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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Kshama Sawant announces campaign for Congress, vowing to challenge Rep. Adam Smith
Former Seattle City Councilmember and socialist organizer Kshama Sawant announced Monday that she is running for Congress in Washington's 9th Congressional District, launching a campaign against longtime Democratic incumbent Rep. Adam Smith. Speaking at a press conference in Seattle, Sawant stood alongside organizers from Workers Strike Back — the national movement she co-founded after leaving the council — as well as local union members and activists. She described her campaign as a working-class challenge to what she called the 'corporate and warmongering agenda' of both major political parties. Sawant, who served on the Seattle City Council for a decade before stepping down in 2023, said her platform will focus on building mass movements to win policies like Medicare for All, a $25 minimum wage, and an end to U.S. military funding for Israel. 'Working people have no political representation under capitalism,' Sawant said. 'Both the Democrats and Republicans serve the interests of the billionaires.' Sawant's campaign is running independently of the Democratic Party. She sharply criticized progressive members of Congress such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, accusing them of capitulating to their party's leadership. She also took direct aim at Rep. Smith, who has represented the South Sound-based district since 1997 and currently serves as the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Sawant accused Smith of enabling U.S. militarism and specifically blamed him for supporting the Israeli military during its war in Gaza. She cited his voting record on military spending, including his support for the Iraq War in 2002 and various U.S. military interventions since the 1990s. 'He has blood all over his hands,' Sawant said, referencing Smith's role in approving defense funding and support for Israel. She also accused Smith of receiving campaign contributions from defense contractors and health insurance companies. Smith, a centrist Democrat who has served in Congress for nearly three decades, has not yet commented on Sawant's candidacy. He handily won reelection in 2022 with over 70% of the vote. In her speech, Sawant outlined her plans for a Seattle-based healthcare ballot initiative that would raise billions in taxes on large corporations to fund free healthcare for city residents. She argued that victories at the local level could build momentum for a national push for Medicare for All. 'There is no reason, in the wealthiest country on earth, that everyone cannot have free healthcare,' she said. Sawant also revisited her legislative accomplishments on the Seattle City Council, including passing the city's $15 minimum wage, taxing major corporations through the Amazon Tax, and pushing for multiple renter protections. She credited these wins to grassroots organizing and dismissed mainstream political strategies as ineffective. Sawant pledged to take only the average worker's salary if elected, donating the rest of her congressional salary to labor and social justice movements. She also criticized the influence of corporate money on both parties, warning that without mass mobilization, working people would continue to lose ground. The 9th District includes parts of Seattle, Bellevue, Renton, Kent, and other South King County communities. The primary election is scheduled for August 2024.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Stache returns
Eight years ago, Randy Bryce challenged the Speaker of the House, raised more than almost any other candidate for Congress, and lost. The union ironworker, a longtime Democratic activist, gained national attention for an unscripted, uncautious campaign that endorsed Medicare for All and the abolition of ICE. He claimed a sort of victory when then-Speaker Paul Ryan announced his resignation. Once Republicans picked businessman Bryan Steil to replace Ryan, they successfully used Bryce's old arrests and new progressive views against him, holding the seat. Southeastern Wisconsin's 1st congressional district is still competitive, though — Trump carried it by just 5 points — and Democrats have put it on their ambitious target list. There's a chance that the state will be forced, by a court order, to redraw maps, which Republicans see as a threat to Steil. But they're fairly dismissive about Bryce, who ran behind the ticket in 2018. He jumped on the phone to explain why he thinks a rematch, in this environment, would be winnable. This is an edited transcript of the conversation. Dave Weigel: Why are you running again? Randy Bryce: It's just gotten so bad. Somebody has to do something. We didn't win our race in 2018, but we made a huge splash, and people felt heard, and we encouraged other working class people to run for office. I've tried to help them, too, because we need more of us in elected office. The Republicans have this big, beautiful bill that's cutting Social Security and Medicare from people, and not enough people are aware of it. I went to a Social Security office this morning. Last month we had an event there, for Social Security Works. I asked the state rep for their union, are any facilities in danger of closing in Racine County? She was like, no, there's two, and they're both solid, there's no plan to cut them. Well, today, I found out that they relocated the one that we were at and moved it several miles away, closer to the interstate. I