The next AOCs: The main candidates will attack the Democrats of the House for Trump

There are more and more left-wing candidates who are targeting prominent members of the House, leading personalities, who usually occupy safe seats, trying to convince them of the money they are showing for themselves. show aggressive (or not, as the case may be) in pursuit of the president. Donald Trump.

These candidates, most of whom are under 40, challenge the Democratic representatives. Steny Hoyer (MD), Eliot Engel (NY), Jerry Nadler (NY) and Richard Neal (MA), asking them to clarify whether they would or not. enough of their seats as chairs of committees or leaders to hold the chair accountable. The challengers ask if these representatives have been in Congress for so long that they are not as attentive to their communities as they used to be.

The candidates are modeled, at least ambitious, on the defeat of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez against Joe Crowley.

Challenges for incumbents are notoriously difficult to win, whether at the primary or general elections. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 91% of incumbents in the House of Representatives were re-elected in 2018. In 2016, they were 97%.

But it worked for AOC. So, why does not it work for Lindsey Boylan?

Boylan, a 35-year-old former economic development executive and New York Governor's advisor, Andrew Cuomo, challenges Nadler, chair of the House Judiciary Committee. She says she was inspired by the women who ran and won in 2018 to make her own race for Congress.

"Women enter the match and say," I'm not going to wait for my turn because it will never be my turn, "she said," I do not just want change for my daughter and myself. I want it for my mother because she deserves better. "

Kevin Hagen / Courtesy Lindsey Boylan Campaign

Boylan found some traction. To date, it has raised more than $ 250,000, including many donors who have donated the maximum amount of $ 2,800 to its principal and, if successful, to general election campaigns. It makes sense: she is polite and well connected in New York politics. She is a progressive and speaks of the importance of fighting income inequality and climate change. However, she is not of the AOC type of the Bronx waitress; she spent $ 80,000 of her personal money on her campaign and lives in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea.

The day I met Boylan in a downtown Manhattan cafe, she had just attended an event with voters in Brooklyn. A BuzzFeed reporter was watching for the day and was scheduled to appear on NY1 in the evening.

"No one has the right to stay in their place," Boylan said.

She is one of four candidates to challenge Nadler, who was elected to Congress in 1992 and represents the 10th district of New York.

"He is in one of the most liberal districts in the country with a very educated primary base of Democrats who are really investing in fucking with Trump," said Sean McElwee, activist and co-founder of the progressive group Data for Progress. "He's the guy who's supposed to be Trump's fucker, and he does not fuck Trump enough."

Some Congressional leaders seem less inclined to take Trump to task

After the "blue wave" of the 2018 elections, the Democratic parties were passionate about the president: the subpoenas were about to happen, White House officials would be parade before the hearings, the procedure of implementation accusation would be launched at any time, the tax returns would finally be released.

Except that's not quite what happened. The White House has blocked many of the Democrats' efforts to gather information, documents and testimonies. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) does not rush to impeachment hearings. Investigations are ongoing in some committees, including the House Oversight Committee, overseen by Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), but many progressives believe that Congress is not doing enough and is moving as well cautiously on Trump.

"I simply do not understand the lack of urgency of our leaders in Washington, or at the state or city level," said Jamaal Bowman, 43, founder and director of a Bronx college that is launching a challenge to Engel.

Neal, who heads the Ways and Means Committee, eventually filed a lawsuit to get the president's federal tax returns in June, but he still has not asked for taxes from the president in New York after the state adopted a law allowing it to access it. His office argued that he was simply ensuring that he had the best possible trial in court, but critics claimed that he seemed to slow his efforts until in 2020. ( A congressional assistant recently stated that Neal's enthusiasm regarding Trump's taxes was "probably lower than what a patient would propose to have his molars pulled without anesthesia.")

"He's the only person in Washington who has the power to get Trump's tax returns from New York, and he's the only person to stand in the way," said his rival, Alex Morse, currently serving his fourth term as mayor of Holyoke in Western Massachusetts; He became the first openly gay mayor of the city in 2011.

Judges Morse and Bowman both have the support of Justice Democrats, the group that allowed Ocasio-Cortez to win in 2016. "We are trying to show a different style of leadership from the Democratic Party, where you have more than working class people, more outsiders and people willing to bring more transparency to Washington, "said Waleed Shahid, spokesman for the group.

About half of the Democrats in the House support an impeachment investigation against Trump, but the movement has been slow and President Pelosi has resisted. Mr. Hoyer, who is the majority whip in the House, described the impeachment talks as "distraction" and "not worthwhile". In an e-mail, he said that Congress would "follow the facts wherever they go", including, potentially, dismissal.

This type of conversation is what attracts a main challenger.

