This isn’t a cable TV Scott Jennings/Adam Mockler-type fight. I mean the other one. The one happening inside the party, in primaries, in vendor contracts, in super PAC filings that don’t get disclosed until after voters have already cast their ballots. It’s establishment donor Democrats versus the people’s Democrats. And the establishment side has been quietly, systematically working to make sure the people’s side never gets a foothold.
The divide I’m explaining is the Establishment Democrats who take corporate PAC money, take AIPAC-aligned money, protect incumbents no matter how out of step those incumbents are with their districts, and treat “electability” as a euphemism for “white, and doesn’t threaten anyone with actual money.” Democratic socialists and progressive independents are the ones who refuse the PAC money, who run on Medicare for All and housing as a human right and getting money out of politics, who value quality education, want more money in ordinary working class people’s pockets and who keep getting punished for it by their very own party.
Well, fuck that. We’re fighting back now. And they can eat our shit.
THE MONEY
Let’s start with the DCCC, the party’s own campaign arm. In late March 2019, under then-chair Cheri Bustos, the DCCC sent political vendors a new hiring-standards form. Buried in it was a policy: the committee’s core mission was electing House Democrats, including protecting incumbents, and on that basis it would refuse to do business with or recommend any consultant who also worked for a candidate challenging a sitting member of the House Democratic Caucus, i.e. Progressive Grassroots and Democratic Socialist candidates. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Ro Khanna all said it was a blacklist, designed to protect incumbents from their own voters rather than protect Democrats from Republicans. The policy came right after AOC and Pressley had both won by beating establishment incumbents in primaries. This policy was to close ranks within the party.
That specific vendor blacklist was formally reversed in 2021 under a new DCCC chair. But don’t mistake that for the establishment learning its lesson. Hell no. Fast forward to this cycle, and these establishment assholes are doing a version of the same thing in the open. Through its “Red to Blue” program, meant to help Democrats beat Republicans in swing districts, the committee has spent money and issued endorsements in contested Democratic primaries before voters had even chosen a nominee. In California’s 22nd district, the DCCC backed moderate Jasmeet Bains over progressive Randy Villegas, who had more grassroots endorsements and had been backed by Bernie Sanders. Villegas won anyway. In Maine’s 2nd district, the DCCC backed Joe Baldacci over a more progressive opponent, Jordan Wood. Baldacci lost too. Progressive members of Congress, including Pramila Jayapal, Jamie Raskin, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, publicly rebuked their own party’s committee over it, with the CPC PAC stating that voters, not the DCCC, should pick Democratic nominees. Some members even floated withholding their DCCC dues over it. That’s the establishment’s own coalition telling it to knock it off, and the committee kept doing it anyway, in race after race.
Then there’s the money tied to foreign policy. United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, has spent at least 34 million dollars this election cycle, and it has a track record. Former Reps. Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman are both gone from Congress because UDP spent heavily to defeat them. The tactics have gotten harder to trace, too. In Philadelphia’s 3rd district this past May, state Rep. Chris Rabb, a democratic socialist backed by AOC, Ro Khanna, and the DSA, ran against Ala Stanford, who was supported by a PAC called 314 Action Fund. Reporting after the primary showed 314 Action Fund had quietly received 500,000 dollars from AIPAC, while Stanford publicly denied taking AIPAC money. Rabb, backed by a pro-Palestinian counterweight super PAC called American Priorities, which put in a little over 400,000 dollars for him, won anyway with 44 percent of the vote. Supporters chanted “AIPAC lost” at his victory party. Earlier this year, in a set of Chicago-area House primaries, UDP funneled 5.3 million dollars into sudden, anonymously-named groups like Elect Chicago Women and Affordable Chicago Now, which raised more than 14 million dollars combined, with the AIPAC connection only confirmed in federal filings AFTER voters had already cast their ballots.
That’s the pattern. Hide the money, run it through a PAC whose name tells you nothing about who’s actually funding it, and let the connection surface only after it’s too late to change the outcome.
The good news is progressives are finally building a real counterweight. American Priorities launched this year promising to spend at least 10 million dollars to back candidates who reflect where the Democratic base has actually moved, working alongside Justice Democrats and Bernie Sanders’ political operation. It’s still getting outspent by AIPAC’s side several times over. But Rabb’s win, and a handful of others like it, show the machine isn’t invincible anymore. People are starting to see it for what it is.
WHY THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS
This isn’t just about who wins a primary. It’s also about who you can actually hold accountable once they’re in office. A candidate who took corporate PAC money and AIPAC money owes something to the people who wrote those checks. A candidate who ran clean, who built a small-dollar donor base, owes something to you. That’s the whole ballgame. Every vote you don’t like from a Democrat you helped elect, ask yourself who else was in the room when that vote got made. Establishment democrats are beholden to the corporations who write their checks. Progressives and Democratic Socialists are beholden to the people, because the people are their donors.
Democratic socialists and progressive independents are the candidates who show up without that debt already owed. That’s why the establishment fights them so hard. Not because they can’t win, they keep winning. Because when they win, they don’t answer to the donor class, and that terrifies the people who built their careers on being the donor class’s safest bet.
