The Importance of Down Ballot Races Part I:

Progressives Should Look Out For Local Races To Build The Bench For Higher Offices

Feel free to check the past Biden Era archives and follow the editions to come in the Trump Era on Substack, Medium, and LinkedIn, including those on the 2024 Autopsy, Bench-Building, DOGE News, Project 2025 Authoritarianism, Progressive Populism, and more (First Come, First Serve!).

Some news headlines that caught my eye before I go into my usual monologue:

World press freedom plummets to an unprecedented low, with the US seeing “alarming deterioration” according to a global press watchdog

Grocery prices may be higher not only because of tariffs but because of greedy monopolies like the Potato Cartel via Robert Reich and Inequality Media

Debt collections are coming back for student loan borrowers, threatening tax refunds, benefits, and even wages

A bid to ban medical debt on credit reports is held on pause by the Trump Regime

Trump is cutting money-saving energy programs, including Energy Star and low-income energy assistance

Refugee funds are being used to welcome wealthy white Afrikaner immigrants to America

ICE is being sent to detain farmworkers advocating for their labor rights

Governor Whitmer has irked Common Cause by the halting of a Michigan special election for a State Senate seat left vacant for more than 100 days

Via dreamtime.com

As a zealous fan to the work of Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, I definitely can say as an observer that Progressive Democrats have struggled to capitalize on the momentum of their groundbreaking presidential campaigns of 2016 and 2020.

It’s only an admission of fact and a constructive critique backed up by the evidence. The energy invested on both the Sanders and Warren campaigns did not translate to down ballot results for whatever reason. In 2016, a more establishment candidate won the US Senate primary in Pennsylvania (and would lose that November to Pat Toomey). Many other establishment Democrats won House primaries somewhat coveted by progressive Democrats.

In 2018, while there were notable victories in safe blue seats, many of the key battleground victories took place with the help of so-called “Moderate” Democrats. A number of them would lose reelection in 2020.

In 2020, even with some decisive victories on the House level, progressives struggled to field Senate candidates, in which more establishment-line Democrats would lose what arguably were winnable races; even in states such as Maine and North Carolina. There was not enough energy from the Sanders and Warren campaigns to translate to larger down ballot races.

In 2022, a general lack of progressive mobilization and an influx of establishment dark money (from both parties) started to influence Democratic primaries by electing particular candidates, specifically those with ties to AIPAC.

And then in 2024, not only did AIPAC spend money to meddle in Democratic primaries against progressive candidates, but so did the cryptocurrency industry, Big Tech, the pharmaceutical industry, the fossil fuel industry, Corporate America, private equity, and venture capital. All of them and other outside groups spent more and more money to defeat Democrats, progressive or otherwise, who would not bend to their agenda.

It comes down to a few things. But here’s one reason people need to consider: progressive organizing needs to be expanded at the down ballot level.

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are making great points about this. It is not just about electing Democrats. It’s about electing the right Democrats willing to take the fight against DC special interests and the billionaire class (whether you call it oligarchy or kleptocracy or something else isn’t the point. The point is the system is rigged and Democrats need to show where they stand).

Unfortunately, history is not too kind to the Democratic Party of the last 30 years. The Democratic Party, led by Bill Clinton first and foremost, legitimized the notion of conservative economics and politics, which abandoned the traditional Democratic Party working class and middle class base. This began the winding path to the disillusionment of so many in Middle America, which ultimately led us to the appeal of Donald Trump and his illusory promises.

It is not every Democrat for sure, but a lot of names can be put in the mix who eroded the working class image Democrats had, and turned the party corporate and milquetoast, including:

Joe Manchin, a man who once affiliated himself with ALEC in West Virginia and sabotaged Build Back Better on the federal level; everything from child care access and clean energy programs, to expanding voting rights, while being personally invested in his coal business

Kyrsten Sinema, a woman who fought to protect the carried interest loophole on behalf of Big Banks, venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds, while also spending lavishly with campaign contributors, mainly corporate PACs, in her final years as Senator

Joe Lieberman, a type of Democrat best epitomized in approving the Iraq War which destroyed American lives abroad, while tearing apart communities at home by supporting corporate-handwritten trade deals i.e NAFTA, and endorsing school vouchers

