The division within the Democratic Party is playing out in the open primary in North Carolina’s Fourth Congressional District. On paper, it’s a crowded primary with eight candidates vying to succeed retiring Congressman David Price. In reality, three candidates have emerged with the money and organization to compete. Clay Aiken has used his celebrity to raise $445,000. State Senator Valerie Foushee has raised more than $480,000. And Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam has raised more than $675,000.
The fight is between Allam and Foushee, but they are really proxies for the larger battle brewing within the party. Allam is a would-be member of The Squad who is relying on support from her connections to the Bernie Sanders campaign. She has the support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Squad members Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. Foushee is the establishment candidate running a conventional and rather boring campaign who has the endorsement of Rep. G.K. Butterfield and Rep. Alma Adams, North Carolina’s two African American Members of Congress. If their fight heats up, Aiken could be the beneficiary.
After a relatively peaceful primary, the fight broke out when finance reports showed Foushee had received almost half of her funds from the pro-Israeli AIPAC’s bundling operation. While the candidates themselves are relatively mum on the subject, their allies have started shooting at each other. Allam’s supporters accused Foushee of being owned by AIPAC and attacked the organization as “racist” and failing to “meet even the bare minimum of being American.” Foushee’s supporters are pushing an online survey accusing Allam of having a mentor who “showed support for a terrorist who was convicted of bombing a supermarket, killing two college students.”
The fight lays out the divisions clearly. Allam and her campaign are representative of a neo-McGovern wing of the party that has relatively broad support within the party but whose electoral strength is concentrated in more urban areas. They can win some primaries and hold safe Democratic seats but they are far to the left of a majority of voters nationally and in the swing states that Democrats need to win the Senate and presidency. Because they don’t face electoral challenges themselves, they can use bigger megaphones that define the party in terms that alienate the centrist voters that Democrats need to win in more competitive districts.
Foushee’s campaign is becoming a victim of an inept and out-of-touch Democratic establishment that has allowed itself to be defined by its left-flank. The party is dominated by a collection of interest groups that try to elevate their issues to the top of the agenda despite often having limited appeal. AIPAC can only see the race through the lens of its ideological perspective, despite much of the district housing some of the state’s most progressive voters. This time, it’s AIPAC, but it could have been EMILY’s List or AFT or a handful of other deep-pocketed, issue-oriented organizations who insist on meddling in races, often strong-arming candidates into making bad electoral decisions in exchange for huge sums of money.
The primary is representative of the mess Democrats face nationally. The left flank overestimates the popularity of its agenda with rank-and-file voters and underestimates the damage it does to the Democrats nationally. The establishment can’t figure out how to offer an overarching message that focuses on pocketbook issues for fear of alienating their funders at the interest groups. The combination leaves a corrupt and autocratic Republican Party in a position of strength heading into a very consequential election.
The current political environment looks a lot like 1972. Back then, the country was in the midst of an unpopular war and inflation was up despite strong economic growth and low unemployment. Republican President Nixon was warning against Socialism while his Democratic opponent George McGovern was proposing sharp tax increases on the wealthy, a drastic expansion in the social safety net, and support for cultural changes that built on the successes of the Civil Rights Movement. Despite distrust of the Nixon administration, voters were more scared of the economic and social implications of the Democratic agenda and handed Nixon a landslide victory. While it’s not a presidential year, Democrats seem to be headed down the same road this cycle. If Allam wins the primary, it will be a big win for progressives in May and indicative of a much larger victory for Republicans in November.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
I say good for Allam. This is a liberal community that has not been reflected in Price’s cautious tenure. In fact, constituents have been frustrated by his unwillingness to move on liberal issues that they urged him to. There is nothing wrong with a community being represented by an vigorous liberal like Allam (who is not really that far left.) I only hope who wins it has the same good constituent services that David provided.
P.S. what is Clay Aiken doing – no mailings, no yard signs, no meet and greets? What is he doing with all that money.
Something is wrong when a candidate accepts large sums of money from a PAC that endorses numerous other candidates who support insurrectionists trying to violently overturn a legitimate election outcome. And when that PAC supports pro-insurrectionist candidates solely because they acquiesce in Israel’s long history of human rights atrocities that would make even Vladimir Putin blush.
The focus of progressive Dems on human needs often shows in the politics of Durham, and I wonder if the framing of this discussion has forgotten the political powerhouse that is Durham. Don’t 4th district Dems have a right to representation that emphasizes domestic priorities? The Squad is mocked by some, but I framed a statement from AOC that says, “Oh no, they’ve discovered our vast conspiracy to take care of children and save the planet!” I regret the investment of pro-conflict AIPAC money in our 4th district primary, considering the supremacist agenda of the powerful group.
Whichever Dem survives the primary will almost surely be elected, so to me the real question is who can contribute the most to getting things done in Congress. There’s no question that Valerie has the experience, leadership skills, incredible work ethic, policy smarts, and service commitment to be a leader in Congress. Her colleagues recognized her leadership skills by naming her as the Democratic Caucus Chair in the state Senate. Take a look at how many of her elected colleagues have endorsed her, including several from Durham. She has been in the NC legislature for 9 years under R leadership, so she knows how to get things done in a tough environment, and that’s what we need in DC. AIPAC SchmAIPAC!
