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PITTSBURGH John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor whose shorts- and scowl-wearing persona made him something of a political celebrity, has won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.

Fetterman, who entered the race as the Democratic front-runner early last year and only grew his advantage over time, had more than 54% of the total expected votes as of Wednesday morning, more than double his closest competitor, U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, who had less than 25%.

He will face the winner of a Republican primary that was still too early to call Wednesday, in one of the most critical Senate races in the country. In that GOP primary, celebrity surgeon Mehmet Oz held a narrow lead over former hedge fund CEO David McCormick. Conservative commentator Kathy Barnette, after a late surge in the race that shocked Republican insiders, was trailing McCormick and Oz.

As returns rolled in, Fetterman, 52, was in a Lancaster hospital, where he was recovering from a stroke he suffered just four days before the primary. His campaign said Tuesday that he underwent a procedure to get a pacemaker to regulate his heart rate.

The campaign, which didnt respond to several requests to interview Fettermans doctors, has said doctors reversed the stroke in time to prevent any cognitive damage, and that hes expected to make a full recovery. Fetterman voted via emergency absentee ballot Tuesday and is expected to remain in the hospital for several days.

Without him, a crowd of supporters and his wife Gisele celebrated at an election-night rally at an airport hotel here.

This race were running, its a race for the future of every community across Pennsylvania, she said. For every small town, for every person who calls those small towns home and for every person whos considered leaving because they didnt see enough opportunities. Its a race for a better Pennsylvania and for a better country.

The crowd erupted in cheers as MSNBC called the race for Fetterman shortly before 9 p.m. They waved yellow Fetterman towels in the air and jumped up and down.

I have goose bumps right now, said Phil Heasley, 31, of Butler, a Fetterman campaign volunteer. This is someone who always showed up for us, and now its our time to show up for him. Itd be great if he were here, but were gonna raise the roof as if he was.

The below graphic shows the most recent results reported. It is updated in real time.

Fetterman appeared on the big screen briefly from the hospital, saying simply: Thank you so much for everything. From my heart, thank you for everything.

How cute is he? Gisele Fetterman asked after the cameo.

She spoke about her husbands unconventional style, which attracted so many to his campaign.

Its not just that John looks nothing like a politician, she said. Its because John doesnt act like one. At heart, hes still that hardworking, scrappy, small-town mayor.

Gisele Fetterman later told reporters her husbands health shouldnt be an issue in the general election.

Anyone who would imply that he would be unfit to serve because of this procedure is also... offending millions of Americans who have pacemakers, she said.

And its almost ableist, you know? I think hes going to have a full, thriving life. Hes going to be able to do the same work as anyone else, she said. But the reality is, families come with health scares. That is a very American thing. What hes gonna want to fight for is to make sure that everyone would have access to the same care that he was able to receive.

Fettermans unconventional style helped propel his victory and represents something of a departure from years of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania nominating more centrist candidates. Lamb, who campaigned as a moderate Democrat in the mold of President Joe Biden, was in second-place Wednesday. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta had less than 10% of the total expected vote.

The victory makes Fetterman the Democratic standard-bearer in one of the most hotly contested races in the country, which could determine control of the chamber. The incumbent Republican, Sen. Pat Toomey, isnt seeking reelection.

Fetterman began drawing national notice as mayor of Braddock, a small Rust Belt town outside Pittsburgh. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for Senate in 2016, and then beat a Democratic incumbent in the 2018 race for lieutenant governor.

His path to the nomination zigzagged through Trump Country, where hes tried to attract disaffected rural Democrats with a hybrid populist-progressive appeal. He spent far less time campaigning in the populous Philadelphia region, home to a huge proportion of the states Democratic voters though he used a formidable fund-raising advantage to blanket the airwaves there.

Fetterman had strikingly little support among elected Democrats in the state for his primary campaign including in the state Senate chamber he presides over though he is sure to enjoy a largely united Democratic Party in a race thats critical to U.S. Senate control.

READ MORE: Fetterman doesnt just have supporters he has fans. His celebrity could make him a senator.

Lamb, who didnt appear at his election-night party to deliver remarks, conceded in a statement late Tuesday night.

I entered this campaign knowing it would be tough, but I believed Democratic voters in Pennsylvania deserved a primary campaign with a real debate focused on the issues so that we win in November, Lamb said. Today, voters made it clear that John Fetterman is their choice to carry that effort forward.

