The Democratic Establishment Is Going All Out To Beat Nina Turner

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44. This is Joe Biden's Party Now

The Democratic Party is Joe's party

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This is Joe Biden's party now. That was the indisputable message sent after Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown defeated former Ohio state senator Nina Turner in the Democratic primary to succeed Marcia Fudge. The special election to fill the seat in Ohio's 11th Congressional District will be held in a few months, but the outcome is already known, given that it is one of the bluest districts in the country.

This race was once thought to be a slam dunk for Turner, given that she began with a commanding 35 point lead and strong name recognition. Turner cemented herself as a progressive, anti-establishment firebrand over the past several years as a fierce backer of Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 Presidential runs. She refused to back Hillary Clinton's presidential bid once she became the Democratic nominee, and last year compared voting for Joe Biden to eating a bowl of excrement.....

While progressives have had some success during Donald Trump's tenure, the political winds are now blowing in a different direction. A recent AP poll found that 92 percent of Democrats approve of Biden's work as President. That means it is going to be difficult for progressives who brand themselves as anti-Biden or anti-establishment to win.

This point was implicitly acknowledged by the pro-Sanders group Our Revolution when their executive director rebranded them as "pragmatic progressives" who were willing to work with President Biden's more moderate agenda rather than flatly oppose it. You can see this also in other recent progressive losses in high profile races, such as the runoff election in Louisiana's 2nd district, or the Virginia gubernatorial and New York mayoral primaries. Centrist candidate Eric Adams, now the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, went as far as to call himself the "Biden of Brooklyn."....

While the race between Brown and Turner might not be the biggest of the year, it is nevertheless important because it is emblematic of how internal Democratic dynamics will play out during the Biden years. Turner showed us that even a well funded anti-establishment candidate with name recognition and endorsements can lose in this Democratic environment.