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Democrats trying to unseat each other IV

(me on AIPAC's involvement in IL-09...)

AIPAC very scary.
Summer Lee survived AIPAC's đź’°đź’°đź’°, and arguably also Rashida Tlaib, but Marie Newman, Andy Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Nina Turner, Nida Allam, and Susheela Jayapal didn't. So AIPAC is indeed very scary.
 
It is baffling to me that somebody can "win" a primary with <30% of the vote. Partisan primaries should require an actual majority, not plurality. Either through traditional or instant runoffs.

But because so many districts are not competitive, an even better solution would be to adopt jungle primaries nationwide. Then all candidates would compete in a single pool and top two advance to the general election.
 
Summer Lee survived AIPAC's đź’°đź’°đź’°, and arguably also Rashida Tlaib,
Unfortunately.
but Marie Newman, Andy Levin, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Nina Turner, Nida Allam, and Susheela Jayapal didn't. So AIPAC is indeed very scary.
Depends on what you think of these extremists. Cori Bush and Fire Marshall Jamaal were particularly bad congresscritters, and the House is better without them.
 
AIPAC very scary.
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So being Jewish means the right to do whatever one wants to?

Let's transilate the State of Israel's governance into terms that an American may be familiar with.

Congress has one house: the House and no Senate. The House is elected by party-list proportional representation using the entire nation as an electoral district. One votes for a party, not for a Congressmember, and parties get seats in the House in proportion to how many votes that they received. The President is elected by the House, and does not do very much. The governing party or coalition of parties picks Cabinet members from among its members. States are administrative districts, their governing councils appointed by the national government and by governments of member cities.

To use some commonly-used "reasoning", if you object to that form of governance, you object to the world's only Jewish state, and you are thus an anti-Semite.
 
Partisan primaries should require an actual majority, not plurality. Either through traditional or instant runoffs.
On the contrary; A party candidate's job is to represent that party's platform to the electorate; As such, the party should select candidates strictly internally, and should do so by any means they see fit.

There's nothing wrong with direct selection by the party leader(s); If the voters don't like their choice, then they will lose in the general anyway.

Primary elections involving people who are not paid-up, card-carrying members of the party involved are a daft idea.
 
Analilia Mejia Declares Victory in NJ Race After Her Main Rival Concedes - The New York Times
Tom Malinowski, who was battered by negative advertising, congratulated Analilia Mejia, a progressive political organizer running for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s vacant seat in Congress, on a “hard-won victory.”

...
“Analilia deserves unequivocal praise and credit for running a positive campaign and for inspiring so many voters on Election Day,” Mr. Malinowski said in a statement, noting that he planned to support her in a special election in April against the Republican nominee, Joe Hathaway.
About Tom Malinowski,
Then, in the final three weeks of the campaign, a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee began flooding airwaves and mailboxes with attack ads aimed at Mr. Malinowski. The super PAC, United Democracy Project, spent at least $2.3 million trying to defeat him.

Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for the organization, has said that its aim was winning a pro-Israel majority in Congress and electing representatives who will not place conditions on U.S. aid to the Jewish state.

Ms. Mejia was the only candidate to say she believed Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

...
The negative ads funded by United Democracy made no mention of Israel. Instead, they mainly criticized Mr. Malinowski for a vote to authorize spending for immigration enforcement during President Trump’s first term.
That's typical AIPAC campaigning, attacking on something other than Israel. In this case, attacking from his left.
Mr. Malinowski, who emigrated from Communist Poland as a 6-year-old and has railed against the president’s policies, attempted to turn the barrage of negative advertising into a badge of honor, but on Tuesday said it had significantly influenced the race.

“I wish I could say today that this effort, which was meant to intimidate Democrats across the country, failed,” he said. “But it did not.”

“The threat unlimited dark money poses to our democracy is far more significant than the views of a single member of Congress on Middle East policy,” added Mr. Malinowski, whose seniority in Congress put him in line for a leadership position on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, if he had won.

On the campaign trail, Ms. Mejia denounced the negative advertising, calling the attack against Mr. Malinowski a “disgusting tactic” that had confused voters and flooded the airwaves with misinformation.

...
“That AIPAC fought Tom Malinowski — a longtime ally of Israel with a direct connection to the Holocaust and an expert in foreign policy and human rights — is not good,” said Yael Bromberg, an election law lawyer and voting rights scholar whose family is from Israel. “That they did so by falsifying his immigrant rights’ record is perhaps worse. That kind of campaign damages sustainable democracy.”
So AIPAC scored an own goal, attacking a candidate was was almost but not completely on its side.
 
