Justice Democrats
Justice Democrats is an American progressive political action committee and caucus[4][5][1] founded on January 23, 2017, by two leaders of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political commentators Kyle Kulinski and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks.[6] The organization formed as a result of the 2016 United States presidential election[7][8] and aspires "to elect a new type of Democratic majority in Congress" that will "create a thriving economy and democracy that works for the people, not big money interests".[6] The group advocates for campaign finance reform (reducing the role of money in politics) and endorses only candidates who pledge to refuse donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists.
 | |
| Abbreviation | JD |
|---|---|
| Formation | January 23, 2017 |
| Founders | Saikat Chakrabarti Zack Exley Kyle Kulinski Cenk Uygur |
| Type | Political action committee, caucus[1] |
| Registration no. | C00630665 |
| Headquarters | Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
Key people | Saikat Chakrabarti Zack Exley Tara Reilly[2] Alexandra Rojas, Executive Director |
| Affiliations | Brand New Congress National Nurses United Former affiliation: The Young Turks |
Revenue (2017) | $1.46 million |
| Disbursements | $1.32 million[3] |
| Website | JusticeDemocrats.com |
Justice Democrats | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2017 |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Center-left |
| Members in the House of Representatives | 11 / 435 [Note 1]
|
Kulinski and Uygur are no longer part of the group with Kulinski having since become a critic of it. Alexandra Rojas became the organization's executive director in May 2018.[9]
During the 2018 elections, Justice Democrats ran 79 progressive candidates against Democrats, Republicans and Independents in local, state, and federal elections.[10] The seven Justice Democrats candidates who won their electoral congressional races in 2018 were Raúl Grijalva, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.
The group endorsed considerably fewer candidates in 2020 than in 2018, a move its communications director defended as a strategy to focus its resources on the most promising candidates.[11][12] Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, and Marie Newman were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.
In 2022 the group's success continued to decline. Greg Casar and Summer Lee were elected to the House, while Newman lost her reelection in the Democratic primary after facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.[13]
History
After the 2016 presidential election resulted in a victory for Donald Trump, many progressives pointed to the perceived loyalty of politicians to large donors as a major contributing factor to Hillary Clinton's loss to Trump. These critics contend that a campaign finance model similar to that of Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 presidential campaign was funded by small individual donations, will increase public trust in politicians through increased accountability to their constituents.
On January 23, 2017, Cenk Uygur and Kyle Kulinski founded Justice Democrats with ten others, including former staffers from the Sanders campaign such as its Director of Organizing Technology, Saikat Chakrabarti, and MoveOn.org fundraiser Zack Exley.[14][15][16] According to the organization, it seeks to create a left-wing populist movement to support alternative Democratic candidates beginning with the 2018 midterm elections, in order to either defeat the incumbent Democrats or make them more accountable to their constituents. It requires its candidates to take a pledge to refuse financial contributions from billionaires and corporations.[7] In addition, it hoped to rebuild the Democratic Party on a national level and defeat Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The Democrats used to represent something wonderful – voters. We want you to represent just us, not your donors... [and stand for] justice for the people
On March 20, 2017, Justice Democrats reported that they had received 8,300 nominations and raised $1 million (~$1.1 million in 2021).[18] Also in March 2017, it teamed up with Brand New Congress, a PAC established by former Sanders campaign supporters, to further their goals.[16] By November 1, 2017, they had merged with fellow progressive group AllOfUs.[19][20]
On May 9, 2017, Representative Ro Khanna of California's 17th congressional district announced that he had become a Justice Democrat, the first sitting member of Congress to join the organization.[21][6] Over the following year, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona's 3rd congressional district and Pramila Jayapal of Washington's 7th congressional district also joined, bringing the number of sitting representatives in Justice Democrats to three.[22] Khanna and Jayapal were first elected to the House in 2016 while Grijalva has been an incumbent since 2002.
