Internal Opposition

Democratic congressional hopefuls across the country, fuelled by popular anger, are lashing out at their own leadership and promising no mercy for the party elite. “I’m not one of those people who ‘when they sink, we rise,’” said Texas state representative Jolanda Jones, who is running in November for a safely Democratic House seat. “If they sink, I’ll go down into the rubbish heap.”

Dozens of Democratic House candidates are challenging long-standing party figures or running open campaigns in blue and purple districts. A common thread in many conversations is the sense that the Democratic establishment has failed to meet expectations since President Trump’s return to the White House in January. That is what elected Democrats say they have been hearing from their voters—especially from the liberal base—over the past nine months, and it foreshadows a headache for party leadership: it may face its own version of the Tea Party wave that once destabilised Republican bosses.

“Americans want to be part of a movement that will defend their rights,” said Amanda Edwards, a former Houston city council member and one of the leading candidates in the Texas special election. She warned that Trump “is willing to go as far as he needs to” and “has no restraints.” “When will we be in a position to be ready to push back and have a strategy?” she asked.

Kat Abugazaleh, an influential progressive activist running for office in Illinois, emphasized: “You have to show people that you’re angry—and not just angry, but that you’re going to do something about it.”

“We’re on the brink of an authoritarian takeover,” said Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech entrepreneur and progressive organizer who once challenged former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “People want to see lawmakers actually show up at courthouses and confront ICE.”

Dozens of Democratic candidates are either refusing or unwilling to pledge their support for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as speaker or party leader. “Democratic leadership needs to take a much tougher stance toward the Trump administration,” said Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another prominent contender in the race that includes Abugazaleh. “We shouldn’t be afraid to use our leverage to push back, and we need to speak clearly and forcefully about the harm Trump is inflicting on our communities.”

“People are angry, they are disappointed, they are deeply saddened by what they see—of course, by the actions of the Trump administration, but, frankly, much of it is a deep disappointment in the Democrats themselves,” said attorney Patrick Rout, who challenged Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts in the primary. Many leading candidates in key primaries remain backers of Jeffries or his recruits. But to rattle the leadership, a small band of renegades may be enough if Jeffries manages to secure a narrow majority next year. Nearly a dozen House Democrats who are retiring or running for higher office have left behind a string of tightly contested primaries that the leadership will struggle to control. Added to that are ten senior Democrats who face well-funded primary challengers.

“I just think the days of following the same script are over. I will not adhere to the rules when others do not,” said Yolanda Jones. “If you grew up in the ghetto like I did, that is literally the quickest way to be killed. My brother was killed, my aunt was killed, my cousin was killed. My father shot himself. So I come from a different world where things are not as neat as Democrats want them to be. Sometimes it’s all nasty. And you have to know how to fight ugly.”