AOC endorses Marie Newman over Dan Lipinski; Twitter spat follows

WASHINGTON — Democratic House hopeful Marie Newman, in a primary rematch against Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., was endorsed Tuesday by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a move by the controversial, charismatic freshman that could turn out progressives and turn off centrists in the suburban Chicago district.

Lipinski’s team seemed little concerned by the popular but polarizing Ocasio-Cortez embracing Newman. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lipinski talks about Ocasio-Cortez more than Newman in the run up to the March Illinois primary.

Lipinski, who will need crossover GOP voters to win the nomination in the safe Democratic district, is counting on a backlash to Ocasio-Cortez and, by extension, her provocative allies.

Ocasio-Cortez; Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota; Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan; and Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts — who was raised in Chicago — known collectively as “the Squad,” are a target of President Donald Trump, who is determined to use them to divide Democrats.

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement of Marie Newman makes crystal clear that Ms. Newman is an extreme candidate who is completely out of step with the voters of Illinois’ Third District who do not want to be represented by a fifth member of the “Squad,” Lipinski said in a statement.

“The Democratic Party — and our country — cannot afford an obstructionist “Tea Party of the Left” when we need to focus on winning this next election and passing policies that will truly help working families and all who are struggling in America today,” he said.

When Ocasio-Cortez saw the Lipinski statement on Twitter she replied to her 5.4 million followers, “This is a real quote from a Democrat representing a safe blue seat. Aggressive statements like these are so casually thrown from corporate candidates towards grassroots ones, yet they never get branded as “divisive,” despite their rhetoric. We should ask ourselves why that is.”

Newman is likely to get a decent fundraising bump and a lot of visibility from Ocasio-Cortez, who decided to announce her endorsement in the New York Times on Tuesday morning, suggesting the lawmaker was trying to maximize the national fundraising potential of her first endorsement of the cycle.

Democratic political strategist Tom Bowen, who advised Newman for three months in 2017, told the Chicago Sun-Times, “Everything that raises the profile of Marie Newman, especially as the more progressive choice, is dangerous to Dan Lipinski.”

The Justice Democrats, a progressive organization based in New York — who backed “The Squad” when they were candidates in 2018 — rolled out the Ocasio-Cortez for Newman endorsement.

The Democratic House political operation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is supporting Lipinski and all incumbents, to the ire of activist progressives who want to use the 2020 contests to move the party to the left.

This is the first endorsement in the 2020 election cycle by Ocasio-Cortez. At 29, she is the youngest lawmaker in the House, best known by her initials, “AOC.”

Newman now has the backing of the leading progressives in the U.S. in the biggest Democratic House primary in Illinois. She earlier landed support from presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the senators from Massachusetts and Vermont. Before they dropped out of the 2020 White House race, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee backed Newman’s campaign.

The 3rd Congressional District is a safe Democrat seat with the Newman/Lipinski battle mirroring deep ideological divisions playing out in the Democratic presidential primary. The crucial difference is all the Democratic presidential candidates support abortion rights, and Lipinski does not.

A social conservative, Lipinski opposes gay marriage and is among the dwindling number of pro-life House Democrats. Lipinski — as many House Democrats — has not signed on to key elements of the agenda of the most left-of-center progressives, Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

Newman campaign manager Ben Hardin told the Sun-Times on Tuesday that Ocasio-Cortez and Newman talked about congressional priorities, Newman’s platform and the potential endorsement on Sept. 6 and subsequently.

In 2018 Newman, from LaGrange, lost to Lipinski, who lives in Western Springs, by 2,145 votes. There is a wild card element at play in the 2020 primary because two other lesser known candidates are also running as progressives.

While Rush Darwish, from Palos Hills, the owner of a photography and video production company, and Abe Matthew, a Bridgeport attorney, are longshots to win, they could play spoiler roles.

It remains to be seen if they qualify for the ballot. Matthew told the Sun-Times a poll he took has him pulling votes equally from Lipinski and Newman.

The 3rd Congressional District includes portions of what’s left of Chicago’s machine wards: 11th 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd and 23rd and then connects with a narrow thread of turf to southwestern suburbs in parts of Cook County and small portions of DuPage and Will counties. In Cook County, that includes the townships of Berwyn, Cicero, Lemont, Lyons, Orland, Palos, Riverside, Stickney and Worth and in Will County, the townships of DuPage, Homer, Joliet and Lockport.