They are impatient, unafraid and hungry for change. Inspired by Zohran Mamdani’s shock victory in last year’s New York mayoral race, a wave of insurgents is mounting primary challenges against Democratic incumbents ahead of November’s midterm elections.
The emboldened lineup of primary challengers – often, but not always, from the party’s progressive wing – has been fuelled by anger over the party’s tepid response to Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, complicity in the war in Gaza and a crushing affordability crisis.
It has left entrenched Democrats, who for years were able to cruise in safe seats in the House of Representatives, reportedly panicking that they could be swept aside in an anti-establishment revolt reminiscent of the tea party that rocked the Republican party in the 2010 midterms.
The simmering discontent was evident last week in a focus group conducted by the New York Times newspaper in which rank-and-file Democrats described their own party as “spineless”, “complacent”, “paralyzed”, “afraid”, “incompetent”, “suffocated, or given up”, “sold out”, “sellouts and suckers” and “no balls”.
Ezra Levinco-founder of the grassroots movement Indivisible, commented: “The size of this year’s primary engagement is indicative of the chasm between rank-and-file Democrats and the Democratic leadership right now. People want a different version of the Democratic party from what we’ve got.”
Last year Indivisible channeled the backlash against Trump into “No Kings” protests. The first, staged in June, drew 5 million people while the second, in October, attracted 7 million. A third, planned for 28 March, is aiming for a record 9 million. The Democratic primaries kick off in March and run through the spring and summer ahead of the national midterms in November.
Levin predicted: “The primaries are going to be the No Kings primaries: are you willing to fight back against this would be-king or aren’t you? The general election will be a combination of: this guy’s a would-be authoritarian, he is engaged in hiding the Epstein files and starting foreign wars and enriching himself and he’s not doing anything for you. It’s a one-two punch, and the second one of those punches is affordability.”
The political tremors were recently felt in New Jersey, where Analilia Mejia, a progressive organiser allied with Bernie Sanders, the senator, and won a crowded special Democratic House primary to fill the open seat formerly held by New Jersey governor, Mikie Sherrill.
The left “smells blood” following Mejia’s victory, according to the Axios news site, which reported: “A senior House Democrat, asked if members were freaking out about their own primaries in the wake of the shock result, told Axios, simply, ‘Yes.’”
But Tom Malinowskia former congressman and moderate Democrat who came a close second in that New Jersey race, suggested that old left v centre divide was less important than the dynamic of fighters v folders.
He told the Guardian: “One lesson of my race is that the two candidates who received the most support, myself and Mejia, both campaigned as uncompromising fighters against Trump and for democracy. One of us came from the progressive wing of the party; one was seen as more moderate on issues like, for example, Medicare for all or policing issues and other things that have divided the left and centre flanks of the party in the past.”
Malinowski, who was hurt by a $3m negative ad blitz funded by the pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac, perceived a shift among Democratic voters away from the type of bipartisan centrism espoused by Joe Manchin, a former senator from West Virginia who frustrated Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
He added: “There was a Manchin-to-Mamdani mood among the electorate. It didn’t matter which wing of the party you were seen as coming from so long as you were seen as a fighter apart from a complacent establishment.”
This demand for combativeness is a recurring theme on the campaign trail, where scores of insurgents – vying either to win open seats or oust Democratic incumbents – are better funded than in past cycles. March On, a political action committee (PAC), recently announced early endorsements of “visible fighters” who “meet this moment head-on” and give Democrats the strongest chance to “mobilize the base”.
‘Show some spine’
Andrea Pringle, president of the March On and Future Dems Pacs, said: “There’s a thirst for people that will stand up and show some spine and be willing to call things out and not be afraid. But there’s also voters who are responding to people who see them and who appear to hear them.”
Age and ideology are among the factors in play. David Scott, 80, who has represented Georgia’s 13th district for 12 consecutive terms, is facing a primary challenge from Jasmine Clark, a state representative who discovered through a public records request that Scott has allegedly not voted in six consecutive electionsincluding the 2024 presidential election.