Lamb said he respects that decision, congratulated Fetterman, and wished him a speedy recovery from his stroke.

Lamb said hed do everything I can to help Democrats win in the general election.

Our entire democracy is on the line in November, he said. Democrats need to be unequivocally united in our defense of this democracy, and we will be. Johns vote in the Senate is essential to protect this democracy, and he will have my vote in November.

Lamb had the backing of many elected Democrats in the state and argued he had the left-of-center profile that would appeal to the widest range of voters in a general election. But Lambs campaign struggled to raise money or excite a critical mass of voters, and national Democrats, who had anointed chosen candidates in previous Senate races, largely stayed on the sidelines this time. A super PAC organized to support Lamb had little impact after raising much less than its $8 million goal.

And Lambs own campaign largely faded in its final weeks, not announcing many campaign events.

Kenyatta, who ran on his working-class background and the historic nature of his campaign he would have been the first openly gay Black man in the Senate garnered some passionate support despite meager resources. But with far less money than even Lamb, he never established himself as a top-tier candidate.

Kenyatta addressed his supporters Tuesday night in North Philadelphia with a triumphant tone, touting the milestones achieved, including the first time an openly gay person of color ran for Senate.

Each time one of us stands up, it inspires another person to stand up as well, Kenyatta said, encouraging people to run for office. Each one of us adds pressure to a status quo.

Kenyatta said he called Fetterman committing his support and asked those in the room to do the same.

Campaign staffers and members of the Working Families Party, including City Councilmember Kendra Brooks, filled the room.

Melvin Calhoun, 60, said he was happy with Kenyattas campaign.

Im not mad, he said. Im going to keep following his career.

Alex Khalil, a Jenkintown Borough Council member and the only woman in the race, ran on a shoestring budget and never broke through.

Fetterman had a cash advantage from the start, with high name-ID from two statewide campaigns and an impressive small-dollar fund-raising operation like the one that powered Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns. Fetterman had 200,000 individual donors by the end of the primary and a loyal fan base as he traveled the state.

Hell run in the general election partly on his record as lieutenant governor, a largely ceremonial job but one that includes leading the Board of Pardons, where pardons and commutations of life sentences greatly increased during his tenure. Hell also likely tout his time as mayor of Braddock, where violence in the small town of 2,000 decreased on his watch.

But his main pitch will likely be the one he made to primary voters that he has a populist, outsider appeal, is no friend to the political establishment, and will unapologetically fight for Democratic values.

Republicans have already signaled that theyll look to paint him as being too liberal on issues like abortion, health care, and criminal justice.

And a 2013 incident that has loomed over his campaign, in which he held at gunpoint a Black jogger whom he wrongly suspected of a shooting, is almost certain to resurface in the general election. His primary opponents frequently brought up the incident and questioned whether it would impact his ability to turn out Black and progressive voters in the fall.

It proved to be a nonissue for Democratic primary voters.

So did his eleventh-hour stroke.

Visit link:
John Fetterman won the Democratic Senate primary, with a promise to unite progressives and rural Pa. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Some political analysts say recent progressive candidate success is a sign the Texas Democratic party is moving left.

AUSTIN, Texas Texas is poised to send the most liberal Democrat in state history to Congress. That progressive member will be representing San Antonio. Two other progressive candidates are in the run-offs.

Some political analysts say it's a sign the Texas Democratic party is moving left.

After winning the Democratic nomination for Congressional District 35, which covers the I-35 corridor from San Antonio to Austin, Greg Casar is forecast to win this heavily Democratic district in November. He brings a very liberal agenda from this conservative state.

"There's so many families working people that believe in a $15 an hour minimum wage, believe that we should not have crushing student debt holding back our young people, believe that we should have free health care as a human right," said Casar.

As an Austin city councilmember Casar voted to defund the police.

"I voted and proudly voted to say, you know what? Let's take a pause on some of our police classes and reform that academy," said Casar.

Two progressive candidates are in congressional run-offs as the country to looks to Texas to see if the Democratic party is changing.

"In our recent UT Texas Politics Project Poll, we ask Democrats whether they think the Democratic party is liberal enough, not liberal enough or too liberal. The most frequent response that you get from the youngest cohort of voters is not liberal enough," said Jim Henson with the UT Texas Politics Project.

