Will Hakeem Jeffries Encourage Them Again?
One of the first 2024 congressional candidates endorsed by Blue America this cycle was Pervez Agwan, who’s running for a new district in the Houston area that is partially represented by corporate Democrat Lizzie Fletcher. Agwan represents the future of the Democratic Party; Fletcher is all about what’s wrong with it today: corruption, careerism, identity politics, conservatism… Recently a friend of mine who works for a PAC helping get out Agwan’s message told me he put up a national ad with an anti-AIPAC message. Within minutes thousands of dollars came in— and kept coming. For decades, AIPAC hasn’t had anything to offer candidates except contributions from conservative Jews and, for recently, MAGA-evenagelicals.
Yesterday, Primary School noted that Agwan “is adjusting to the rise of pro-Israel PACs' anti-progressive spending juggernauts in a unique way: he’s daring them to take him on. Pervez Agwan, an engineer and climate activist, has managed two consecutive six-figure fundraising quarters…[S]ince AIPAC et al. are likely to come after him the moment they perceive him as a threat regardless of his stance on Israel (see their heavy spending to defeat pro-Israel progressive candidates like Andy Levin and Donna Edwards), he’s choosing to frame that on his own terms and address Israel’s human rights abuses head-on. According to Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch, Agwan is attracting the notice of local politicos because he already has a ground game and in-person campaign events quite early in the election cycle… [AIPAC-adjacent] Democratic Majority For Israel, one of the major pro-Israel anti-left super PACs, tells Deutch that Agwan is already on their radar.” May I suggest that anyone who would like to help Agwan defend himself against AIPAC and DMFI, contribute to his campaign here.
Pervez Agwan is hardly the only progressive Democrat in AIPAC’s sites. Last week, reporting for the Jewish Insider, Matt Kassel wrote that AIPAC is preparing to take on 3 members of the Congressional Back Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Summer Lee (D-PA). First step: they’ve “been actively courting a slate of House candidates” to the on the 3 popular Black progressives. “While AIPAC quietly opposed Omar last cycle by contributing $350,000 to a separate group created to boost a top Democratic primary challenger, its latest efforts point to a new and potentially more expansive direction for the group, whose affiliated super PAC, launched in late 2021, has largely engaged in open-seat races rather than challenging incumbents. Now, however, AIPAC appears to be embracing a more aggressive strategy as it seeks to pick off a handful of incumbents who have been unusually hostile to Israel, particularly in recent weeks. Last month, for instance, Bowman and Omar were among a group of House Democrats who boycotted Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to a joint session of Congress. The two lawmakers also voted against a GOP-led resolution rejecting claims that Israel is a racist state— as Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, recently asserted at a progressive conference in Chicago.”
There are two corrupt conservative candidates who want to take on Ilhan— former quasi-Republican and fully scandal-plagued Minneapolis councilman Don Samuels, who failed last year, and the even more conservative North Minneapolis councilmember, LaTrisha Vetaw. They are also talking to some guy named Tim Peterson. Please consider contributing to Ilhan’s campaign here.
Kassel also wrote that “AIPAC has been courting George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, to challenge Bowman, who will be seeking his third term in 2024. Latimer, a former state legislator, has confirmed that ‘a number of individuals’ are now urging him to run, but he said last month that he has not ‘made a decision to seek the seat’… Michael Gerald, a pastor and corrections official “who briefly entered the race last cycle, filed to run against Bowman last month.” Please consider helping defend Jamaal here.
The “pro-Israel community in Pittsburgh” is getting behind Edgewood councilmember Bhavini Patel to run a primary against Summer Lee, who beat the AIPAC shill, Steve Irwin, last year— after AIPAC threw in 3,934,263 against her (followed by $472,990 from Mark Bellman’s shady DMFI). Patel has been raising money hand-over-fist in his heavily Jewish community. And she expects to get the big Republican Party cash routinely laundered through AIPAC, while Hakeem Jeffries, a total AIPC shill, looks the other way. Blue America help elect Summer Lee— as well as Ilhan and Jamaal— and you can help keep them in Congress by contributing here. Republicans can't win in any of these deep blue districts. So they back conservative Democrats against progressives instead.