Dan Goldman, a moderate, is under threat from Brad Landera progressive former New York City comptroller backed by Mamdani and Sanders, in New York’s 10th district. “While the oligarchy drives the affordability crisis, they shouldn’t be able to buy a seat in Congress,” Lander said in a campaign video, an apparent reference to Goldman, who is an heir to the Levi Strauss denim fortune.
Another test case is Illinois’ deep blue 9th District, where Kat Abughazaleh, 26, a progressive Palestinian American, is taking on a Democratic establishment she accuses of complacency and cowardice.
Abughazaleh said: “I even see it in my own campaign where there are local leaders and elected officials that call me before endorsing one of my opponents, apologetically saying, I love what you’re doing but I’m feeling a lot of pressure to endorse this way or the other. They feel that pressure in the first place instead of being able to stick to their values and it’s a shame that we have a party that makes people feel like that.”
Abughazaleh says her community was devastated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and she is frustrated with moderate leaders who capitulate or simply pay lip service to the resistance while courting donors. The fighting talk of some Democrats has to go beyond mere words.
“I’m glad that a lot of the party seems to have gotten the message that people want a fighter. But it took a while and it’s also kind of funny to see how they interpret it, where it’s this idea of yes, I’m a fighter, but only to a certain extent, or yes, I’m fighter, but I also need to make sure that I’m appeasing my donors, or saying fighting words and not actually fighting for people.”
Abughazaleh believes that Democrats have long failed to meet the moment of taking on the far right. For her and many progressive challengers across the country, countering the Trump administration is inextricably linked to combating the influence of groups such as Aipac and challenging the corporate status quo.
“I don’t know how many times we have to keep doing the same thing over and over and over again of insisting that we have to be more moderate, that we have to move to the right,” Abughazaleh added, arguing that policies ensuring affordable housing, groceries and healthcare should represent the political centre.
‘Complicity with the Gaza genocide’
Norman Solomonnational director of RootsAction.org, said many primary challengers view the party establishment as functionally serving the same Wall Street and big tech corporate interests as the Republicans. He also argues that the party leadership’s “complicity with the Gaza genocide” is a major factor.
He said: “It’s like a dam that’s starting to burst or, to use another metaphor, a lot of Democratic incumbents in the House are like rotted fruit and they’re starting to fall. No wonder there’s a lot of fear and trepidation that’s going on because I don’t think it’s cyclical; it’s more of a spiral that is gaining some momentum.”
But centrist Democrats are still sounding the alarm, claiming that a leftward lurch would be electoral suicide. Matt Bennettexecutive vice-president for public affairs at the thinktank Third Way, said this season’s primaries “range from problematic to idiotic.
“The problematic are primaries against Democrats in safe seats because they waste resources trying to turn a blue seat bluer and they contribute to the idea that Democrats have gone very far to the left, which is something that a lot of the electorate believes and in swing districts it’s a real problem.
“The idiotic are the seats where there is an attempt to move to the left in a swing district or a red district, which is insane and that is what the tea party did on the other side where they handed Democrats seven Senate seats that Republicans easily could have won if they hadn’t nominated total whack jobs who were way too far right. That’s the big fear, which is that we will fumble away winnable seats by nominating people that are way too far left of the district.”
Progressive organisers reject this logic, viewing it as a tired excuse to protect an entrenched donor class. Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolutiona grassroots political action organisation founded by Sanders, said: “What newer candidates are seeing and feeling is an electorate that is tired of the establishment and the status quo.”
Geevarghese added: “The way to win is to demonstrate that you’re going to fight to raise the standard of living for American voters. Just being moderate on economic issues I don’t think will get you there. We’re talking about full-throated economic populism, which I believe is the way to win. Bernie’s candidacy, Mandani and even Trump himself all point to that.”
