What Went Down In New York, Florida And Oklahoma’s Elections

Since Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential run in 2016, when he helped grow the progressive movement in his race against establishment Democrat Hillary Clinton, the left has sought to establish itself as a major player in Democratic politics. Over the years, they’ve recruited qualified candidates to take on less progressive members of their own party and targeted older ideologically liberal members they argue were out of touch with their districts.

Much of this momentum began in New York. After all, it was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s surprising 2018 win over the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, then-Rep. Joseph Crowley, that helped solidify the effectiveness of the movement’s current electoral strategy.

Today, in New York’s 17th District, progressives are hoping for a repeat. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and the PCCC have endorsed state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in the newly redrawn district. Maloney is in turn backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as a number of other establishment Democrats. He also has more cash on hand than Biaggi and has done better in the polls, but few of his constituents are actually in this district. In a somewhat unorthodox fashion, he also edged progressive Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones out of the race, so I’ll be watching this race with interest.

As we’ll discuss in more depth tonight, redistricting in New York caused some pretty odd match-ups, which may explain, in part, why progressive groups have withheld endorsements from candidates they might otherwise have supported. For example, in New York’s 10th District, there are several candidates with progressive credentials, such as Rep. Mondaire Jones, New York City Council member Carlina Rivera and state Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou. PCCC has supported Jones, but the other progressive groups and people we are watching haven’t weighed in (e.g., Justice Democrats, Indivisible, PCCC, Sunrise Movement, Sen. Sanders, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez). Meanwhile, in New York’s 11th District, former Rep. Max Rose, who lost in 2020, is competing again for that seat, with an endorsement from the DCCC. He faces progressive Brittany Ramos Debarros, who has been endorsed by Indivisible, PCCC and Our Revolution.

I’ll be watching these candidates and more tonight, so stay tuned.