The primary that will determine Democratic politics

And a big development in an existential fight out west

Welcome to a Tuesday night edition of Progress Report.

Some big election news to discuss tonight, plus some important local developments in fights between entrenched powers and grassroots activists working to keep democracy working. Let’s get to it!

Note: The far-right’s fascist takeover of this country is being aided by the media’s total capitulation to Trump’s extortion. It’s never been more critical to have a bold independent media willing to speak up against the powerful. That’s what I’m trying to build here at Progress Report, despite the political and legal dangers that presents.

Unfortunately, paid subscriptions are dropping and it’s making it very hard to continue doing this work, because I have to do more freelancing as a result. If you appreciate the writing or learn something from it, please consider supporting Progress Report with a paid subscription.

---

Maine: Gov. Janet Mills officially announced that she’s running for Senate, setting up a competitive primary with populist newcomer Graham Platner for the right to take on incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

At 79, Mills would be the oldest first-term senator in history, a distinction that she didn’t exactly try to elide on launch day. Her launch video highlights her experience — she was first elected to public office in 1984, a year before the 40-year-old Platner was born — and features a fair number of black and white childhood photos from the 1950s. She also told local press that she’d only serve one term if elected, which created further headlines about her advanced years.

Whether Mills is leaning into her age or simply couldn’t avoid it in a biographical ad, it’s a bold route given the Democratic Party’s ongoing reckoning with the age of its leaders and the need for generational change.

Mills deserves some points for not trying to depict herself as some great disruptor, but the ad’s suggestion that she’s a political brawler or sworn defender of the little guy rings somewhat hollow if you know anything about Mills’s history. Throughout her two terms as governor, Mills has carved out a moderate record that’s included quite a few vetoes of progressive priorities. Over the past two years, she’s vetoed two separate bills that would have protected the rights and wages of farmworkers, restricted noncompete agreements, provided legal representation for poor people, and created substance abuse recovery centers.

As I recently reported, Platner, a populist progressive running as a political outsider, is currently better positioned to win an election against the pesky Collins, and that’s without even considering Mills’ recent endorsement of Collins’ performance in the Senate. That quote would almost be guaranteed to get heavy airtime in an ad by some pro-Collins PAC.

Still, as an ardent supporter of competitive primaries, it’d be hypocritical of me to criticize Mills for running. Plus, I think having to compete for the nomination will sharpen Platner, who despite his impressive start and clear talents is still a first-time candidate. Democratic voters have been voting for “electable” candidates, but say they’re demanding change, so if Platner can convince them to actually make the leap, it’ll suggest that there really has been a generational and ideological sea change among the base.

All of this conciliatory speak is premised on the idea that this will be a fair primary fought on the merits of the candidates and campaigns, but Democratic Party leadership doesn’t seem all that keen on open democracy. Chuck Schumer worked diligently to recruit Mills even after Platner made his barnstorming debut, the DSCC launched a joint fundraising victory account with the governor’s campaign, and some of the party’s biggest email lists spammed out donation appeals on her behalf throughout the day.

Such a full-court press isn’t normally unusual for a prized recruit, but Mills is the second corporate-friendly (and charisma-free) candidate for whom the DSCC has prioritized over legitimate progressive challengers. The DNC treated vice chair David Hogg like a leper and banished him for breaching the supposedly sacred principle of neutrality in competitive primaries, and it’s unclear to me how this is any different than what he did. If anything, it’s far more offensive to voters, because Hogg was working as an individual while the DSCC carries the official authority of the national party and offers unrivaled resources to its chosen candidates.

Public faith in Schumer as the Democratic leader is at an all-time low due to what’s been a dismaying inability (and unwillingness) to stand up to Trump and the Republican majority, an inertness that I believe stems from an outdated and fundamentally outmoded understanding of public opinion.

He may have had keen political instincts in the past, but there was nothing clever about going to bat for Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens, one of the most awkward and uninspiring legislators in DC, over popular state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and populist public health official Abdul El-Sayed; from the beginning, Schumer’s courtship of Stevens was clearly a product of his preference for corporate-friendly, pro-Israel voices who fit his Clinton-era mental image of what a middle class suburban couple might find inoffensive. But what he doesn’t realize is that his ideal median voter is now well into retirement, and politics is no longer guided by the moderate office professional that prizes respectability, steadiness, and government as background noise.

Instead, we are in a deeply populist moment in which voters demand conviction and a sense that politicians not only understand their problems, but also know who is to blame for them and are willing to take action to radically transform a broken system. Mills is the popular Democratic governor in the nation, in part because she’s been in public office longer than the median Maine resident has been alive (the median age is 44.5, while Mills was first appointed county district attorney in 1980). Democrats have been bleeding young and working class voters, which are exactly the demographics that Platner dominates in polling.

