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N.Y. Primary Puts Democratic Establishment Power on Display
(Bloomberg) -- Establishment Democrats flexed their muscles against progressives in New York’s congressional primary elections, a sign that national enthusiasm from the left wing of the party doesn’t always translate into electoral victories.
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On Tuesday, Representative Mondaire Jones, once considered a progressive star in the House, lost his re-election bid. Incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney trounced Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-backed Alessandra Biaggi. In a battle of House veterans, Jerrold Nadler easily defeated fellow Manhattan Democrat Carolyn Maloney, but also progressive Suraj Patel.
Tuesday’s showing in a Democratic stronghold puts on display the struggles progressives have faced during the 2022 midterm primary election cycle to increase their ranks and influence in Congress.
While Democrats have had multiple legislative wins in the last couple of months on priorities such as climate, health care and gun safety, much of President Joe Biden’s agenda had been stymied by intra-party disagreements.
Jones was edged out of his previous district because of both the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional boundaries, but also by fellow incumbent Maloney, a centrist who chairs the House Democrats’ election apparatus.
Jones, one of the first Black openly gay members of Congress, came in third for the Democratic nomination in the New York 10th District. Levi Strauss heir Dan Goldman, who served as Democratic counsel during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, won the crowded 12-candidate primary. State Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, another progressive, finished second.
New York’s 17th District, currently represented by Jones, became a battleground after a court-ordered redistricting shook up the uneasy truce among Democrats trying to manage the state’s loss of a congressional seat.
Sean Patrick Maloney’s decision to run in the 17th, where he now resides as a result of the newly drawn map, instead of the New York 18th District that he currently represents, sparked backlash from progressives. Ocasio-Cortez, among others, assailed him for abandoning his present district to challenge another sitting Democrat.
Maloney is among the most moderate members of the House, with a voting record more conservative than 89% of Democrats, according to a UCLA analysis.
In the 10th district, where Jones moved to avoid facing Maloney, progressive candidates tried to match the considerable resources of Goldman, who was endorsed by the New York Times.
Following the Times’ endorsement, Jones and Niou, joined forces to attack Goldman and his opposition to progressive priorities including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal and legislation to expand the Supreme Court.
“I was proud to vote for the largest climate bill this country has ever seen,” Jones said on Aug. 15. “It was also legislation that would finally allow Medicare to lower the cost of prescription drugs. We cannot go back on this kind of progress by sending a conservative Democrat from New York’s 10th Congressional District to the House Democratic caucus.”
Nadler and the other establishment candidates had several built-in advantages on Tuesday night. In a low-turnout race, name recognition is key, and Nadler’s 30-year tenure and record of overseeing two Trump impeachment trials made him a recognizable figure. In the Brooklyn seat, Goldman was one of the few candidates who ran extensive television ads.
But the results also reflected a phenomenon seen in Eric Adams’ New York City mayoral win, when he was one of the most moderate candidates in the election and was able to turn back challenges from more progressive candidates by running a platform of fighting crime.
The defeats in New York cap a primary season in which the Democrats’ progressive caucus has had mixed results in their quest to oust centrists.
Two progressive representatives, Andy Levin, a Michigan Democrat, and Marie Newman, of Illinois, lost their primaries to moderate members in incumbent versus incumbent races forced by redistricting.
Jessica Cisneros failed to unseat Representative Henry Cuellar, the last anti-abortion Democrat in Congress, in a Texas border district. Nina Turner lost her rematch against Representative Shontel Brown in Ohio and Kina Collins lost her primary challenge to Representative Danny Davis in Chicago.
Though Cisneros fell short in Texas, progressive Greg Casar overwhelmingly won the party nomination in the newly drawn Texas 35th House district, and Texas State Representative Jasmine Crockett secured the nomination in Texas’ 30th House district.
Progressive Jamie McLeod-Skinner beat seven-term incumbent Representative Kurt Schrader in Oregon’s 5th District primary. She cited Schrader’s record in opposing priorities such as lowering drug prices and raising the minimum wage.
In Pittsburgh, state Representative Summer Lee took advantage of a split between two more moderate Democrats to win a nomination with 42% of the vote. And Lucy McBath defeated Carolyn Bourdeaux in an incumbent-vs.-incumbent primary in Georgia, capitalizing on Bourdeaux’s attempts to tack to the center.
Members of “the Squad” -- the nickname for the group of young, progressive minority representatives -- easily survived primary challenges, with the exception of Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota who narrowly beat her centrist challenger Don Samuels.
Progressives did pick up at least one victory Tuesday night, when 25-year-old Maxwell Alejandro Frost won a Democratic primary in Florida for the House seat being vacated by Representative Val Demings, who’s running for Senate. Frost, a musician and gun safety organizer, could become the first member of Congress from Generation Z.
(Adds Nadler’s political background in 13th paragraph)
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