Politics

The rift over generational change roils the Congressional Black Caucus

Published

8 months ago

January 25, 2026

A new generation of Black Democrats is running in the midterms, aiming to inject a younger vision into an aging Congressional Black Caucus. And in some cases, that means primarying incumbents.

The wave of new candidates comes amid an identity crisis for the Democratic Party, which has splintered along generational and ideological lines as the party searches for new leaders in the second Trump era, both for this November and the open presidential race in two years.

“This is a new moment that requires different ideas, requires new energy and new perspectives and you cannot be a part of the system for 40 years and also be the one who’s going to change it for the next 40,” said Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, 31, who launched his primary challenge to 76-year-old Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) last year. “You’ve done the best that you could, and it’s time for other folks to be able to do the best that they can for the present and for the future.”

Young Black candidates say they’re motivated to run due to rising racial tensions, redistricting and the possibility of an end to the Voting Rights Act — and what they describe as an inadequate response from older generations that are fighting past battles.

“Our generation recognizes the fierce urgency of now,” Pearson said.

The CBC has grown exponentially since its establishment in 1971, currently boasting a historic 62 members — the largest of any of the affinity caucuses. But the average age of CBC members is 60 years old, and some of the oldest House Democrats are members.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, 85, has represented South Carolina for more than 30 years and plans on running again. At 88 years old, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has not ruled out running for reelection, despite growing concerns about her age. And 87-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who was first elected in 1990, said she also plans on running for reelection this year.

These long tenures have started to worry some new candidates, they said in interviews.

“When I was born in 1992, this was the poorest district in the poorest state in the country,” said Evan Turnage, who is primarying 77-year-old Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). “Congressman Thompson was elected in ’93 and now today, I’m 33, and this is still the poorest district in the poorest state in the country.”

Turnage — a former senior staffer to Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — said these long-serving members have “failed” younger generations for too long.

“Just because you’ve been around the block for 30 years doesn’t mean you’re delivering results for the district, doesn’t mean you’re delivering results for your constituents,” Turnage said.

In a statement, Thompson said he has spent his entire career encouraging young people “to make a difference in the world.”

“If this is how Mr. Turnage chooses to make a difference in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District, that’s his choice,” Thompson said.

The younger Black candidates — and current lawmakers — have generally pushed more progressive policies in their campaigns than CBC members who have served for decades. They’ve had a heavy focus on issues they say are of most concern to those in their generations, such as the cost of living and education.

“The Democratic Party has to adapt in order to survive. That work starts right now,” said Pearson, who gained nationwide fame in 2023 as a member of the “Tennessee Three” after he was expelled from, and then reelected to, the state Legislature for leading a gun safety protest on the state House floor.

“Black folks in this country are still suffering disproportionately in every single category, and without leadership to elevate those concerns, those worries, those issues in a meaningful way, we’re never going to see that change,” Pearson added.

He is challenging Cohen, who is white, in a majority-Black district based in Memphis that Cohen has represented for decades. During his 2007 campaign, Cohen expressed interest in joining the CBC, but caucus members quickly shut that down.

Cohen said in an interview that his tenure in Congress is actually a strength.

“I know the issues and I know the problems, I know the people,” said Cohen. “The way you get legislation passed hasn’t changed, really, in the 40 years I’ve been here. Some people think it’s about getting a megaphone and hollering or making some kind of a fuss, and I’ve done some of that in my younger days, and I still like to occasionally … but it’s a matter of having friends, having relationships, and being able to get the majority of votes to pass the bills. And I’ve done that all my life.”

The CBC has begun to see younger legislators enter their ranks in recent years. Rep. Gabe Amo, 38, made history in 2023 when he was elected as Rhode Island’s first Black representative. And in 2022, at the age of 25, Rep. Maxwell Frost became the first Gen Z CBC member elected to Congress.

“Our movement — from the civil rights era to the birth of the CBC itself — was born from the energy and courage of young people to stand up and do the right thing,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chair of the CBC’s political arm, in a statement. “Our caucus today represents the breadth and depth of our community — from every corner of America — and folks whose families have been here for generations, those who are immigrants, queer, disabled, and more women and young people than ever before.”

