This week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her so-called “Squad” of fellow progressives were dealt a number of losses in the primary elections.
Several of the progressive loons vying for the tip of the hat of the Democrat Party were pushed out by more centrist aspirants in races all across the nation in Tuesday’s primary.
Ocasio-Cortez, on the other hand, easily sailed to victory in her unopposed primary.
#politics #government Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her progressive comrades lost big in primaries: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her "Squad" of left-wing allies will return to Congress as mere "annoyances" next year. …Read mo https://t.co/FePZFZk7FE pic.twitter.com/PfgYCTfK9M
— The Internet Party (@internetptyorg) August 27, 2022
String of Loses
Most notably, incumbent Representative Mondaire Jones failed to win reelection and came in third place in the race for New York’s 10th District.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, decided to run for election in the 17th Congressional District, which Jones represents.
As a result, Jones decided to switch districts and run for election in the 22nd Congressional District.
Jones ran for re-election in the 10th Congressional District, hoping to avoid a showdown with a prominent Democrat in the House; nevertheless, he was defeated by Daniel Goldman, who went on to win the seat.
Jones was a “pioneer” in that he was one of the first openly gay African-American men to be elected to Congress. Ocasio-Cortez supported Jones in the past for the 2020 election.
Alessandra Biaggi, who was running to unseat Maloney as the representative for the 17th Congressional District, was the progressive candidate Ocasio-Cortez threw her support behind, prior to Tuesday’s showdown.
Biaggi, however, was soundly defeated.
In another part of New York, a progressive candidate named Brittany Ramos DeBarros, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was unsuccessful in her bid to represent New York’s 11th Congressional District.
Her opponent was the more moderate Democrat Max Rose.
At least one significant primary victory was secured by the “Squad,” which came in the form of Kristen Gonzalez being selected as the party nominee for the state Senate contest she was running in New York City.
https://t.co/LjbfR9UoL6 “The policies that The Squad stood for were never popular and the candidates who tried to mirror those policies are finding themselves out of Congress,” said a senior Democrat, who believes the group will become little more than “gadflies”.
— James Hutton (@JEHutton) August 27, 2022
Upcoming Midterms
During the special election held in New York’s 19th Congressional District, Democrat Pat Ryan defeated Republican Marc Molinaro by a narrow margin. This allowed the party to win the election and claim victory.
According to FiveThirtyEight, the constituency previously voted for former President Trump in 2016; it has a political advantage of one percentage point favoring Republicans.
The hot-button subject of abortion, which some political observers feel may have played a role in Ryan’s victory, overshadowed a significant portion of the battle between Ryan and Molinaro.
In November, Molinaro will square off against Josh Riley, who formerly worked as an aide in Congress.
In the recent weeks, Democrats have appeared to be reinforced by a string of wins, such as the killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, lowering gas costs, the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as the CHIPS Act, and the declaration of forgiveness of student loans.
These victories have seemingly provided Democrats with a sense of renewed confidence.
Many of these policy victories depicted substantially watered-down variations of what progressive representatives of the “Squad” sought.
This article appeared in The Political Globe and has been published here with permission.