I’d consider “The Squad” to be the Democrats’ version of Cawthorn, Greene, Boebert and the like. If you look at they’re voting records rather than listening to what they say, you’d see they’ve been a big asset to the House Republicans. In a closely divided legislative body every vote counts. On some crucial economic votes, The Squad voted with the Republicans. Even if you don’t like Joe Biden or his politics would you prefer Donald Trump? The Squad deliberately sabotaged the Biden agenda with their votes against his economic agenda.
That is absolutely ridiculous!
No, Fetzer is more right than he is wrong. Progressives (the Squad in particular) fought an “all or nothing” battle in the House on several pieces of legislation that were critically needed. But, it also appears to have worked, to a certain degree. College debt forgiveness is moving forward right now, something that probably would not have happened in the absence of Progressive pushback.
As a newcomer, since 2020, to NC, I checked Ballotpedia and all eight candidates’ website issue pages. Result? I am planning to vote for Dr. Richard Watkins, as he has the most comprehensive set of policies I like and a clever acronym to focus them. There’s a lot else to like about the guy. I’ll be interested in what the rest of you think.
Allow me to offer some pushback on several points in this column.
1 – “Allam is a would-be member of The Squad” – What on earth do you base this on, besides the face that Allam is a young Muslim woman? If you’ve listened to what Allam talks about (or even read her website), she comes across as plainly left-leaning, but no more so than many other candidates (like, say, Rep. Alma Adams, or even David Price), none of whom are casually dismissed in the same language. Please consider rephrasing this characterization (and rethinking where it comes from).
2 – The stakes here sound very muddled. This is, in fact, a very normal Democratic primary. Your reasoning is very “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” – if Allam wins, then the progressive jacobins are obviously taking over the asylum. But if Foushee wins, then the weak Democratic establishment has let itself be hijacked by interest groups. How does the party win, in your eyes?
3 – If Allam does win the primary, how would that change your viewpoint that progressives are “out of touch with voters?” Seems to me like progressives are very much IN touch with a lot of voters, and choosing to compete where they’re aligned.
“In Congress, Allam would join a cadre of progressive, young Democratic Party members known as ‘The Squad:'”, Indy Week, November 8, 2021. Nobody, including Allam, objected back then. If this is a normal primary, I’ll prepare to live in the minority for the foreseeable future. The party wins by attracting a broad audience instead of a narrow one and quits repeating talking points from special interest groups. It’s got a long way to go. Allam winning means that the Democratic primary electorate is moving further away from the centrist voters it takes to win statewide in a place like North Carolina.
All I see the so called “squad” advocate for are programs that promote the welfare and inclusion of all people of this country; poor, middle and otherwise. This country is really suffering from all the hidden money that controls our government, including dark money from other countries. That’s a bigger threat to this country than Russia. Is that a far left statement. All these labels are a joke anyway.
As a life-long Democrat who strayed only once to vote for Nixon over McGovern, I have to agree with Thomas. (The Viet Nam war was on, and McGovern goofed by saying he would “crawl” to Hanoi to negotiate a peace). Too many of McGovern’s supporters were way left of the center. In the Carter v. Bush race, I knew a lot of very liberal Dems who stayed home instead of voting for Carter, who they regarded as too conservative. Then, they got 12 years of Republican presidents. As Thomas stated, the left wing of the party overestimates the popularity of their candidates and issues and blasts too loudly, scaring moderate voters. Could “the Squad” win elections in any district besides the ones in which they presently hold office? To look at Republican campaign propaganda, you’d think AOC was in charge of the party. Although I agree with many issues advocated by “the Squad,” the Democratic Party would be better off soft-peddling some of these ideas until once elected.
I think you mean “Carter vs. Reagan,” but IMO the key thing to remember about that race is 444. The number of days Americans were held hostage in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Voters wanted a solution to that crisis, and they got one. The problem is, they stopped paying attention after that.
This is some peak centrism. People have legitimate concerns regarding aipac. They are a extreme right wing party who also support numerous republican insurrectionists. They are strongly linked to the right wing Likud party, and they support policies that deny basic dignity and human rights to the Palestinian people. In this article, legitimate concerns of the propping up of a democratic candidate by a right wing group is being minimized and simplified. On the other hand, Foushee’s supporters repugnant, bigoted, and baseless attacks are being elevated.
The problem here is not the division of the party by the left. It is the abandonment of the parties true ideals of dignity, peace and equality by centrists who completely abase themselves for special interests.
What part of the leftist agenda do you identify as poison pill to the moderates? Genuinely curious.
This is an interesting take. I think a few more factors should be considered: 1, how much the N C population has grown in the 50 years since then. 2. The rural/urban divide thst has increased 3. And what’s the voting age difference. You are far more experienced in this than I, but I just wonder how much these factors will weigh