The CBC PAC has already endorsed some young candidates this cycle, including California’s Lauren Babb and Arkansas’ Chris Jones. It’s likely the PAC will also endorse Adrian Boafo, 31, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss private matters, who is running to succeed 86-year-old Rep. Steny Hoyer.

But the PAC this year also endorsed 71-year-old incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) — who identifies as Afro Latino, currently chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has had a bumpy relationship with the CBC — over his 32-year-old primary challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier.

As the age gap between caucus members and voters grows, an influx of fresh faces will be vital to regaining voters’ support for Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms, said 25-year-old Courtney McClain, who is running for a red House seat in South Carolina.

“Within the party in general, we’ve had an issue of connecting with younger voters, and especially with young men,” said McClain, referring to the 15 percent of Black men who supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. “I really think a lot of people are more apt to vote if they can see themselves in the candidate as opposed to someone who has been there for many years.”

But these young Black candidates still hold a deep appreciation for the caucus, despite their concerns around age.

Turnage said he’d “love” to be a member of the CBC. Pearson called the caucus an “extraordinary institution.” And McClain — a onetime CBC Foundation intern and a fellow with the CBC Institute last year — said she would “definitely” like to be a member.

Ultimately, McClain said, the CBC needs young members if they hope to actually address the challenges facing the next generation.

“The legislation that’s being passed, a lot of the people that are currently in office won’t even be impacted by it, say, in the next 20 years,” McClain said. “But my generation will.”

Politics

Farm-state Republicans are having a cow over Trump’s beef imports as Election Day approaches

Published

17 hours ago

September 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Farm-state Republicans don’t support President Donald Trump’s move to import cheap beef — but they’re still getting grilled for it.

Trump’s plan to combat sky-high beef prices by introducing discounted, tariff-free foreign beef has been widely condemned by ag-state Republicans who are concerned it will undercut the domestic beef industry and hurt ranchers, a normally reliable constituency.

And their opponents see an opening to paint Republicans as unconcerned about voters’ pocketbook concerns.

“Our ranchers and our farmers keep getting kicked in the teeth, and we have politicians that keep telling us that everything’s great, that we’re the hottest country,” Dan Osborn, an independent running for Senate in Nebraska, said in an interview. “And to be quite frank, I’m pretty pissed off about it.”

Osborn’s state is one of the top four top cattle-producing states — along with Texas, Kansas and Iowa — all of which have more-competitive-than-expected Senate races this cycle. And Trump’s controversial plan to remove tariffs from 300,000 metric tons of imported beef, sold at 25 percent below current market prices, is doing Republicans no favors.

Osborn’s campaign went on air with a pun-filled ad this week in which he says the import plan is “selling out American farmers and ranchers,” and blasts Congress for being “too chicken to stand up to the corporations who bought them off.” The campaign says it plans to spend at least six figures airing the spot. It’s the first major spending from a campaign focused on the beef import plan. But it plays into a larger economic argument Democrats are pushing to break through with farmers and ranchers: Trump and Republicans have turned their backs on rural America, as a worsening farm crisis and spiking fuel and fertilizer prices pinch agricultural communities.

“It’s part of a wider frustration,” said an adviser to one of the farm-state GOP senators, granted anonymity to speak openly. “I don’t think it sways anyone’s vote, but it isn’t a great look. … It isn’t fun for me to read the headline. It’s frustrating.”

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Osborn’s opponent, said in a statement he has a record of standing for his state’s agriculture community, “no matter who is president — from fighting Biden’s 30×30 plan to opposing this beef import plan.”

“Ranchers know the difference between a senator who delivers and a candidate reading a script his socialist ad agency wrote,” Ricketts said.

Farm-state Democrats and independents believe beef imports provide a window to speak to rural voters who have skewed red for decades but suddenly look more competitive amid Trump’s plunging political standing. A strategist working on Osborn’s campaign, granted anonymity to discuss strategy, said Osborn’s ad “codes as non-partisan in a way that running ads about taxes or healthcare doesn’t.”

Trump’s overall unpopularity is hurting Republicans across the map, but this policy could be especially problematic in a quartet of once-sleeper Senate races that could hand Democrats control of the upper chamber.

Spokespeople for the GOP nominees in Iowa and Kansas declined to discuss the issue, pointing to their candidates’ statements in August, when Trump’s plan was announced: Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) called Trump’s plan a “bad idea,” while Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said the priority should be growing the U.S. cattle herd, “not flooding the market with imports.”