"We're going to see more candidates like Greg Casar and other, again, more grassroots progressive movement of candidates emerge and become a louder voice in the party," said Henson.

Casar's progressive policies earned the endorsement of Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who is trying to reshape the Democratic party. AOC campaigned here for Casar and Jessica Cisneros.

Cisneros says the endorsement helped her get into the May 24th run-off against nine term Congressman Henry Cuellar.

"I think it's definitely helping in terms of anything that can help raise awareness about what kind of work we're doing and what kind of policies we're fighting for here in South Texas. We're fighting for funding education and health care. Reproductive rights falls squarely under health care," said Cisneros.

Cuellar has the support of Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip James Clyburn who campaigned here for him. Cuellar he says the polices of AOC don't represent his district which reaches from east San Antonio to Laredo and further south along the border.

"If you look at the progressives, even my opponent, I don't think Hispanics support defund the police. You know, Hispanics generally are conservative in nature and to come in with this far left type of progressive ideas, this is not what South Texas is looking for," said Cuellar.

The redrawn congressional election maps make most districts less competitive in the general election. Political analysts say that means we'll see more candidates from the far left and far right in the primaries and a shift from moderate to progressive here in Texas.

"If you look at the attitudes of people who identify as Texas Democrats, the share of people who identify as liberal is definitely increasing and has increased over the past decade as the Texas party, slowly and in a lot of ways, very slowly comes to look more and more like the national Democratic party," said Henson.

See the article here:
Progressive candidates' success in Texas could indicate changing face of Democratic Party - KENS5.com

During a rally in support of U.S. House candidate Summer Lee on Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders called out super PACs bankrolled by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and billionaire donors for spending big to crush progressives in Pennsylvania and elsewhere across the country, efforts that the Vermont senator decried as pathetic and corrosive to democracy.

If they are successful, they will carry this into November, Sanders warned at the event in Pittsburgh, which was held days before the May 17 Democratic primary in Pennsylvanias 12th Congressional District. They have billions of dollars at their disposal.

We need a strong progressive like Summer in the Congress, Sanders added. But honestly it is even more important that we tell these billionaires that we will not allow them to buy elections and control this democracy.

In recent weeks, the United Democracy Project (UDP) a super PAC that AIPAC founded late last year has spent more than $2 million attacking Lee or boosting her primary opponent Steve Irwin, a corporate lawyer and former Republican congressional staffer.

Billionaire Haim Saban, a longtime AIPAC supporter, is UDPs biggest individual donor.

Democratic Majority for Israel a super PAC with close ties to AIPAC has also been spending in support of Irwin fresh off its success in Ohios 11th Congressional District, where the group helped defeat progressive champion Nina Turner earlier this month.

These ads, paid for by AIPAC, are attacking Summer because shes not a loyal enough Democrat,' Sanders said Thursday, referring to a recent 30-second spot by UDP highlighting Lees past criticism of the Democratic Party. But what you should know is that this organization is funding over 100 Republican candidates.

So here you have a super PAC saying shes not a loyal Democrat while theyre endorsing over 100 Republicans, including many who even refuse to acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election, the Vermont senator continued. Talk about hypocrisy. Talk about a corrupt political system. And that is why Summer and so many of us are going to do everything that we can to put these super PACs out of business by overturning Citizens United.

Lee, too, slammed the special interests that are pouring money into Pennsylvanias 12th District in an attempt to undermine her campaign, which includes a platform of Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and tuition-free public colleges and universities.

When people attack you or when they come for you, you must be doing something right, Lee, a current member of the Pennsylvania State House, said in a fiery speech to the crowd of supporters gathered in Pittsburgh Thursday night. But I want to be clear in this moment: Its not me theyre attacking Theyre worried about you. If they were in this room right now, they would not be able to stare us in the eyes.

If you are somebody in this country who cares about people, why would you want to stand in the way of healthcare for everybody? Lee continued. If you care about this country and you care about our party the way they say, why would they stand in the way of clean air and water? How dare they get in the way of us fighting for every worker to have a living wage and a union and paid sick and family leave.

See the original post:
Sanders Slams AIPAC and Billionaires for Spending Millions Against Progressives - Truthout

Hardesty at an event on May 6th. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Despite a tsunami of outside funding to candidates running to the right of Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, her popularity broke through and she took home 41% of the vote for her City Council seat.

