Why top progressives are keeping their campaign-trail distance from some vulnerable Dems
Politico
MADISON, Wis. — Elizabeth Warren charged on stage at a get-out-the-vote rally here with an energetic reminder that Democratic Senate nominee Mandela Barnes is “committed to making this economy work for everyone.”
The only thing missing as Warren called out Barnes and other Wisconsin Democrats as the best choices to “save our democracy”? Barnes himself.
His campaign cited a scheduling conflict with another rally, and he attended a closed-press fundraiser with Warren later that day. Yet beyond that moment, progressive leaders are deploying their public appearances carefully in the lead-up to the midterms.
Warren (D-Mass.) is campaigning alongside fellow female senators in two less conservative states than Wisconsin, both with less competitive races: Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.). But she’s also appearing for, not with, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.). And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) aren’t joining endangered incumbents even as they crisscross the country and host packed rallies to boost voter turnout.
That strategy is a tacit acknowledgment that, despite top progressives’ skills at fundraising and turning out the Democratic base, the party’s battleground-district candidates are still worried about Republican attacks that try to associate them with liberal policies toxified as “socialist.”
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