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Maxine Dexter easily won the Democratic primary in Oregon’s third congressional district beating out top progressive member Pramila Jayapal’s own sister raising alarms for far-left candidates across the country. Susheela Jayapal was running as a progressive champion in the race to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer in a district that includes much of Portland.
Dexter, a state representative and physician, won the primary by double digits 51 percent to Jayapal’s 29 percent. A third candidate in the race Eddy Morales received 14 percent. Jayapal, who previously served as a county commissioner, had the backing of several progressive members in Congress known as the ‘Squad’ including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Rashida Tlaib , Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Jamaal Bowman.
She also had the backing of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. The winner of the Democratic primary is favored to win the seat in November in the heavily Democrat-leaning district. All three candidates in the Democratic primary had very similar stances on most of the issues and described themselves as progressive.
But their differences came down to how they pitched their approach to the job and potentially outside spending. Jayapal was elected to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in 2018, but she stepped down to run for Congress last year. While serving, she spent much of her time dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and worsening homelessness in her county.
The Oregonian editorial board criticized her for not more forcefully steering the local government body. Dexter ran as a consensus building candidate and touted her ability to reach across the aisle in the Oregon State Legislature where she focuses on housing and dealing with homelessness.
While she trailed both her opponents in fundraising, outside groups not affiliated with her campaign spent more than $3 million on ads supporting her in the race while another $3 million was spent on anti-Jayapal ads according to tracking by Ad Impact.
In a statement conceding, Jayapal congratulated Dexter on her victory. She also blasted the outside spending in the race and called for campaign finance reform. Across the country, progressive candidates including Squad members are facing challengers as some more moderate Democrats argue they would be more successful with getting results in Washington.
But the results of such efforts have yet to be seen. In Pennsylvania, Rep. Summer Lee fended off a primary challenger in the district that includes much of Pittsburgh last month. Tlaib in Michigan was also able to comfortably win her primary in March in a safely blue district despite spending by pro-Israel groups.
Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman in New York are facing their own primary challengers with its upcoming primary are Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri and Omar in Minnesota who face primary challengers later this summer.
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