can't imagine anybody who needs a walker going there in a snowstorm. And we get a little snow in Wisconsin, you know? What's changed for this seat, or your strategy, since 2018? The map's better this time. We have UW Whitewater in the district. There's a possibility of congressional maps being redrawn, thanks to the Supreme Court election, when Susan Crawford. And Bryan Steil is running from people, not having any town halls. What's new? I don't think we should take money from billionaires. So once again, I'm not taking money from fossil fuel companies, Wall Street, corporate PACs, but I'm adding billionaires to it this time, too, because I don't think that there are, like, good and bad billionaires, I disagree with that. What did you learn from your defeat last time? I think we peaked very early in the last campaign, but I learned how to bring people together in that campaign. The last time I ran, I had a primary opponent, and it was sort of like Bernie versus Hillary at the beginning. But we ended up having Hillary and Bernie people working together in our campaign. A lot of Republican attacks that year were very personal, about your arrest record and DUIs. Won't the same issue come up this time? I mean, this is an issue that happened, like, 30 years ago. If you check my record now, that stuff is so old, it's fallen off. All I have now is, I rented a Dodge Challenger for work with a Hemi engine, I went a little fast, and I got a ticket. And I got one for protesting outside Paul Ryan's office. That's still on there. Have you changed your platform at all from eight years ago? It was very progressive, in that race. I'm not in favor of using labels. When you hear 'Medicare for all,' that paints this picture of what's called the far left. I don't picture myself as far left. I'm more of a populist. I want universal health care for everybody, and right now we're going the wrong direction. In a few months, if not weeks, I'm expecting shelves to be bare. Prices are already getting jacked up. We need to protect our social safety net for when people fall on hard times. We need that more than billionaires need tax cuts. So the issues have changed. So would you still get to the House and co-sponsor the Medicare for All bill? I think we do it a disservice now by calling it Medicare for all, because the coverage might not be through Medicare or Medicaid. One thing I've thought of was expanding the VA system, start coverage from when a child is born until they go to school. Start off there, keep expanding it, until we meet in the middle and everybody is covered. I don't expect that you get one bill signed and boom, everything is done. In 2018, you wanted to abolish ICE. You the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that you feel 'vindicated' by how Trump's been using the agency. Do you still want to abolish it? What I'm opposed to is any law enforcement agency feeling the need to cover their faces, cover up that they're law enforcement, and go after people like a union brother and a sheet metal worker from Virginia? That's law enforcement? With no due process. I'm opposed to not having due process. If ICE is going to stay around, they need to have proper training. They're arresting mayors and a judge in Milwaukee, who's a good judge. I don't want to see any instances of agents jumping people and arresting the people who film them doing it. My dad is a retired cop. I have nothing but appreciation for police and the job that they do. But we can't have people that are supposed to be law enforcement acting as thugs. Something that wasn't as a question in 2018: Does what Israel's doing in Gaza constitute a genocide? As a veteran, I'm for peace. I'm opposed to all wars. I hate to see our tax dollars used for destruction. I'm in construction, not demolition. I don't want to see our money used to blow stuff up. Does that mean no military funding for Israel or Ukraine? I'm opposed to all wars. Donald Trump promised that the Ukraine war was going to be over with, before he even took office, and it's still going on. Bernie Sanders has been urging working class candidates to run for office, and training them. Are you part of that? Do you have his support? We've had a really good relationship throughout the years. I spoke when he was here in Wisconsin at the anti-oligarchy rally. He's always encouraged me to run. After the last time he reminded me about losing his first races, including his first race for Congress, when he lost by a couple thousand votes. He was like, don't give up. And Ro Khanna too. Ro was like, it took me three times to run to win. Don't give up.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrat Randy Bryce, known as 'Iron Stache,' is launching a challenge to Rep. Bryan Steil