During the 2018 elections, Justice Democrats ran 79 progressive candidates against Democrats, Republicans and Independents in local, state, and federal elections.[10] 26 of them advanced past the primary stage. All Justice Democrat candidates running for office were endorsed by The Young Turks, who provided them with a media platform on their interview show Rebel HQ.[23] The seven Justice Democrats candidates who won their electoral congressional races in 2018 were Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the three sitting members. All seven won districts already held by Democrats.
In 2020, Justice Democrat Marie Newman defeated incumbent Representative Dan Lipinski in the 2020 primary for Illinois's 3rd congressional district.[24] Jamaal Bowman defeated incumbent Representative Eliot Engel in New York's 16th congressional district's primary. Bowman was also endorsed by Justice Democrats. Another Justice Democrat-endorsed candidate won in Missouri's 1st congressional district, when Cori Bush defeated Representative Lacy Clay.
Summer for Progress
In July 2017, several progressive organizations, including Our Revolution, Democratic Socialists of America, National Nurses United, Working Families Party, and Brand New Congress, announced a push to encourage House Democrats to sign on to a #PeoplesPlatform, which meant supporting "eight bills currently in the House of Representatives that will address the concerns of everyday Americans".[25] These eight bills and the topics they address are:
- Medicare for All: H.R. 676, the Medicare For All Act[26]
- Free College Tuition: H.R. 1880, the College for All Act of 2017[27]
- Worker Rights: H.R. 15, the Raise the Wage Act[28]
- Women's Rights: H.R. 771, the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017[29]
- Voting Rights: H.R. 2840, the Automatic Voter Registration Act[30]
- Environmental Justice: H.R. 4114, the Environmental Justice Act of 2017[31]
- Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3227, the Justice Is Not for Sale Act of 2017[32]
- Taxing Wall Street: H.R. 1144, the Inclusive Prosperity Act[33]
Uygur's resignation
On December 22, 2017, it was announced that Uygur had resigned from the organization, after the revelation of previously deleted but archived controversial blog posts he had written.[34] The next day, Kulinski announced that he had stepped down from the organization as he disagreed with staff members who pressed for Uygur's dismissal. He said his decision came as a result of a personal dilemma as he saw the posts in question upon rereading them as satirical. Kulinski noted that the decision to ask for Uygur's resignation came from Justice Democrat staff, not the candidates, and asked his supporters to continue backing the organization's candidates.[35]
In mid-November 2019, Uygur filed to run for Congress in California's 25th district, a seat recently vacated by the resignation of Katie Hill.[36][37][38] Uygur stated he would not run as a member of the Justice Democrats.
Ideology and political issues
A central priority of Justice Democrats is to effectively eliminate the role of money and conflicts of interests in politics. As such, any candidate running with Justice Democrats must pledge to refuse donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists.[39] Declining money from corporate PACs and supporting Medicare for All have both been described as litmus tests for the organization.[40] Justice Democrats supports publicly funded elections, banning Super PACs, and banning private donations to politicians and campaigns. It also advocates for the reinstatement of provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and a ban on gerrymandering for partisan gain. Several members have voiced support for a constitutional amendment to remove money from American politics.[41]
To accompany its launch, Kulinski and Uygur published the following set of progressive founding principles for the coalition.[42] Adjustments have been made since 2017, resulting in a slightly different platform appearing on the Justice Democrats webpage at a given time.[43]
- Creating a new infrastructure program called the "Green New Deal"[44]
- Ending arms sales to countries that it says violate human rights such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt
- Enacting a federal job guarantee, which would promise all Americans a job paying $15 per hour plus benefits
- Ending the death penalty
- Ending the practice of unilaterally waging war, except as a last resort to defend U.S. territory
- Ending the War on Drugs in favor of legalization, regulation, and taxation of drugs, and pardoning all non-violent drug offenders and treating all drug addicts