Last week, during a debate at the Kansas State Fair, Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton slammed the import plan as “a slap in the face of all of our cattle ranchers,” earning a raucous response from fair-goers, and hit Marshall for “tepidly respond[ing] to it as opposed to shouting like hell that this is not okay.”

In Iowa’s agriculture-heavy first district, Democrats have been on the air since June with an ad hammering Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks for record-high beef prices” and other cost-of-living increases under the Trump administration. The Republicans who were already getting hammered for high prices before now are now hobbled by a proposed remedy — one that has infuriated their own base.

When asked how Republicans should message the beef plan back home, Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, acknowledged there’s “certainly a lot of concern amongst our cattle producers.”

“I think they understand what’s going on. They’re just not pleased with it,” Boozman said. “We’re in contact with the administration, a lot of members are in contact, helping them understand the unintended consequences of it. We’d like to lower prices, but again, we don’t want the unintended consequence of lowering cattle futures significantly.”

That leaves ranchers worried that the import plan will undercut their struggling industry.

“President Trump wants to lower the price of beef, I think that’s where it’s coming from,” said Ben Menges, a cattle rancher in Arizona’s battleground 6th District. “The best way that President Trump can do that is by lowering the cost of fuel, not by importing a bunch of beef.”

Some Republicans have looked to turn the conversation into a culture war issue — hitting their opponents for past stances on meat consumption or veganism.

Vice President JD Vance, during a visit to Iowa Friday — which Hinson did not attend — slammed Hamilton, the pastor-turned-Democratic nominee for Senate in Kansas, for having a “kind of a ‘gee whiz, I’m a nice pastor’ vibe” who tells his congregation to “repent for their white privilege while eating beef.”

It’s an attack Marshall made at last week’s debate, hitting Hamilton for a sermon he delivered on climate change and the impact of meat consumption.

“I think the senator needs to repent for not standing up for the beef industry,” responded Hamilton.

Politics

The Blue Light News Poll Electability Experiment

Published

18 hours ago

September 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Respondents presented with 2 choices of candidates with various traits. Results represent the estimated impact of each trait on likelihood of selection.

Politics

‘States should have a say’: Candidates for governor race to take on AI regulation

Published

19 hours ago

September 19, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Gubernatorial candidates across the country are racing to stake out positions on AI as the battle over regulating the technology intensifies.

They’re watching as sitting governors of both parties turn the rapidly evolving technology into a political priority, from Gavin Newsom in California to Ron DeSantis in Florida and Kathy Hochul in New York.

Now they’re starting to join the chorus, calling for more state-based action to put guardrails on AI — even if they don’t know what that would look like yet.

Blue Light News reached out to more than 18 Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates on their plans and received responses from eight. Nearly all said they want states to take the lead on AI, signaling a frustration with Washington’s inaction and acknowledgement that — if they eventually secure the governor’s mansion — they can’t dismiss the growing warnings.

Candidates said they were motivated by different concerns including fraud, job displacement and children’s safety. Their lack of detail on just how to address AI also reveals a tricky pivot these gubernatorial candidates are facing: To date, much of their campaign messaging on AI or the technology race with China has focused on data centers’ impact on energy prices.

Now, with less than six weeks until Election Day, they’re attempting to talk about AI in a more existential — and more far-reaching — manner.

“The federal government has failed to lead on this issue, and we cannot trust the billionaires profiting off of AI to self-regulate,” said Gina Hinojosa, Texas’ Democratic nominee for governor, in a statement. “State government has the most direct impact on our day-to-day lives, and at a time when Texans are more uncertain and concerned about AI than ever, it’s critical that we put the needs of Texans before corporate profits.” (GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, Hinojosa’s opponent, did not respond to a list of questions.)

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who’s heavily favored to succeed Newsom in California, is in conversations with tech industry leaders and economists on the path forward. He will “work to set firm guardrails to prevent the threat of real harms to workers, to children, to our privacy rights, to public safety,” spokesperson Jonathan Underland said in a statement. “California is the birthplace of modern AI, and California will lead the way in making it safe.”

Becerra’s longshot Republican opponent, Steve Hilton, told Blue Light News that there’s a place for narrow regulation on AI — even though he thinks some of the warnings are overblown and “preposterous.”

