The unspeakable human depravity Hamas unleashed on 10/7 has been accentuated by grotesque episodes of antisemitic violence and vandalism — a development made all the worse by the fact that it was prompted by the murder of Jews and the evidence of their vulnerability. The sickening display on America’s campuses, in particular, from students and faculty alike, has prompted many well-heeled donors to close their wallets to institutions of higher learning; some of them are advising these schools’ graduates to find employment elsewhere. But where will the Democratic donor class’s largesse go now? Well, it might be of use to the intrepid Democratic candidates seeking to oust the handful of progressive members of Congress who have debased themselves in their effort to popularize the notion that Israel’s slaughtered civilians had it coming.
On Wednesday, the Washington Post highlighted the growing number of primary challenges members of the so-called Squad are facing. Some of these challenges were a direct response to the efforts by Congress’s most progressive voices to advocate on Hamas’s behalf.
St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell abandoned a campaign to challenge Senator Josh Hawley next November, choosing instead to seek to unseat Representative Cori Bush. Bush has a long history of assigning the blame for the murder of Israelis to the State of Israel, and she spent the morning of the massacre crafting yet another screed accusing Israel of responsibility for the slaughter of over 1,400 of its innocents. “Our world is in a dangerous place, and we need steady and effective leadership,” Bell said. “And we’re not getting it.”
Representative Ilhan Omar, who narrowly avoided a primary defeat in her Minnesota district in the summer of 2022, has drawn two challengers, both of whom have condemned the congresswoman’s accommodationist approach to terrorism. “This isn’t the first, or last time, Ilhan will parrot Iran’s talking points,” said Air Force veteran Tim Peterson. Omar’s “divisive rhetoric” serves only to “inflame the situation,” read a statement produced by Minneapolis defense attorney Sarah Gad. A crowded field helps Omar’s chances, but a clear expression of support for one alternative to Omar from the party’s donors can hasten the winnowing process and present voters in the fifth district with a clear choice.
The limited record Representative Summer Lee (Pa.) has generated for herself since taking office in January convinced local councilwoman Bhavini Patel to get into the race before the 10/7 attack. But Patel has not been shy in highlighting Lee’s anti-Israel comments since the massacre and using them to underscore how out of step Lee is with her district, which is home to the site of the slaughter of American Jews at the Tree of Life Synagogue. “We’re responding to something that is evil — the murder, rape, kidnapping of children, men, women and grandparents,” Patel explained. “There shouldn’t be any equivocation on this.”
When he’s not violating the law in the effort to sow false panic in Congress, Representative Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.) can be found attacking Israel’s position on several fronts — including his apparent opposition to normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Westchester County executive George Latimer may have had just about enough of it. The noises Latimer is making about a potential challenge to Bowman convinced a lesser-known candidate already in the race, Reverend Michael Gerald, to put his ambitions on hold. After all, 10/7 “changed a lot for a lot of people,” Gerald told the Post.
The Democratic Majority for Israel purchased a six-figure ad buy for a spot airing in Detroit that savages Rashida Tlaib over her consistent efforts to concoct elaborate moral equivalences between Israel and Hamas and her promotion of Hamas propaganda well beyond the point at which it could have been an honest mistake. Tlaib easily overcame a primary challenge last year, and she has yet to draw a high-profile challenger in this contest. But the Democratic Majority’s salvo across the congresswoman’s bow communicates clearly that her next challenger will not languish in the fundraising department.
Only the Squad’s progenitor and foremost member, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), seems immune to this pressure. Elected in 2018, AOC drew two primary challengers in her first reelection bid, both of whom she defeated handily. She ran for her party’s nomination in 2022 unopposed after posting prodigious fundraising numbers. There are few indications she’ll face a revolt in 2024, but if money is the obstacle, the circumstances in which her progressive allies find themselves suggest that this is a surmountable hurdle. And since AOC herself owes her position to a surprise 4,000-vote victory in a primary in which only 30,000 New Yorkers participated, she would be unwise to rest on her laurels.
The test the Squad’s challengers are presenting to their respective Democratic constituents is a momentous one. Their efforts will determine quite a lot about the composition of the party in Congress, and it will establish whether there are consequences associated with shilling for terrorists. If the Democratic donor class is at all torn over where to park their political contributions this year, it’s hard to think of a worthier cause.