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New York Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pushing back on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) characterization of her surprise primary win, saying the Democratic Party is in the midst of a movement. “I think that we’re in the middle of a movement in this country,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN's Erin Burnett late Wednesday. “I feel this movement, but that movement is going to happen from the bottom up. That movement is going to come from voters.” **SNIP** Pelosi dismissed speculation in a news conference earlier Wednesday, saying Ocasio-Cortez's win should not be seen as a larger movement within the...

How many times do we have to learn that socialism doesn't work, that, as Margaret Thatcher said, at some point you run out of "other people's money," that sooner or later all the teary idealism, the stirring strains of The Internationale, devolve into gulags and death squads? Wasn't the Soviet Union enough, Communist China, Cambodia, North Korea, Cuba, etc....? Now those death squads appear to have surfaced in Venezuela, the wealthiest country in Latin America before Hugo Chavez brought his brand of socialism to the then oil-rich nation. Venezuelan security forces have carried out hundreds of arbitrary killings under the...

The newest star of the Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, launched her New York congressional campaign by declaring “women like me aren’t supposed to run for office” — a jarring embrace of her distinction as a 28-year-old Latina less than a year removed from a job tending bar. Her campaign slogan: “It’s time for one of us.” That appeal to the tribal identities of class, age, gender and ethnicity turned out to be a good gamble, steering her to the nomination in a year when Democratic voters are increasingly embracing diversity as a way to realize the change they seek in...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old Latina running her first campaign, ousted 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in New York's 14th congressional district on Tuesday. An activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Ocasio-Cortez won over voters in the minority-majority district with a ruthlessly efficient grassroots bid, even as Crowley -- the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House -- outraised her by a 10-to-1 margin.

10-term Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley of New York loses to Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Crowley was thought to be the next Democratic leader of the House.

A primary for a New York congressional district is the perfect proxy war for Democrats. If you could create the ultimate proxy war for the two camps who have been fighting in the Democratic Party since 2016, it would be the primary contest between Rep. Joe Crowley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York. Crowley is part of the House Democrats’ leadership team, with close ties to Nancy Pelosi and Wall Street. He’s raised more than $3 million this year. He’s toed the party line on progressive policies, even participating in a recent demonstration on family separation, in which he blocked...

Progressives are overwhelmingly beating their more moderate primary opponents and uncertainty remains around the Democratic Party’s ability to retake the House in November.

Richard Cordray speaks softly and carries a big stack: lime-green index cards, pressed into his shirt pocket, near enough for any sudden onset of note-taking. A former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he has been endorsed in his bid for Ohio governor by Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has told him he needs to learn how to brag more. “I am pretty good at getting back people’s money,” Mr. Cordray managed before an outdoor crowd of dozens here recently. Polite applause followed. He is trying. Dennis Kucinich speaks until someone interrupts him — and even this is often insufficient...

<p>BROOKFIELD, Conn. (AP) — A Democratic candidate for Connecticut governor who refused to leave a forum where she wasn't invited and had to be dragged off the stage by police is facing criminal charges.</p> <p>Video of Monday night's event at Brookfield High School shows Lee Whitnum sitting in a row with seven invited candidates, yelling she has "every right to be in this debate" and filed her paperwork a year ago.</p>

Native New Yorker and Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon has announced her candidacy for Governor of the the Empire State, in a direct challenge to incumbent Andrew Cuomo. Nixon announced her debut in the world of politics with a two-minute video on her social media platforms, where she declared: 'I love New York and today I'm announcing my candidacy for governor.' Earlier this month, NY 1 broke the news that Nixon would challenge Governor Cuomo in the Democratic primary later this year.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) has refused to endorse his Senate colleague Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) in her primary campaign. The 84-year-old Feinstein seeks to retain her seat in the face of progressive challengers, and Sanders declined to endorse any candidate in the race, The Hill reports. The California Democratic Party was split on the race, and Sanders said he would leave the matter of who to nominate up to voters in the Golden State. "It’s an issue for the people of California," Sanders told The Hill. A reporter followed up by asking if he would stay out of the...

