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Ex-Biden Official Gabe Amo Defeats Progressive Aaron Regunberg in Rhode Island
"The inability to convert on a winnable race," wrote one observer, "should alarm national progressive groups."
Sep 06, 2023
Former Biden administration official Gabe Amo won the special Democratic primary for an open U.S. House seat in Rhode Island's 1st Congressional District on Tuesday, defeating frontrunner Aaron Regunberg, an ex-state representative who was backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Regunberg's loss to Amo, who served as deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, was seen as a significant disappointment for progressives in the heavily blue district previously represented by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who stepped down earlier this year.
If Amo defeats Republican Gerry Leonard in November, he will be the first Black person to ever represent Rhode Island in Congress.
Cicilline did not endorse in the crowded primary race, but Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.)—a friend and political ally of Cicilline—backed Regunberg, as did the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, the Working Families Party, Our Revolution, Friends of the Earth Action, and other progressive organizations.
Justice Democrats, whose organizing work has been key to progressive primary victories in recent years, did not get involved in the race as the group struggles to raise money.
Some local left-wing groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America's Providence chapter, opposed Regunberg and criticized Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez for endorsing the Rhode Island Democrat, pointing to the backing his campaign received from a super PAC.
As The American Prospect's Luke Goldstein wrote in a recap of Tuesday's contest, Progress RI's support for Regunberg included "a $5,000 contribution from his mother and $125,000 from his father-in-law, an executive at a global investment firm."
Amo's fundraising also came under fire.
According to a memo released by the Working Families Party in the final stretch of the campaign, the former Biden administration official's campaign received tens of thousands of dollars from lobbyists working for companies that represent Big Pharma, the parent corporation of Fox News, the oil and gas industry, tobacco companies, and Wall Street.
HuffPost's Daniel Marans noted Tuesday that Amo "got a last-minute assist from former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, who represented the House seat for 16 years before Cicilline."
After endorsing Amo, Kennedy "aggressively attacked Regunberg in a local television interview," Marans reported, "calling him an 'extreme' ideologue whose support for a smaller defense budget would jeopardize Rhode Island jobs―and even Democrats' hold on the House seat. (Biden carried the seat by 29 percentage points in 2020.)"
But Marans pointed out that "Regunberg would not have been a member of the left-wing 'Squad.'"
"He cited Cicilline as a model of effective progressive governance," Marans explained, "and touted his own work on the passage of state laws ensuring workers paid sick leave, raising the state's tipped minimum wage, creating a commission to study the use of solitary confinement, enacting online voter registration, and encouraging homeowners' adoption of solar panels."
Polling released in the lead-up to Tuesday's race showed that Regunberg was in the lead, but a significant percentage of voters surveyed were undecided in the days ahead of the special election.
Goldstein argued in the Prospect that "the inability to convert on a winnable race... should alarm national progressive groups as they limp into the next election cycle."
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'This Is a National Emergency': Dems Push for Assault Weapons Ban Amid String of Massacres
"It is far past time to reenact an assault weapons ban and get these weapons of war out of our communities."
Jan 24, 2023
A gunman killed at least seven people in the small California city of Half Moon Bay on Monday, the second mass shooting in the state in three days and one of nearly 40 that have occurred since the start of the new year—a rolling epidemic of violence that Congress has repeatedly met with inaction or inadequate compromises with gun lobby-backed Republicans.
The Associated Pressreported that police "arrested a suspect in Monday's shootings, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, after they found him in his car in the parking lot of a sheriff's substation." Officers found a semi-automatic handgun in the suspect's vehicle.
"Four people were found dead and a fifth injured from gunshot wounds at a farm, and officers found three other people killed at another location several miles away," AP noted. "Officials believe Zhao is a worker at one of the facilities and that the victims were workers as well."
The deadly shootings at two separate locations on Monday came after a gunman massacred 11 people in Monterey Park, California on Saturday. Investigators reportedly collected more than 40 bullet casings at the dance studio where the mass shooting took place. The gunman, 72-year-old Huu Can Tran—who took his own life—had previously been arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm.
Police said the gunman used a semi-automatic pistol with an "extended large-capacity magazine."
"It's not clear how the shooter obtained the gun, which was a Cobray M11 9mm semi-automatic weapon compatible with 30-round magazines," Vox's Nicole Narea wrote Monday. "It's also not clear whether the shooter legally obtained a second weapon recovered from inside his van—a handgun that he used to fatally shoot himself. The second weapon can be bought in California; the first has been banned in the state for more than three decades.
"That the semi-automatic weapon is currently illegal in the state makes California unusual; such weapons can be legally purchased in the majority of the U.S.," Narea observed. "And that's led California politicians to call not just for stronger laws in the state, but across the U.S."
The latest string of mass shootings sparked an all-too-familiar outpouring of grief and anger, the latter directed at lawmakers who refuse to support basic and popular gun-safety measures, prioritizing the interests of profit-seeking gun manufacturers and lobbying groups that help bankroll their political campaigns.