- Ensuring free speech on college campuses and supporting net neutrality
- Ensuring universal education as a right, including free four-year public college and university education
- Ensuring universal healthcare as a right
- Establishing paid maternity leave, paid vacation leave, and free childcare
- Expanding anti-discrimination laws to apply to LGBT people
- Expanding background checks on firearms and banning high capacity magazines and assault weapons
- Funding Planned Parenthood and other contraceptive and abortion services, and recognizing reproductive rights
- Implementing electoral reform and publicly financed elections nationwide to make irrelevant and obsolete fundraising from large corporations and the wealthy
- Implementing instant-runoff voting nationwide in an effort to make third-party and independent candidates more viable
- Implementing the Buffett Rule, ending offshore financial centers, "chain[ing]" the capital gains and income taxes, and increasing the estate tax
- Making the minimum wage a living wage and tying it to inflation
- Pardoning Edward Snowden, prosecuting CIA torturers and DoD war criminals, shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and all other extrajudicial prisons, and ending warrantless spying and bulk data collection by the National Security Agency
- Passing the Paycheck Fairness Act
- Abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE)
- Reforming police by mandating body cameras, establishing community oversight boards, eliminating broken windows policing, ending stop and frisk, and appointing special prosecutors to hold police accountable in courts
- Renegotiating CAFTA-DR and NAFTA, and opposing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China and the World Trade Organization
- Stopping any reductions to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and establishing single-payer universal healthcare
- Stopping anthropogenic climate change through an ecological revolution and upholding the United States' participation in the Paris Climate Agreement
- Uncompromisingly rejecting President Trump's immigration proposals and policies, particularly Executive Order 13769 and deportation of illegal immigrants, and implementing comprehensive immigration reform which will include giving non-criminal illegal immigrants a path to citizenship
Members
All Congressional Justice Democrats members are House of Representatives members from the Democratic Party. As of the 118th Congress, there are 11 declared Justice Democrats, all of whom are House members.[45]
Current (11)
| Name | State | District | Tenure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raúl Grijalva |  Arizona |
AZ–7, AZ–3 | since 2003[n 1] |
| Ro Khanna |  California |
CA–17 | since 2017 |
| Pramila Jayapal |  Washington |
WA–7 | since 2017 |
| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez |  New York |
NY-14 | since 2019 |
| Ilhan Omar |  Minnesota |
MN–5 | since 2019 |
| Ayanna Pressley |  Massachusetts |
MA–7 | since 2019 |
| Rashida Tlaib |  Michigan |
MI-13 | since 2019 |
| Jamaal Bowman | New York |
NY-16 | since 2021 |
| Cori Bush |  Missouri |
MO-1 | since 2021 |
| Greg Casar |  Texas |
TX–35 | since 2023 |
| Summer Lee |  Pennsylvania |
PA–12 | since 2023 |
Announcements
- On May 9, 2017, Ro Khanna of California's 17th congressional district announced that he was a member of Justice Democrats and supported the organization's agenda.[6][21]
- On December 6, 2017, Justice Democrats announced that Raúl Grijalva of Arizona's 3rd congressional district had joined the group.[46]
- On April 16, 2018, Justice Democrats announced that Pramila Jayapal of Washington's 7th congressional district had joined the group.[47]
- On January 3, 2019, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York's 14th congressional district,[6] Ilhan Omar of Minnesota's 5th congressional district, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts's 7th congressional district and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan's 13th congressional district[10] were sworn in as members of the House of Representatives and as Justice Democrats. They have been dubbed "The Squad".
- On January 3, 2021, Jamaal Bowman of New York's 16th congressional district, Cori Bush of Missouri's 1st congressional district, and Marie Newman of Illinois's 3rd congressional district were sworn in.
Political activity
2018
Justice Democrats officially endorsed 79 candidates in the 2018 election cycle, seven of whom won general elections (three were incumbents).[48] The four first-time officeholders in the U.S. House make up "The Squad".
