Politics

Progressives say they’re done re-litigating old posts. Are their opponents?

Published

3 months ago

July 11, 2026

Progressive Democratic candidates have one thing to say to their establishment amid a wave of primary victories poised to dramatically alter the ideological makeup of their party: Enough with the old posts.

Attacks that dredge up calls to defund the police, full-throated embraces of identity politics and more, born from the leftward lurch Democrats took during President Donald Trump’s first term, won’t be what voters are thinking about come November, they say.

Rather, candidates say a populist economic message that addresses affordability concerns will buoy them to victory.

“You can talk about my tweets if you want to, but you can’t afford your health care, you can’t afford your groceries, you can’t afford your housing,” Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed said in an interview. “And it’s because of Donald Trump’s absurd policies.”

The defensive tactic popular among progressive candidates represents a new path being forged by Democrats still haunted by a disastrous presidential election, which some blame on the party’s unwillingness to distance itself from progressive positions on trans rights, policing and other issues that alienated moderate voters.

They’ve largely leaned into their outspokenness, past and present, in the hopes that voters will appreciate their authenticity. But their moderate opponents are less convinced, fearing potential losses if primary voters give Republicans a candidate with obvious weaknesses.

The border between which past comments must be acknowledged — or fully apologized for — and which can be cleanly pivoted away from remains fuzzy. Broadly, however, progressive candidates are dismissing attacks on their past.

“I’ve been to 400-plus public events, and nobody’s ever asked me about my tweets,” El-Sayed said.

However, Roxie Richner, spokesperson for the campaign, said El-Sayed deleted all posts older than July of 2023 “to prevent any old posts from being taken out of context” and that the deletion did not target any specific topic.

Which former comments must be atoned for differs by primary. Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, for one, has walked back some of his most outspoken comments calling God nonbinary and lamenting the privilege his whiteness affords him, admitting in interviews that those comments were “cringey.”

But in a Democratic stronghold in New York City, Darializa Avila Chevalier was able to pivot around attacks on her calls to abolish prisons on the way to ousting longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.).

She did, however, express regret for some old posts, including ones in which she wrote “fuck Kamala Harris” and called Joe Biden a “rapist.”

Bill Neidhardt, a Democratic strategist at the progressive consulting firm Middle Seat, said that while it’s not like “there’s never room to apologize,” a candidate refusing to entertain attacks on their progressive past can work remarkably well among voters itching for an outsider candidate.

“Whenever I see an incumbent focusing on tweets and not about the economy, I feel like my campaign is in the place where I want it to be,” said Neidhardt, whose firm has worked for progressives including Avila Chevalier, El-Sayed and Melat Kiros — a democratic socialist who recently toppled 15-term incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette in Colorado.

El-Sayed, for one, has repeatedly emphasized that he isn’t interested in litigating the past — which opponents have sought to do over his since-deleted 2020 posts lamenting that police departments are overfunded relative to other social services and referring to them as “standing armies.”

He told Blue Light News that “the idea that you stand by everything you ever said, out of context, is an insane thing to assume about anybody.”

But El-Sayed’s shifting recollection of the past has put him in bind. After telling the Detroit News that he “actually never, never called for defunding,” CNN reported that he said “we do need to defund the police” in a June 2020 interview with Detroit Public Radio. In that interview, the former health official said that he considered defunding to mean reducing funding for prisons and police while investing more in “the means of educating and empowering, engaging communities with the means of being able to take on systemic poverty.”

El-Sayed has characterized such reporting as superfluous to the actual issues present in the campaign.

In an interview with BLN, El-Sayed was skeptical of the newsworthiness of the coverage: “I think this debate about 2020 and the ways that tweets are going to play are really nice on BLN if you want to get clicks.” And after BLN reported that he did in fact say “defund the police,” a campaign spokesperson told the outlet that El-Sayed’s “perspective has become more nuanced” since 2020.

