Progressive group endorses four Latinas in competitive House districts
Latino Victory Fund, an organization focused on increasing Latino political representation, is endorsing Marlene Galán-Woods and JoAnna Mendoza in Arizona's 1st and 6th districts, respectively; Denise Powell in Nebraska's 2nd District; and Carol Obando-Derstine in Pennsylvania's 7th District. They will face Democratic primary challengers in districts many expect to be among the most competitive on the midterm map next year.
The early endorsements unlock a number of benefits for the candidates, including social media rollouts, direct contributions to their campaigns from the group's political action committee and access to a national network of funders, CEO and President Katharine Pichardo told NBC News before the endorsements were announced.
'These are all outstanding candidates,' Pichardo said. 'They are top-notch advocates and professionals who have their fingers on the pulse of their communities.'
While Latinos have traditionally leaned Democratic, recent elections have shown a shift toward the Republican Party. In 2024, Donald Trump captured an ethnically and racially diverse coalition of voters and made substantial gains among Latino voters, winning 48% of the Hispanic vote, while Democrat Kamala Harris won 51%, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. By contrast, Joe Biden won 61% of the Hispanic vote in 2020, compared with 36% for Trump.
Latinos make up almost 20% of the U.S. population but only 2% of the country's elected officials. Pichardo argued that supporting Latino candidates is necessary 'because representation matters — you need people in office who are going to be consistent with our values as a community and that have the lived experiences that allow them to be good representatives for our community.'
The Latina candidates come from diverse backgrounds. Galán-Woods, a Republican-turned-Democrat, is making a second run for Congress in an Arizona district that includes parts of north Phoenix, Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. The seat is held by Republican David Schweikert, who won his 2024 race by 2 percentage points. Galán-Woods, a Cuban American, will face Amish Shah in the Democratic primary; Shah defeated her last year and became the Democratic candidate.
Mendoza, a Mexican American veteran and the daughter of farmworkers, is seeking to unseat Mexican-born Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican, in Arizona's 6th District. The district stretches throughout parts of Pima County and much of Tucson and Cochise counties. Ciscomani won a second term last year by a comfortable margin. Other potential Democratic candidates have filed paperwork indicating their interest in the race.
Powell, of Cuban and Chilean descent, co-founded Women Who Run Nebraska, an organization that motivates women to run for office, and she is running in Nebraska's 2nd District. Republican Rep. Don Bacon, who has a reputation as a centrist, recently announced he would not seek a sixth term. Previous election cycles have featured tight races between Bacon and his Democratic opponents. Several other Democrats have announced their candidacies, including John Cavanaugh, a state senator whose father, John J. Cavanaugh III, represented the district, which includes Omaha, from 1977 to 1981.
Obando-Derstine would be running to represent Pennsylvania's 7th District, a seat held by Republican Ryan Mackenzie. Obando-Derstine, born in Colombia, previously served on Gov. Tom Wolf's Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs and worked for Sen. Bob Casey.
The district is considered one of the most competitive in the country and one of the most expensive. Two other Democrats are running, including Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure, who has been in Democratic politics for 15 years.
The GOP holds a narrow majority in the House, with 219 Republicans and 212 Democrats. Historically, the president's party tends to lose ground in midterm elections as voters punish the party in office. Trump's approval numbers are around 43%, a historically low number compared with other presidents, though it is slightly higher than in his first term, according to an NBC News analysis. But the Democratic Party's image is at its lowest point in three decades, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll.
In the past, Latino Victory Fund has made high-six-figure investments in support of Latina candidates, Pichardo said.
'These are trailblazing Latinas that will be making history — but at the end of the day, how we bring back Latinos is really through a plan,' she said, 'including a focus on building a new coalition that speaks to voters on the issues that matter most to them.'
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Can Texas Gov. Greg Abbott remove Democratic lawmakers who left the state over redistricting?