Thats just one of the big headlines from last nights primary election.

Many observers thought the combination of voter outrage at the state of Portlands problems and an influx of money from a political action committee backing Hardestys opponent would do more damage to her chances. But Hardesty was all smiles at her election night gathering at Redwood Cafe on SE Stark and 79th where sources say the good vibes lasted well into the night.

With about 32% of ballots counted, Hardesty has 41% of the votes. Shell be in a runoff with either Rene Gonzalez or Vadim Mozyrsky, who are currently separated by only 879 votes. Gonzalez is currently at 24.2% and is barely edging out Mozrysky at 23.4%. There will be many opinions as to which challenger has a better chance of overtaking Hardesty in November. Gonzalez has been much more direct in his campaign against Hardesty and many of his views on key issues like policing (hes endorsed by the Portland Police Association) and housing are further to the right than Mozyrskys; but hes not nearly as well-funded.

In the other contested Portland city council race, incumbent Dan Ryan did what most people expected him to do. He handily overcame challenger AJ McCreary by a split of 58% to 25% and avoided a runoff.

Here are a few more thoughts and results from other races weve been watching closely:

Theres a lot more analysis and results still to come in, so stay tuned! The next update in the counts is scheduled for 6:00 pm today.

One last note about the results, counts in Clackamas County are going very slowly so we dont have a good picture of how that part of the region voted.

What struck you about last night? Are you happy? Hopeful? Sad? Despondent? Meh?

Jonathan Maus is BikePortlands editor, publisher and founder. Contact him at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

Front Page, Politics election 2022

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Election recap: Hardesty holds onto over 40% of vote as progressives breath sigh of relief - BikePortland.org

Former Kentucky Rep. Charles Booker overwhelmingly won the states U.S. Senate Democratic primary on Tuesday, taking the progressive candidate one step closer to his goal of unseating far right Republican Sen. Rand Paul in November.

With about 97 percent of votes counted as of Wednesday morning, Booker has won over 73 percent of the votes in the state, beating out the next most popular candidate, Joshua Blanton, by over 60 points. Booker, a Black racial justice activist, ran on a platform of connecting the hood to the holler in other words, connecting the states urban and rural residents in unity.

The commonwealth of Kentucky has never had a Black person to be the top of the ticket, to be a major party nominee for U.S. Senate, Booker said in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night. If anybody tells you change is not possible, if anybody tells you that ceilings cant break, tell them, look at Kentucky.

Paul won the Republican nomination by a landslide, with over 86 percent of votes on Wednesday morning.

Polling has found that Paul has a strong chance of winning over Booker in the red state this fall; a Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy poll from earlier this year found that 55 percent of those polled said theyd vote for the incumbent, while 39 percent said theyd vote for Booker. A far right politician, COVID denier and supporter of Donald Trumps attempted coup, Paul has been a U.S. senator since 2011, largely representing a capitalist libertarian viewpoint.

Booker ran on a progressive platform, supporting proposals like Medicare for All and calling for a Green New Deal. He has said that Kentucky voters have been inspired by racial justice movements in recent years and that there are opportunities to unite Kentuckians, regardless of race or residence, behind common goals.

Major unions and progressive organizations have endorsed Booker; when Booker ran to oust Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2020, he gathered endorsements from popular progressive lawmakers like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York).

Democrats have historically had a hard time winning against Republicans in Kentucky. The last time the state had a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate was in 1999, over 20 years ago.

In 2020, Amy McGrath an establishment-backed Democrat who spent millions to defeat Booker in the primary roundly lost to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been in office since 1985. McConnell won by nearly 20 points, despite the nearly $91 million spent on the race by McGraths campaign.

At the time, political reporters and progressives said that Booker could have won against McConnell, had the Democratic party establishment not lined up behind McGrath, who the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board called unimaginative and uninspiring in their endorsement of Booker. Considering that Booker lost by only about 3 points to McGrath in that election despite having been outraised 50-to-1 in campaign funds was a show of the progressive appetite among Kentucky voters, analysts said.

This time around, as of the end of April, Paul has over $8 million on hand going into the general election campaign, while Booker has only around $470,000, according to OpenSecrets. The race will be closely watched. While Booker faces long odds, a triumph over Paul would be a huge win for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Read the rest here:
Progressive Charles Booker Wins Primary to Challenge Rand Paul in November - Truthout