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Progressive Group Supports Angela Gonzales-Torres' Primary Challenge to AIPAC-Backed Jimmy Gomez
"This is about standing up to corruption, calling out a genocide when we see one, and building a Los Angeles that we can afford," said Angela Gonzales-Torres, the candidate endorsed by Justice Democrats.
Sep 04, 2025
The progressive political action committee Justice Democrats on Thursday threw its support behind Angela Gonzales-Torres, a primary challenger to incumbent Democratic Congressman Jimmy Gomez in California's deep blue 34th District.
"Angela is exactly what Los Angeles needs in Congress right now: a working-class champion with the moral courage to not only fight back against the Trump administration's cruelty with the urgency it demands but also take on the Democratic Party when the corporate establishment fails to fight for our communities," Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas said in a statement.
The support from Justice Democrats—known for helping to elect "Squad" members including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)—comes as Republican President Donald Trump threatens to copy his militarized anti-immigrant attack on Los Angeles in other Democrat-led US cities.
"While Donald Trump is terrorizing our city, kidnapping our friends and neighbors, kicking us off our healthcare, why is our member of Congress funded by Trump's biggest donors and voting for his harmful agenda?" Gonzales-Torres asked in a Thursday video announcing the group's endorsement of her.
Gonzales-Torres launched her campaign in April. She's not the first primary challenger Gomez has faced. Since winning a 2017 special election, he has continuously bested his primary opponents, including David Kim in the past three cycles.
"In the 2024 race, Kim called for cutting off US military funding to Israel and drew fire from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, and its super PAC, United Democracy Project," The Intercept reported Thursday. "Kim also supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and called for an international court to prosecute illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Kim endorsed Gonzales-Torres, who previously volunteered for his campaign."
Gonzales-Torres told the Los Angeles Times that "I think that Angelenos want to see change. And what we are seeing is our current Congress member accepting $2.3 million from AIPAC, then failing to co-sponsor the only bill calling for a ceasefire."
"And what we are seeing is Jimmy Gomez taking, you know, $500,000 from crypto lobbies, then voting to further Trump's corrupt crypto agenda," Gonzales-Torres added. In the new video from Justice Democrats, she also highlighted Gomez's record of taking money from other corporate interests.
"We're doing things differently. I am not taking a dime from AIPAC or any corporate PAC money," Gonzales-Torres said. "This is about standing up to corruption, calling out a genocide when we see one, and building a Los Angeles that we can afford, not just the wealthy or well-connected."
She also recalled her experience growing up in Los Angeles, including the deportation of her father when she was just 15. With her dad back in Mexico, Gonzales-Torres' mother worked as a waitress to support their daughters, and they spent time living in shelters and their car, according to The American Prospect.
"Experiencing family separation, economic insecurity, housing instability, and all of the trauma that comes with it has only made me more committed to fighting for my community, and for all of the Angelenos for whom that is a daily struggle, like it was for my family," she told the Prospect. "Los Angeles deserves better, and I'm determined to get it for us."
While Justice Democrats is accustomed to facing off against AIPAC—which last year backed successful primary challenges to two Squad members, former Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—the progressives group's endorsement in this race is notable because of some of the incumbent's positions.
Gomez is "far from a hard-line pro-Israel voice in Congress" and "hardly a moderate: The Eagle Rock resident has more in common with the Justice Democrats slate than many of the members they have previously tried to unseat," the Times reported, noting his support for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, his speech at Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) Fighting Oligarchy event in Los Angeles, and Ocasio-Cortez's 2024 endorsement of him.
Justice Democrats spokesperson Usamah Andrabi pointed to the congressman's campaign cash.
"Jimmy Gomez got to Washington and closed the door on his community behind him to embrace the same corporate PACs and right-wing lobbies that are raising costs for Angelenos and demanding their tax dollars fund genocide," Andrabi told The Intercept. "In a city that has become ground zero for Donald Trump's war on immigrant families, Angelenos deserve a leader whose donors will never dictate how hard they fight back."
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Democratic Voters Are Sick of Funding Israel. Will the Leaders Listen?