When opponents and media dig up past comments, Neidhardt says he tells his candidates to keep their eyes on the ball, “and the ball is pocketbook politics, it’s not whoever is looking most proper for the Washington set.”

“They care about whether someone’s gonna fight for them,” Neidhardt said of voters.

That’s a philosophy mirrored in another progressive upstart in Wisconsin: gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong — a democratic socialist state representative that has faced similar critiques over a slew of social media posts calling to abolish the police. She is leading in most recent primary polls.

Alison Geyer, a spokesperson for Hong’s campaign, characterized the attention her posts have received as distractions from her otherwise popular slate of policies while acknowledging the blowback certain slogans can inspire without additional context.

Geyer said Hong “does not regret speaking out” amid a nationwide reckoning over police violence and racial injustice but acknowledged how slogans are “imperfect tools” that can’t always capture the full nuance of policy positions.

Still, problematic social media posts have bogged down some candidates — particularly when they go beyond far-left policy proposals to more personal controversies. Since-deleted posts authored by Maine Democrat Graham Platner, in which he said victims of sexual assault should “take some responsibility” and that many white rural Americans “actually are” racist and unintelligent, provide a picture of which past comments can severely hurt a political campaign.

Repeated scandals about Platner’s posts, in addition to the Nazi-aligned Totenkopf emblem tattooed to his chest — which he denied knowing the symbolism of — and reports of concerning behavior with former partners, now appear to some Democrats as a warning sign the party should have heeded before Maine’s June primary. Platner ended his campaign this week following Blue Light News’s reporting that an ex-girlfriend said he sexually assaulted her.

Platner has called that allegation false.

Still, progressives’ primary opponents — let alone the Republicans they hope to face in November — believe their outwardly nonchalant attitudes toward their past posts will haunt them. Spokespeople for three of Hong’s opponents in Wisconsin panned her posts, with opponent Joel Brennan saying “I don’t think there are three words that have done more damage to Democrats in the last decade than ‘defund the police.’”

“If we spend this fall defending those words, I’m afraid we lose,” continued the statement from Brennan, who trails Hong and other frontrunners in the polls.

Michigan Republicans, meanwhile, are salivating at the opportunity to run against El-Sayed. Presumptive Republican Senate nominee and former Rep. Mike Rogers said in a statement that “hide and deflect all he wants, Michiganders see Abdul and the Democrats for how out-of-touch they really are.”

And Arik Wolk, spokesperson for primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), said that Republicans know El-Sayed “has real liabilities as a candidate” and accused Republicans of “spending money to ‘boost’ his campaign.”

El-Sayed has gotten a taste of what Republican opposition may look like if he wins the primary. In late June, the National Republican Senatorial Committee unveiled a new attack ad calling El-Sayed “too radical for Michigan.” El-Sayed has coyly responded to such charges that, in his telling, explain exactly why people should vote for him.

But taking that line of defense when it comes to attacks surrounding a candidate’s supposed extremeness can potentially backfire, said Kate deGruyter, the spokesperson for the center-left Third Way.

“Republicans are going to try to weaponize any evidence they have to paint a Democrat as a radical, and it sure helps them out when our candidates are confidently saying those things out loud on camera,” deGruyter said.

Politics

Ohio returns as a bellwether

Published

2 hours ago

October 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ohio returns as a bellwether

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Politics

Inside the quiet money pullback — for both parties — in Georgia’s Senate race

Published

3 hours ago

October 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The money spigot is sputtering in Georgia’s Senate race amid growing expectations that Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff will win reelection.

The Senate Leadership Fund, Republicans’ top Senate super PAC, did not spend on broadcast television in the state last week — the first week they were off air in the race, according to tracking firm AdImpact. Neither did Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC.

Senate Majority PAC will also be dark again this week, the Chuck Schumer-aligned group shared first with Blue Light News. It was not immediately clear whether SLF would follow suit. The group declined to comment on their future spending plans in the state.