"We need someone who will move without waiting for what is politically correct," said McKayla Wilkes, a 29-year-old student from Maryland, one of two women vying against Hoyer.

Engel, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, voted in favor of dismissal at the end of July. Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, reportedly pushed Pelosi against the impeachment in private, but it was only in an interview with CNN in August that his committee is currently conducting a dismissal investigation.

It is unclear whether voters 'frustrations with the pace of Democrats in the House here will be enough to carry out the challengers' campaigns.

It is difficult to get Democratic voters in primary and relative unknowns to overcome name recognition. Some primary voters may be eager for change, but other voters prefer to be represented by powerful people in Congress. This group of progressive candidates is betting that there are more.

Of course, many other members of Congress other than Neal, Nadler, Hoyer and Engel are primarized. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House of Commons, Nita Lowey (D-NY), Chair of the Credit Committee, and Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Representatives, Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), others also have challengers.

Tom Williams / CQ roll call

It's not enough to act more aggressively after Trump.

Many challengers with whom I spoke spoke of more than calling the president to account; they also want the leaders of the Democratic parties to refocus on issues that they believe are important to Americans today. They proposed more affordable housing and higher wages in their districts. They talked about the real impact of climate change and the criminal justice system on their respective regions.

Their underlying message is that the legislators they dispute have been in Congress for a long time – decades in some cases – and their rivals feel disconnected.

Amanda Frankel, a 25-year-old technology professional running against Nadler, said the congressman was a "good progressive voice," but "when you've been in office for 27 years, you've been elected to Origin for different reasons and to solve problems. " different problems, "she said.

As a general rule, the list of questions that they ticked looked like the area of ​​the Democratic presidency of 2020: the Green New Deal, health insurance reform for all, insurance- disease.

Jonathan Herzog, 24, who worked for Andrew Yang's presidential campaign in Iowa and resigned to try his luck against Nadler in New York, has the same idea of ​​universal income as his former boss. He thinks that if Yang wins the White House, he will need congressional allies. And if Nadler got on the UBI train, Herzog would gladly let him down and bring him back instead. "If the Congressman were to deal urgently with the problems of the fourth industrial revolution and rely on the dividend of freedom as the first priority of his legislation, I would say," Sign me up, "he said. .

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Most were much more critical of the records of their representatives. In his campaign launch video, Bowman expressed his support for Engel's 1994 crime bill, the war in Iraq, and the No Child Left Behind Act. He pointed out that within 48 hours of launching his campaign, he had collected more small donations than Engel during the last election cycle.

Morse highlighted Neal's support for legislation that would ban the IRS from setting up an online tax return system, a bill backed by companies such as H & R Block and the maker of TurboTax Intuit. "There is a story that Congressman Neal has so much power and influence … he has used this power and influence to influence businesses and wealthy donors," he said. .

In other words, the Democratic Party has changed a lot since some of these people were elected for the first time and these challengers want these secure seats to represent the current state of the party.

Wilkes, who is black, is a mother of two and currently has a full-time job while completing her bachelor's degree and preparing a challenge for Hoyer. She said that she had always thought that she should graduate from university, then go to law school and then develop policies before running for office. But the 2018 race has changed that. It does not need to wait to be "the dictionary definition of a politician who is running for Congress".

"In 2018, after reviewing the election results and newly elected representatives across the country, I thought," That would be really good if I had a representation that looked like me, that sounded good. like me, who talks about things that are close to my heart, "says Briana Urbina, a 34-year-old community organizer, is also running against Hoyer who describes herself as "Afro-Latina" and part of the LGBTQ community.

Briana Urbina Campaign

These candidates seem to have caught the attention of legislators

Nadler's camp largely distances his four opponents and defends his record. "Congressman Nadler is widely recognized as a passionate and effective leader committed to delivering real results for his constituents and for the country," said Nadler's assistant Robert Gottheim, referring to his work on the draft law on 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Advocacy on Reproductive Rights, Opposition to the Iraq War and Support for Agreement with Iran as part of its "Long List of Progressive Achievements" ".

Hoyer's campaign also defended her work, and spokeswoman Annaliese Davis said her seniority, experience and connections in Maryland "make her particularly fit to serve her constituents." and he plans another one in September.

The representatives of Neal and Engel did not respond to requests for comment.

Even if the main competitors do not succeed in ousting the legislators they defend, they risk changing the policy of the long-standing representatives, getting them to pay a little more attention to their districts and make them a little more fast.

These races also offer newcomers a way to gain experience in a campaign and to make a name, possibly for another go further in the line. And that shows that the wave of post-Trump progressives coming to power continues, now with a post-AOC hike.

"The AOC is somehow the Columbus of the primaries, with less genocide," McElwee said.