Five Democrats the left plans to target

On Jan 25, 2022

Progressives are preparing to try to clear out Democrats they say are hampering their ability to remodel the country while their party still controls Congress.

They see the skeleton Build Back Better (BBB) package and failed voting rights bill as warning signs that a few stubborn lawmakers can — and, if given the chance, will — block and blow up the liberal vision they had dreamed about enacting when President BidenJoe Biden Fox News reporter says Biden called him after ‘son of a b—-‘ remark Peloton responds after another TV character has a heart attack on one of its bikes Defense & National Security — Pentagon puts 8,500 troops on high alert MORE took office.

When things fell further apart last week, leaving the president and congressional Democrats scrambling for a way to advance their two main priorities, progressives saw a clear fix to all of it: primary challenges ahead of November.

“We need strong progressives in Congress to have some sort of counterweight and leverage against the conservative, corporate backed Democrats who are an obstacle to delivering results,” said Waleed Shaheed, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, a progressive group that has backed several liberal challengers to Democratic incumbents in recent years.

“These primaries are where those seats come from, where that leverage comes from,” he said.

Many on the left are outraged that Sens. Joe ManchinJoe Manchin Even working piecemeal, Democrats need a full agenda for children Poll: 30 percent of Americans say they approve of the job Congress is doing Bipartisan Senate group discusses changes to election law MORE (D-W.Va.) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) joined Republicans last week in opposing a rule change to the filibuster and in doing so killed off a voting rights bill. They are equally furious that the same two holdouts, particularly Manchin, sank Biden’s social and climate spending package.

While both bills have defined Biden’s first year in office, progressives see them as just the start.

They believe the moderate duo in the Senate and many more in the House will vote against their proposals as often as possible in 2022 and 2024, creating further pressure to oust them from within their own ranks before it gets to that point.

Manchin and Sinema aren’t up for reelection in 2022, but here are five moderate Democrats the left plans to target:

1) Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas)

Jessica Cisneros’s quest to remove longtime moderate Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) from his position as a key centrist negotiator on Capitol Hill has attracted the most progressive energy this cycle.

Cuellar, a 10-term incumbent currently embroiled in an FBI investigation for alleged improper ties to Azerbaijan, is one of progressives’ biggest potential gets.

He was seen as a major barrier to left-wing lawmakers’ goal of keeping Biden’s social safety net package linked to the bipartisan infrastructure bill in November, arguing that he and others in similar positions in conservative districts needed an accomplishment to talk up back home.

Cisneros, a working class Mexican American woman, has a very different vision.

She gained some prominence for challenging Cuellar for the same seat in Texas’s 28th Congressional District in 2020. And since then, progressives have become more interested in her candidacy. Like many on the left, she is firmly against corporate money in politics, particularly from the fossil fuel industry in the oil-rich state. Cuellar has sustained pushback from liberals over his ties to Big Oil.

While Cisneros is backed by liberal lawmakers, Cuellar, who’s held his seat since 2005, has establishment weight behind his bid, including Majority Leader Steny HoyerSteny Hamilton Hoyer Pelosi says she’s open to stock trading ban for Congress Former Maryland rep announces bid for old House seat Fury over voting rights fight turns personal on Capitol Hill MORE (Md.), the No. 2 Democrat in the House. Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy Pelosi Senators huddle on Russia sanctions as tensions escalate Schumer requests Senate briefing on Ukraine amid Russia tensions Biden rushes to pressure Russia as Ukraine fears intensify MORE (D-Calif.) has remained neutral so far, but supported him last cycle against Cisneros.

2) Rep. Carolyn MaloneyCarolyn Maloney Democrats ask for information on specialized Border Patrol teams Overnight Energy & Environment — Biden announces green buildings initiative House panel asks five oil company board members to testify MORE (N.Y.)

Rana Abdelhamid is progressives’ biggest chance to create a liberal trifecta in deep blue New York.

Abdelhamid, a 28-year-old Muslim woman, is competing against Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a nearly three decade House veteran, for a shot at the 12th Congressional District of the state where Democrat-on-Democrat action is something of a blood sport.

In Abdelhamid, top strategists see an opening to recreate the fire they’ve captured cycle after cycle in the state that sent Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-CortezAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez Man who threatened to kill Ocasio-Cortez, Pelosi pleads guilty to federal charges These Senate seats are up for election in 2022 Missouri House Democrat becomes latest to test positive for COVID-19 MORE and Jamaal Bowman to Congress against their more well-known and well-funded incumbent opponents.

The millennial progressive told The Hill she hopes that she can draw a contrast between her “establishment” rival “backed by Wall Street and real estate” who, she adds, “has held this seat for as long as I have been alive.”

“We saw how important it is to have real progressives in Congress during the fight for Build Back Better,” Abdelhamid said. “We need leaders who will fight as hard as the people of this district already do.”

3) Rep. Danny K. Davis (Ill.)

Activists desperate to send another social justice advocate to Capitol Hill have set their sights on Kina Collins, a young, Black gun violence activist with ties to community organizing.

If Collins’s story sounds familiar, it’s because it is strikingly similar to another progressive recruit from the activist class, Rep. Cori BushCori Bush On student loans, Biden doesn’t have an answer yet Missouri State Highway Patrol: Ignore Gotham City alert The Memo: Biden’s overpromising problem MORE (D-Mo.), who rose to power and prominence by defeating longtime Rep. Wm. Lacy ClayWilliam (Lacy) Lacy Clay The FCC must act to promote minority-owned broadcasting Cori Bush hits her stride by drawing on activist past Lobbying world MORE (D-Mo.) amid an uproar over racial unrest.

Operatives see parallels between Bush and Collins, who is taking on Rep. Danny K. Davis, a 13-term lawmaker and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, in Illinois’s 7th Congressional District.

Davis, progressives contend, is too closely tied to corporate money, which they say has long influenced his decision making, whereas Collins relies exclusively on small-dollar donations to fund her insurgent bid.

Illinois’s 7th District “is one of the most unequal districts in the country, yet our representative Danny DavisDaniel (Danny) K. Davis Don’t just delay student debt, prevent it Illinois Democrats propose new ‘maximized’ congressional map Democrat walks back comments suggesting R. Kelly could be ‘welcomed back’ in Chicago MORE has stopped showing up in the community, misses votes, and takes money from corporate donors,” Collins said.

Like Abdelhamid, Collins believes the ongoing struggle and public spectacle around passing Democrats’ social spending plan further spotlighted the need for her candidacy and others challenging lawmakers who liberals say are slowing things down.

“We need progressive fighters,” she said.

4) Rep. Tim RyanTimothy (Tim) Ryan These Senate seats are up for election in 2022 JD Vance raises more than million in second fundraising quarter for Ohio Senate bid Republicans must join us to give Capitol Police funding certainty MORE for Ohio Senate

Columbus native Morgan Harper, a former adviser for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is challenging moderate Rep. Tim Ryan in the state’s Democratic Senate primary, a race that’s attracting national eyeballs.

Harper’s résumé reads a bit like Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Warren Arizona Democratic Party executive board censures Sinema Democrats call on Biden administration to ease entry to US for at-risk Afghans Biden stiff arms progressives on the Postal Service MORE’s (D-Mass.). A lawyer and policy wonk, but from the Midwest, not Massachusetts.

She hopes that in Ohio, the state that Democrats have watched turn red over the last several cycles, she’s making the pitch that populist policies like “Medicare for All” and the Green New Deal are needed to inject optimism and concrete results into struggling areas.

Ryan, a Youngstown native and early backer of Biden, has long enjoyed the support of the party’s…