Randy Bryce is taking another shot at a run for Congress. The Democratic labor advocate and former ironworker known as Iron Stache, who gained national attention in 2018 with his campaign against then-Speaker Paul Ryan but eventually lost to current U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, said he is launching a new campaign for Wisconsin's southeastern 1st Congressional District. Bryce's move makes him the first Democrat to announce a 2026 challenge to Steil, whom national Democrats have marked as a top target this cycle as they seek to regain control of the narrowly divided House. 'Right now we have a representative in the 1st District that he could care less about everything that's crumbling all around us,' Bryce told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 'There's a lot going wrong, and it's just gonna get worse.' Bryce, 60 of Caledonia, is making his return to the campaign trail eight years after he grabbed attention with his campaign launch attacking Ryan on efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Ryan announced his retirement from Congress during the race — Bryce's X bio says he 'helped Paul Ryan retire' — though Steil defeated Bryce by more than 12 points in the general election. At the time, Bryce ran on supporting 'Medicare for All' legislation, raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and boosting unions. He remains a member of the Ironworkers Local 853 and in the years since his first campaign, he said, has served as a union representative, worked with Social Security Works, an advocacy group seeking to expand Social Security, and more recently has helped people with disabilities find work. In an interview, Bryce named healthcare access as a top campaign issue and knocked Republicans on Capitol Hill for 'going after Social Security' and seeking to make cuts to other social safety net programs as part of their current massive tax and spending legislation moving through Congress. Bryce told the Journal Sentinel that 'universal healthcare is something that everybody definitely needs' but shied away from the term 'Medicare for All,' saying he does not want to 'attach labels that have other connotations to them.' 'I've always been an advocate for great-paying jobs, for raising the minimum wage, for making sure that people have enough,' Bryce said. 'Because this country has enough to give, to share with other people who actually do the work to make things get done.' Asked about his past calls for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Bryce declined to say whether he still supports getting rid of the agency that has taken on a high-profile role in President Donald Trump's second term. 'I feel vindicated that my take, you know, my fear was they were going to become brownshirts for Donald Trump,' he said, referencing a Nazi paramilitary group. 'And that's what they're doing now.' 'I'm not in favor of snatching people off the streets,' Bryce said when asked again if he supported abolishing ICE. 'If somebody does something that's illegal, I don't have any problem with them being arrested. If they're not here with documentation and they commit a crime, I have no problem with them being sent back to their country of origin, but that's not what's happening now.' 'These people are getting sent back to countries that they've never lived in without due process,' he added. 'I'm in favor of due process for everyone. And I don't care, if they want to deport a million people, we need to have a million cases.' Bryce also said this cycle's race against Steil is different. While Steil in his first run for Congress in 2018 was a 'no name guy,' Bryce said Steil has grown into 'Paul Ryan's clone' and now has his own voting record. He accused Steil of hiding from constituents. 'He absolutely has a record now, and he's all in with Trump,' Bryce said of Steil. 'Let him carry Trump around like an anchor.' Republicans in 2018 attacked Bryce over his legal history, which included decades-old arrests connected to incidents of drunken driving and possession of marijuana. Wisconsin's 1st District is one of just two competitive House seats in Wisconsin. Redistricting in 2022 moved the seat from a nearly 10-point GOP advantage down to a 2-point lean as the district absorbed the historically blue city of Beloit and lost the Republican suburbs of southern Waukesha County. While Democrats see the state's western 3rd Congressional District, held by GOP U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, as a better pickup opportunity, a new challenge this month to Wisconsin's congressional maps could make both districts more favorable for Democrats. Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, who has been involved in helping Democrats unseat Van Orden, speculated that other Democrats could enter the 1st District race. 'I think you're going to see more primaries than you've probably seen in a few decades because people are so concerned about what's going on,' Pocan told the Journal Sentinel. 'One of the avenues for people to express that concern is by running.' Bryce, though, faces an uphill battle in his attempt to unseat Steil. Steil, 44, has won each election by nearly double digits and has proven to be a solid fundraiser. The Janesville Republican currently has more than $2.7 million in cash on hand. Still, Bryce raised more than $8 million to Steil's about $2.3 million in 2018 — something he'll again have to tap into to be successful this cycle. 'That's because people cared, people believed, and I want to get people to believe again, too,' he said of the fundraising. In a campaign launch video this week, a narrator says Bryce 'refused to back down' against career politicians in 2018. 'Now, as old enemies come out of the shadows, we need him one more time,' the narrator said, referring to Bryce as 'someone who actually works for a living.' 'We need to bring people together because it's the billionaires that are buying our country piecemeal in order to make slaves out of all of us, and that's something I can't accept' Bryce told the Journal Sentinel. "I'd love to be sitting on my couch, you know, hanging out with my dog,' he added. But things are just too important right now." This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Democrat Randy Bryce is launching a new challenge to Rep. Bryan Steil
USA Today
18-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden.
