The Manchin-Sinema Wing Of The Democratic Party Lost Big Last Night

By Ryan Grim, Bad News

A Republican super PAC on Tuesday fell short in its bid to intervene in a Democratic primary against Pennsylvania state Rep. Summer Lee, a 34-year-old Black woman and rising star in the party, who fended off the tsunami of outside money to best anti-union attorney Steve Irwin. The spending, from the GOP-backed super PAC linked to AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – left Irwin behind by less than 1,000 votes.

A super PAC funded by the pharmaceutical industry blew more than a million dollars in an effort to salvage the career of former Blue Dog Chair Kurt Schrader, the Oregon Democrat who cast the deciding vote against drug price reform in the Energy and Commerce Committee, and organized with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ., to derail President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda. His opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, lambasted him repeatedly as “the Joe Manchin of the House.” Because Oregon votes by mail, and some ballots were blurred and unreadable in areas favorable to Schrader, results may not be known until early next week, but despite a funding disparity of some 10-1, the incumbent is on the ropes.

Back in Pennsylvania, Conor Lamb, despite having won the endorsement of nearly every Democratic high-official and county organization in the state, was beaten handily by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, despite Fetterman suffering a stroke on Friday and spending election day undergoing surgery to have a pacemaker implanted. Lamb had the backing of the real Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., which his opponents used against him, to paint him as a Democrat who’d buck the party’s agenda in the Senate.