Governor
| Candidate | State | Office | Primary date | Primary result | % | General result | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Jealous |  Maryland |
Governor of Maryland | June 26, 2018 | Won | 39.8% | Lost | 43.5% |
| Abdul El-Sayed | Michigan |
Governor of Michigan | August 7, 2018 | Lost | 30.2% | Did not qualify | N/A |
| Cynthia Nixon | New York |
Governor of New York | September 13, 2018 | Lost | 34.4% | Withdrew[n 2] | N/A |
| Matt Brown |  Rhode Island |
Governor of Rhode Island | September 12, 2018 | Lost | 34.3% | Did not qualify | N/A |
| Christine Hallquist |  Vermont |
Governor of Vermont | August 14, 2018 | Won | 48.4% | Lost | 40.4% |
Lieutenant governor
| Candidate | State | Office | Primary date | Primary result | % | General result | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Regunberg | Rhode Island |
Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island | September 12, 2018 | Lost | 49.2% | Did not qualify | N/A |
U.S. Senate
| Candidate | State | Office | Primary date | Primary result | % | General result | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deedra Abboud | Arizona |
U.S. Senator from Arizona | August 28, 2018 | Lost | 19.5% | Did not qualify | N/A |
| Alison Hartson | California |
U.S. Senator from California | June 5, 2018 | Lost | 2.1% | Did not qualify | N/A |
| Kerri Evelyn Harris |  Delaware |
U.S. Senator from Delaware | September 6, 2018 | Lost | 35.4% | Did not qualify | N/A |
| Paula Jean Swearengin |  West Virginia |
U.S. Senator from West Virginia | May 8, 2018 | Lost | 30.3% | Did not qualify | N/A |
U.S. House
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2020
Justice Democrats endorsed 17 candidates in the Democratic primaries for president, Senate and House. Twelve House candidates made it to the general election (7 incumbents, 5 newcomers). All the incumbents and three newcomers won.
U.S. President
| Candidate | Office | Primaries | Primary result | % | General result | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bernie Sanders | President of the United States | 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries | Withdrew | 27% | Did not qualify | N/A |
U.S. Senate
| Candidate | State | Office | Primary date | Primary result | % | General result | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betsy Sweet |  Maine |
U.S. Senator from Maine | July 14, 2020 | Lost | 23.2% | Did not qualify | N/A |
U.S. House
U.S. House
| Candidate | State | Office | Primary date | Primary result | % | General result | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nina Turner |  Ohio |
Ohio's 11th congressional district | August 3, 2021[n 12] | Lost | 44.5% | Did not qualify | N/A |
2022
Justice Democrats endorsed 10 incumbents and 6 newcomers. All but one incumbent won, as did two newcomers.
U.S. House
Notes
- Grijalva joined the Justice Democrats in December 2017.
- Despite losing the primary, Nixon had a slot in the general election as the nominee of the Working Families Party. On October 3, the Working Families Party offered their party's ballot line to the incumbent governor (and winner of the Democratic primary), Andrew Cuomo, and he accepted on October 5.
- Ran unopposed
- Special election to replace Trent Franks, who resigned on December 8, 2017
- Running for the Arizona Senate in the 22nd district
- California and Washington use a nonpartisan blanket primary system, where all candidates run on one primary ballot, regardless of party affiliation, and the top two finishers advance to the general election.
- Due to a logistical error in his campaign filing, Morgan was unable to appear on the primary ballot. As he was the only Democrat to file to run in this district, he was able to win the primary with write-in votes.
- Special election to replace John Conyers, who resigned on December 5, 2017
- Special election to replace Pat Tiberi, who resigned on January 15, 2018
- Texas uses a two-round primary system. If a candidate receives above 50% of the vote in the first round, they become the party's nominee; otherwise, the top two finishers advance to a second round.
- In Utah, a state convention was held on April 21; of the 381 delegates present from the 4th district, McDonald won 25% of the votes and Salt Lake County mayor Ben McAdams won 72%. Since McAdams cleared the 60% threshold, he became the party's nominee, with no primary election taking place on June 26.[49][50]
- Special election to replace Marcia Fudge, who resigned on March 10, 2021
- Grijalva ran in the new 7th district, which was renumbered from the 3rd district in redistricting.