America chose wrong. Sanders would've been a better president than Trump or Biden. | Opinion If Democrats want to save the party and defeat Trump in the midterms, it's clear that something needs to change. Bernie Sanders is providing a roadmap for how to do it. Show Caption Hide Caption Bernie Sanders encouraged by Biden/Harris health care reform policies Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont discusses his views on the Biden administration's health care reform policies. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a peculiar shoutout at a press conference for one of President Donald Trump's latest executive orders, which is aimed at lowering prescription drug prices. It was a shoutout to the socialist Republicans love to hate. 'This was the fulcrum of Bernie Sanders' runs for presidency,' Kennedy said during a May 12 press conference. 'That he was going to eliminate this discrepancy between Europe and the United States.' Before you celebrate the Trump administration possibly doing something good, you should know that the Vermont senator responded by noting that the executive order is likely to get tossed out by the courts. 'If Trump is serious about making real change rather than just issuing a press release, he will support legislation I will soon be introducing to make sure we pay no more for prescription drugs than people in other major countries,' Sanders said in a statement. The entire interaction got me thinking about how good Sanders' policy positions could have been for the country. It makes you wonder how much better off the United States would be if Sanders had been the 2016 Democratic nominee instead of Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders has much to teach Republicans and Democrats I've been a fan of Sanders for years, since he first gained national prominence in 2016. I voted for him in the 2020 Democratic primary and don't regret the vote, even if he didn't win the nomination that year. Sanders is known for his popularity among young people in particular – he led the other 2020 Democratic candidates among 18–29-year-olds, according to a 2019 Harvard poll. While I'm generally not one to ponder hypotheticals, it's nice to picture a Sanders presidency. At least there are pieces of Sanders' 2016 and 2020 campaigns that both parties could learn something from. It would be amazing to see Republicans do more to incentivize the creation of affordable housing or implement tariffs selectively. It would be great to see the Democrats champion Medicare for All and a reduction in military spending. Both parties could learn from Sanders' stances on reforming the U.S. immigration system and taxing the rich. Opinion: Trump is already rewriting history of his presidency – and getting away with it At minimum, both Democrats and Republicans could acknowledge the current distrust in American political parties. 'You have billionaires in both political parties determining what legislation gets to the floor and who is the candidate,' Sanders told Fox News host Brett Baier in a recent interview. Say what you will about Sanders, but he's always been steadfast in his criticisms of obscene wealth and his championing of the working class. It's something that I'd like to see more of from both political parties. Sanders is everything Trump and Biden could never be While Sanders is older than both Trump and former President Joe Biden, he has qualities that both of them lack. In 2022, a USA TODAY-Ipsos poll found that Sanders had the highest approval of any Democratic contender from the 2024 election. He's more energetic than Biden and is better at drawing crowds of people. He has credibility amongst most Americans that Biden and other Democrats lack. Although he and Trump differ drastically in their opinions on social issues, they both appeal to working-class Americans through their promises to make life cheaper. While Trump only says these things to win elections, Sanders actually has plans for how these changes could take place and is better suited for implementing policy. Opinion: This liberal influencer calls Democrats 'smug, disinterested.' He's right. Democrats need Sanders' popularity and energy to beat MAGA I'm a little surprised that I agree with Trump on something, or that he's even proposing an idea that could be viewed as progressive. Prescription drug costs are too high, and something must be done. But like Sanders said, he's going about it in a way that will surely get stopped by the courts. It would be best for Trump to pursue this initiative through legislative action and bipartisan support. Sanders would have