With the final New York court-approved redistricting maps “cementing chaos for Democrats,” the election-year infighting has already started with powerful New York leftists turning on each other and yelling “racism” after DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney “abandon[ed] his old congressional seat . . . running instead in the newly drawn 17th district,” which is currently represented by “woke” freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones.
Jones is reportedly now mulling over whether to stay in his district or run against 16th Congressional District Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
Unfortunately for Democrats, the Spiderman finger-pointing at one another hasn’t been confined to the Empire State. Radical anti-Israel Congressional Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is facing a primary challenge in the redrawn 12th Congressional District (Tlaib currently represents the 13th) from Democrat Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey, who just received the backing of a well-funded PAC that plans to put $1,000,000 behind her in advance of the August 2nd primary.
From Politico Recast:
A new PAC endorsed by Bakari Sellers says it’s going to spend upward of $1 million to support one of the candidates trying to unseat progressive firebrand Rashida Tlaib.The stated mission of the group, Urban Empowerment Action PAC, is to back candidates who are “dedicated to the educational empowerment and economic uplift of Black communities,” according to a release first shared with POLITICO’s The Recast. The PAC adds that its support of Janice Winfrey, the Detroit City Clerk, is meant to boost “her campaign to restore infrastructure, improve educational opportunities in the district and support the Biden-Harris agenda in D.C.”The group is made up of a coalition of Black and Jewish business leaders.[…]Sellers, the television pundit who is a former South Carolina state representative, is fundraising for the PAC. He says he wants to see the size of the Congressional Black Caucus increase in the next Congress and explains the PAC’s endorsement of Winfrey this way:“We are hoping that we can have a candidate that doesn’t have varying distractions,” he tells The Recast.
Sellers was also the South Carolina state co-chair of then-Sen. Kamala Harris’ failed presidential campaign and is a frequent contributor to CNN in his role as a political/legal analyst.
Though he wasn’t specific, Sellers’ pointing to Tlaib’s “varying distractions” is likely an indirect reference to the accusations from Republicans and even some Democrats (including Winfrey) that Tlaib is anti-Semitic, something Tlaib has seemed hell-bent on proving true at every opportunity, including very recently.
Tlaib responded to the news of the left-wing PAC’s endorsement of Winfrey by portraying herself as a champion of the little people and a victim of “Wall Street billionaires” who she says are “pushing a pro-corporate agenda”:
Winfrey touted the PAC’s endorsement in a tweet last week, stating that she would be happy to represent the “ENTIRE 12th District,” a clear dig at Tlaib whom Winfrey has said in so many words is in Congress only to benefit herself and those in the Islamic communities contained within the district:
In an April interview with Jewish Insider, Winfrey expanded on her view that Tlaib is not representing the “entire” district, and specifically called her out for her Israel-bashing:
Winfrey told Jewish Insider in a recent interview that she had not been planning to run for Congress but felt the district — which includes parts of her home city of Detroit as well as a number of outlying areas — “is not being represented,” describing Tlaib’s vote last year against the bipartisan infrastructure package as “the last straw.” Winfrey entered the race in February and has since raised $200,000, she told JI.“It appears to me that my opponent is more interested in political gain than she is in serving our constituents,” Winfrey said. “For me, that just makes my teeth itch… For you to run as a Democrat in that district and then don’t support our Democratic president, and don’t support some of the benefits that would directly benefit our community, I feel like you have another agenda. When you don’t support the one ally that we have in the Middle East, then I feel you have another agenda, and that agenda is not conducive to the citizens of the 12th Congressional District.”[…]Winfrey also addressed antisemitic elements within the Democratic Party.“You cannot hate a group of people and expect to serve a community or a nation or people period if you’re anti-anything,” she noted. “As an African American woman, it angers me to my soul that you hate another group of people just because they are… It grieves my soul and I will work against it, and I have always worked against it all my life.”
In addition to the support of the Urban Empowerment Action PAC, last month Winfrey won the endorsement of the Pro-Israel America PAC, which has endorses Republicans and Democrats alike. They will be hosting a webinar with Winfrey on June 1st:
Other Democrats who are tired of what one progressive Twitter account calls the Squad’s “attempted hostile takeover of the Democratic Party” have cheered Winfrey’s candidacy:
Consider putting this one on your “one to watch” list, not just for the infighting but also for the possibility that the district might just decide to pick a Democrat who appears to be a lot less hostile to Israel than Tlaib. Stay tuned.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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