The spending slowdown underscores how dramatically Georgia’s place on the Senate map has shifted, as Ossoff maintains wide margins over Republican Rep. Mike Collins in public polling and fundraising. Georgia was expected to be one of the cycle’s most expensive and preeminent battlegrounds — now some of the biggest outside spenders are pulling back and turning their attention to more competitive races in redder territory.

The two major Senate super PACs have closely mirrored each other’s spending decisions in recent weeks, with neither fully retreating from the state. They still both technically have future ad reservations booked past this week, but those are not binding, leaving both sides with the flexibility to redirect money as they assess the Senate map. And with two weeks until Election Day and early voting already underway in Georgia, it’s unclear whether either will spend any more in the state.

“National Republicans are abandoning Mike Collins as he continues to show Georgians why he’s unelectable and unfit for office. We are committed to seeing Jon Ossoff through to victory as we come to the final days of this campaign,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.

Collins’ campaign, in a statement, said they were “grateful to every group that’s standing with Rep. Collins and welcome their continued support.”

“With early voting underway, he’s working every day to earn the vote of every Georgian, because Jon Ossoff is a radical leftist who wants to raise their taxes and make their families less safe. Rep. Collins will keep making that case until Ossoff is held accountable on Election Day,” Collins spokesperson Meyer Siegfried said in a statement.

Ossoff’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

SMP had pledged in the spring to spend $20 million on television for the race, but as of Friday had only spent or reserved $11.5 million, per AdImpact. SLF had announced an initial $44 million investment, but has so far only spent or reserved roughly $20 million.

No Going Back PAC, which is affiliated with President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC, has also dramatically scaled back its own spending on the race over the last two weeks, according to AdImpact.

Republican operatives are still monitoring Georgia’s governor’s race, where recent public polling shows GOP nominee Rick Jackson slightly ahead of Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms. Republicans believe Jackson’s strength could keep the Senate race closer than currently expected.

But they have grown increasingly pessimistic about their prospects of flipping Georgia’s Senate seat, as Collins trails Ossoff in the polls and the overall environment for the GOP continues to grow more difficult. SLF’s decision to go dark last week — so close to the election — raises questions about how much more the group will ultimately invest in the state.

“Every dollar Schumer spends in Georgia is one not spent on offense in red states. Republicans’ financial advantage doesn’t just show up in more ads, it keeps Dems on defense,” a person familiar with SLF’s spending plans told Blue Light News.

Ossoff also holds a massive fundraising advantage over Collins, who had just over $1 million cash on hand as of Oct. 1, giving Ossoff a major financial cushion in the final stretch even before the major Senate super PACs pulled back their spending.

The GOP has been triaging races across the map: SLF shifted money out of North Carolina, another perennial battleground, while moving resources toward defending GOP-held seats in states like Kansas and South Carolina, where the Senate contests have become increasingly competitive.

Still, even as the money going into Georgia has continued to slow, Trump appears to be prioritizing the longtime battleground.

At a rally in Dalton on Friday, he urged voters to “pretend” he’s on the ballot, while praising Collins and the state’s GOP governor’s nominee, Rick Jackson.

Meredith Lee Hill and Andrew Howard contributed.

Politics

Democrats’ Tejano star sings to swing South Texas

Published

20 hours ago

October 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

EDINBURG, Texas — A man walks out to a packed arena filled with fervent fans. Nostalgic music blasts out over the speakers as the audience of the spectacle sways and sing along. Firehouse-red campaign hats litter the heads of the devotees jammed in tight to see the show.

But this isn’t a MAGA rally, and that’s not Donald Trump hitting the stage.

On stage is Bobby Pulido, the Tejano star turned Democratic House candidate clad in head-to-toe leather and a black cowboy hat. The occasion? “La Ultima Desvelada,” what he said will be his final concert in Edinburg on Saturday night.

