Democratic progressives score victory in Philly primary May 19

PHILADELPHIA— Democratic primary voters on May 19 leaned heavily in favor of pro-labor, progressive politics, while President Trump retained and even strengthened his grip on Republican party politics.

In Philadelphia, anti-machine Democratic State Rep. Chris Rabb, a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist who ran with strong backing from the Working Families Party and from two area AFT/ Teachers locals, is headed to the U.S. House next year from Philadelphia. Democrat Jon Ossoff handily won the Democratic Senate primary in Georgia and will face a Republican opponent in November.

Going down to defeat in Republican primaries were Kentucky’s Rep. Thomas Massey, who had opposed Trump on his refusal to release the Epstein files, and Republican Sen. Tom Cornyn of Texas, who Trump said “crossed me when I needed him most.” Those results, plus the third-place finish in Georgia’s gubernatorial primary by Brad Raffensperger, who refused a phone call from Trump in 2021 asking him to change votes, displayed Trump’s continuing hold on his party despite its shrinking popularity in the polls.

With 87% of the votes counted in Northwest Philly’s 3rd congressional district, Rabb had 44.2% of the vote and a 20,400-vote lead over his nearest foe, Sharif Street, who had 29.5% in a four-candidate race. That guarantees Rabb a seat in the next Congress, because there’s no GOP candidate at all. The 3rd District was open because Democratic Rep. Dwight Evans retired.

Rabb drew campaign backing from the Working Families Party and from prominent progressives. Campaigning for him in the race’s closing days, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., brought the pro-Rabb house down by smilingly calling him “Rep Rabb.”

The Working Families Party endorsement was important. The WFP has scored its most notable successes in Philadelphia. The city charter reserves two at-large council seats, out of four, for non-majority party members. For more than a century, Republicans have held both in what is now the nation’s sixth-most-populous city. In the last two elections, the WFP knocked out both GOPers. 

“The power of the people is more important than the people in power, and this is a people-powered campaign,” Rabb proclaimed in a campaign video. “I don’t take any money from corporate PACs, and I will continue to remain independent of corporate interests as I take office next year,” he added.

“That’s because I remain unbought and unbossed, and that’s important to passing fundamental bills that corporations don’t care for, like Medicare For All.”

Rabb also picked up backing from the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s campaign arm, from the Justice Democrats, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a campaign finance committee of Muslim Americans, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Sunrise Movement, and others. Besides AOC,  progressive Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Ilhan Omar, DFL-Minn., and Summer Lee, D-Pittsburgh, backed Rapp. Lee is a former Democratic Socialist.

All the candidates took similar positions on the issues, including strong opposition to the abuses and policies of the Donald Trump regime in D.C. But Rabb was the most outspoken foe of U.S. weapons sales to the Israeli military, which uses them to kill thousands of civilians, first in Gaza and now in Lebanon, besides waging war on Iran—with Trump doing so, too.

Rabb wasn’t the sole notable winner in the slew of primaries on May 19. 

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who defied Trump on the Iran War, spending bills, and opening up the Epstein files—including Trump’s close ties to the millionaire now-dead serial sexual predator—lost 45%-55% to a little-known former Navy Seal, Ed Gallrein. Gallrein’s credentials were the Trump endorsement, plus campaign appearances by Trump VP JD Vance and War Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Gallrein also benefited from a slew of outside spending, and the total for both men plus the outsiders combined to set a national record for a U.S. House race: $40 million. The campaign finance arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee put in millions for Gallrein because of Massie’s opposition to the Iran War. Individual wealthy GOP backers, notably casino owner Miriam Adelson, also backed Gallrein. 

The other notable Trump foe who lost was incumbent Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who sought the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the “purple” Peach State. Raffensperger stood up to Trump’s try to steal Georgia’s electoral votes in 2020.

The then-president called the secretary, who was Georgia’s top election official, and demanded Raffensperger “find” 11,780 more popular votes for Trump so the president would win Georgia by one ballot. That, on its face, is attempted election fraud. Raffensperger refused–and recorded Trump’s damning 45-minute phone call. Raffensperger finished third in the gubernatorial primary. 

The two leaders, Lieut. Gov. Burt Jones and billionaire Rick Jackson head to a runoff. Trump backed Jones, while Jackson pumped millions from his own fortune into the race. The winner will face Keisha Lance Bottoms, the African-American former mayor of Atlanta. She romped in a Democratic primary where 140,000 more Georgians voted than in the tighter GOP tilt.

Voting rights activist Stacey Adams said today, “Although I am glad that Raffensperger did not commit treason (by going along with Trump’s demand for more votes), we must remember that on all the issues, he was a total Trump backer.”

The Texan Senator who went down to defeat in the primaries yesterday was GOP Sen. John Cornyn, a pro-business conservative locked in a tight runoff race with state Attorney General Ken Paxton. With a week to go before the balloting, Trump endorsed Paxton, a right-wing firebrand, charged with fraud and other legal violations, and impeached by the GOP-run Texas House, but not convicted by the GOP-run Senate. Paxton won yesterday and will face Democrat James Talarico in November. 

That race could be a key to whether Trump retains Senate control. Right now, Paxton faces tanking ratings and the fact that he can’t redistrict senators out of their chairs. 

“As I said on primary night, it doesn’t matter who wins this runoff,” Talarico said after Trump backed Paxton. “We already know who we’re running against: The billionaire mega-donors and their corrupt political system.

“Our movement to take back Texas for working people rises above party politics—because the biggest fight in this country is not left versus right, it’s top versus bottom.”

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