A Pro-Israel Group’s Move Backfires as Gaza Tensions Flare in Midterms - The New York Times - "A surprising twist in a New Jersey primary race showed how questions about Israel continue to roil American politics in unpredictable ways."

About NJ-11,
Many Democrats were furious at AIPAC’s intervention in the primary. Matt Bennett, the executive vice president at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank, called the group’s advertisements targeting Mr. Malinowski “dumb and irresponsible” and suggested that the group had lost the trust of Democrats.

“I think it is going to be hard for them to recover,” he said.
(on Americans becoming more critical of the State of Israel's actions ...)

In CA-11,
That change was on stark display earlier this year during a forum for House candidates in San Francisco. During a lightning round, the question arrived: “Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza?”

Two of the top Democrats vying to replace Representative Nancy Pelosi quickly held up a green sign: “Yes.” Scott Wiener, a state senator and a co-chair of the legislative Jewish Caucus, kept his sign down, awkwardly spinning it in his hands. The crowd jeered as he declined to answer.
He later tried to explain that he was trying to avoid the word while expressing what it means.

Among the Yes votes was likely Saikat Chakrabarti, judging from what he states about Israel and Gaza. SC was a campaigner for Bernie Sanders, and then for the progressive PAC's Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, he was AOC's Chief of Staff and an architect of her Green New Deal resolution, and he was a leader of think tank New Consensus.
In Michigan’s competitive three-way Democratic primary race for Senate, one candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, has pushed the term, while another, Representative Haley Stevens, has said she disagrees. The state has large numbers of Muslim and Jewish voters and has for years been a hub of Democratic infighting over Israel.

The third top candidate, Mallory McMorrow, told a local radio station that while she previously agreed that Israel had committed genocide, there had been too much emphasis on the word, which she said had become a “political purity test.”
Is she also trying to avoid that word?

About NY-10,
The term is also a point of contention in the New York City House primary contest between Representative Dan Goldman and his challenger, Brad Lander, both of whom are Jewish. Mr. Lander began last year to describe Israel’s actions as a genocide, while Mr. Goldman has rejected the term.

About IL-09 and AIPAC,
The group has sent fund-raising appeals for a handful of candidates in the last several months, including Laura Fine, an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. House in a suburban Chicago district that includes heavily Jewish areas such as Skokie and West Rogers Park.

Ms. Fine, who is Jewish and opposes any conditions on aid for Israel, said the Gaza war remained a “wedge issue” for many local voters.

“It’s a very sensitive issue for me personally,” she said, recalling how she left the progressive caucus that she helped create in the state legislature after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks because of the caucus’s criticism of Israel.

One of her opponents, Daniel Biss, the Democratic mayor of Evanston, Ill., spent most of his childhood summers in Israel, where his grandparents settled after fleeing Europe shortly after the Holocaust.

The other top Democratic candidate in the race, Kat Abughazaleh, would become the second Palestinian American member of Congress if elected.

She said she had heard from young voters who tied aid to Israel to their own concerns about the cost of living, asking why “we’re spending on bombs that kill civilians rather than supporting people here.” (Ms. Abughazaleh’s campaign merchandise includes a T-shirt and sticker declaring “Let’s Beat AIPAC,” adding a four-letter word for emphasis.)
 
Kat Abughazaleh at a campaign debate: In Gaza, is it genocide? Candidate Daniel Biss won't call it genocide, but he won't criticize those who do. KAG then noted what many human-rights organizations say, like B'Tselem in Israel.

Six questions for three candidates - Laura Fine, Daniel Biss, and Kat Abughazaleh answered by holding up a sign with "Yes" on one side and "Nope" on the other.
  1. Do you support Hakeem Jeffries continued leadership of the House Democrats? LF yes, DB not sure (sign sideways), KAG no
  2. Is AI generated content truly art? LF No, DB Yes, KAG No.
  3. Do you accept campaign contributions from AIPAC or their supporters? LF Yes, DB No, KAG No.
  4. Would you vote to authorize further arms funding for Israel? LF Yes, DB No, KAG No.
  5. Do you take donations from Trump supporters or Republican donors? LF Yes, DB No, KAG No.
  6. Do you know how to create a social-media reel? LF No, DB Yes, KAG Yes.
If these three candidates, DB and KAG gave very similar answers, with LF being distant from both of them.

Six candidates

Kat Abughazaleh's comic-book campaign literature

Kat Abughazaleh chortles at AIPAC attack ad - an ad that used some positions from her teens, like wanting Marco Rubio as Presidential candidate. But she makes no secret of starting off as a Republican.
 
