. Progressives Routed In Oregon’s Democratic Primary As Jayapal’s Sister And Portland’s DA Rejected - News Times

Progressives Routed In Oregon’s Democratic Primary As Jayapal’s Sister And Portland’s DA Rejected

By News Here - 12:07

The sister of Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) lost her Democratic congressional primary in Oregon on Tuesday night, in which progressive candidates in general stumbled at the ballot box.

Oregon state Rep. Maxine Dexter (D) easily beat Susheela Jayapal with 51 percent of the vote to 29 percent – despite Jayapal having the backing of ‘Squad’ members like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of the longtime leaders of the progressive movement, also backed Jayapal.

Dexter is all but guaranteed a general election win to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Politico noted that elsewhere on the ballot in Oregon “progressives had a tough night”:

In the hopes of avoiding a 2022 repeat, national Democrats mobilized to block Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the race for the 5th District — one of over a dozen GOP-held seats that President Joe Biden won in 2020. McLeod-Skinner unseated then-Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader in the primary two years ago running to his left. But [Republican] Rep. Chavez-DeRemer beat her by 2 points in the general election.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quickly identified state Rep. Janelle Bynum — who was backed by the likes of Mainstream Democrats PAC — as its preferred candidate and spent around $1 million on a joint buy with her campaign. Bynum will now be the party’s candidate for a seat Biden would’ve carried by almost 10 points — and she’s facing an opponent, Chavez-DeRemer, whom she defeated in state House races in both 2016 and 2018.

Multnomah County’s progressive DA Mike Schmidt, who serves the Portland area, also appeared to be set to lose reelection to tough-on-crime candidate Nathan Vasquez — a former Republican. As of midday Wednesday Vasquez was leading 56 to 44 with 63 percent of the vote counted. Progressive policies on crime are just the latest part of the movement’s platform to be repudiated in Oregon this year as the state repealed its three-year-old law decriminalizing drug possession for personal use back in March. Oregon joined San Francisco and Washington, DC in reverting to more tough-on-drug policies following surges in both overdoses and drug-related crimes.
The post Progressives Routed In Oregon’s Democratic Primary As Jayapal’s Sister And Portland’s DA Rejected first appeared on Mediaite.

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