Pulido is trying to flip a district that has steadily, over the past decade, slipped from the grasp of the Democratic Party and became the ultimate swing test for the country’s most culturally conservative Latino voters.

If Pulido wins in Texas’ 15th District against incumbent GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the Democratic Party stands to gain much more than just a seat that could make a House majority. As the party looks to rebuild with Latinos and lay the groundwork for 2028, the Tejano crooner could become a strong messenger to one of Democrats’ weakest voting blocs.

“Mexican-American men haven’t really felt like they have a home,” in either party, Pulido told Blue Light News in an interview. “It almost feels like the Latino man wants to be that provider, and he can’t fulfill that right now.”

Like many Democrats this cycle, Pulido has dialed in on affordability and an aggressive economic messaging slamming Trump’s tariffs, the war with Iran and the growing stream of big corporate money in political campaigns.

But unlike his fellow Democrats, Pulido echoes a social conservatism that has defined the region. He’s “chapado a la antigua,” he told reporters Friday — a Spanish saying for old-school or traditional.

“Those traditions of how [Latino men] were raised are going away, and I think there’s a lot of frustration,” Pulido told Blue Light News. “They want somebody to talk to them in the language of, ‘Let me go out there and work, right? So I can provide for my family.’”

Pulido is trying to flip a district that, steadily over the past decade, slipped from the grasp of the Democratic Party.

Pulido has tapped into a level of political fervor and cultural star power for which the Democratic Party has been starved. Trump won the district by a staggering 18 points in 2024 — and it was redrawn by Republicans last year. But Pulido’s near-universal name ID as an Edinburg native and music star, combined with historic headwinds buffeting, put the south Texas district on the map as one of the biggest toss-ups this cycle.

With just over two weeks to go, Pulido is in a dead heat against De La Cruz. He’s leaving behind three decades as a musician, multiple Latin Grammys and packed arenas for a shot at representing his hometown in the halls of Congress.

The 956 region knows Pulido and his family to an extent that very few would-be members of Congress could boast. They know his father, Roberto Pulido, also a famous Tejano singer who joined his son onstage. They know his uncle, a former county judge. But beyond that, with billions of streams to his name, Pulido’s 90s hits became a ubiquitous sound for the RGV. And only in the RGV would his supporters trot up to the arena on horseback, coming off the nearby expressway.

That fame, and his deep district ties, made Pulido one of the party’s most prized recruits this cycle. He’s one of the DCCC’s top candidates, with a campaign staffed in part by blue dog organizations like The Bench while also boasting the same Latino consultants as Sen. Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) 2024 Senate campaign.

And Democrats see the potential for the kind of surrogate Pulido could become on the 2028 campaign trail. Many of the party’s biggest Latino voices — and attention grabbers — are further on the left.

“What we haven’t had is someone like Bobby Pulido, who’s going to come from the moderate wing of the party, that is going to be a rock star,” Gallego told Blue Light News.

Should Pulido head to D.C. next year, he’d be joining alongside a crop of fresh progressive Democrats who have ridden the wave of democratic socialism in blue enclaves — most notably New York’s Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez.

“We’re not going to agree on everything,” Pulido conceded. But with Texas primed to get even more electoral votes in future presidential cycles, the party’s direction has to “resonate inside the middle of the heartland,” he said.

But it’s not only electoral numbers: the early Democratic nominating calendar is heavily Latino, with both New Mexico and Nevada in the lineup. Mexican-American men could help tip the scales in either state.

Pulido knows if he pulls off the win, potential 2028 hopefuls will come flocking, asking him how to win over the Rio Grande Valley. Could he see himself backing 2028 presidential candidates if he wins? They’ll have to convince Pulido first.

“I will hold any type of endorsement or anything very close to my chest, and I will definitely make sure that I get behind somebody that has a policy that resonates with Hispanics,” Pulido said.

Confetti goes off at the end of Bobby Pulido's final concert.

