House Democrats are accusing the GOP of manipulating Democratic primaries nationwide. Given that Republicans are merely turning a tried-and-true Democratic primary tactic back on the party that pioneered it, their outrage is very hard to take seriously.
In its Tuesday morning newsletter, Axios reported that House Democrats are “seething” over what they view as a coordinated Republican effort to influence Democratic primaries. Working through “a trio of obscure super PACs with progressive-sounding names,” Republicans are trying to boost the most ideologically left-wing or scandal-plagued Democratic candidates hoping that they will be easier to defeat in the general election.
Axios named the three principal PACs involved in the effort and presented evidence demonstrating their ties to the Republican Party.
Lead Left PAC played in Nebraska’s 2nd District, Pennsylvania’s 7th and — most infamously — Texas’ 35th, where it reported spending over $1 million to boost Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist whose comments widely seen as antisemitic became a major flashpoint before she lost in a primary runoff.Lead Left PAC’s website — which says the group “stands against MAGA extremists” and — included a link to the GOP fundraising site WinRed in its metadata, according to Punchbowl News.Real Change PAC spent big to oppose the more moderate Democratic primary candidates in New Jersey’s 7th, Maine’s 2nd and California’s 22nd.When one signs up for Real Change PAC’s email list, the group responds with an email from GOP consulting firm Cavalry LLC, as Axios first reported.Progressive Champions PAC is spending at least $1.5 million against centrist Cait Conley in New York’s 17th district.Between the lines: Republicans have played coy about their alleged role in these efforts, but there are clues pointing to their involvement.Progressive Champions PAC and Real Change PAC list the same bank of record on their FEC filings, with both reportedly using the same, Republican-affiliated compliance filing software.
According to the report, the strategy is being deployed in key battleground districts across the country.
If this strategy sounds familiar, it’s because Democrats employed the very same tactic against Republicans during the 2022 midterm primaries and, to some extent, in 2024 — a fact that Axios readily acknowledges. By spending money to boost GOP candidates they viewed as too extreme to win a general election, Democrats helped shape Republican primaries for their own electoral advantage. Now that Republicans appear to be using the same playbook, many Democrats are crying foul.
The perpetually outraged House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lashed out at the GOP on X last week: “House Republicans are a complete failure. That’s why MAGA extremists are meddling in another Democratic Party primary with propaganda and lies. Stay the Hell out of our races with your malignant and desperate scheming.”
https://x.com/hakeemjeffries/status/2065520034990940408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A former House Republican who spoke to Axios on the condition of anonymity said, “After Dems ran these fake PACs two years ago, Republicans have entered the fray with the same strategy. New York’s 17th District is one of the districts [where] it’s being employed.”
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) told Axios that what Republicans are doing is “awful,” but argued it was ultimately “inevitable” given Democrats’ use of the same strategy in 2022 and 2024.
In an attempt to defend his party’s meddling in GOP elections, an anonymous former House Democrat insisted there were “no fake shell Dem PACs from those years.”
Axios and several Democrats they spoke to freely admitted the party interfered directly in GOP primaries to boost the weakest candidates:
What they’re saying: Democrats “aren’t happy” that Republicans are “trying to help the far left,” a senior House Democrat told us.”This type of spending is as prevalent as it is awful — by Dems and Republicans,” Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.) told us.The bottom line: This is all made possible in part by campaign finance laws allowing these groups to keep their funding sources hidden until after primary day.”If only Congress had the ability to do something about these super PACs,” Olszewski told us sarcastically, adding, “Oh wait.”
Democrats are free to argue that Republican meddling in their primaries is wrong. What’s harder to do is explain why it was acceptable when Democrats spent millions boosting Republican candidates they believed would be unelectable. Having embraced the strategy when it served their interests, they now find themselves confronting an uncomfortable reality: Republicans have simply turned the same playbook against them.
In other words, maybe Jeffries should sit this one out.
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