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One in a series of campaign trail dispatches about the major contenders for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Cristina Tzintzn Ramirez says theres power in her name.

Tzintzn is more Mexican than any Garcia or Lopez, the activist told a gathering of Democratic women in Plano. We were the only indigenous group in Mexico that were not defeated by the Aztecs. So you know I come from good lineage and Im ready to defeat John Cornyn.

Tzintzn Ramirez wants to revolutionize campaigning for her Senate race against incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn.

The veteran Latina activist is mobilizing the young and Hispanic voters whom Democrats need to transform Texas from red to blue. Shes confident her liberal proposals will also appeal to black and white Democrats and make her the partys nominee.

The Senate primary will test whether a Green New Deal progressive like Tzintzn Ramirez can win in a state dominated by conservative voters.

The only way were going to win is by the progressive muscle that we know is going to get behind this campaign to turn out voters, especially brown and black voters, she told The Dallas Morning News. Now we need them to win and no candidate wins without them, but I want to be the candidate for everyone in Texas that truly represents our diversity and common interests.

In December, Tzintzn Ramirez was back home. She spoke to a group of North Oak Cliff Democrats at Normas Cafe, a short drive from where she once lived.

We lived in south Oak Cliff until I was 5, she said. It was south Oak Cliff, not the part thats been gentrified. They still dont want to gentrify where I lived.

Tzintzn Ramirez was born in Moxahala, Ohio, to Ana Tzintzn, an immigrant from Mexico, and Tom Costello, an Irish-American businessman. Her parents ran a jewelry business and their family spent time in Mexico, Ohio and Oak Cliff.

From Dallas, Tzintzn Ramirez moved with her family to a white, middle class area in Columbus, Ohio.

Young Cristina had a clear view of discrimination. When she was with her mother, a dark-skinned woman who spoke English with an accent, she saw a prejudice that didnt exist in the company of her white father, whom she describes on the campaign trail as an Irish-American hippie.

From a very young age I discovered there was a different set of rules and different set of opportunities for people and it was based on race and national origin, not on merit, she said.

But she did find common ground in her diverse families.

My Mexican and Anglo families have a lot more in common than we do not, she said. I dont care where you come from, the color of your skin, who you love or who you pray to, we just want all our children to be safe, to be healthy, to go to great schools and get everything they dream of.

Tzintzn Ramirez attended Austin Community College and the University of Texas.

At 24, she co-founded the Workers Defense Project, a pro-labor group that protects the rights of the mostly Hispanic workers who often get injured on the job.

While John Cornyn was accepting millions of dollars from the construction industry, which here in Texas in the largest employer of undocumented labor, I was making $43,000 a year representing tens of thousands of workers who built our states economy and lost their fingers, limbs and lives in the process, she said at a Plano event.

Tzintzn Ramirezs talent for organizing impressed many who worked with her.

She was one of the most effective advocates on worker safety that we dealt with, said Debbie Berkowitz, who was chief of staff at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when she met Tzintzn Ramirez.

Berkowitz said Tzintzn Ramirezs group produced a report that outlined how workers were dying on the job, leading to improved standards that saved lives.

Tzintzn Ramirez left the Workers Defense Project in 2015 and later formed a group called Jolt, with the goal of mobilizing immigrants and Latino voters.

Brigid Hall is the chief operations officer at Jolt and was Tzintzn Ramirezs deputy at the Workers Defense Project.

She has really ambitious goals and a big vision. She moves quickly and is always one step ahead, Hall said. She has high expectations and makes them known for the people around her. Sometimes its very hard to meet those expectations.

Aside from work, Tzintzn Ramirez, 37, describes herself as having the heart of a 60-year-old woman. She likes to watch movies, work in her garden and cook. She has a 2-year-old son, Santiago, who she says will travel with her on the trail. Because shes raising her son alone, Tzintzn Ramirez said she paused before making a final decision on running for Senate.

I have to stand up and do my part in a state where hes going to be a young Latino man, she said.

Tzintzn Ramirezs surname has evolved over the years. It started out as Costello. She said as a young adult she changed it after her parents divorced to the more interesting Tzintzn before recently taking her ex-husbands name, Ramirez.

Tzintzn Ramirez separated from her husband in March after about four years of marriage, she said. Her divorce was finalized in December, just before Christmas.

Im a person that has gone through divorce, like many families, she said.

Tzintzn Ramirez was recruited to challenge Cornyn by operatives from former Rep. Beto ORourkes unsuccessful 2018 Senate campaign. She hopes to have $1 million for the stretch run.