The leading Democratic candidate for a Virginia House seat the party is targeting in 2018 moved to the state just a year-and-a-half ago, but you'd never know it from watching his campaign's first ad.Roger Dean Huffstetler, who is both outraising and outspending his Democratic opponents in Virginia's largely rural fifth district, announced his campaign less than a year after he moved in the summer of 2016 to Charlottesville, a blue city located near the center of a rural red district. His first ad—which, based on a nearly $50,000 expenditure, appears to have been created by a major D.C. advertising firm...

Alan Grayson has been out of office for more than a year, but his fundraising emails keep coming. Soon, the Florida Democratic Party could find out on which race all that money could be spent. And it may not like the answer. One expert said a scenario that worries party leaders is a primary battle against U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, D-Kissimmee, who succeeded Grayson in District 9 in Osceola County and southern Orange County. “He doesn’t care what people think, including his own party,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida who closely...

Transgender Chelsea Manning was convicted in a 2013 court martial of 20 counts, including violations of the Espionage Act, for illegally leaking more than 700,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks. Chelsea Manning, known as Private Bradley Manning at the time of the crime, received a 35-year sentence, right after which she came out as a transgender and demanded that the army pay for sex change hormone treatment.  Former President Barack Obama went one step further. Obama gave Manning a free “get of jail” card just days before the end of his term in office, granting clemency to the felon of all...

In a year when Democrats are supposed to be taking over Congress, it's pretty amazing how shallow their bench is. Instead of offering strong candidates with real counter-ideas supposedly to oppose Republicans, they seem to have a larger than normal crop of human muck. Yet as the Roy Moore debacle showed Republicans, elections are won by attracting good candidates. With charmers like these in Democrats' current lineup, there's reason to question whether there's really going to be a wave. Chelsea Manning is the latest to join this clown cavalcade, filing to run for a seat in the Maryland Senate. It's...

NORTH BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Chelsea Manning will run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. The transgender former Army officer who was convicted of leaking classified documents filed her statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. The Washington Post reported Saturday that Manning will challenge Democrat Ben Cardin. He has served two terms and is an overwhelming favorite to win.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chelsea Manning, the transgender U.S. Army soldier who served seven years in military prison for leaking classified data, is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate seat from Maryland, according to Federal election filings seen on Saturday. Manning, who was granted clemency by former U.S. President Barack Obama, was released in May from a U.S. military prison in Kansas where she had been serving time for passing secrets to the WikiLeaks website in the biggest breach of classified data in the history of the United States.

In an email to supporters Thursday morning, former U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich said he planned to announce his candidacy for Ohio governor on Wednesday. In the email, Kucinich said he plans to unveil his candidacy at the Middleburg Heights Community Center. Andy Juniewicz, a spokesman for Kucinich, said the email was accurate. The news of Kucinich's impending entry comes days after he designated a treasurer for his campaign. He becomes the sixth Democrat to enter the race. Richard Cordray, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton announced Wednesday they would join forces on...

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the longest serving member of the House of Representatives and the subject of a flurry of sexual-misconduct allegations in the last few weeks, said he was "retiring today" during a radio interview Tuesday. "I'm in the process of putting my retirement plans together and I'll have more of that very soon," Conyers said in an interview with the station, Praise 102.7. No sooner had he announced plans to vacate his seat, however, than an intra-family feud erupted into public view over who would take it over. The embattled Michigan Democrat said on Tuesday that he wanted...

Mark down this date: December 3, 2017. Why? Because of all the ridiculous stories ever published in Politico, the one written by Bill Scher on that date could well rate as the most absurd of all. Scher, a liberal pundit and contributing editor to Politico's magazine, proposes that if the U.S. Senate seat from Arkansas is open in 2018 due to Tom Cotton leaving the Senate that either Hillary, Bill, or Chelsea Clinton should run for that seat. Adding to the absurdity of that proposal is the fact that Scher details why none of the Clintons would have much of a chance...