"Every time you vote for a lawmaker who opposes gun safety, you're voting for policies that make it more likely your loved one will be slaughtered," Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, said late Monday, pointing to other recent shootings in Des Moines, Iowa and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
"Every time you vote for a lawmaker who opposes gun safety, you’re voting for policies that make it more likely your loved one will be slaughtered."
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 39 mass shootings have taken place across the United States this month alone, leaving 70 dead and dozens more injured.
"What kind of country are we going to be?" Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, asked late Monday. "This is a national emergency and Congress must act this week."
But with Republicans in control of the House and the Senate closely divided, any substantial legislative action on gun violence is unlikely.
Last year, in the wake of a massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, President Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan measure that includes expanded background checks and incentives for states to enact red flag laws. Gun control advocates slammed the bill as "crumbs" and demanded much more—from universal background checks to a ban on assault weapons.
On Monday, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation that would "ban the sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and other high-capacity ammunition feeding devices."
"It is far past time to reenact an assault weapons ban and get these weapons of war out of our communities," Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) said in a statement. "We passed the assault weapons ban in the House last year with bipartisan support, which was then blocked by Senate Republicans. We need to come together to enact this commonsense, effective, and proven policy to reduce gun violence and save lives."
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'You Don't Get to Lead a Government You Tried to Destroy': House Dems Move to Block Trump 2024 Run
"The 14th Amendment makes clear that based on his past behavior, Donald Trump is disqualified from ever holding federal office again," said Rep. David Cicilline, the lead sponsor of a new bill raising a constitutional challenge against Trump's bid.
Dec 16, 2022
More than 40 House Democrats introduced legislation Thursday aiming to bar former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, citing the 14th Amendment clause prohibiting insurrectionists from holding federal office.
"Donald Trump very clearly engaged in an insurrection on January 6, 2021 with the intention of overturning the lawful and fair results of the 2020 election," Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), the lead sponsor of the new bill, said in a statement. "You don't get to lead a government you tried to destroy."
"Even Mitch McConnell admits that Trump bears responsibility, saying on the Senate floor that '[t]here's no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,'" Cicilline added. "The 14th Amendment makes clear that based on his past behavior, Donald Trump is disqualified from ever holding federal office again and, under Section 5, Congress has the power to pass legislation to implement this prohibition."
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars from federal office anyone who, "having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
Section 5 states that "Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
Cicilline introduced the new bill with the original backing of 40 House Democrats, including Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
None of the top members of the House Democratic leadership have signed onto the legislation thus far, and it's not clear whether it will be allowed a floor vote before Republicans take control of the chamber next month.
\u201cEven Mitch McConnell asserted Trump was "morally responsible for provoking" 1/6.\n\u00a0\nYou don\u2019t get to lead a government you tried to destroy.\n\u00a0\nToday, I intro\u2019d a bill to prevent him from ever holding federal office again under section 3 of the 14th Amdt.\nhttps://t.co/wjga9BxC10\u201d— Congressman David N. Cicilline (@Congressman David N. Cicilline) 1671140883
Cicilline unveiled the legislation a month after Trump formally announced his 2024 presidential bid even as he faced numerous federal and state investigations into his fraud-riddled business practices and central role in the January 6 insurrection, which the former president helped provoke with incessant lies about the 2020 election.
In the immediate wake of Trump's 2024 announcement, the advocacy groups Free Speech for People and Mi Familia Vota launched a campaign urging top state election officials across the country to "follow the mandate of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and bar Trump from any future ballot."
"Secretaries of State have a duty to ensure that candidates who seek to appear on their state ballots meet the constitutional qualifications for serving in public office," Alexandra Flores-Quilty, campaign director for Free Speech for People, said in a statement last month. "Donald Trump violated his oath of office when he incited and engaged in a violent insurrection on January 6, 2021 in an effort to overturn a democratic election."
"The U.S. Department of Justice must hold Trump accountable for the multiple crimes that he has committed in connection with the January 6th insurrection, but secretaries of state and chief election officials have a separate responsibility to hold Trump accountable under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment," Flores-Quilty added. "People all across the country can join this campaign to fight to uphold Section 3 of the 14th Amendment and bar Trump from the ballot."
In a tweet Thursday, Free Speech for People pointed to a new poll showing that a majority of Americans believe Trump's recent call for "termination" of election rules in the U.S. Constitution should disqualify him from the 2024 ballot.
\u201c\u26a1POLL:\nFifty-one percent of registered voters think Donald Trump\u2019s recent call for the "termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,\u201d should keep him off the 2024 ballot.\nhttps://t.co/uYmVvjm2Ln\u201d— FreeSpeechForPeople (@FreeSpeechForPeople) 1671133815
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), meanwhile, has vowed to pursue legal action to disqualify Trump from the 2024 ballot.
In September, CREW secured the removal of Otero County, New Mexico Commissioner Couy Griffin from office over his role in the January 6 insurrection. A New Mexico judge ruled that Griffin was disqualified from holding office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
CREW said last month that the same standard should apply to Trump.
"The evidence that Trump engaged in insurrection is overwhelming," said Noah Bookbinder, the president of CREW. "We are ready, willing, and able to take action to make sure the Constitution is upheld and Trump is prevented from holding office."
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