The former labor advocate amended an early pledge to reject money from political action committees, lobbyists and special interest groups. She now says she wont take money from corporate PACs. The former ORourke consultants who helped recruit her are part of the progressive Action PAC backing her Senate run.

Tzintzn Ramirez told The News that she changed the guideline so she could accept money from union members.

Whatever the reason, shell need resources to execute her campaign strategy, which she says involves winning half of the young vote and at least 60% of the Latino vote.

Tzintzn Ramirez insists her progressive stand on issues will appeal to voters.

Shes backed by the Working Families Party, a pro-labor group. And Tzintzn Ramirez supports the Green New Deal, a mandatory buyback program for assault weapons and Medicare for All, while abolishing private insurance.

I know the things that I stand for are not actual radical ideas, that its not too much to ask that we judge our economy by not only how well big corporations are doing, but by how well ordinary people are doing, she said. Texans, even if they dont call themselves progressives, believe that too.

In recent weeks Tzintzn Ramirez has criticized rival MJ Hegar, who is backed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Tzintzn Ramirez and other Democratic Senate candidates have criticized Hegar for voting in the 2016 GOP primary. Hegar said she participated in that contest because she wanted to vote against Donald Trump.

Im the most progressive candidate in this field, which matters in the primary," she said. "And Ive never been a Republican.

What I take issue with is the assumption by MJ that I find troubling for democracy, Tzintzn Ramirez said. She has assumed that shes the frontrunner, even though her poll numbers dont show it.

Most polls show the candidates bunched together, with most voters undecided. Tzintzn Ramirez led in a November poll by the University of Texas-Tyler.

Though its an uphill fight, Tzintzn Ramirez said her campaign would help transform Texas politics.

Im going to work to win the primary outright, but in a runoff, game on, she said. I enjoy proving people wrong. Through this campaign we will teach them not to take young people and people of color for granted.

Go here to read the rest:
Cristina Tzintzn Ramirez says progressive movement will propel her to Senate - The Dallas Morning News

Four freshman representatives who made headlines during their first year in Congress are touting their vision of turning the Congressional Progressive Caucus into a "new kind of centrism."

Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have promoted "Medicare for all," a federal $15 minimum wage, and social justice issues as cornerstones of a policy platform that helped elect both House Democrats in 2018.

We have the support of the majority of the public for the policies that we advocate for. And so we have to speak from a place of authority and power, Omar told BuzzFeed.

Omar and Ocasio-Cortez make up half of "the squad," a group of four young female Democrats who have attacked President Trump while pushing the Democratic Party further left on several policy issues.

The group also includes Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, who was dragged out of a 2016 Trump rally, promised to "impeach the motherf---er," and posted an Instagram video cheering the impeachment of Trump.

The group has challenged the moderate core of the Democratic Party and endorsed liberal candidates running against Democratic-held seats in Congress.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairwoman, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, who referred to Trump as a "combative racist" in 2019, said, "progressives are just the first to the best ideas."

Their growing stature comes, in part, due to their solidarity. The thing that gives the caucus power is that you can operate as a bloc vote in order to get things done, Ocasio-Cortez told podcast The Dig.

[It is] the nature of being a progressive caucus member you're maybe out there on issues first before it's hit the mainstream, added caucus co-chairman Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.

House Democrats slammed Pocan in early 2019 after he posted a now-deleted tweet that accused the moderate Problem Solvers Caucus of being the "Child Abuse Caucus.

Young Democrats, however, support the combative shift in tone and are eager to see more liberal policy ideas adopted by the Democratic Party. After a recent tour in support of presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, supporters labeled Ocasio-Cortez a "national voice" and suggested she run for president in the future.

See the original post:
Ilhan Omar and AOC plan to make Progressive Caucus a 'new kind of centrism' - Washington Examiner

Progressive candidates challenging Democratic members of Congress in primaries are increasingly making foreign policy a central theme of their campaigns in the wake of President Donald Trumps killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

At least five House challengers and one progressive running in a competitive primary for an open Senate seat have used the assassination and the questions its raised about Congress power to authorize war and the United States role in the world to distinguish themselves from their more moderate Democratic opponents.

The accusation that sitting Democratic lawmakers have provided insufficient oversight of Trumps foreign policy has become significant in immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros run against Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar; former middle school principal Jamaal Bowmans run against House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel of New York; law professor Suraj Patels rematch against Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York; Holyoke, Massachusetts, Mayor Alex Morses effort to unseat House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts; and nonprofit executive Melanie DArrigos run against Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi.

Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker, a long-shot candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in the Bluegrass State, has also sought to distinguish himself from military veteran and establishment favorite Amy McGrath with a firmer stance against Trumps intervention.