done that better than Biden or Trump. Sanders has also proven to be one of the few people on the left who is facing Trump's second term head-on. He's taken the show on the road with the 'Fighting Oligarchy' tour, drawing record crowds as he and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D–New York, talked about the dangers of Trump. In his interview with Baier, he also noted that the crowds have included Republicans and independents. Sanders' stable popularity in the face of Democrats' declining poll numbers. It would be nice if the Democrats could see Sanders as an ally or go so far as to implement some of his ideas in the next presidential campaign. Instead, they're too busy trying to void their own party elections after 25-year-old vice chair David Hogg dared to say there should be competitive Democratic primary elections. Perhaps top Democrats like Sen. Chuck Schumer, D–New York, or Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin could learn a thing or two from Sanders, who recently suggested that the Democratic brand is so toxic that progressives should consider dropping the label altogether and running as independents. If we want to save the party and defeat Trump in the midterms, it's clear that something needs to change. Sanders is providing a roadmap for how to do it. I can't help but think about what kind of president he would have been. Follow USA TODAY columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bernie Sanders: Resisting Trump Is ‘Not Good Enough'
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Throughout the era of politics dominated by President Donald Trump, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has offered the same advice to the Democratic Party over and over again: Simply trying to stop what Trump is doing isn't enough. This time, though, there's a chance the party might actually listen. As Sanders campaigns across the country, attracting tens of thousands of people at rallies in GOP-held congressional districts, the party is seeing its approval ratings slip to record lows. Combined with the mutual embrace between Trump and some of the world's richest people, the stage is set for the 83-year-old Sanders to shape the party's direction in an unprecedented way. 'The American people, I think, not only want resistance to Trump, but I think they want what the Democratic Party in the last many years has not given them, and that is an agenda that speaks to the needs of the working class, because it's not good enough,' Sanders told HuffPost in an exclusive sit-down interview with HuffPost following his rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Friday. ''Oh, well, you know, Trump is a terrible guy,'' he continued, mimicking other critics of the president. 'Fine. You know, the majority of American people understand that. What's your alternative? Why did Trump get elected? What do you have to say to a worker today who's making 14 bucks an hour, who can't afford health care? Tell me what you have to say. What do you have to say to kids who would like to go to college, who can't afford to go to college?' Sanders' rising influence does not mean the entire party is going to embrace his call for 'Medicare for All' or free college. But it may mean even moderates take a closer look at his anti-establishment style and relentless focus on economic policy as a way to combat swing voters' belief Democrats are too close to feckless institutions and too obsessed with culture war issues. 'We viewed people like Bernie as an outlier threat to the institutional Democratic Party, when in fact what he was talking about and is still talking about is the crossover message. And it pulls Trump voters back into the Democratic coalition,' Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview last month. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks at the Fighting Oligarchy rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on May 2. NurPhoto via Getty Images Sanders spoke Friday to a packed hall of about 4,000 people, his 12th stop on a tour that began in March alongside Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who appears poised to inherit the mantle of his grassroots movement. Their focus has been on marshaling anti-Trump energy and directing it at Republican-held congressional districts whose incumbents have shied away from engaging with angry constituents at public town halls, critical battlegrounds Democrats are hoping to flip in next year's midterm elections. But the tour, while mainly a response to Trump, is also a reaction to anger on the left toward a perceived vacuum of Democratic