Since Pulido released his hit single “Desvelado” in the mid-90s to today, his hometown of Edinburg and its sister cities across the area transformed from a once-reliable blue working class district to a part of the country deeply wary of the Democratic establishment. Latino voters have embraced the economic populism of Trump and other GOP candidates who touted their more conservative values. In 2022, De La Cruz clinched the district for Republicans.

By 2024, Democrats lacked an economic message or answers for what many in the area decried as wide-open borders, Pulido told reporters on the sidelines of his rally in Mercedes on Friday.

That’s made the stakes for his races all the bigger, with the RGV becoming the ultimate bellwether.

“Bobby’s politics are different from the way that we have branded ourselves nationally as a party, but I think that’s a good thing,” said Melissa Morales of Somos PAC, which has poured millions into Pulido’s race.

But Pulido’s campaign has been marred by scandal. He’s taken heat for crude social media posts about women and gay people. Frankie Caballero, one of his former bandmates, was convicted as a child sex offender. Pulido insisted he was not aware of Caballero’s history while he was in the band as a contractor, having not done a background check. Caballero was convicted in 2014, but later returned to performing with Pulido.

De La Cruz’s campaign has made Pulido’s ties to Caballero a staple of attacks. “Bobby Pulido had his uncle drop a child rape charge against a friend so he could play in his band. Then he bailed this pedophile out of jail, brought him to a middle school, and looked the other way while he molested children in South Texas. Latinas are choosing Monica De La Cruz, a working mom fighting for their families, over a corrupt scumbag celebrity who will make life more expensive and already put a predator back on the streets because he likes his accordion,” James Shook, De La Cruz’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Pulido was defensive over his past, but apologized for his social media posts in an interview with Blue Light News. He has given varied responses on what he knew about why Caballero went to prison. “I apologize for everything that I’ve ever joked about that offended anybody,” Pulido told Blue Light News in August. “But I can’t continue to revisit every single one.”

Pulido’s final show Saturday was the talk of Edinburg, from the hallways of the nearby inns to the post-concert stop at Whataburger.

With hundreds flocking to Bert Ogden Arena to witness his final show, Pulido’s popularity has hardly dimmed because of it. Multiple voters in attendance who spoke with Blue Light News said they had heard the allegations about Pulido and his accordionist, but none said that it was affecting their vote.

“It’s unfortunate, but I’m not gonna hold it against Bobby,” said Joe Barrera, a musician from the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo area. Barrera, an independent, added that he’s still undecided between voting for Pulido or De La Cruz — but said he feels “it’s time for a change.”

The economy and immigration dominated the reasons why voters in the crowd pledged their support for the singer. The cost of living has gotten “re pe caro” — super expensive — Frank Trevino, a Democrat from Edinburg, told Blue Light News. He and fellow Edinburg voter Felix Sandoval said they knew Pulido’s mother and remembered Bobby as a kid. “We need to support him, God help him,” Sandoval said.

Pulido’s final show Saturday was the talk of Edinburg, from the hallways of the nearby inns to the post-concert stop at Whataburger. Clocking in at nearly two hours, it served as a greatest hits replay for the last 30 years of his life — and a trip down memory lane for many of the voters who grew up with him. “Of course I’m emotional, but I’m leaving with no regrets,” Pulido said from the stage. Pulido is simultaneously up for yet another Latin Grammy recognition this year.

And for his status as a longtime entertainer, Pulido is not a fan of the comparisons to Trump, who in his words, is “full of shit.” Yet it’s also something his campaign has been (perhaps ironically) leaning into, with “Make Quinceñeras Great Again” hats nodding to what’s become his signature campaign move.

With early voting kicking off on Monday, Pulido sharpened his closing pitch: He’s not for Democrats or Republicans — he’s for his district.

“I want to give something back to the place that’s given me so much,” Pulido said. “And if you give me the honor of representing you in Congress, I give you my word that I’ll never forget where I came from.”