Democrats and Progressives ARE in a tricky situation the summer of 2024……
(It isn’t the First time, eh?)
While the Harris/Walz campaign need’s, and count’s on their support?
Their positions on something’s , put them at odds with what the Democratic Vice President is, and will be selling as their policies are presented going forward…..
The Middle East the prime area of contention….
(The Biden/Harris admin supports Israel against Hamas….Progressives support helping the people of Gaza who have lost people and their homes and ARE nomads suffering…That is costing them their seats in Congress)
In reality the issue IS NOT just the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC,….
The Party must get their people elected, and maintain majorities in area’s OUTSIDE the Progressives safe districts in Congress and in State elections……
America is NOT a Hard Left leaning country…
Not even in most Democratic area’s….
Progressive Democrats just watched pro-Israel super PACs spend jaw-dropping sums to wipe out two top liberals in Congress. And leaders fear they have no way to stop it from happening again in 2026.
Those groups, chiefly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, spent a combined $25 million on ads to defeat Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) this summer in what became the two most expensive House primaries ever. As a result, two more mainstream Democrats, George Latimer in New York and Wesley Bell in Missouri, are advancing in safe blue districts rather than two stalwart progressive voices.
After both Bowman and Bush crumbled under that avalanche of spending, prompted by their criticism of Israel in the country’s war with Hamas, progressive Democrats have awoken to a bleak new reality that could haunt them for years to come: They have no organized way to counter that kind of money. And they fear AIPAC and allied groups will be more empowered to take on even bigger targets next cycle and beyond because they know their strategy works.
Progressive Democrats just watched pro-Israel super PACs spend jaw-dropping sums to wipe out two top liberals in Congress. And leaders fear they have no way to stop it from happening again in 2026.
Those groups, chiefly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, spent a combined $25 million on ads to defeat Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.) this summer in what became the two most expensive House primaries ever. As a result, two more mainstream Democrats, George Latimer in New York and Wesley Bell in Missouri, are advancing in safe blue districts rather than two stalwart progressive voices….
…
In the days after Bush’s defeat last week, senior liberals in Congress, including Sanders, have begun to reckon with the size of the problem. Until then, progressives were not sure if AIPAC’s success against Bowman, who had plenty of his own political flaws unrelated to the Middle East, could be replicated. Then Bush’s loss rattled progressives even more….
…
“The movement is going to have to do some deep soul searching,” said Nina Turner, a prominent progressive who lost her own House primary three years ago to an AIPAC-backed challenger. “The progressive movement has to show up in a deeper way. It did not.”….
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has won the primary for the Democratic nomination for her seat representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, almost certainly giving her two more years in the House, Decision Desk HQ projects.
Omar fended off a challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who nearly upset her two years ago in a primary. In 2022, she won by less than 2,500 votes in a race where more than 110,000 total votes were cast.
More….