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As news stories generally go, the retirement of a longtime member of Congress typically causes barely a ripple in the pool of politics. Unless the personage was a major power player or notorious for some other reason, our system of government treats the coming and going of most elected officials with only a modicum of interest. So it is likely to be with Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who, having served seven terms in the House of Representatives and five in the Senate, announced he is retiring at the end of next year. The senator’s record in the overall...

Chicago-area Democrat Marie Newman being probed by ethics office over allegations she hired Palestinian-American as an adviser in deal to get him to drop out of primary WASHINGTON (JTA) — An alleged bid to get a freshman congresswoman to adopt pro-Palestinian stances is at the center of a bribery scandal dating back to 2018.Rep. Marie Newman, a Chicago-area Democrat, is under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics for allegedly promising Iymen Chehade, a Palestinian-American academic, a job on her congressional staff if he agreed not to run against her in a primary.The Daily Beast on Thursday reported on an...

**SNIP** In a major upset, activist, nurse, and pastor, Cori Bush won her second attempt to win the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District against 10-term incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay. Clay is the seventh House incumbent to lose renomination from his own party this cycle, along with Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL), Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-VA), Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), Rep. Scott Tipton (R-CO), and Rep. Steve Watkins (R-KS), who also lost his primary the night of August 4. Bush is part of a wave of progressive candidates cropping up around the country seeking to...

The Congressman said that the headwinds he faced from the abortion lobby revealed the level of their concern to silence a pro-life Democratic voice.WASHINGTON, D.C. — Catholics have a critical role in bridging the divides of today’s polarized society, one outgoing Catholic congressman says. “We live in a very polarized society, and I think that’s bad for our society, bad for our country,” Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., an outgoing eight-term Catholic congressman from Chicago’s South Side, told CNA in an interview on Wednesday. “It seems very clear to me,” he said, that “more and more people are making their political...

Rep. Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., a rare anti-abortion House Democrat, has lost his party’s primary race to challenger Marie Newman, a small business owner endorsed by far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Eight-term Democrat incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski lost in the primary to an ultra-left challenger who came close to unseating him in 2018. Marie Newman, owner of a marketing company and an up-and-coming voice of the far left, eked out a narrow victory over Lipinski, who had held the seat in Congress since 2005. His father, Bill Lipinski, had represented the district since 1983. In truth, the character of the district had changed dramatically since 2010, when it was redrawn to include some of the more liberal suburbs in Dupage County. And Lipinski, who was one of the last pro-life Democrats...

Dozens of abortion activists protested Monday against one of the last pro-life Democrats in Congress, Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski. Last week, he was one of only two Democrats who signed an amicus brief calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade when it hears a Louisiana abortion case in March. For refusing to bow to the altar of abortion on demand, Lipinski is a major target of the abortion industry. Pro-abortion groups are spending huge amounts of money to back his primary challenger, pro-abortion Democrat Marie Newman. On Monday, abortion activists with Planned Parenthood, the Will County...

Washington (CNN)More than 200 members of Congress are urging the Supreme Court to reconsider -- if not overrule -- the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. Thirty-nine Republican senators and 168 members of the House of Representatives, almost all of them Republicans, signed a so-called "friend of the court" brief filed on Thursday by the national anti-abortion group Americans United for Life in connection with a challenge to a Louisiana abortion access law due to be heard in March. The signers include Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Lee and Mitt Romney...

WASHINGTON — Progressives failed to oust one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress last year, but are coming back faster and harder this time around, setting up an extraordinary intraparty clash. On Monday, EMILY's List, MoveOn, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Democracy for America announced support for Marie Newman, who is once again challenging Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., for his suburban Chicago district. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., also recently endorsed Newman, becoming the first presidential candidate to do so. Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the election arm for House Democrats...

Hey, it worked for AOC, right? And Kirsten Gillibrand needs to capture some lightning in a bottle soon if she’s going to move up from her current support level of zero in the Democratic primary race. What better way than to toss your support to a hard left primary challenger even after the DCCC said they would blacklist anyone trying to knock off the current incumbents? For better or worse, that’s what the New York Senator seems to be doing this week. She’s pushed herself into the primary for the Illinois Third District seat currently held by pro-life Democrat Dan...

The Associated Press has just called the primary race in Illinois’ third congressional district for pro-life Democratic congressman Dan Lipinski, who narrowly defeated his progressive challenger Marie Newman. Lipinski has represented the district in the U.S. House for over a decade, but this year’s primary threat from Newman — which was a nail-biter even as the last votes trickled in — gained traction as the result of his moderate stances on a handful of political issues, most notably abortion. His win tonight was likely aided by his high name recognition in the district — Lipinski’s father, Bill, represented the same...

Nancy Pelosi is about to lose some progressive friends after deciding to endorse Rep. Dan Lipinski in his re-election bid in Illinois's 3rd congressional district. Lipinski, you see, is one of the very few conservative Democrats left. He has a record of opposing abortion, gay rights and Obamacare. Asked at her weekly press conference Thursday if she supports him, Pelosi replied, "Yes, I do." It is an endorsement even the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has refused to offer. Other Democrats have gone one step further, endorsing his primary challenger, Marie Newman. “This is not a rubber-stamp party,” Pelosi told The...

As Congress debates ObamaCare, one issue that almost stopped the law in 2009 -- yet still receives scant media coverage -- is the law's subsidies for abortion coverage. ObamaCare is funded through mandatory spending so as to avoid the Hyde Amendment, the provision which stops appropriated funds for the Department of Health and Human Services from paying for abortion or even subsidizing plans with abortion coverage. The President promised when the health care bill passed that it would not cover abortion, but like FRC warned during the debate over ObamaCare, buried deep within the 2,700 pages is language Nancy Pelosi...

The only Illinois Democrat in Congress to vote against Obamacare was on the phone. U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski — one of the few pro-life Democrats who didn't cave in to White House pressure — was explaining how it felt to be very much alone. "It was rather lonely, yes," Lipinski said of voting against President Barack Obama's federalized health care agenda. "But I could not vote for a bill that would change the status quo on funding for abortion." By voting "no," Lipinski has put a target on his back for smears from the White House staffed by the guys...