2022 Primaries: The Empire Strikes Back

It’s Sunday June 26th, 2022 – two days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – and President Joe Biden knows what he needs to do.

Biden needed to announce his endorsement to Rep. Danny Davis, the 25-year incumbent in Chicago’s bluest Congressional district, IL-07. Two days before polls opened in a primary contest between a quarter-century incumbent and Kina Collins, a grassroots organizer against gun violence in Rep. Davis’ district, Joe Biden needed Democrats to know: the party’s old guard deserves to stay in power.

On election day, Kina Collins lost by a 7-point margin.

And that pretty much sums up the Justice Democrats 2022 primary cycle. Almost every race came down to the wire. At the end of every nailbiter showdown, corporate money and establishment Democratic leadership pulled out all the stops (and all the money) to keep young, progressive Democrats from representing their own communities in Congress… while President Biden’s agenda was gutted in public by the anti-majoritarian Supreme Court and U.S Senate.

In this episode, Amira talks with Campaigns Director Geoff “Coach” Simpson, Candidate Communications Manager Usamah Andrabi, and Rebel Alliance Director Alexandra Rojas about what the political left has learned – or needs to learn, at the tail end of another Justice Democrats primary cycle. What’s changed since summer 2020, when Jamaal Bowman beat Engel by double digits despite the late establishment rush to save the incumbent? And Cori Bush won her rematch primary by a slim but decisive margin? Are we losing ground? Getting outspent, or just out maneuvered? Hard to know with certainty, but the Empire is Striking Back and it’s time for some Rebels to retrieve the Death Star plans..