- Newman ran in the new 6th district after moving from the 4th district and previously representing the 3rd district prior to redistricting.
- Talib is running in the new 12th district after moving from the 13th district due to redistricting.
- Lee ran in the new 12th district, which was renumbered from the 18th district in redistricting.
- Kelly ran in the new 7th district after moving from the 5th district due to redistricting.
- Serving as members of the Democratic Party.
See also
References
- "Justice Democrats - Let's Elect the Next Generation". Justice Democrats.
- "FILING FEC-1195264". Justice Democrats. Federal Election Commission. December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
- "FEC, Form 3X, Justice Democrats", p. 2, accessed January 17, 2019
- "Justice Democrats - committee overview". Campaign Finance Data. Federal Election Commission.
- "Justice Democrats: Frequently Asked Questions". Justice Democrats. Archived from the original on September 26, 2017. Retrieved September 26, 2017.
- Grigoryan & Suetzl 2019, p. 190.
- "Platform". Justice Democrats. Archived from the original on January 28, 2017. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- McKay, Tom (January 23, 2017). "Cenk Uygur, Bernie Sanders staffers team up to take over the Democratic Party". Mic. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
- Felsenthal, Julia (November 25, 2019). "Alexandra Rojas Is Taking on the Democratic Establishment, One Race at a Time". Vogue. Retrieved October 17, 2020.
- Grigoryan & Suetzl 2019, p. 191.
- Lipsitz, Raina (August 13, 2019). "Meet the Bronx middle school principal challenging a 16-term congressional incumbent". Gothamist. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
- Darby, Luke (August 30, 2019). "Why the progressive group behind AOC thinks Democrats have it backwards". GQ. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
- Sweet, Lynn (February 11, 2022). "Rep. Marie Newman keeps on political payroll man who is key witness in House ethics panel probe". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
- Weigel, David (January 23, 2017). "Progressives launch 'Justice Democrats' to counter party's 'corporate' legislators". The Washington Post.
- Hough, Scott (January 23, 2017). "Justice Democrats: Cenk Uygur, The Young Turks, Progressives Launch Party Takeover". Inquisitr.
- McKay, Tom (January 23, 2017). "Cenk Uygur, Bernie Sanders staffers team up to take over the Democratic Party". Mic.com. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- Haines, Tim (January 24, 2017). "Cenk Uygur Launches A "New Wing" Of Democratic Party: Justice Democrats". The Young Turks. RealClearPolitics.com. Retrieved March 25, 2017.
- Seitz-Wald, Alex (March 20, 2017). "Democrats Beware: Sanders 'Movement' Turns to Midterms". NBCNews.
- "Justice Democrats candidates". Twitter. November 1, 2017.
- "Justice Democrats Merge With AllOfUs.org". YouTube. November 1, 2017. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
- Wire, Sarah (May 12, 2017). "California politics updates: Gov. Brown's adds cash to budget; McClintock calls for independent prosecutor for Russia investigation". Los Angeles Times.
Khanna's decision to join Justice Democrats, along with his pledge not to take PAC or lobbyist money, are unexpected establishment-flouting moves for a man who just started his political career and hopes for a long term role in the party.
- Whitehouse, Russell (October 6, 2018). "Book Review: 'The Next Republic'". International Policy Digest. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
- Grigoryan, Nune; Suetzl, Wolfgang (2019). "Hybridized political participation". In Atkinson, Joshua D.; Kenix, Linda (eds.). Alternative Media Meets Mainstream Politics: Activist Nation Rising. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 190–191. ISBN 9781498584357.
- Blitzer, Ronn (March 18, 2020). "AOC's pick in Democratic Primary for House seat beats incumbent". Fox News. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
- "Summer for Progress Petition". Retrieved July 23, 2017.
