‘They’re attacking their own’: DC Democrats irked by surge of left-wing challengers with House majority on the line
By Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, CNN
(CNN) — When Rep. Dan Goldman first ran for Congress in 2022, he was cheered on the left as the party’s top lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
Three years on, the Manhattan Democrat is in the fight of his political life against New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a liberal challenger backed by prominent left-wing figures like Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders. In his campaign launch earlier this month, Lander declared: “We need leaders who will fight, not fold.”
“I’m running for Congress because we’re facing a five-alarm fire for our democracy” Lander declared in his mid-December launch video.
Goldman is among more than two dozen congressional Democrats battling serious primaries this year — a surge that party insiders attribute to a wave of emboldened liberals across the country who watched Mamdani’s unlikely rise and remain frustrated at their party’s struggles to fight back against Trump.
Democrats in Washington say primaries are simply part of life in a big-tent party. But privately, many see the surge in far-left challengers as an expensive headache that distracts from the party’s goal of seizing control of Congress next November. And it has infuriated some Democrats — including among the most vulnerable members — who fear the party will have to divert money away from the bigger fight against the GOP to protect incumbents in safe seats.
“I think we’ve got individuals who might be caught up in the moment, caught up in the internet,” said Rep. Greg Meeks, a fellow New York Democrat who has watched liberal challengers line up against many in his home state delegation. “To me, it is them missing the boat, though, because what they’re upset about and angry about is the President of the United States, and what we should be doing is uniting behind Grace [Meng] and Adriano [Espaillat] and [Ritchie] Torres.”
Rep. Juan Vargas of California was even more blunt: “The problem is, they’re attacking their own. It’s like, attack the other guys. … We will have spent this energy and money fighting amongst ourselves. And it’s really dumb.”
Top Democrats believe that most of their sitting members will ultimately prevail. But they acknowledge that the dozens of showdowns between incumbents and liberal insurgents across the country offers further proof of how younger, more progressive candidates are determined to pull the party leftward with a new generation at the helm — all amid a broader identity crisis over the direction of the Democratic Party.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a California Democrat who also faces a contested primary, recalled recently sending a memo to his colleagues predicting that the 2026 election would be about a single theme: “Did you fight or didn’t you fight?”
“If you’re doing the same old thing over and over again, you’re gonna lose. So it’s about standing up to Trump, delivering results, providing a positive agenda. But you can’t take anything for granted,” Gomez told CNN.
In the heated battle for Goldman’s lower Manhattan seat, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CNN that he is fully behind his fellow Democrat. And he signaled that he believed each of his members would fend off challengers this cycle.
“Primaries are a way of life in the House of Representatives. … Our members are going to fight hard, make their case to the voters and come back to office,” said Jeffries, who faced his own short-lived primary threat from a Democratic Socialist NYC council member this year. His No. 2 in the House, Rep. Katherine Clark, faces her own contested primary this year, against a former city councilor who’s complained that current House leaders are “not stopping Trump.”
Goldman, for his part, told CNN he is looking forward to “running on my progressive record.”
“I think that when people look at my record and they learn more about the work I’ve been doing here the last three years … people will realize they have someone who’s representing their interests,” Goldman said.
Asked about the pushback from Hill Democrats, a spokesman for Lander said he has made clear why he’s challenging a sitting Democrat in the second Trump era, pointing to the opening argument he made in his launch video calling for a more urgent fight for democracy.
The video included footage of him being arrested by ICE as he tried to escort a migrant out of immigration court in June. “The problems we face can’t be solved by strongly worded letters and high-dollar fundraisers.”
Another Democrat facing a contested race, Rep. Ritchie Torres of New York, told CNN he doesn’t believe Mandami’s support doesn’t necessarily translates to other candidates down the ballot.
“Mamdani is exceptional. Not every candidate who claims to be in his mold is the real deal,” Torres said, adding of his own primary challengers: “I have five of them. The more the merrier.”
Democrats’ primary battle won’t siphon away official party resources: The Democratic campaign arms of the House and Senate typically don’t spend on primary challenges. But party leaders often use personal travel time to campaign for incumbents.
The real hit, according to members, is that those with primaries can’t give money to party groups or use their own time and money to help in vulnerable districts.
Rep. Suzan DelBene, who leads House Democrats’ campaign arm, acknowledged that protecting those incumbents “takes some resources.” But she made clear that her focus is on swing-seats needed to flip the House.
“The number one thing we can do to make a difference, to put a check on this administration, to have a Congress that’s functional, is take back the majority in the House,” she said.
Still, one House Democrat, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss their primary race candidly, complained that the money they are currently raising could be going directly to those purple seats instead of their own race.
“Could I be doing other stuff for other members? Absolutely,” this lawmaker said.
The surge in far-left challengers has also exasperated Democrats like Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who now has to run for reelection in one of the toughest districts for Democrats after Texas Republicans redrew the House map.
“I see it in New York – I think everybody in New York has a socialist [challenger]. It’s really bad for the Democratic Party that we’re having to deal with [this] and spend resources, instead of having all these resources for our November challenge,” Gonzalez told CNN.
Gonzalez is facing his own challenger, who has been nicknamed “the Mamdani of south Texas.” But he questioned whether his opponent yet had the fundraising to get off the ground: “I think donors are smarter than that. I don’t see him raising much money. I’m thinking that’s probably [the same] across the country.”
That’s not the case everywhere.
Rep. John Larson raised $800,000 in a deep blue Connecticut seat to fend off a challenger, who is also the former mayor of his home state’s capitol of Hartford. Rep. Mike Thompson in California raised more than $600,000 the same quarter. A third Democrat, Rep. Brad Sherman in California, raised $322,000. All three were outraised by their Democratic challengers last quarter.
In those three contests, however, the primary is less ideological than about pushing forward a new generation in politics. Larson, Thompson and Sherman are all in their 70s. (In California, that could also become a November problem. That state’s “jungle primary” rules mean that the top-two finishers will make it to the general election ballot, regardless of party.)
“Winds of change, there’s always an element that’s out there,” Larson told CNN, when asked why he believed so many of his colleagues were facing challenges from inside the party this cycle. He dismissed that Mamdani or the insurgent left had anything to do with the surge.
And he said he’s feeling good about his own prospects: “If you’ve done a good job, people respect that.”
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CNN’s Alison Main contributed to this report.
