Corbyn, you see that in the con from Trump, where his affect gave people the idea that he was saying whatever was in his heart.

Argue for what you actually believe, Hauser continued.

Neera Tanden, president of the progressive Center for American Progress, tweeted that British voters had sent a referendum to May based on her proximity to Trump.

Tanden said in an email she was kind of kidding about Trump in her tweet, but believed the U.K. election showed nationalism in decline.

I think the Tories limits and Labours gains are both a reaction to Trumpism Brexit in the U.K.; Trump in America and as importantly, a sign that progressive forces are gaining strength in the world, Tanden said. Brexit just passed a year ago with Labour in opposition to it and May lost seats yesterday. So I think it is both a reaction domestically to the xenophobic nationalism of the Brexiters ... as well as gaining strength for bold progressive alternatives.

Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and chair of the Democratic National Committee, predicted a backlash to President Donald Trump reaction in the near future, similar to Britons Brexit misgivings.

I dont think this is a referendum on Trump, but I do think this is a referendum on Trump-type approaches to things, Dean said. I certainly think Trump helped drag Mrs. May down. It does look like the campaign that were gonna mount, except that were getting started a lot earlier.

Dean predicted Democrats would take control of both the House and Senate in 2018 an opinion he conceded is not widely shared in Washington for the same reason conservatives in Britain didnt do well. Democrats would win, he said, because there would be a reaction against the sort of extreme positions that Trump has taken.

But Our Revolution, a Bernie Sanders-backed group, said the lefts success in the British election was more about embracing progressive policies than about Trump.

Those lessons could have urgent significance to Democrats, still regrouping after losing the presidential election last year, even though there have been some encouraging signs in local contests.

If Brexit was a preview of Trumps rise, last night should show Democrats the roadmap they must follow, Dan Cantor, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement. The only way to beat phony right-wing racialized populism is with a bold anti-corporate inclusive progressive populism.

That visionary program, Cantor argued, inspired young voters and persuaded many anti-establishment voters that Corbyn had a plan to deliver change and he meant it.

Running against Trump and for an ambitious progressive policy agenda arent mutually exclusive,Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the Working Families Party, said in an email. In fact, theyre complementary.

Trump has people energized to push for more and bolder, Dinkin said. People have a hunger for a transformative vision. And were also seeing that a bolder populism works as well.

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Democrats Look For Lessons After Labour's Unexpected Success In Britain - HuffPost

Jon Ossoff (left) and Karen Handel

House Democrats are pumping more resources into their push to flip Georgias 6th District.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee laid out another six-figure ad buy for a 30-second TV spot that slams Republican Karen Handel. The group has now spent nearly $5 million backing Democrat Jon Ossoffs bid to win the suburban Atlanta district.

The ad claims theres a pattern in Handels use of taxpayer money, invoking her use of an SUV and spending while she was Georgias secretary of state. TheClub for Growth has also deployed similar attacks against Handel in recent months.

The Lexus is a reference to the car Handel had while secretary of state, and its a criticism that came up in her Senate race against David Perdue in 2014. Handels campaign has said she had owned the wheels before she won statewide office.

As to her spending when she was secretary of state, the Handel campaign has pointed to a recentPolitiFact articlethat considered a previous Democratic attack on her officialbudget to be mostly false.

The spending is part of an all-out war between national Democrats and Republicans to win the June 20 runoff. The race is by far the most expensive of its kind, and the top three Republicans President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan have all campaigned for Handel.

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Georgia 6th: House Democrats up their attacks on Handel - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

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But as the party ramps up its efforts to take control of the House and hold onto a spate of red-state Senate seats in the 2018 midterm elections, some operatives see all the Russia talk as a distraction from an even more potent campaign issue: Health care.

Even those following the Russia probe's twists and turns closely say the GOP's push to repeal the Affordable Care Act is easier to explain and matters more to moderates and working-class voters that Democrats need to win back.

"I would encourage all of our candidates to make sure that health care stays front and center of the election," said Guy Cecil, the chairman of the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA.

"The visceral, gut reaction that people have makes it more powerful than Russia," he said.

New polls out Wednesday showed that Americans are increasingly attuned to the Russia investigation -- and the fallout from Trump's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey because he wouldn't shut that investigation down.

Still, many Democrats acknowledged that it's much easier to craft a digital advertisement or a 30-second television spot based on the direct pocketbook impact of the House GOP's health care measure -- which the Senate is expected to address in the coming weeks -- than it is to explain the breakneck developments in the Russia investigation. And health care, unlike the Russia investigation, is free from concerns about the trustworthiness of Comey, who many Democrats still blame for Hillary Clinton's loss.

Voters, Cecil said, have "a gut understanding; it's a day-by-day understanding of the impact of health care. They understand what it means to have coverage. The fact that it affects something that is personal, that happens to them daily, makes it a very powerful issue."

No matter the outcome of the Russia investigation, "health care will be a cornerstone issue in 2018," said Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of the liberal blog Daily Kos.

"It motivates the base like few other issues, and more and more, moderates are aligned with liberals," Moulitsas said. "It's a win-win."

In the backlash over the Republican health care efforts, many progressives see a new opportunity to counter -- if the party returns to power -- with a push for a national single-payer, or "Medicare for all," plan.

But Russia also gives progressives an opening to call for Trump's impeachment -- something the party's leaders on Capitol Hill have not yet done.

"Russia shows just how anti-democratic the Republican Party is, happy to let a foreign power intervene in our elections in the pursuit of power. It proves the dishonesty of Trump and his regime and his party. It proves their incompetence," Moulitsas said.

"But most importantly, it provides a real basis for impeachment. So the issue isn't 'what Trump did was bad, look!' but 'we have no option given what Trump did except impeachment,'" he said. "So 2018 will be about two things: impeach Trump, and let's get single-payer health care. And both those issues will mobilize the liberal base like nothing else, and neither should turn off moderate voters."

Zac Petkanas, who was immersed in the Russia investigation while leading the rapid response efforts of Clinton's campaign and then the Democratic National Committee before launching his own firm, said there are simple ways for Democratic candidates to make their case against Trump on Russia: A president who cheated the system and a congressional GOP unwilling to defend the country and hold him accountable.

"And that goes to the corruption that people already believe exists in Washington; that goes to the abuse of power that people see running rampant in this city," Petkanas said.

Still, he acknowledged, the Russia investigation doesn't pack the clear, personal impact of health care.

"When I'm talking to candidates," Petkanas said, "I tell them that they should be saying 'health care' five times for every time that they say the word 'Russia.'"

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Even amid Russia probe, many Democrats see health care as their real winner - CNN