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With the defeat of former Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards, the Democratic Party appears to have lost control of its own nominating process.

By Austin Ahlman, The Intercept

As recently as May, the return of popular former Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards seemed all but inevitable. Edwards, whose original tenure began after she trounced an eight-term incumbent in 2008, had the support of figures and organizations across the Democratic Party. Early polling gave her a comfortable lead over her opponent, corporate attorney and former State’s Attorney for Prince George’s County Glenn Ivey.

The homepage of the official website for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee - a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies, on 22nd February 2018.

On Tuesday, Ivey came out with 51 percent of the vote to Edwards’s 35, an insurmountable margin despite the thousands of mail ballots that remain to be counted. In an interview with the Washington Post Tuesday night, Ivey thanked two key coalitions: his grassroots campaign supporters and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, along with its affiliated political action committee, the United Democracy Project.

While progressive activists and candidates have long sounded the alarm on AIPAC’s aggressive push to become the biggest player in party primaries, Democratic leadership has typically taken the side of the Israel lobby. When progressive insurgents-turned-sitting members of Congress like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Cori Bush have spoken out against the Israeli military’s brutal abuses of Palestinian people, leadership has proven hesitant to defend them from AIPAC’s resulting attacks.

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Democratic Party Political Reform