House Democrats, already facing a potential red wave in 2022, must also prepare to fight off left-wing primary challengers, making the midterm elections even trickier for a party that has been reeling in the Biden era.
Hanna Trudo at the Hill went through a few of the incumbent Democrats being targeted by left-wing challengers. While Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin won’t be up until 2024, progressives hope to knock off several House Democrats and further “squadify” the House Democratic caucus.
One of these is a 2020 rematch. Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, one of the most centrist Democrats in the House, is once again being challenged by Jessica Cisneros, who was endorsed in 2020 by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal. Cuellar has been the most consistent Democratic critic of President Joe Biden’s border policies, as his district sits on the southern border. He is also currently under federal investigation, which probably won’t help his cause.
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Another is Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois, whose challenger is Kina Collins. As Trudo notes, Collins is a “black gun violence prevention activist with ties to community organizing.” In this, she is comparable to “Squad” member Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, who was elected in 2020. Bush has a tendency to launch hasty accusations of racism and make wildly inaccurate claims about major news stories, a trait Collins appears to share.
This is the result of a legal system built to uphold and maintain #WhiteSupremacy. There are Black kids sitting in jail right now for a bag of weed. Yet, #KyleRittenhouse got a gun, went across state lines & killed 2 people and injured another but won’t spend a day in prison. https://t.co/JvUiq2EIy8
— Kina Collins for IL7 (@KinaCollinsIL) November 19, 2021
And then there is the most interesting primary attempt. New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will face Rana Abdelhamid, who thinks “we don’t actually need police” and is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
With Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 win and transformation into a celebrity politician, the Democratic Party took a substantial leap to the Left while trying to please the loud, progressive wing of the party. Pelosi was unable to protect members of her own leadership team from primaries, and incumbents have been forced to look over their shoulder for Ocasio-Cortez wannabes at every turn, with members endorsing challengers over their incumbent colleagues.
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This process started in the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, when House Democrats were expected to win big and delivered. It posed more of an inconvenience than a challenge then. But Pelosi and House Democratic leadership couldn’t keep the party under control. Now, they are expected to be thrown decisively into the minority, and all the while, the party is devouring itself from the Left.