There’s nothing that says Mills shouldn’t be able to run in the primary, but the DSCC’s attempts to rig the primary for her aren’t just unfair, they’re deeply irresponsible and make it impossible to believe that this party’s leadership is actually committed to winning elections, much preventing the total national collapse into autocracy.

If nothing else, the good news is that Schumer’s polling shows that Democratic voters are over the cautious politics of a failed generation of losers, and party establishment support for a centrist candidate up against a dynamic populist may prove to be more of an anchor than springboard. This primary is still an opportunity to prove that voters demand generational and ideological change, and if grassroots activists can carry Platner to victory next year, in spite of the DSCC putting its thumb on the scale, it will be impossible to suggest otherwise.

Uh oh: OK, not to be a total bummer, but there’s a very strong chance that the Supreme Court uses Wednesday’s rehearing of the Louisiana racial gerrymandering case to totally obliterate what remains of the Voting Rights Act and send us hurtling back to the Jim Crow era.

Worst case scenario, absent some miraculous realignment or perfectly timed tsunami election, we’d be looking at GOP control of Congress for the next few decades. North Carolina Republicans are already getting a jump.

Forever scheming: In summer 2024, I reported and produced a deep report on California Forever, a murky scheme by a bunch of Silicon Valley billionaires to build an ungovernable tech utopia on land bullied away from farmers in northern California. There was a fierce, nonpartisan resistance from working and middle class residents who truly came from across the political spectrum, a movement that I also highlighted in the mini doc:

The backlash was so intense that the developers pulled the plug on the ballot initiative months before voters were due to weigh in, but after spending upwards of $1 billion on land and various bribes and expenses, they also weren’t ready to just pack it in.

Instead of trying to convince hundreds of thousands of voters to back the new development, project lead Jan Sramek, a former Wall Street wunderkind who made himself the most hated man in Solano County, decided that it would be easier (and far cheaper) to simply sell a few elected officials to build his city and take the heat. After months of courtship and small bribes, Sramek this weekend made it official, proposing that Suisun City, one of several rural towns that make up Solano County, annex CF’s land and make his walkable, Randian urban development a reality.

Activists anticipated this would happen and prepared accordingly. Locals are already pushing to recall every member of the Suisun City council (though I anticipate they’d ultimately re-elect Princess Washington, who was featured in our video above), and anonprofit coalition Solano Together, which opposes the development, is now planning events to educate locals about what they stand to lose from the new city.

While not entirely the same, the fight over California Forever is in line with the battles between rural communities and big tech companies over data centers and crypto mines developments. Corporate powers and wealthy investors see these people as suckers ripe for exploitation, rubes with valuable resources who can be bought off with small commitments to temporary benefits. But increasingly, these communities are pushing back, showing unexpected wit and tenacity as they investigate, organize, and mobilize in what’s quickly becoming a defining class war of our time.

Texas: Plans by elected officials in Conroe to start charging for public gathering permits have been shelved after significant local pushback against the proposal. Mayor Duke Coon (his real name) sought to impose a $500 fee on groups of more than 25 who sought to gather or demonstrate in the city, citing supposed safety concerns ahead of this weekend’s planned No Kings protests. Organizers would also be required to carry no less than $500,000 in liability insurance ahead of events.

Massachusetts: Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch may want to hold off on making any big purchases. Residents of the Boston suburb will be in court on Wednesday to appeal the city’s decision to toss their proposed ballot question over the mayor’s upcoming pay hike, which would take his salary from $159,000 to $285,000. Citizens for Fair Raises believe that the city clerk baselessly tossed more than 2,000 petition signatures to prevent their initiative from making it to the November ballot.

Montana: On the subject of rigged initiative processes, activists in Montana are outraged at the state’s attorney general, who can’t seem to stop fiddling with a proposal submitted by the group Montanans for Nonpartisan Courts. This is the second time that Attorney General Austin Knudsen has rewritten the proposed amendment, which would ensure that judicial elections remain nonpartisan.

---

Wait, Before You Leave!

Progress Report has raised over $7 million dollars for progressive candidates and causes, breaks national stories about corrupt politicians, and delivers incisive analysis, and goes deep into the grassroots.

None of the money we’ve raised for candidates and causes goes to producing this newsletter or all of the related projects we put out. In fact, it costs me money to do this. So, I need your help.

For just $5 a month, you can buy a premium subscription that includes:

• Premium member-only newsletters with original reporting

• Financing new projects and paying new reporters

• Access to upcoming chats and live notes

You can also make a one-time donation to Progress Report’s GoFundMe campaign!