Waleed Shahid, a spokesperson for the left-wing group Justice Democrats, which is backing three out of the five primary challengers, sees Democrats foreign policy stances as a potentially fruitful campaign topic.

On the presidential level and on the congressional level, there is a real fight on the direction of the Democratic Party on foreign policy, especially in the Trump era, Shahid said. Trump is being impeached for manipulating foreign policy to benefit himself. So theres a lot of energy in the Democratic electorate to hold him more accountable.

Veronica Cardenas / ReutersDemocrat Jessica Cisneros, an immigration attorney challenging Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, is making an issue out of Cuellar's support for the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

For some challengers, though, the case is more straightforward than for others.

Cuellar, who has one of the most conservative records in his partys caucus, registered no objection to Trumps move to kill Soleimani, calling it a necessary step in combating the threat of Iran.

It was the perfect opening for Cisneros, the challenger, who has made Cuellars common ground with Trump a key talking point. For the purposes of this particular argument, she has also underscored Cuellars relianceover the course of his careeron campaign contributions from military contractors.

Henry Cuellar is picking corporate special interests over his constituents and proving once again hes Trumps favorite Democrat, she said in a Monday statement.

But other Democratic incumbents have at least questioned the wisdom of Trumps actions, raising the possibility that, as with impeachment, their progressive challengers will become victims of their own success.

The threat of a progressive primary challenge has likely made vulnerable Democrats more eager to criticize Trumps conduct, which ironically deprives those same progressive primary challengers of a neater attack line against the incumbents they are taking on.

Instead, many progressive challengers are reduced to casting doubt on incumbents judgment based on their past actions. Specifically, challengers are seizing on whether their opponents voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq War; opposed then-President Barack Obamas 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran; or voted for the final, bipartisan version of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act a military spending bill from which lawmakers had stripped provisions reining in the presidents authority to wage war with Iran.

What we must demand is not a race to war, but a diplomatic solution, Patel, the law professor running for a second time to unseat Maloney, said in a Saturday statement. Rep. Carolyn Maloney has a history of supporting reckless Middle East policy and aligning herself with the foreign policy of this president.

The reelection campaign of Maloney who indeed voted for the Iraq War, opposed the Iran nuclear deal and voted for the 2020 defense spending bill declined HuffPosts request for a response to Patels accusation.

Morse, Neals challenger, blasted Neal for approving the compromise defense spending bill and for failing to lead on the reassertion of congressional authority in matters of war and peace. Neal voted against authorizing the Iraq War and supported the Iran nuclear deal, but also voted for the original Authorization for Use of Military Force, which, over 18 years later, remains the sole legal basis for the entire war on terror across multiple countries. (California Rep. Barbara Lee was the sole member of Congress to vote against the original AUMF in September 2001.)

Neal has had opportunities throughout his 30 years in Washington to prevent what happened [on Thursday night] and he failed to do so, Morse told HuffPost.

SAUL LOEB/Getty ImagesHouse Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, a New York Democrat, limited his exposure to progressive attacks with a vote against the 2020 defense spending bill.

Neals campaign said the influential Massachusetts congressman had supported the NDAA because it included a compromise to save some 200 jobs at a manufacturing facility in Springfield and major funding for military bases in the Western Massachusetts district.

With Middle East foreign policy, as with many others, Alex Morse appears to be remarkably ill-informed about national and international issues as they relate to Western Mass, Neal campaign spokeswoman Kate Norton said.

DArrigo has also focused on the 2020 NDAA in her bid to dislodge Suozzi, a business-friendly House sophomore.

In a statementabout Soleimanis killing, Suozzi had urged Trump to work with Congress and U.S. allies.

DArrigo quote-tweeted the statement on Twitter with a rebuke against Suozzis vote for the 2020 NDAA.

You cant both criticize AND enable his actions, she wrote to Suozzi. Continually playing both sides will not keep Americans safe, it will only embolden an increasingly rogue GOP and POTUS.

At least one Democratic incumbent, however Engel went so far as voting against the annual defense spending bill, making it even harder to pin him down.

Engel, who is liberal on domestic policy, has long been one of his partys more hawkish members on foreign affairs. He voted in 2002 to authorize the Iraq War a vote for which he has subsequently expressed regret and in 2015, opposed then-President Barack Obamas agreement with the Iranian government restricting its development of nuclear weapons.

Engels position was nuanced, however, even before Bowman and schoolteacher Andom Ghebreghiorgis announced bids against him in 2019. Essentially from the moment Trump took office in 2017, Engel opposed withdrawing from the Iran nuclear agreement, notwithstanding his opposition to the accord that Obama had passed.