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Global intifada movement rocked by #MeToo allegations against Jewish anti-Israel actor and accused grifter
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"Several women have described feeling unsafe around him, especially in activist spaces." Neither Kiswani nor Berger responded to requests for comment, but Berger published a video response to Kiswani in which he denied her claims. He said "some heavy allegations have been leveled against me" and called the charges as a "personal vendetta" that arose after he did an interview with a podcast host critical of Kiswani. In a reverse Uno move straight out of a Muslim soap opera, Berger, he accused Kiswani of causing "baseless fitna." Fitna is an Arabic word that means civil war and carries with it serious negative subtext among ideologues bound to a collective identity of one "ummah," or Muslim community. The allegations are particularly awkward because, since the brutal Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by Hamas, Berger has become a virtual rock star in the anti-Israel scene, publishing selfies with activist luminaries, including socialist politician Cornel West, political scientist Norman Finkelstein, previously-detained protest leader Mamoud Khalil, Hollywood actor Rami Malek and rapper Macklemore. In June, former Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman interrupted his own reelection rally, railing against Israel and Republicans, to give Berger a shoutout and handslap. "Jacob Berger's the man…He's a brilliant artist, brilliant human! Jacob, thank you for being here. Appreciate you," Bowman said as Berger beamed for the camera. Last month, popular Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef, now living in the U.S., recorded a video, "Hey, Jacob BURGER! … I'm a big fan. I love you, man." Days later, in an Instagram Live video, Michigan Democratic Rep. 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While it welcomed Berger, he had previously been known for creating a library of social media content that critics say "fetishizes" not only Arab women but also cleavage-popping Hispanic, Black and Asian women. In late February 2022, Berger had a very different business model. A former mental health and substance abuse counselor with a master's degree in social work from Columbia University, according to an official bio, Berger had switched careers to become an actor. That month, he launched a new business on the OnlyFans platform for sexually-charged video content, promoting himself as "The Instagram Cop." He dressed in a New York Police Department uniform while performing sexual capers around town with buxom women, usually earning less than 100,000 views on TikTok. "You have a right to remain silent!" OnlyFans wrote, announcing Berger's new offering. "Prepare for a barrel of laughs…" After Oct. 7, 2023, the Columbia University graduate made a sudden pivot. A week later, he posted an earnest video on Instagram, speaking to the camera in a NASA t-shirt, decrying the "genocide of the Palestinian people," calling Israel an "apartheid state" and ending with a chant, "Free Palestine!" By the end of the month, wearing a white New York Yankees baseball cap without a keffiyeh, he joined a slow-moving protest in Washington, D.C., led by a group, Jewish Voice for Peace, aligned with Kiswani, heading from Union Station to the back of the U.S. Capitol. The crowd chanted "Ceasefire now," as protest paparazzi took their images to post later on social media accounts in the emerging global intifada movement. The next month, Berger posted a selfie video from another protest Kiswani led on the Williamsburg Bridge, between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Wearing a "Bronx Native" baseball cap, protesting Israel's military response to the attacks, he chanted along with demonstrators: "Free, free Palestine." "He centers himself in everything," Kiswani alleges. "Even when talking to Palestinians and on livestreams, it's 'me me me,' how he suffers, how he is censored, how he gave up fame, while [he is] literally grifting off of a genocide." All along, Berger has been blatant about his sexual content, posting videos with scantily-clad women from his first days of anti-Israel protesting. As he joined the post-Oct. 7 protests and befriended Kiswani, he still had fresh on his social media feed a video he'd posted of a woman in a bra and thong underwear, with the caption, "When she likes it rough." In another video he had on his public feed, he squeezed a Black woman's buttocks, visible under lace hose and thong underwear, with the caption, "When cops stop you for being thick." After joining the protests, he stayed on script with his sexual content, showing two busty women spilling out of their bras, cavorting with each other behind the caption: "When wifey won't share her girlfriend with you." He earned 52,666 likes. By late November 2023, Berger wrapped a black-and-white checkered keffiyeh, the symbol of the global intifada, over his shoulders, under a Pittsburgh Pirates beanie and marched near Kiswani and a banner that read, "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY." That post garnered 2.6 million views. "Ten toes down for 🍉," he wrote, using the watermelon emoji that's become a symbol for Palestine, its red, black and green colors matching the colors of the Palestinian flag. Days later, in a show of force against support for Israel, he marched to the Christmas tree lights at Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan with Kiswani, who gave