John,

We can draw a direct line from the ineffective representation we have in Congress right now to the fact that democratic competition in U.S. elections is almost nonexistent.

Most members of Congress did not face a competitive general election, and one-third of members ran unopposed in their primary. Look at deep blue New York: last cycle, 21 of the state’s 26 House members ran unopposed in their primary.

In 2024, while 156 million Americans voted in November, only 30 million (less than 20 percent of general election voters) cast ballots in the primary elections.

This lack of primary competition and voter turnout means that many Congress members were elected by a small fraction of the people they actually represent, which is bad for our democracy. Too many House members are focused on fighting for corporate and wealthy donor interests instead of the working people who make up their communities — and that includes Democrats.

In their piece on this topic, the New York Times called out Justice Democrats’ work leading efforts to challenge out-of-touch establishment Democrats with progressive candidates from working-class backgrounds, and succeeding:

“On the left, groups like Justice Democrats have had an outsized impact by almost exclusively backing more progressive working-class candidates against more traditional Democrats in a relative handful of carefully chosen primary contests. The group’s first slate of candidates in 2018, funded largely with small contributions from donors nationwide, included Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic Socialist who ousted a 10-term incumbent in that year’s primary and who has since become one of the most prominent House Democrats.”

And we’re actively working to do it again in 2026. As our communications director Usamah Andrabi told the Times, our primaries are not left versus right: they’re bottom versus top. If we have to scare corporate politicians into fighting for working people by running primary challengers against them, then they should be scared.

Justice Democrats is currently in the process of recruiting working-class candidates in deep blue districts across the country to challenge the establishment in the 2026 Democratic primaries. Power our work with a grassroots contribution of $5 today.

Contribute $5

Because we rely on donations from regular people like you instead of corporate PACs, the number of candidates we’re able to run in the 2026 midterms will depend directly on fundraising results from emails like this one.

Thanks for anything you can give to fuel our fight to transform the Democratic Party.

— Justice Democrats