VET THEM ANYWAY
However, I’m also not encouraging anyone to blindly trust progressives and democratic socialists either. You must vet them, like any other candidate. Not all progressive candidates are worth a damn. Titles mean nothing. Character is everything right now. And this isn’t a purity test. This is right is right, wrong is wrong. Integrity matters. Truth matters. For example:
In Maine’s Senate primary, the establishment’s preferred candidate, Gov. Janet Mills, suspended her own campaign back when progressive favorite, now disgraced, Graham Platner had real momentum. David Costello was also an incredible candidate that was completely overlooked. Walter Rhein and I interview Costello, but nobody gave a shit, because people chose whoever was most visible and most popular without doing the proper vetting.
The interview is here:
But, back to Platner. First there was the Nazi tattoo. Then came the New York Times report on women who described his behavior as unsettling, then the deleted Reddit posts, then, in July, a woman named Jenny Racicot went on the record with Politico and CNN saying Platner sexually assaulted her in 2021. He denied it, called it “categorically false,” immediately DARVO’d and then suspended his campaign anyway once Schumer, Sanders, Gillibrand, Warren, and half his own endorsers ran for the exits. A lot of us called it a long time ago and turns out we were right about him. I am furious at a party that spent months waving off every person who tried to warn them, right up until it became a five-alarm fire they couldn’t ignore. Maine Democrats are now scrambling to pick a replacement to face Susan Collins in November, and that scramble is on them. But voters also have a responsibility. Never trust a party candidate without looking at ALL your options and vetting them yourself.
FINDING THEM IN YOUR DISTRICT
You don’t have to take my word for any of this. You can go look. Most people have access to the internet and google is free.
Your local Democratic Socialists of America chapter almost certainly publishes a voter guide every cycle, with actual research behind it, not just a party label. Search your city or county plus “DSA voter guide.” Chapters in Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Atlanta, and dozens of other cities have already done the work of separating the candidates who refuse corporate and AIPAC money from the ones who don’t. It’s a necessary responsibility for voting. Stop being sheep and just following the herd. Responsible voting is what separates us from the deplorable MAGA machine.
Justice Democrats and DSA’s national electoral commission both maintain running lists of endorsed candidates at electoral.dsausa.org and justicedemocrats.com. Run for Something focuses on younger, first-time progressive candidates running for state and local office, and keeps an active list you can search by state. Ballotpedia will tell you who’s actually on your ballot, which matters more than people realize, because most of these races never make the news at all.
BE THE CANDIDATE
If there’s no good candidate on your ballot, you can also be the good candidate. Running for local office, school board, city council, county commission, state house, is dramatically more accessible than people assume. You don’t get to bitch if you’re not willing to put in the work, whether that’s running yourself or helping someone with their campaign. Filing deadlines and requirements are public record through your secretary of state’s website. Many local races require only a small number of signatures and no filing fee at all. Run for Something exists specifically to walk first-time candidates through exactly this process, from paperwork to fundraising to knocking your first door.
You do not need a law degree. You do not need a donor network. You do not need permission from the party. You need to actually live in the district, care enough to show up, and be willing to say the true thing out loud even when the people who’d rather you didn’t are the ones currently holding the microphone.
Like Kendrick Lamar said, “You can’t fake influence.”
The establishment counts on you thinking this fight is too big, too distant, too much someone else’s job. It isn’t. It’s a school board seat in your town that nobody else wanted badly enough to run for. It’s a state house district represented by someone whose last contested primary was a decade ago.
So which Democratic Party do you actually want? The one that spends millions hiding who’s paying for the attack ads, or the one that shows up clean and asks you to trust it because it’s earned that. Pick one, and then go find out who’s already running for it in your backyard.
If a paid subscription isn’t in the cards right now, I completely get it — truly. But if you’ve ever read something here and thought “damn, she needs to keep doing this,” you can throw a few bucks in the tip jar over at Buy Me a Coffee.
No pressure. No guilt. Just me, asking nicely, with my hand out like a very earnest raccoon who writes controversial essays.
☕ buymeacoffee.com/eeviebateman
Thank you for being here. Seriously. You make this worth doing.
Yes speak on it. They are playing into Trump and MAGAs hands. The in fighting with Progressives and Moderates does the party no good. Didn’t they learn from Trumps last win. I thought it was great how you spoke out on the A.O.C. Stuff it’s great to have her speaking out doing her thing. But she would really help if she actually tried to unify this party. Sometimes being a leader is acknowledging when you might have gotten some things wrong and listening to others. we only correct those things if we actually work together to win and get our policies in.
I just reread this Substack after hearing that Bill Maher will vote for Vance if the Dems have a "communist" progressive as a candidate in 2028. I am not surprised to hear Maga voters erroneously refer to progressive policies as "communist", but I thought Maher was intelligent and could differentiate between support for the Palestinian people and support for the "intifada". Progressives are fighting against an apartheid state, and fighting for healthcare for all - and Maga and Maher think they are radical communists?
I understand the fight within the Democratic party exists. Even in 2016 many of the progressive positions made me nervous. I still don't think Bernie would have been a good president, but I have come to understand and agree with many progressive policies including healthcare for all, student loan forgiveness, affordable housing, living wage, higher taxes on the wealthy, childcare subsidies, parental paid leave, and many more.