A Democratic establishment victory in a House race last year has emboldened big money to upend this primary cycle.
By David Dayen and Alexander Sammon, The American Prospect
A year ago, the elevation of Marcia Fudge to secretary of housing and urban development created a vacancy in Ohio’s deep-blue 11th Congressional District in Cleveland. Progressives saw it as another prime opportunity, similar to ones they took advantage of in a series of 2020 primaries. The idea was to take shots in favorable seats, challenging moderates and moving the center of gravity within the party. A revitalized progressive campaign infrastructure, candidates that fit the districts in which they ran, and a nationally energized donor network made this possible, and for a minute, the long-term outlook was pretty positive.
But the race in the 11th District saw the first successful counterattack to this strategy, from a group of outside donors who represented the old-guard establishment. Though Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) was active in campaigns prior to 2021, including supporting Joe Biden and the ultimately losing campaign of former House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Eliot Engel, OH-11 is where they made their stand, getting behind Shontel Brown in a race against former Bernie Sanders surrogate Nina Turner.

Like in the New York campaign pitting Engel against Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Democratic Majority for Israel’s ads in Ohio had little or nothing to do with Israel. The ads pulled messaging directly from an unmistakable banner on Brown’s campaign website, focusing on Turner’s divisiveness and some choice negative comments she made about Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign. DMFI spent around $2 million on TV and other advertisements in the race, and that was enough to help Brown secure a comeback victory. The PAC almost single-handedly took over the reins of a lifeless campaign and turned it into a winner.
Recent Posts
India Walton on the Racist Massacre In Buffalo, Need for Gun Control, Good Jobs, Housing
May 21, 2022
Take Action Now “…We really have to make sure that the support is long-lasting and that we have our eye toward the systemic…
The Answer To Greedy War Spending Should Not Be More Greed
May 21, 2022
Take Action Now Move the money from war spending and destruction to the needs of people and planet. By David Swanson,…
Israel Used U.S. Weapons To Destroy U.S. Aid Programs In Gaza
May 20, 2022
Take Action Now Documents show that in 2021, arms made and funded by the United States destroyed UNRWA schools, USAID projects, and a…
Nurses Are Standing Up To Profiteers, Demanding Universal Healthcare
May 20, 2022
Take Action Now The first-ever Senate hearing on Medicare for All examined how our profit-driven healthcare system endangers patients…