Kat Abughazaleh again. Two Instagram posts on her AIPAC attack ad: the first one and the second one implying that she's some carpetbagger and crypto-Republican. It is aimed at 18 - 35 year old voters in social media.

Also this fun one - it looks like an attack ad but is in fact an ad in support of her.
 
The first primary results are in.

A notable one is for the Texas Senate seat.

On the Democratic side, James Talarico with 52.4% beat Jasmine Crockett with 46.2% and a third one with 1.3%. JC won East Texas and JT the rest. There were some accounts of confusion about polling places and times in Dallas.

On the Republican side, incumbent John Cornyn with 41.9% barely beat state attorney general Ken Paxton with 40.7%, but a third one got 13.5% and this race will go into a runoff in May.

Over in North Carolina in district 4, Nida Allam with 48.22% barely lost to incumbent Valerie Foushee with 49.18%. A third candidate got 2.60%. NA and VF had run against each other a previous time, in 2022, and that time, AIPAC spent heavily on supporting VF against NA, with VF getting 46.1% and NA 37.0%. VG got some big-money support this time also: PAC funded by AIPAC donor backs Foushee in NC-04 primary - The Duke Chronicle
One political action committee supporting Foushee appears to be linked to a major donor to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), even though Foushee says she has rejected the organization’s support. Another PAC backing her campaign is drawing criticism for its financial ties to the artificial intelligence company Anthropic.
Also, AI-related groups back Buckhout, Foushee in competitive North Carolina primaries :: WRAL.com
Political action committees tied to the artificial intelligence industry have spent at least $2 million in the waning days of North Carolina’s 2026 primary elections to try to influence two key races, on either side of the aisle.

... for the Democratic primary in the Triangle-area 4th Congressional district, and the Republican primary for the 1st Congressional District in northeastern North Carolina.
Laurie Buckhout also won, winning the NC-01 Republican primary.
Allam, who’s backed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders says Foushee is too friendly to corporate interests, including the AI industry. Sanders, I-Vermont, said at a Durham rally that Allam will “take on billionaires ... who think they can buy American democracy."
 
North Carolina Fourth Congressional District Primary Election Results 2026 - The New York Times
  • Valerie Foushee (incumbent) 49.16%
  • Nida Allam 48.23%
  • Mary Patterson 2.61%
In AR-03, Robb Ryerse was uncontested for the Democratic nomination. He will be up against Republican Steve Womack. He ran as a Republican back in 2018, but lost the primary. He was a Bernie Sanders Republican :D and he is now a Bernie Sanders Democrat.

The Illinois primaries are a week and a half away, and I'll be watching IL-09. How well will Kat Abughazaleh do? AIPAC will be doing negative campaigning against two candidates this time.

The next primaries will be in May and June, and after that in August and September.
 
Kat Abughazaleh again. Two Instagram posts on her AIPAC attack ad: the first one and the second one implying that she's some carpetbagger and crypto-Republican. It is aimed at 18 - 35 year old voters in social media.
Well, she certainly is a carpetbagger. She only moved to Illinois a couple of years ago, and she deliberately chose to run in a safe district with a retiring member.

On the eve of yesterday's primary, she changed her stance on Hamas.
Anti-Israel Illinois congressional candidate scrubs call to remove Hamas from power from campaign website
JNS said:
One of the most prominent anti-Israel candidates seeking a seat in Congress in the 2026 midterms deleted language, which called for Hamas to be removed from power in Gaza, from her website on Monday.
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old social media influencer and former producer for the left-wing Media Matters for America who is running as a Democrat in Illinois’s 9th Congressional District, maintains a section on her campaign site calling for a “free and sovereign Palestine.”
A version of that page archived early on Monday morning said that “there is no acceptable scenario that leaves Hamas in charge of the Gaza Strip.”
The language calling for the removal of the U.S.-designated terrorist group from power no longer appears and has been replaced with a line saying that “Democratic elections must be held for the people of Palestine to elect their own leaders,” without any mention of Hamas.
Another section on Abughazaleh’s website calling for a “humane foreign policy” noted that previous versions of the campaign materials did not properly reflect Abughazaleh’s views and have now been corrected.
Apparently, she is now ok with Hamas keeping power.

Good thing that she lost the primary, although it was close.
I am surprised that lpetrich hasn't commented on yesterday's primaries. He is usually on top of these things.
 
Weird election tactic: 'AIPAC Getting Desperate’: Pro-Israel Super PAC Tries to Splinter Left Vote in Illinois House Primary | Common Dreams
With just days until the Democratic primary for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, Chicago voters found their social media feeds blanketed with an ad praising a candidate considered well out of the running in Tuesday’s race.