leadership at the national level. Congressional Democrats, hampered by minorities in both legislative chambers, were shell-shocked by the breakneck pace of Trump's policies and initially slow-footed organizing against them. They've woken up in recent weeks, with Democratic governors like JB Pritzker of Illinois and Andy Beshear of Kentucky speaking out on the national stage, and Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland making their influence felt in the Senate and abroad. Attendees who spoke with HuffPost at Sanders' rally in Harrisburg have noticed, mentioning the names of Pritzker, Booker and Ocasio-Cortez as Democrats who they feel are adequately stepping up. But others still don't believe the opposition party is meeting the moment, yearning for more aggressive pushback even if Democrats have little power in Washington right now. 'Some of them aren't doing jack,' said Cameron Cluelow, a steelworker from York. 'Democrats that are also taking corporate money are just as bad as Republicans. You can't be resisting Trump if you're going to do the same thing that he's doing.' Victoria Slobodian, a social worker from Camp Hill, said Democrats' inaction is 'allowing it to happen.' 'I am seeing more people speaking out now, but had they done that in the beginning, and had a strong stance, I really feel like it wouldn't be as bad as it is now,' she added, expressing fears about GOP attacks against Medicaid and other public services designed to support the vulnerable. Other prominent figures within the Democratic Party like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who are both potential 2028 presidential contenders, are taking a different approach to Trump: engaging him and his administration when the moment calls for it or when it stands to benefit their constituents. Whitmer, in particular, has raised eyebrows by appearing with the president in the Oval Office, even sharing a hug with him, moves that yielded a win for her state, including a new fighter jet mission at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base. 'I've gotta put the people in Michigan first over my self-interest, over maybe what people assume are gonna be my political interests,' Whitmer explained last week in an interview with the popular liberal podcast 'Pod Save America.' Sanders' approach hasn't escaped critiques, either. A pair of Democratic senators from battleground states — Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — suggested their fellow Senate colleague and other Trump critics ought to stop using the term 'oligarchy' in relation to Trump's billionaire Cabinet because it doesn't resonate with voters outside of coastal areas. That dig was met with a brusque dismissal from Sanders. 'Well, jeez. We had 36,000 people out in Los Angeles, 34,000 people in Colorado. We had 30,000 people in Folsom, California, which is kind of a rural area. I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are,' Sanders said in an interview with NBC's 'Meet the Press' last month. A person wears an ''AOC 2028'' hat in support of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Fighting Oligarchy Tour in Harrisburg on May 2. NurPhoto via Getty Images Faiz Shakir, a top adviser to Sanders, also responded to Fetterman on Sunday, saying he ought to be put 'in the category of Democrats who wants to talk down to people [and who] think they're just too dumb to understand the general notions of powerful elites running this country.' Outside Friday's rally in Harrisburg, vendors hawked anti-Trump resistance merchandise for sale that included images of Sanders, as well as hats with the letters 'AOC 2028' emblazoned on them, advocating for a future presidential run by the 35-year-old congresswoman from New York. Ukrainian blue and yellow flags flew atop parked cars while attendees who wore 'Gulf of Mexico' shirts in defiance of Trump's name change for the basin posed for photos from the media. Attendees, many of whom had never been to a political rally before, said they came out to hear from Sanders out of anger and anxiety, and as a way to make a stand themselves. 'I'm worried for myself and for my other friends who look like me, because people are getting deported who aren't even criminals or anything at all. They just go, 'Oh that's what you look like? Put you in the gulag.' It's awful, it's terrible,' Jozlynn Ayers, a retail worker in Harrisburg, told HuffPost. 'I can't watch the news anymore,' added Nancy Michaelian, a nurse from Harrisburg. 'It's unreal to me that the Congress has laid down and given up all responsibility. It's mind-blowing.' Related...
