It Turns Out Pelosi, Bustos And The DCCC Were Lying All Along About The Need To Protect "Majority Makers"

Cheri Bustos with pals Rahm Emanuel and Debbie Wasserman Schultz

When Pelosi gave her new DCCC chair, Cheri Bustos (Blue Dog-IL), the thumbs up to undercut challengers in primaries, Pelosi, Hoyer, Bustos and all their corrupt conservative robots ran to the media-- too lame, as usual, to check-- screeching about how they had to protect "the majority makers." The majority makers, they insist, are the freshmen who beat Republican incumbents or won open red seats. The Bustos policy wasn't, they swore, to trash democracy, it was to protect the freshmen in tough districts. But that's a complete fabrication that was invented in Pelosi's office to trick the always gullible and dependably uninformed and lazy press.

There are exactly-- by their definition-- 45 majority makers, and that even includes a couple of freshmen not from red districts but from swing districts that had been occupied by Democrats:

• Ann Kirkpatrick (New Dem-AZ)
• Greg Stanton (New Dem-AZ)
• Josh Harder (New Dem-CA)
• TJ Cox (CA)
• Katie Hill (New Dem-CA)
• Gil Cisneros (New Dem-CA)
• Katie Porter (CA)
• Harley Rouda (New Dem-CA)
• Mike Levin (CA)
• Jason Crow (New Dem-CO)
• Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (New Dem-FL)
• Donna Shalala (FL)
• Lucy McBath (New Dem-GA)
• Sean Casten (New Dem-IL)
• Lauren Underwood (IL)
• Abby Finkenauer (IA)
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-IA)
• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)
• Jared Golden (ME)
• Elissa Slotkin (New Dem-MI)
• Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI)
• Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)
• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)
• Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)
• Steven Horsford (New Dem-NV)
• Chris Pappas (New Dem-NH)
• Jefferson Van Drew (Blue Dog-NJ)
• Andy Kim (NJ)
• Tom Malinowski (New Dem-NJ)
• Mikie Sherrill (Blue Dog-NJ)
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)
• Max Rose (Blue Dog-NY)
• Antonio Delgado (NY)
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
• Madeiline Dean (New Dem-PA)
• Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
• Lizzie Fletcher (New Dem-TX)
• Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
• Elaine Luria (New Dem-VA)
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
• Jennifer Wexton (New Dem-VA)
• Kim Schrier (New Dem-WA)

How many of these freshman "majority makers" are being threatened with primaries? Well, first a very brief tangent. Some of these freshmen are all but Republicans and unquestionably among the absolutely most atrocious Democrats in Congress. In fact Anthony Brindisi, Joe Cunningham and Jefferson Van Drew are tied at the bottom of the toilet, with the worst putatively Democratic voting records in Congress. Independent Justin Amash and 3 Republican members have more progressive voting records than those 3 Blue Dogs. On top of that Ben McAdams, Kendra Horn, Jared Golden, Elaine Luria, Xochitl Torres Small, Cindy Axne, Abigail Spanberger, Angie Craig and Elissa Slotkin have putrid right-of-center voting records which do not merit reelection under any circumstances. The Democrats in Congress would be better off without them. But not a single one of them has a primary opponent.

In fact, of the 45 "majority makers," only Donna Shalala has a primary opponent and the PVI of her south Florida district is D+5, so not exactly a threat to the Democratic majority. There has been some buzz about possible primaries aimed at Elaine Luria and Joe Cunningham, but neither is likely to amount to anything. The real reason for the Bustos Rule is to keep corrupt reactionaries from losing their seats to reformers and progressives, the way Joe Crowley lost his seat in a 2018 primary to a then-unknown AOC.

In reality, the only freshmen looking at real primaries are the ones Pelosi and the DCCC (and Biden) constantly denigrate as not part of the 2018 victory-- AOC, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Meanwhile, the Democrats who are actually being challenged in primaries are mostly corrupt reactionary Blue Dogs and New Dems just like Bustos herself-- Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL), Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ), David Scott (Blue Dog-GA), Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX), Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA), Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR), Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY), Steny Hoyer (MD), Stephen Lynch (New Dem-MA)... Below are their Trump adhesion scores, but, so you can compare them, progressives Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar Rashida Tlaib all have scores of 6.1%. Pramila Jayapal's is 8.6% and Ro Khanna's is 11.8%; AOC has a 15.2%. Pelosi's is 18.1%, Ted Lieu's is 14.8%. Barbara Lee and John Lewis each has a 7.9%. and Chuy Garcia's, Debra Haaland's, Katie Porter's and Joe Neguse's are 0.0%.

• Henry Cuellar- 51.2%
• Tom O'Hallern- 40.3%
• Jim Costa- 34.4%
• Dan Lipinski- 31.0%
• Kurt Schrader- 24.2%
• Stephen Lynch- 23.0%
• David Scott- 20.7%
• Gregory Meeks- 18.0%
• Steny Hoyer- 14.1%

Want to help their progressive challengers replace these bums? That's what the Blue America 2020 Primarying a Blue Dog thermometer is for. Please give it a tap and consider contributing what you can. And remember... never vote for a Republican; never vote for a Blue Dog; never vote for a New Dem.