Photo by Erik McGregor
Important political primaries will take place in the next weeks and months. Will billionaires determine the results of the mid-term elections? Or will grassroots candidates mobilize the discontent brewing in this country?
The first results of the 2022 primary season were ominous. In early spring, in northeastern Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, political action committees bankrolled by crytocurrency interests and oil moguls poured millions of dollars into advertisements slandering former state legislator Nina Turner. The result was a victory for her opponent, incumbent Rep. Shontel Brown, in the Democratic primary on May 3. In the Ohio Republican primary, the Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel plowed millions into a super PAC backing U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance. Those millions (and a late endorsement of Vance from Donald Trump) helped secure the nomination for Vance. In total, Republican candidates in Ohio spent more than $66 million in advertising.
However, the Ohio primary was just the first round in the battle between different forces vying to determine the direction of the Democratic Party. The next several weeks will see other confrontations between progressives trying to use the electoral process to fight around issues and “moderates” determined to defend the status quo. A new super PAC called Mainstream Democrats has been formed for the specific purpose of defeating progressives.
On May 17, Pennsylvania voters will go to the polls. There, state representative Summer Lee is running to represent Pennsylvania’s 12th District in the U.S. Congress. (The 12th District includes Pittsburgh and part of its suburbs.) Lee supports the pro-union PRO Act, efforts to codify federal access to abortion, Medicare for All, and efforts to protect the right to vote. She has been endorsed by the United Electrical Workers union (UE), the Pennsylvania Joint Board of the union Workers Union, and numerous other unions, environmental groups and progressive organizations. If elected, Lee would become Pennsylvania’s first black woman representative in the U.S. Congress.
Despite the fact that Summer Lee has organized to protect the environment and battle polluters in western Pennsylvania, the Allegheny County Democratic Committee has backed Lee’s primary competitor, Steve Irwin. Irwin is a corporate lawyer who has never held elected office and who made money at a financial firm getting rich by steering investment to oil and gas companies.
The Oregon primary also takes place on May 17. There, Jamie McLeod-Skinner is running in Oregon’s newly redrawn 5th Congressional district. McLeod-Skinner is a school board member from central Oregon. She is running against Democrat Kurt Schrader, a seven-term incumbent in the U.S. House of Representatives. Over the years, Schrader has opposed raising the minimum wage and student debt relief. He once voted to repeal the Clean Water Act. A recent letter to the editor of an Oregon publication described Schrader as being “totally in the pocket of polluting carbon corporations.” (The letter cited Koch Industries, Exxon Mobil, BP Corporation, Chevron Employees, and other corporations.)
While the results of the Pennsylvania and Oregon primaries will definitely be important, no contest within the Democratic Party is being watched more closely than the showdown in Texas. Jessica Cisneros, a 28-year-old immigration lawyer from Laredo, is running against U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar. Cuellar has been in the U.S. House of Representatives for 17 years. He was the only House Democrat to vote against the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, a measure to codify Roe v. Wade.
Cisneros is a first-generation Mexican-American. Her parents emigrated from Mexico when her older sister needed urgent medical care only available in the United States. “Over the past year, our community has suffered through a deadly freeze and a pandemic – waking up day after day praying we wouldn’t lose another family member or our jobs or the roof over our head,” Cisneros has said. “It’s time for that to change. South Texas deserves a representative who’s going to fight for our dreams as hard as we do.”
Speaking of the notorious Texas anti-abortion law, Cisneros said:
“While Texans live under the shadow of S.B. 8, Rep. Cuellar continues to turn his back to our community. It’s time South Texas has a representative that will fight tirelessly for our health care and reproductive freedom.” These candidates in the early primary states who have stepped forward to challenge the corporate wing of the Democratic Party are a harbinger of something new in America. They are expressing the demands of millions of people – for universal health care, immigrants’ rights, and environmental and economic justice. These candidates are sure to be joined by many others. They deserve our respect, our support and our votes – and our continued grassroots activity in the streets to demand justice.