Gina Raimondo, a Democrat from Rhode Island only by Gilded Age standards who gutted pension benefits for retirees and state workers alike, and putting them into hedge funds such as her own Point Judith Capital. While that didn’t inflict enough damage on middle class people, she then cut government programs serving the poor e.g Medicaid, public education, and those serving people with disabilities

Andrew Cuomo, a macho bully and harasser of women who refused to raise taxes on the very wealthy as Governor of New York, while cutting social programs at an astronomical rate, expanding charter schools, and enabling government corruption (all of which Raimondo did in Rhode Island)

Or even Rahm Emanuel, the man considered to be the architect of Clinton-era free trade agreements, who advocated for major welfare reform, and worked on the 1994 Crime Bill, not to mention being behind efforts to scale back Obama’s early stimulus package and healthcare reform agenda

These are the types of Democrats who would have been an abomination and pariah in the days of FDR, Harry S. Truman, JFK, and LBJ. But today, they are the leaders the Democratic establishment took the time to elevate instead of the Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warrens of the world, or even Sherrod Brown, Bob Casey, or Jon Tester.

Progressives need to build their bench of rising stars who might be in local offices, or in state legislatures (including my own Sam Bell and David Morales), in statewide offices, or even in Congress, who will challenge the corporate establishment status quo in the Democratic Party, and vote those who are accomplices to that status quo out of office. We don’t need more Bill Clinton or Manchin-Sinema Democrats. We need Real Democrats.

That is why it is important for people, myself included, to elevate those voices who are leading the way on the issues that matter to people and who aren’t afraid to buck conventional wisdom and challenge the establishment when they must. There is a reason why progressives took the time to elect new voices to the Senate from Jon Ossoff, Ruben Gallego, Ben Ray Lujan, Raphael Warnock, and Andy Kim, to Peter Welch, Lisa Blunt Rochester, and Angela Alsobrooks who are willing to challenge Big Money in politics, as well as elevate aggressive incumbent voices in Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Tammy Duckworth, and Brian Schatz.

There is a reason for taking the time to embrace progressive champions in Congress, including Marcy Kaptur, Greg Landsman, Summer Lee, Chris DeLuzio, Frank Mrvan, Kristen McDonald Rivet, Lauren Underwood, Mark Pocan, Nellie Pou, Pat Ryan, Sharice Davids, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Gabe Vasquez, Ro Khanna, Andrea Salinas, Pramila Jayapal, Jesus Chuy Garcia, Delia Ramirez, Robert Garcia, Mark Takano, Veronica Escobar, Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost, Jamie Raskin, Sarah McBride, Shontel Brown, Brendan Boyle, Jim McGovern, John Larson, and many more (especially in the Congressional Progressive Caucus) who are unafraid to say the current course is the wrong one.

It is why progressives have to keep an eye on statewide offices as we do here, including Lt. Governors as we know from the past, like the quick rise of John Fetterman and Mandela Barnes into national politics. The same applies to other very prominent and super extraordinary voices on a variety of progressive causes like Garlin Gilchrist, Peggy Flanagan, Juliana Stratton, Sara Rodriguez, Austin Davis, and Antonio Delgado.

This also applies to very prominent leaders I have discussed before who are Secretary of States and Attorneys General, or who serve in the state legislature (from Chloe Maxmin, Josh Turek, and JD Scholten, to James Talarico, Justin Bamberg, and Fentrice Driskell).

Progressives must look to these lesser known rising stars and to new voices generally, because if the activists and organizers are not investing in such down ballot races, the outside dark money special interests in Washington DC and all across the country on both sides of the aisle will. Not to mention investing early because the local officials and state lawmakers you elect today may be your next Governor, Congressman, Senator, or even President in the future.

Not only does the Democratic Party need to fight Trump and Trumpism. It needs to fight the establishment that created Donald Trump, which means electing more working class, anti-establishment, progressive candidates and officeholders.

Via Christmasspecialswiki. Today reincarnated in the form of Donald Trump, or as Lawrence O’Donnell best summarized him, “Donny Two Dolls”

So be sure to stay tough on candidates running for office starting now. Ask them who is funding their campaigns. Ask them what specific positions they stand for. And ask them if and how they are willing to fight the Trump agenda.