It’s necessary for us to continue making the case for the Democratic Party to abandon the unelected donor class and become a party of the working class that promotes peace and justice at home and abroad.
Aug 29, 2025
After the shock upset of the 2024 election, Democrats asked themselves how they could have possibly lost what should have been a landslide victory over Trump. There were long discussions on bringing back young voters, reconnecting with the working class, and reassessing the party’s relationship with groups like American Israel Public Affairs Committee that don’t align with the voting base.
It seems, however, the party establishment has not decided to change its strategy in any way, continuing on a course that will allow the Republicans to run rampant in dismantling what little of democracy and social safety nets this country had.
The trouble is that the leadership of the Democratic Party is captured by a donor class whose values do not align with the voters. As a result, when the voters are divided 90-10 on an issue, the leadership often will side with the 10.
A new Quinnipiac survey found that an overwhelming majority of 77% of Democrats have come to the conclusion that Israel is committing the crime of genocide, but yet still only a small fraction of elected Democrats have openly acknowledged that reality.
There are Democrats who are taking the side of the voters by opposing Israel’s genocide while taking an aggressive approach to US President Donald Trump, but instead of being embraced by party leadership, they are being shut out.
When House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), the No. 2 Democrat in the House, was attending an event at a Quaker Meeting House in her district, she was confronted by myself and other constituents on her complicity in Israel’s genocide. In this conversation, she acknowledged that the politics of Israel and Palestine have changed and used the term genocide in the context of Gaza. But then a few days later, likely under pressure from AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups, she issued a statement saying “I want to be clear that I am not accusing Israel of genocide.”
Despite coming from one of the country’s most progressive districts, she has an abysmally conservative record on Palestine. Clark has taken over $700,000 from pro-Israel groups like AIPAC, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), and J-Street, making the Israel lobby her largest source of campaign money. Even though she has joined other Democrats in expressing how “horrified” they are about the starvation in Gaza, she still will not commit to taking a stance against arming the nation responsible for the famine.
Clark’s cowardice in the face of pressure from big donors at the expense of constituents is emblematic of Democratic leaders. Figures like Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who allowed the Republicans to move forward with their austerity budget, do not have the courage or the will to lead the Democratic Party in the fight against fascism.
This cowardice became apparent again recently in the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) reaction when a young member of the committee introduced a resolution before party leadership to call for an end of military aid to Israel. Groups like AIPAC and DMFI quickly mobilized in opposition to the bill and were successful shutting it down with support from DNC chair Ken Martin. This being despite a recent poll finding that 75% of Democrats oppose sending military aid to Israel and another that only 8% approve of Israel’s action in Gaza.
There are Democrats who are taking the side of the voters by opposing Israel’s genocide while taking an aggressive approach to US President Donald Trump, but instead of being embraced by party leadership, they are being shut out.
Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral primary with a strong focus on issues of affordability, promising to freeze the rent, make buses fast and free, and implement universal childcare. These policies, along with Mamdani’s belief in Palestinian human rights, propelled him to victory over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in spite of opposition from corporations like DoorDash, the real estate lobby, and pro-Israel groups. Even though Mamdani has won theratic primary, securing the party’s nomination, many New York Democrats were slow to or yet to endorse him.
We are now seeing a similar scenario play out in Minneapolis where democratic socialist Omar Fateh mayoral candidate had his endorsement from Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer Labor Party undemocratically revoked as a result of the work of a few party insiders.
Despite the efforts to silence them from the establishment, Mamdani holds a comfortable lead in the general election and Fateh is still a viable challenger to incumbent centrist Democrat Jacob Frey.
Mamdani and Fateh are now joined by a roster of leftist challengers running for Congress in 2026 against both corrupt Democrats and Republicans. Candidates like Maine’s Graham Platner and Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed have both taken a principled stance against Israel’s genocide and promoted other popular policies like Medicare for all where again the party establishment has chosen the donors over the voters.
As 2026 approaches and pundits are already discussing who should run for president in 2028, it’s necessary for us to continue making the case for the Democratic Party to abandon the unelected donor class and become a party of the working class that promotes peace and justice at home and abroad. If not, the party will repeat the same mistakes it made in 2024, clearing the way for an uninterrupted fascist takeover.
