Our most recent book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses state and congressional elections.
Tuesday morning, progressives were delighted with Vice President Kamala Harris’s decision to pick Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz is a fairly traditional Democrat, nowhere near as left-wing as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York or independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But many progressives were pushing for Walz instead of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has taken more conservative stands on many issues and been very critical of campus protests of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
It’s not clear exactly why Harris chose Walz over Shapiro. (Her aides have suggested that Harris and the Minnesota governor developed a strong personal connection and that the vice president liked Walz’s background as a high school teacher and veteran.) But she also likely wanted to avoid irritating the party’s left wing by picking Shapiro. So although the left didn’t get one of its champions on the ticket, it exercised something of a veto. That’s progressive power.
But Tuesday night, Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri, one of the most progressive members of the House, was defeated in a primary. She is the second member of the group that used to refer to itself as “the Squad” to lose their seat this year.Like New York’s Jamaal Bowman, who lost in June, Bush faced an opponent backed by the pro-Israel group AIPAC, which pumped millions of dollars into the race to boost its preferred candidate. The victories by New York’s George Latimer and Missouri’s Wesley Bell were major wins for AIPAC and centrist groups who want to diminish progressives’ influence within the Democratic Party.