In the current majority-Democratic Congress, though, with serious primary challenges against him underway, Engel has made a particular point of aligning with his partys peace camp. He co-sponsored California Rep. Ro Khannas amendment to the annual defense spending bill forbidding military hostilities with Iran without congressional authorization. And along with just 40 other Democrats, he voted down the final bill because the bipartisan compromise legislation omitted the amendment.

So when Bowman warned Engel on Twitter that the grassroots will be pushing for the adoption of the standalone version of Khannas legislation requiring congressional authorization for war with Iran, Engel had a retort handy. Glad you agree with my bill, he wrote, signing the tweet Eliot to signify that he, rather than his staff, had written it. (Bowman shot back with a recounting of Engels support for the Iraq War and opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.)

Democratic leadership in the House has already taken steps to shore up its moderate members at the expense of both more liberal sitting members and progressive primary challengers.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has tapped Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a moderate freshman and former intelligence analyst, to lead the introduction of legislation later this week that would force Trump to cease hostilities with Iran within 30 days if Congress does not take additional action. Even if the legislation is identical to Khannas, it would effectively deprive Khanna and his ideological allies of credit for the provision and obscure responsibility for his amendment being jettisoned from the final defense spending bill.

Cuellars campaign would not say how Cuellar, the most hawkish of the embattled incumbents, plans to cast his vote on such a bill. But he may benefit from Texas open primary system, which allows independents and Republicans to register as Democrats to cast a vote in the March 3 primary.

His campaigns combative responses to Cisneros may be aimed at more conservative primarygoers.

Cisneros can put out a press release of word salad, but the bottom line is that our opponent opposes the targeting of a terrorist who directed and sanctioned attacks on U.S. troops, said Cuellar campaign spokesman Colin Strother, adding that Cisneros is standing with Iran.

Even with a more favorable set of facts for progressives, though, its likely that foreign policy would be a challenging issue to run on.

Democratic voters in general do not have well-developed foreign policy views, Michigan State political scientist Matt Grossmann told HuffPost last week. They are only able to interpret events in terms of what political elites say.

Shahid of Justice Democrats maintains that its worth a shot, particularly given Obamas popularity and the degree to which Trumps brinksmanship stems from his insistence on jettisoning the Iran deal Obamas signature foreign policy achievement.

Siding with President Trump on an issue that could bring the nation to the brink of war is not something you want to be associated with at all in the Democratic primary, he said.

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Trumps Foreign Policy Is A Growing Point Of Contention In Democratic Primaries - HuffPost

Jon1979(View Comment):

The current Virginia gun control kerfuffle is an interesting preview of the situation progressives want, but arent quite sure how theyre going to get there in the real world. The Democrats know when Jan. 1 rolls around they want to take their first steps on banning guns on the way to gun confiscation, once they control the legislature in Virigina. But theyve already had the majority of the counties in the state either voice opposition or go through the Sanctuary County movement in declaring any state action to be in violation of Second Amendment rights.

In fantasy world, Gov. Northam sends out his robotic Imperial Storm Troopers and they simply do as theyre told and seize all the illegal weapons. Real world is a little messier, in that the governor is going to have to either order the removal of sheriffs and/or county officials, or mandate that Richmond put the financial screws to any county in non-compliance, and in either case, even if you got the top officials in those counties to go along with the plan, the lower level people in the law enforcement departments (or the National Guard) might not comply.

So how do the Elites tame the Savages? Up in New York State, Andrew Cuomos been content to virtue signal much of his draconian gun control law for downstate voters, while not taking it to the mat with the upstate sheriffs and voters/gun owners who oppose it. Northam may do the same thing, but more than any state other than possibly Maryland, Virginia Democrats power comes out of the federal mindset of the Washington D.C. area i.e., lots of the same people and mindsets that have brought you the past three years of the Trump investigation/impeachment farce live in Virginia, and may want their governor and legislators to use the same type of harball tactics they learned during the Obama years in D.C. on the non-complying gun-owning citizens in Virginia. Thats when the push-back really could get serious.

Excellent analysis and well written statements.

Hopefully the governor and his staff wont be as smart as Gov Jerry Brown was in Calif.

Brown went after segments within segments of the gun owning population. So hey every body: dont worry we will only take your guns if you are a veteran with a mental illness or a prescription for anti depressants.

Then a year later: dont worry we only want your guns if you have a drug conviction, even a misdemeanor drug conviction.

So since the whole populace of gun owners wasnt attacked all at once, Brown got away with more confiscation than he should have.

Read more:
Progressives, Fear the Return of the American Savage - Ricochet.com

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