Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez Push for Progressive Voting in Battle Ground Districts

Left Leaning Democrats are are working on ‘getting out the vote’ in place’s that could assure Democrats a solid WINNING vote in this years’ midterm elections but, overwhelm moderate Democrats…

As Democrats fight for control of Congress, prominent left-wing politicians including Mr. Sanders of Vermont and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez of New York are increasingly inserting themselves into primary races to elevate progressives in competitive battleground districts.

That’s a departure from the progressive playbook of years past, which generally focused on backing candidates in deep-blue turf where campaigns tended to focus more on liberal ideology and less on electability in general-election contests.

The effort aims to rebut the conventional wisdom that running moderate Democrats who appeal to centrists and Republicans with middle-of-the-road policies is the best strategy in competitive races. Now, progressives are saying that candidates with policies aimed at helping working families and critiquing the wealthy can win anywhere.

Running candidates who “have the guts to stand up for the working class,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview, should be a “winning formula in almost every part of the country.”

This year, Mr. Sanders has backed a slate of candidates in competitive House and Senate races who promote working-class bona fides and espouse populist policies, even if not all describe themselves as progressive.

The list includes Sam Forstag, a smoke jumper in Montana; Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter in Pennsylvania; Brian Poindexter, an ironworker in Ohio; Rebecca Cooke, a small-business owner in Wisconsin; Abdul El-Sayed, a former county health director in Michigan; and Graham Platner, an oysterman in Maine.

In the competitive districts that also featured fierce Democratic primaries, some Sanders-backed candidates have already prevailed over moderate opponents this spring, including Mr. Poindexter, Mr. Platner and Mr. Brooks.

Of Mr. Sanders’s 16 congressional endorsements so far this election cycle, seven are in races considered at least somewhat competitive — a departure from his four endorsements in competitive congressional races out of 35 total in the 2024 and 2022 election cycles….

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The Democratic establishment put its thumb on the scale in some of these races earlier this month, when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee endorsed candidates in contested primaries…..

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Mr. Sanders dismissed the group’s involvement.

“The establishment Democrats live in their world — they collect a lot of money from wealthy people,” he said. “We live in a different world.”….

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Note….

This a could be a continuing issue for Democrats who tend to split their voters in some races helping Republican’s…

image…KSAT