“Bushra Amiwala is the real deal, fighting for real economic justice,” concludes the 30-second commercial, which touts the 28-year-old activist’s backing of Medicare for All, student loan forgiveness, and other policies aimed at economic justice.

As it came to light that a political action committee associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) was behind the ad, Amiwala said she “could not be more disgusted” by the campaign.

“Let me be clear,” she said. “We don’t want it, we didn’t ask for it, and we’re demanding they stop.”
BA: A message to AIPAC: stick to funding Laura Fine and Daniel Biss, this is a cheap attempt to smear my name.
and
BA: This was a distraction and disgusting attempt to misdirect voters.

Why Bushra Amiwala, Illinois House Candidate, Is Attacking an Ad Praising Her - The New York Times - "In a Democratic primary, accusations are flying that allies of a hard-line pro-Israel group are trying to divide progressives, exploiting a broader rift in the party."
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive influencer who has appeared to gain some late momentum, argued that AIPAC-aligned groups were trying to split the progressive vote to halt her rise. And Mayor Daniel Biss of Evanston, a progressive who has led in the polls, said that if anyone was being targeted, it was him.

He accused AIPAC of trying to siphon off his votes.
Last month, AIPAC targeted Tim Malinowski because of his lukewarm support for the Netanyahu regime, attacking him to his left. That helped to win pro-Palestine progressive Analilia Mejia.
Now, AIPAC appears to be “panicked about the fact that they could have a repeat of what happened in New Jersey,” said David Axelrod, the Democratic analyst who was chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two winning presidential campaigns.

“It’s kind of a tortured mess — a Goldberg contraption of a campaign,” Mr. Axelrod added. He said that AIPAC might have “underestimated the sophistication of the electorate.”
 
AIPAC Flops in Illinois, But Record Election Spending Called a 'Full-Spectrum Disaster for Democracy' | Common Dreams and Big spenders have mixed night in Illinois as progressives mostly come up short – Roll Call

Senator Dick Durbin is retiring, and in the Democratic primary for his seat, at 93% counted, progressive Juliana Stratton 40.1%, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi 33.2%, others 18.1%, .9%, 0.8%, 0.6%, 0.6%, 0.6%, 0.5%, 0.4%.

Roll Call:
Stratton, who has said that, if elected, she would not support Charles E. Schumer as Senate Democratic leader, sought to tap into voters’ anger with Washington and the Trump administration.

“Right now, to meet this moment, it requires a different level of energy. It requires people who are going to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump,” she said in an interview earlier this month.

Stratton now appears on track to become the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate, joining current Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware.
 
AIPAC Claims Credit for Miller, Bean Victories and Abughazaleh, Amiwala Defeats | Chicago News | WTTW

AIPAC gloated - "A great night for the pro-Israel community and a terrible night for anti-Israel candidates." and "Tonight’s results tell a critical story: centering campaigns on attacking Israel and demonizing pro-Israel Americans is a losing strategy."
Much of AIPAC’s spending came from two newly formed groups — Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now — that did not mention the U.S.-Israeli relationship or foreign policy but focused on the need to elect more female candidates to office and reduce the cost of living.
The way that AIPAC campaigned, it could easily elect someone who thinks that Israel's prime minister is a genocidal maniac.

In IL-02, AIPAC-supported Donna Miller beat Rev. Jesse Jackson's son Jesse Jackson, Jr., who had served in Congress over 1995 to 2012, ending when he was investigated for financial improprieties involving campaign funds. -- Donna Miller 40.4%, Jesse Jackson, Jr. 29.0%, others 12.1%, 10.2%, 2.9%, 1.3%, 1.2%, 1.0%, 1.0%, 0.8%.

Competing in Raja Krishnamoorthi's old district, IL-08, AIPAC-supported Melissa Bean won against progressive Junaid Ahmed -- Melissa Bean 31.8%, Junaid Ahmed 26.6%, others 12.7%, 9.5%, 9.0%, 6.7%, 2.5%, 1.1%.

Kina Collins tried again in IL-07, and this time, 15-term incumbent Danny K. Davis retired. From the NYT's election pages, "The candidates include Richard Boykin, a former county commissioner; Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the Chicago treasurer; La Shawn K. Ford, a state legislator; and Jason Friedman, a businessman." LSKF won with 23.8%, Kina Collins was fourth at 9.4% and fellow progressive Anabel Mendoza was seventh at 5.5%.
 
