Primary Updates

Kat Abughazaleh was knocked down by ICE yesterday at a protest at the Broadview Detention Center near Chicago. The top video is pretty brutal. That’s the second time she’s been knocked down during a protest. She reports that when they told ICE thugs that they were exercising their First Amendment rights, they shot up the sidewalk with pepper balls and said “Your First Amendment rights are on the sidewalk.”

Diana DeGette, D-CO-1 has another primary challenger, Wanda James. James and her husband are the owners of what’s claimed to be the first black-owned cannabis dispensary in the country. James managed Jared Polis’ first successful campaign for Representative in 2008. She’s endorsed by former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb. As a member of the CU Board of Regents, she was censured for pointing out that ads about the dangers of cannabis featured dark-skinned men. The CU Board of Regents is an elected body and uses the same boundaries as Colorado Congressional Districts, so James has already won an election in CO-1. James was also a bundler for the Obama campaign. The net of all of this is that DeGette has a primary challenger who can raise money and has won elections. DeGette is 69 and James is 61 so age isn’t a huge factor here.

Age is a factor in two other primary challenges. In CA-07, Sacramento City Councilwoman Mai Vang, 40, is challenging 80 year-old incumbent Doris Matsui. And over in CT-01, 77 year-old John Larson, who’s been filmed twice this year freezing while speaking, is facing a number of challengers, including a former Mayor of Hartford and a State Representative.

Finally, Zohran Mamdani finally picked up the endorsement of NY Governor Kathy Hochul. Schumer and Jeffries are still beclowning themselves by hemming and hawing over an endorsement, as if that does anything at all for them. Hochul’s endorsement caused NY Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs to leave the coffin where he spends his days to simultaneously decline to endorse and also to put his head on the chopping block:

A reader sent in Jacobs’ statement:

Jacobs is from Long Island, which is tough territory for New York Democrats, but if he can’t support the party’s nominee, he should resign. He won’t, I’m sure, and I doubt that Hochul will ask him.