At the start of the 2022 primary season, progressives were brimming with hope for their candidates. But one by one, the hopes for a series of upsets began to fade, including in the Big Apple Tuesday night.
In New York’s long-awaited primary elections, progressives were dealt a rapid series of defeats: Suraj Patel, a progressive who was running as a third option in incumbent Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler’s member-versus-member matchup, came in third at just 19 percent. Further upstate, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D) crushed his challenger, progressive state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, in NY-17.
“Tonight, mainstream won,” a triumphant Sean Patrick Maloney said Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
And in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Attorney Dan Goldman, a more-moderate Democrat, officially beat three high-profile progressives in NY-10—including New York Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, City Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D). Jones, one of only two openly gay Black men in Congress, became the latest progressive incumbent booted this cycle.
But New York isn’t the only place where progressives have struggled to gain a footing this year.
Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) lost her member-versus-member primary to Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) in June—and Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) lost his member-versus-member primary to Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) earlier this month. Both Levin and Newman were among the left-most members of Congress.
And despite early buzz around several progressive challengers early in the 2022 cycle, nearly all failed enough momentum.
At the start of the primary season, Jessica Cisneros, a well-funded rising star on the left, was back for a rematch with ultra-moderate Rep. Henry Cuellar (D) in southern Texas. Firebrand Nina Turner was in a rematch with Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown (D) after losing in a special primary election last year. Kina Collins was in a rematch with Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL), pitting a young progressive activist against one of Congress’s few octogenarians. And more.
They all lost.
“The primary-incumbents strategy has reached its limit—voters aren’t furious at the Democratic establishment and largely are focused on beating back Republicans,” one Democratic pollster told The Daily Beast, pinpointing a difference in the energy among Democratic voters in 2018 and 2020 versus 2022.
Some of the left’s most high-profile progressives even faced sophisticated primary challengers of their own. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) narrowly defeated moderate Don Samuels, a former Minneapolis City council member, by just 2.1 points. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) also faced a well-funded challenger from the center, and state Sen. Steven Roberts (D) gave it a go against Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO).
Unless something changes in the remaining five primaries this year, only one moderate Democrat in the House, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) will have lost their primary to a progressive challenger this cycle.
It’s a far cry from the groundbreaking wins seen in the 2020 and 2018 primaries, where now-members like Newman, Bush, Tlaib, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (NY), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and more won their seats by ousting old-school moderates.
The outcomes left some progressives trying to break down what went wrong.
In some of these contests, progressives have pointed toward money as the problem, with victorious candidates outspending their opponents dramatically. Goldman, heir to the Levi Strauss Co. fortune, for instance, put at least $4 million of his own money into the campaign.
Niou and Jones just last week in a joint press conference accused Goldman of buying the seat.
“We can’t let a candidate so out of step with this district’s values buy themselves a congressional seat,” Niou said.
“Conservative Democrat Dan Goldman cannot be allowed to purchase this congressional seat, certainly not in one of the most progressive districts in the country,” Jones added.
Others have voiced grievances against Democratic leadership for weighing in on primary contests, even when incumbents are involved. Over the summer, lefty candidates blasted Democratic leadership for campaigning for incumbents, particularly those like Cuellar, who’d caused policy hangups in the months prior.
To be sure, there have been some sweet spots for progressives this primary cycle.
In Pennsylvania, Lt. Governor John Fetterman trounced more moderate Rep. Conor Lamb (D) in the race for the Democratic Senate nomination. And in Wisconsin, challengers to Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes largely consolidated around him before the primary concluded. Some open-seat House races have also nominated progressives, including Greg Casar in Texas and Summer Lee in Pennsylvania.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, another high-profile progressive, also won his House primary in Florida Tuesday night, likely filling the seat vacated by Rep. Val Demings after she opted to run for the Senate instead. At just 25 years old, he will be the first “Generation Z” member of Congress.
Those wins are significant—and prove a theory among progressive operatives that their candidates thrive in open primary environments, when nobody has the benefit of incumbency. Amid a mass retirement of Democrats last year, there were plenty of opportunities for progressive newcomers to test that idea.
Those victories don’t fully dismiss the bruises some progressives are feeling as the primary season comes to a close. But the left-most flank of Democrats are remaining optimistic—and warning there’s still room to grow.
“This was going to be an uphill battle and we weren’t going to necessarily be able to come in with a big number of wins,” said Natalia Salgado, director of federal affairs for the Working Families Party. But Salgado said she’s proud of the wins progressives have had this year, characterizing them as exceeding expectations.
Biaggi in her concession speech Wednesday also said it’s about planting seeds—and that the progressive movement isn’t going to knock down the establishment overnight.
“Transformational work takes time... It’s not for naught,” she said. “It’s the beginning of something really big and great.”