Stuck at 94% counted for IL-Sen and IL-09. From when I last reported, in IL-Sen, Juliana Stratton is up 0.1% and Raja Krishnamoorthi down 0.1%.

IL-09: Daniel Biss 29.6%, Kat Abughazaleh 25.9%, Laura Fine 20.4%, Mike Simmons 7.0%, Phil Andrew 6.2%, Bushra Amiwala 5.0%, others 1.7%, 1.3%, 0.8%, 0.6%, 0.5%, 0.4%, 0.2%.

Kat Abughazaleh’s Powerful Concession Speech - YouTube - she conceded that almost but not quite winning was a painful experience. She credited the tens of thousands of people who supported her campaign, knocking on doors, making calls, and donating what they could, feeding and clothing thousands of people. She also claimed success in pushing the other candidates leftward and into more willing to challenge the Trump Admin.

From her YouTube account: Thank you. | Kat Abughazaleh For Illinois - YouTube - more of what her said. "Fuck Trump, fuck ICE, free Palestine, and I love you all".
 
 
Roll Call: Juliana Stratton
Stratton — who has said that, if elected, she would not support Charles E. Schumer as Senate Democratic leader — sought to tap into voters’ anger with Washington and the Trump administration.

“Right now, to meet this moment, it requires a different level of energy. It requires people who are going to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump,” she said in an interview earlier this month.

Stratton now appears on track to become the sixth Black woman to serve in the Senate, joining current Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware.
The three takeaways: (1) Mixed results for big spenders, (2) Disappointing night for many progressives, (3) Local endorsements matter

Biss, who is Jewish and was a target of AIPAC spending until the group pivoted to attacking two other 9th District candidates in the campaigns’ final days, said his win showed that voters can balance competing points of view on Israel and Palestine.

“This district understands nuance and wants someone who accepts the reality of competing, even contradictory-sounding, priorities and values and realities,” Biss said Tuesday night.
Some endorsements of winners:
  • IL-Sen: Juliana Stratton was endorsed by JB Pritzker and Elizabeth Warren
  • IL-07: La Shawn K. Ford was endorsed by retiring Rep Danny K. Davis
  • IL-09: Daniel Biss was endorsed by Elizabeth Warren and retiring Rep Jan Schakowsky
 
From Common Dreams:
AIPAC, which faced backlash for trying to conceal its spending in the Illinois contests using shell organizations, tried to spin the 9th Congressional District results as a win, despite spending more against Biss than against Abughazaleh.

“Though Kat narrowly lost this race, we are proud to have backed this campaign that helped ensure the people of IL-09 would not be represented by another AIPAC shill,” Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said in a statement. “This outcome is a massive loss for AIPAC as they lose more and more influence within the Democratic Party. No amount of shell PACs or covert funding can hide their toxicity from Democratic voters, their monopoly over this party’s agenda is coming to an end.”
So hiding its agenda didn't help AIPAC.
Two AIPAC-backed candidates did prevail Tuesday: Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller in the 2nd Congressional District and former Rep. Melissa Bean in the 8th Congressional District.

AIPAC’s mixed results came amid broad alarm over outside spending that flooded Tuesday’s midterm primary elections in Illinois, driven by pro-Israel, crypto, and AI special interest groups. Overall, more than $92 million was spent on campaign ads in Tuesday’s contests in Illinois, a state record.
Cryptocurrency lobbies have been contributing over the last few election cycles, but AI lobbies are much more recent.
 
From The Jerusalem Post, about Daniel Biss:
He narrowly prevailed over another progressive, Kat Abughazaleh, who is Palestinian-American, and a more centrist Jewish candidate whom the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC had spent millions of dollars to back, in large part by attacking Biss. That candidate, state Sen. Laura Fine, came in a distant third.

“AIPAC found out the hard way: the 9th District is not for sale,” Biss said during a victory address late Tuesday in Evanston, Illinois, where he is currently the mayor. “May tonight be the last time I utter their name.”

From the New York Times:
  • "Ninth District: A face-saving effort by AIPAC." - AIPAC's candidate Laura Fine trailed the top two.
  • "Eighth District: A decisive win for AIPAC and tech dollars." - Melissa Bean, recipient of AIPAC, crypto, and AI money, beat Junaid Ahmed.
  • "Second District: Jesse Jackson Jr.’s comeback bid falls short." - AIPAC, Chicago Tribune, another Rep: Donna Miller - AI: Jesse Jackson, Jr.
  • "Seventh District: A retiring congressman’s pick survives an AIPAC and crypto onslaught." - AI, retiring Rep: LSKF - AIPAC, crypto: Melissa Conyears-Ervin
 
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