John —

Let me get right to the point: this year’s Democratic primaries are seeing an unprecedented avalanche of right wing and corporate Super PAC spending.

And we’re at serious risk of those right wing forces shifting the balance of the Democratic Caucus in a much more conservative and pro-corporate direction and putting our entire agenda at risk — unless we’re prepared to answer it.

Because you’re such a valued supporter of the Working Families Party, John, I wanted to take a moment to share some more detail with you about this threat we are facing and how we are proving we can fight back and win. But before I do:

Can you contribute to our Working Families Majority Fund to help us reach more voters every day from now through Election Day? We’ve got critical primaries in more than a dozen states over the next two months, and then we’ve got to fight for — and win — majorities in the House and Senate that will actually pass our priorities into law.

First, some numbers:

This year already, FEC reports show that more than $90 million dollars has been spent in outside spending in Democratic primaries for the U.S. House.
Twenty separate Democratic primaries have seen independent spending over $1 million so far.
The biggest new conservative spender this cycle is AIPAC’s super PAC, called the “United Democracy Project” or UDP. They’ve spent roughly $20 million in Democratic primaries so far this cycle alone.

Numbers like that have been unheard of until this cycle. And even as AIPAC and their allies are spending multiple millions in Democratic primaries, they are also endorsing more than 100 insurrectionist Republicans for Congress.

But it’s not only the issue of foreign policy that will get yanked to the right if AIPAC wins – it’s everything. Our working families agenda is particularly at risk. Consider some of the biggest races they’ve spent in already:

In Texas, UDP spent millions to defend Henry Cuellar, the only anti-abortion Democrat in Congress who also got an “A” rating from the NRA, against his progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros. Their millions pushed him over the top in a race that came down to a recount.
In Maryland, UDP spent over $6 million in one race alone to defeat Donna Edwards, a former progressive member of Congress with nearly a dozen union endorsements — all so they could elect a former corporate lobbyist who represented tech and telecom corporations.

We know that working people running for office will never be able to match this kind of spending. But we also know money isn’t everything — and we’ve already seen what is possible this cycle when our candidates have the resources to get their own message out and fight back:

In Pennsylvania, WFP-endorsed progressive state legislator Summer Lee was able to overcome attacks from UDP and narrowly win her race against corporate Democrat Steve Irwin.
In Oregon, WFP’s Jamie McLeod-Skinner was able to handily defeat Kurt Schrader, a budget-hawk Blue Dog who played a central role in derailing Biden’s Build Back Better bill and also killed the Democrats’ prescription drug reform bill in Committee, despite corporate PACs spending big for him.

Midway through the Democratic primary season in 2022, what we’re seeing so far is more than a coincidence. It is a pattern.

Some of the biggest donors to AIPAC’s super PAC are Republican titans of industry, including hedge fund manager and “vulture capitalist” Paul Singer and Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus. Their opposition to the strength and political power of our movement is surely at least part of what they think they’re getting out of their political spending.

We’ve learned from this cycle that progressives can get outspent and still win. But it’s one thing to be outspent 2-1 and something else altogether to get outspent 5-1 or 10-1 — and it is that kind of lopsided resource advantage that dark money groups are looking to bring to bear to defeat champions of working people.

There’s still time to alter the dynamics in the races that are in the weeks ahead and make sure WFP candidates have what they need to get their own message out to voters.

We’ve shown that we can take on big corporate money and win — but only when we pool our resources together. Chip in to our Working Families Majority Fund to help us elect more champions to office who will be accountable to working people and not right-wing megadonors.

In solidarity,

Joe Dinkin
Campaigns Director
Working Families Party

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