- 115th Congress (2017) (January 24, 2017). "H.R. 676 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act
- 115th Congress (2017) (April 4, 2017). "H.R. 1880 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
College for All Act of 2017
- 115th Congress (2017) (May 25, 2017). "H.R. 15 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
Raise the Wage Act
- 115th Congress (2017) (January 31, 2017). "H.R. 771 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH Woman) Act of 2017
- 115th Congress (2017) (June 8, 2017). "H.R. 2840 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
Automatic Voter Registration Act
- "H.R.4114 - Environmental Justice Act of 2017". Congress.gov. October 27, 2017. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
- 115th Congress (2017) (July 13, 2017). "H.R. 3227 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
To improve Federal sentencing and corrections practices, and for other purposes.
- 115th Congress (2017) (February 16, 2017). "H.R. 1144 (115th)". Legislation. GovTrack.us. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
Inclusive Prosperity Act of 2017
- "Justice Democrats". Facebook. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- Secular Talk (December 23, 2017). "Statement On Cenk Uygur & Justice Democrats". YouTube. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
- "Cenk Uygur Files to Run For Congress in Katie Hill's District". Mediaite. November 13, 2019. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
- Malaea, Marika (November 13, 2019). "Cenk Uygur of 'The Young Turks' files to run for Congresswoman Katie Hill's seat one day after endorsing Sanders". Newsweek. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
- Wulfsohn, Joseph (November 13, 2019). "Liberal host Cenk Uygur files for congressional run in Katie Hill's former district". Fox News. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
- Godfrey, Elaine (August 23, 2018). "Why so many Democratic candidates are dissing corporate PACs". The Atlantic. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- Harding, Douglas (February 25, 2017). "Justice Democrats becoming the (actual) party of the people". Charleston Gazette-Mail. Retrieved February 28, 2019.
- Eggerton, John (January 23, 2017). "Ex-Sanders Officials Launch Justice Democrats". Multi-channel news. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- Uygur, Cenk (January 24, 2017). "Justice Democrats Platform". Medium. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- "Platform for Justice". Justice Democrats. 2018. Archived from the original on March 11, 2019. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
- Stuart, Tessa (November 21, 2018). "Can Justice Democrats Pull Off a Progressive Coup in Congress?". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 19, 2019.
- "Candidates". Justice Democrats.
- Justice, Democrats (December 6, 2017). "BIG NEWS: Progressive populist @RepRaulGrijalva is joining the Justice Democrats! Grijalva has a career fighting for working families, immigrant rights, and taking on the billionaires who want to divide us. Unity!". Twitter. Retrieved December 6, 2017.
- Justice, Democrats (April 16, 2018). "We are excited to announce today, one of Congress' most fearless progressive has joined our Justice Democrats family. Please welcome @RepJayapal – a champion for women of color, immigration rights, and racial and economic justice". Twitter. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
- "Candidates". JusticeDemocrats.com. Retrieved August 22, 2018.
- Taylor, Anderson; Tanner, Courtney (April 28, 2018). "Utah Democratic front-runners Ben McAdams and Jenny Wilson defeat challengers to avoid primary elections". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
- Roche, Lisa Riley (April 28, 2018). "McAdams, Wilson, easily win nominations at Democratic state convention". KSL.com. Retrieved October 14, 2018.
- Krieg, Gregory (June 1, 2021). "Anti-gun-violence activist Kina Collins announces primary challenge to Illinois Democrat Danny Davis". CNN.
- Glueck, Katie (April 14, 2021). "New Target for New York's Ascendant Left: Rep. Carolyn Maloney". New York Times.
- Krieg, Gregory (October 19, 2021). "Progressive champion Summer Lee enters Pennsylvania primary to replace retiring Rep. Mike Doyle". CNN.
- Elliott, Stephen (April 5, 2021). "Odessa Kelly Takes Aim at Cooper 'Dynasty' in Congressional Primary Bid". Nashville Scene. Retrieved April 5, 2021.
- Svitek, Patrick (August 5, 2021). "Jessica Cisneros will again challenge U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar in Democratic primary for congressional seat". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved August 5, 2021.