her activist group the name "Within Our Lifetime," seeking to claim Israel as the nation of "Palestine" within a generation. She established the group as an offshoot of the New York City chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, known for its virulent anti-semitism. Over the years, Kiswani has chanted, "We want to see Israel fall within our lifetime," telling protestors: "We need allies who are gonna help us achieve a victory, not allies who are gonna tell us to be nonviolent." She has said, "No Zionists are welcome in our city," and she has declared, "We don't want two states. We want '48," meaning the land in 1948 before Israel was created. Her organization's website now hosts a "rally toolkit," with a "roadmap for how your organization or coalition can put on a successful rally and build the movement for Palestine from wherever you are." It offers a "rally checklist," with "chants, logistics, outreach, materials, assigned roles, security recommendations, follow up, playlist," with three "Palestinian resistance songs." The "donate" button currently doesn't work. Kiswani didn't publicly challenge Berber over the next two-and-a-half years, as he embedded himself deeper in the anti-Israel protest movement with often-cringey content about chasing "Habibti," or Arab women, and declaring, "Asian Women Are Thick Now♥️," "It's a handful of videos out of hundreds," Berger says, in his video response to the allegations against him. "I'm an entertainer, comedian and a streamer. I say funny things. Her trying to haram police my content and my live stream style is just insane and out of line." Kiswani now faces her own backlash. A self-described "Arab alphamale" supporter of Berger says, "Nerdeen is good at being a dictator," "acting retarded," running a "useless organization," storming Grand Central Station "like idiots" and making Palestinians "look stupid." By August 2024, Berger journeyed to Egypt to raise funds for "orphans and single moms from Gaza," displaced by the war. Kiswani alleges: "He reportedly made videos with Palestinian children on a 'field trip,' asking people to donate for these 'orphans' without consent from their families. When they found out and asked him to take it down, he blocked them." Berger denies the charges and says: "But this is, unfortunately, a very ugly side of the humanitarian world that we, as people that work in this field, try to keep to ourselves, because it's so messed up that if you know these kind of details, it could affect people's trust in donating to Palestinian causes, period." "Jacob Berger's the man…He's a brilliant artist, brilliant human! Jacob, thank you for being here. Appreciate you." - Former Democratic New York U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman introducing Berger at a rally Meanwhile, he kept posting his racy videos. In September 2024, in Dearborn, Mich., at ArabCon, he filmed a skit promoting a dating app, Olive, throwing a keffiyeh over his shoulders as he chased attractive Arab women, with the caption, "How to find that perfect Habibti😍," and asked the question, "Y'all wanna go free Palestine together?" By October 2024, Berger moved to live in Cairo. Kiswani accuses him of "getting a free apartment, not paying for anything, and living comfortably while volunteers around him were actually working." He denies the charges as "so laughable." The next month, Berger shared a supposed message from a follower: "As beautiful Muslim women, I feel we should give anti-zionist Jewish guys a shot. I feel like it isn't Haram," or Islamically illegal, "if he rides with Muslims" By the end of the year, Berger posted a skit of himself hitting on a dark-haired woman in torn jeans, her midriff bare under a jean jacket, tube top and caption that read, "How to get a womans [sic] attention in an Egyptian club." Months later, in the spring of 2025, Kiswani flashed a wide smile and "V" for victory with her fingers, in a video with Berger from an anti-Israel protest, both draped in kefiyyehs. Now, Kiswani says, "If you've felt uneasy about him, you're not alone…This isn't cancel culture. It's protecting the movement from exploiters. If your solidarity is self-promotion, it's actually extraction." A few months ago, in early May, wearing a Yankees cap, Berger stood somber-faced next to climate activist Greta Thunberg, promoting a "Freedom Flotilla" to "break this siege" in Gaza. In mid-June, he celebrated Iranian air strikes against Israel. By mid-July, now aboard a new sailing of the "Freedom Flotilla," he debated TV host Piers Morgan over the alleged "kidnapping" of Thurnberg by Israeli officials, who had detained and released her as she sailed off the shores of Israel. Last week, as he returned from his own aborted mission of the "Freedom Flotilla," with "GAZA" across his military green t-shirt and a kefiyyeh over his shoulders, activists lined a lobby in the arrivals lounge at JFK. International Airport, yelling, "Jacob! Jacob!" as he exchanged high-fives with them. "Protests in the street are not enough," he told a cameraman. "One day we will see Falasteen free, Inshallah," invoking the Arabic term used by Muslims for "God willing." "Inshallah," the cameraman responded. Within days, Kiswani leveled her accusations against Berger as a grifter and sexual predator, and a detractor accused him of helping the cause of Zionism, or belief in the state of Israel, labeling him "a Zio in Kefiyeah [sic]."
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GOP senators place holds over tax credit guidance
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