Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed Marie Newman, the progressive House candidate running a primary campaign against conservative Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), on Tuesday.
Lipinski has always been (mostly) a thorn in the side of women and gays. The only good thing about him is he caucuses with the Democrats. My only concern is the district itself – is it dark purple, plain purple, light purple?
ETA: Just looked it up. According to Wiki, the (very gerrymandered) district skews Democratic but pretty socially conservative – which explains why they keep voting in socially conservative members.
Worth noting that (a) Newman only lost to Lipinski by 2% in the 2018 primary, and (b) Lipinski’s 2018 general election win is strong evidence for the accuracy of the Crazification Factor, as he beat his literal Nazi GOP opponent 73-26.
Dunno if Newman can win in that district. If so, then hurray! If not, then not helpful. Regardless Lipinski ought to have a better response than to spout Republican talking points.
IL-03 is deep blue. Clinton beat Trump there by 15 points.
Lipinski sounds like a Republican with that press statement, I’m sure that will go over well in a Democratic primary. He really needs to go, he’s not much of a Democrat and doesn’t really support their prime policies.
I’m generally against national leftists parachuting into swing districts to challenge moderate Dem incumbents.
But I’m all for AOC’s move here because it ain’t a swing district and Lipinski is worse than useless. While he isn’t as conservative as he’s portrayed when all issues are taken into account, he’s out-of-step with the district. Plus his daddy maneuvered for him to inherit the seat under very sleazy circumstances.
Yep. However, Bernie beat Hillary there by 8 points. Social conservatives for anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ. (not implying Bernie is anti-choice or anti-LGBTQ, though)
A little background of that district
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5cfab517e4b02ee34776b9e9/amp?__twitter_impression=true
Lipinski is really a Republican. He knows he has to caucus with the Democrats because the only way he can win is to run as a Democrat unopposed. If he faces a strong primary challenge he is in real trouble. His district has plenty of solid Democrats who are pro choice. The Democratic women and men in that district will take Lipinski out this year. He deserves it.
On March 19th, 2019, AOC announced she wanted to recruit primary challengers to incumbent Democrats who consistently voted with Republicans.
3 days later, on March 22, 2019, Pelosi’s DCCC announced it would blacklist any political consultants who provided services to primary challengers.
Republicans suppress voters. Democrats suppress candidates. They both corrode democracy and deny candidates and voters free and fair elections.
Follow the money.
It’s time we stop providing any support to national Democratic Party institutions which back incumbents against true Democrats. Moderation in the defense of virtue is a vice. Moderation in rooting out fascistic stands against sexual and reproductive freedom is no virtue.
Why am I reading an article about AOC instead of an article about the candidate(s)…or even an article just about the progressive candidate if we want to promote that one? It’s good to see more shift towards the polciies I like, but this is the kind of Zombie Fourth Estate shit that pisses me off. What’s more important? The AOC cult of personality or the positions of the two candidates running? It’s infuriating that this is the paradigm.
Newsflash: This wasn’t an opportune time to play your irrelevant broken record bullshit.
What obvious bullshit.
Your approach guarantees GOP wins in close elections.
And what, pray tell, is a “true Democrat?”
Something tells me the definition is "someone who agrees with my far-left pie-in-the-sky search for Unicorns.
A true Democrat is someone who believes in a woman’s right to choose. Anyone who claims to be a Democrat but doesn’t believe in our constitutional right to privacy in our bodies is not really a Democrat AFAIC.
Because that is what the media herd wants us to talk about. AOC generates more clicks than an in depth review of DCCC policies and its opposition to progressive demands that their views be given a shot. In this case the DCCC is strongly supporting Lipinski against Newman and is threatening to ban any Democratic operative or vendor who supports Newman. That is a big damn story that the Oligarchs running the DCCC don’t want to talk about. The compliant press chooses not to talk too much about it except in articles designed to hurt AOC. The DCCC policy deserves to be examined closely by the 4th estate which won’t happen.
While I agree that a woman’s right to choose is a cornerstone of Democratic policy, the idea of a True Democrat conjures up images I am not comfortable with.
There are a lot of variations of belief among Democrats, and I’m glad that there are.
If we were all the same, we’d be the Boring Party—like the GOP.
There are very liberal Dems, moderate Dems, and more conservative Dems.
And there should always be room for all of them in the party—or we’re doomed to be a small, powerless, regional party. And that would be very bad for America.
Agreed. I generally think this a stupid, wasteful idea, but this case is the exception.
Oh, she can win alright. It´s still a heavily D district.