Top Progressives Blame AIPAC, Outside Money For Defeats In Oregon

Two high-profile progressives in Congress suggested that Tuesday’s primary losses by like-minded Democrats in Oregon should be blamed more on money than the U.S. House candidates’ messages.

“We’ve always dealt with the fact that progressives are not fostered and don’t take money from these big corporate lobbies,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday.

“You get Big Pharma that gets involved, you get these corporate Wall Street lobbies that pour in money and you have AIPAC — which is a right-wing insurrectionist-supporting, pro-Netanyahu lobbying organization,” she added, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, had a similar analysis of the losses for the left. Among these was older sister Susheela Jayapal’s defeat by Dr. Maxine Dexter, a state representative, in Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, a solid Democratic seat that includes most of Portland.

“She ran a great campaign. But when you have $7 million that comes in in outside spending, the third most expensive outside spending amount in this cycle in the country, it’s pretty tough,” Pramila Jayapal said.

“Clearly, people are afraid of having another Jayapal in Congress,” she joked.

And in the 5th District, Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who was the Democratic nominee in 2022 but lost to Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) in the general election, came up short against state Rep. Janelle Bynum. McLeod-Skinner, who unseated a centrist in the 2022 primary with progressive help, did not have many endorsements from national progressive groups or elected officials, including Ocasio-Cortez, Pramila