“California should lead on this because we are leading on the technology, and therefore we should lead on the regulation,” Hilton said. “I would prefer to see both the Congress and politicians in other states back off and stop talking about something they don’t understand.”

Recent warnings from top AI leaders about the technology’s potential apocalyptic trajectory roiled Democrats and Republicans both in Washington and on the campaign trail. According to a new POLITICO Poll, a majority of voters now think that AI poses an existential threat to humanity and a plurality want to see a pause in development of advanced models.

“There is a lot of education that’s needed here, and people are navigating an issue that they weren’t even really thinking about six months ago beyond the beyond ‘Should we have data centers’?” said Alyssa Cass, a Democratic strategist who has worked with Alex Bores, a New York state lawmaker who gained national attention in his failed campaign for Congress for opposition to unchecked AI.

“They’re talking about it,” she added. “That’s a meaningful difference.”

The National Governors Association, which convened a working group on AI’s impact on the workforce earlier this year, plans to release a policy roadmap for governors in November on how states can take action.

“We have 39 gubernatorial elections happening in November, and at least 21 new governors will be sworn in in January,” said Sophia Yager, the NGA’s policy director for workforce development and economic policy. “So we wanted to have a resource available not only for incumbent governors who are thinking and working on this issue, but for all of the new governors coming in, wanting to have something available for them from the jump in November.”

So far, Democrats have taken the sharpest aim at the Republican-controlled federal government for its inaction on establishing safeguards against AI.

“While regulation is strongest and most effective at the federal level, President [Donald] Trump dismisses the need for even the most basic guardrails, and we know it can take time for Congress to act,” said Federico Araujo, a spokesperson for Oregon’s Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, who’s locked in a tightening battle for reelection. “States, in the meantime, must act with more urgency and do everything possible to manage how AI impacts our economies, energy prices and natural resources.”

David Crowley, the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin, told Blue Light News in a statement that AI safety is “an issue Wisconsin can address” but “we need strong leadership and partners in Washington who are looking out for us at home.” Still, he didn’t offer specifics, and much of his battle with GOP nominee Tom Tiffany — and even the Democratic primary — has been focused on data centers’ proliferation in Wisconsin.

Tiffany did not respond to a request for comment.

The calls for action on state-based regulation have not been limited to Democrats alone. Republicans — including some Trump allies — signaled a willingness to create safe buffers for the technology at the state level, following the lead of governors like DeSantis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, who have long advocated for states’ abilities to install guardrails amid federal inaction.

“States should have a say in how AI is regulated,” said Dan Capodilupo, spokesperson for Iowa GOP gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn. “Zach is committed to protecting states rights.” State Auditor Rob Sand, his Democratic opponent, did not respond to a request for comment.

In Georgia, Garrison Douglas, a spokesperson for GOP nominee Rick Jackson, stopped short of calling for local regulations but said that the health care executive “supports efforts to ensure that new models are tested for risks and that safety standards are established. He added that Jackson is “committed” to working with the state legislature on protecting consumers from AI-driven scams.

Georgia’s Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has labeled concerns about AI’s existential threat a “HOAX” and derided efforts to regulate the technology, and his White House has pushed preemption of state-level regulation. In February, the White House urged Utah legislators to abandon an AI transparency bill; the administration has similarly gone after state-level legislation in Colorado and in California.

A POLITICO review of state-level legislation found 18 laws in 13 states, led by both Republicans and Democrats, that contradict the White House’s preemption framework.

These candidates’ calls for state-based action mirror some early actions that both red and blue state executives are taking from their statehouse perches, explicitly defying Trump’s hands-off approach to regulating the nascent but powerful industry.

This week, Cox urged Washington to “establish a consistent national framework for the development of frontier AI,” and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, in a speech at an AI-focused conference in Pittsburgh, called for the “federal government to step up and regulate the AI industry just like they do for nearly every other industry that significantly impacts our lives.”

Shapiro — who’s up for reelection in the battleground state this year and is considered a 2028 presidential contender — outlined what he sees as the stakes of slow-walking protective measures.

“By the time Congress comes back into session after the election, we could be dealing with a whole new generation of generative AI, and more scary examples of AI agents going rogue,” he said.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.