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'10 Years in the Making': DNC Passes Resolution to Limit Dark Money in Primaries
"Corporate money has been a disaster for progressive nominees," said Our Revolution board member Larry Cohen.
Aug 26, 2025
Following years of pressure from progressive advocates, the Democratic National Committee's resolutions panel on Tuesday unanimously approved a measure aimed at limiting dark money—undisclosed independent campaign contributions—in presidential primary elections.
The resolution, which was introduced by Chair Ken Martin, was approved during the DNC's summer meeting in Minneapolis. The measure calls for creating a panel tasked with pursuing "real, enforceable steps the DNC can take to eliminate unlimited corporate and dark money in its 2028 presidential primary process."
Tuesday's move stands in stark contrast with the DNC resolutions committee's past refusals to allow a vote on a dark money ban.
Larry Cohen, a leading campaigner against dark money and board member of Our Revolution, an offshoot of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, told Common Dreams Tuesday that "corporate money has been a disaster for progressive nominees."
"Crypto money and AIPAC knocked out at least three or four people we were all supporting," Cohen noted, referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which along with its United Democracy Project (UDP) super PAC spent more than $100 million during the 2024 election cycle. AIPAC's largesse played a key role in helping pro-Israel Democrats defeat former progressive Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.)—two of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel's genocide in Gaza—in Democratic primary contests.
DNC Resolution 4 opposing dark money in presidential primaries passes unanimously at DNC Resolutions Committee.This is a victory decades in the making after long years of opposition and struggle. Much appreciation to Chair Ken Martin.
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— David Atkins (@davidoatkins.bsky.social) August 26, 2025 at 7:11 AM
"If this party blocks corporate money in the nominating process and blocks dark money, those are two great steps," Cohen said, noting that the measure which passed Tuesday is "just a resolution of intent," not an actual change to the party's platform or a policy shift.
"The next step is [that] there will be a committee named that will talk about how we implement this for the 2028 presidential election, and that committee has to report back by the [DNC] meeting a year from now with specific implementation points," Cohen explained.
"That could mean that every potential Democratic candidate for president must sign the People's Pledge," he said, referring to the agreement between then-US Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren in 2012 requiring candidates to offset spending by outside groups on their behalf.
"So if a candidate says, 'well I had nothing to do with this, but the money got spent,' in the People's Pledge, the candidate who benefited, Scott Brown, had to make a charitable donation of the same amount of money," Cohen said. "That would be an example of an implementation point."
As for possible legislative solutions like the DISCLOSE Act—a campaign finance reform bill repeatedly torpedoed in Congress—Cohen said that he "wouldn't give that too much weight because you have to change Congress."
"We came close," he said, but then-Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Az.) "blocked a rules change that would have put that bill on the floor with 50 supporters instead of 60… and now you have to imagine getting back to a time when [Democrats] will have 50 again."
"So that's in the resolution, there should be legislative change," Cohen added, "but also in the resolution is that all elected Democratic officials should look at what they can do," including at the state, county, and municipal levels.
"They can adopt rules to limit or eliminate the effectiveness of corporate, dark, and other independent expenditures, like Elon Musk money," Cohen said in a nod of infamy to the world's richest person, who spent upward of $290 million supporting President Donald Trump and other Republicans in 2024.
The US Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which allowed unlimited independent financial contributions to support political campaigns, unleashed a tsunami of dark money that has been used by billionaires and corporate interests to sideline progressive candidates and buy elections.
Since Citizens United, nearly $20 billion has been spent on US presidential elections and more than $53 billion on congressional races, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets. Spending on 2024 congressional races was double 2010 levels, while presidential campaign contributions were more than 50% higher in 2024 than in 2008, the last election before Citizens United.
The DNC's action on dark money was overshadowed by its rejection of another resolution calling for a suspension of US military aid to Israel.
"This party keeps digging its own grave," said attorney and organizer Asma Nizami. "And it's owned by AIPAC."
Correction: This article originally—and incorrectly—labeled former Sen. Scott Brown as a Democrat.
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