The Three Blue Dog Co-Chairs— Hanging By A Thread

Bernie Speaks For Me

Who's sorry now?

Remember Jared Golden’s OpEd about how a second Trump term wouldn’t be so bad. He might not be in Congress to experience it. The Blue Dog co-chair and his two co-chair colleagues may have been reelected… or may have been defeated all three are waiting for final tallies. This is where the 3 uncalled races stood last night before I went to sleep:

Alaska At-Large (76% in— and this will be ranked-choice)- R+8

• Nick Begich (R)- 124,969 (49.5%)

• Mary Peltola (D)- 115,511 (45.4%)

• John Wayne Howe (Alaska Independence)- 9,791 (3.9%)

• Eric Hafner (D)- 2,485 (1.0%)

Maine’s Second District (92% counted)- R+6

• Jared Golden (D)- 191,695 (50.3%)

• Austin Theriault (R)- 189,236 (49.7%)

[Golden declared victory yesterday, although Thrace is certainly headed for a recount.]

Washington’s Third District (74% counted)- R+5

• Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D)- 169,426 (51.8%)

• Joe Kent (R)- 157,383 (48.2%)

Trump won all 3 districts in 2020 and again on Tuesday. These were Trump’s 2020 scores:

• Alaska- 53.1%

• ME-02- 51.6%

• WA-03- 50.8%

Using ProgressivePunch’s rating system, all three incumbents have wretched voting scores. Golden ranks as the 4th worst member of the House, Perez as the 8th worst and Peltola as the 9th worst. They are adamantly anti-progressive. Golden has been talking about running for governor— as an independent.

If all three are defeated, it won’t exactly be the end of the Blue Dogs. Sanford Bishop (GA), Jim Costa (CA), Henry Cuellar (TX), Vicente Gonzalez (TX), Josh Gottheimer (NJ) and Mike Thompson (CA) will still be in Congress next term— although Cuellar will likely wind up in prison on bribery charges sometime in 2025 and Costa’s race hasn’t been called yet and he may still lose:

• Jim Costa (D)- 59,437 (50.43%)

• Michael Maher (R)- 58,428 (49.57%)

So… a pretty small caucus. And I think all the candidates they endorsed this cycle— they keep their endorsements relatively quiet— were defeated or are trailing in races still being counted.

• Rudy Salas (CA)

• Adam Gray (CA)

• Will Rollins (CA)

• Adam Frisch (CO)

• Whitney Fox (FL)

• Lanon Bacca (IA)

• Rebecca Cooke (WI)

One thing the Democratic Party will never, ever want to think about is candidate quality. To the DCCC, candidate quality means ability to generate contributions, preferably from rich people. But there are values that should be differentiating Democrats from other parties. There’s a Democratic brand— or at least there was at one time— that attracted working people to the party. The tragedy is that it wasn’t that long ago that the Democratic Party brand was a good standard. It once meant something tangible to working families. It was the party that fought for decent wages, the right to organize and protections against corporate exploitation— fought as in not just talking about it and compromising at workers’ expense. It stood for accessible healthcare not as a privilege, but as a human right— born out of the conviction that no one should be bankrupted by illness. The party was once the advocate of robust public education, insisting that a good education should be available to all, not just the children of the wealthy. Housing and food security weren’t abstract ideals, but moral imperatives that demanded action.

If Democrats want to reclaim that legacy— and I’m not sure how many do— they need to re-engage with these fundamental issues, not as talking points but as uncompromising priorities. They must fight for real protections for workers, from defending unions to demanding fair wages. They must champion progressive taxation to rebuild public infrastructure and improve services, instead of pandering to big donors. Only by standing with working people, rather than with the powerful and the wealthy, can they begin to win back the loyalty they’ve lost.

In an era of rising inequality, the Democrats must decide whether they want to be the party of the people or simply managers of the status quo. The heart of the party— the promise of economic dignity, equal opportunity, and justice— hasn’t changed, but it requires champions willing to fight for it. Without such a shift, the Democratic brand will continue to lose meaning, and with it, the trust of the voters it once served. The priority appears to many to have shifted to the identity politics that voters don’t seem that interested in compared to the economic issues that make life better for everyone.

Please read this statement from Bernie that he released yesterday: