Justice Democrats

Justice Democrats
Basic facts
Location:	Knoxville, Tenn.
Type:	Political action committee
Affiliation:	Democratic
Founder(s):	•Cenk Uygur •Kyle Kulinski •Zack Exley •Saikat Chakrabarti
Year founded:	2017
Website:	Official website

Justice Democrats is a federal political action committee (PAC) that was founded in Los Angeles, California, with the aim of transforming the Democratic Party by supporting progressive challengers to unseat Democrats who the group believes are "aligning with Wall Street over working men and women."

The group was founded in 2017 by Cenk Uygur of the progressive online news program The Young Turks, Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk, and former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staffers Zack Exley and Saikat Chakrabarti.

During the 2018 campaign cycle, Justice Democrats recruited 12 challengers to Democratic incumbents and endorsed 66 additional candidates. The only Justice Democrats-recruited candidate to win election was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D). Six other Justice Democrats-endorsed candidates also won election.

Mission

As of July 2020, Justice Democrats' website listed the following mission statement:

“

Justice Democrats is working to elect a mission-driven caucus in Congress that will fight for solutions that match the scale of our many crises: skyrocketing inequality, catastrophic climate change, deepening structural racism as the country becomes more diverse, and the corporate takeover of our democracy. We need a Democratic Party that fights for its voters, not its corporate donors. That’s why we helped elect leaders like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress. We need leadership in the Democratic Party that will represent and fight for our communities.

”

History

Justice Democrats was founded in January 2017 by Cenk Uygur of the progressive online news program The Young Turks, Kyle Kulinski of Secular Talk, and former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign staffers Zack Exley and Saikat Chakrabarti. Uygur and the group's treasurer, David Koller, resigned from the organization in December 2017 after it was learned that both had authored blogposts in the early 2000s that contained language the organization deemed sexist or degrading to women. Kulinski also subsequently resigned from the board due to his disagreement with how Uygur's departure was handled. Chakrabarti left the group in December 2018 to serve as chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D).

Originally formed as a hybrid PAC, a type of PAC that can make candidate and committee contributions as well as independent expenditures, the group reorganized at the end of January 2017 as a nonconnected PAC, a group that can only make contributions to candidates or political committees.

Justice Democrats was founded with the goal of remaking the Democratic Party by supporting congressional candidates who, according to the group's website, "represent people, not corporations."

Affiliates

Justice Democrats is affiliated with Brand New Congress, a political action committee that endeavors, according to the group's website, "to recruit over 400 extraordinary ordinary Americans to challenge both Democrats and Republicans in congressional primary races across the country in order to replace almost all of Congress in one fell swoop."

Work

Platform

Justice Democrats does not support challengers to Congressional incumbents who already fully support the Justice Democrats platform. In order to gain the support of Justice Democrats, challengers must "generally agree with the Justice Democrats platform." As of July 2020, the Justice Democrats' platform was:

“	Opinion polls in the United States demonstrate that these policy positions are overwhelmingly popular. Indeed, throughout the industrialized world these ideas are considered moderate. This is a movement about freedom and justice. And it’s a movement of, by, and for working people. If the Democrats refuse to embrace this platform, they’ll continue to lose, either to Republicans or to us. Transform Our Economy We need a bold economic vision that will both reclaim lost capital and put money back in the pockets of hard-working Americans, and create millions of new jobs for those who have been left out of the workforce. Green New Deal Scientists are sounding the alarm on climate change. Communities are fighting back. It’s time to drastically and immediately move away from fossil fuels, develop the technologies of the future, and create prosperity for all of us -- not just those on top. The Green New Deal is a mass mobilization to dramatically expand existing renewable power sources and deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources. The Green New Deal will also provide all members of our society, across all regions and all communities, the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one and ensure a ‘just transition’ for all workers, low-income communities, communities of color, indigenous communities, rural and urban communities and the front-line communities most affected by climate change, pollution and other environmental harm including by ensuring that local implementation of the transition is led from the community level and by prioritizing solutions that end the harms faced by front-line communities from climate change and environmental pollution. Secure a Living Wage and Tie it to Inflation This is about justice and basic human decency. If you work hard and you work full time you shouldn’t live in poverty. Furthermore, we support strong unions and collective bargaining. Enact a Federal Jobs Guarantee The idea behind a federal jobs guarantee is that anyone who wants to work and contribute but can’t find a way to do that in the economy can do that. A federal jobs guarantee program would establish a floor for wages and benefits for the nation’s workforce. This program would provide a baseline minimum wage of $15 an hour and guarantee for public workers a basic benefits package, including healthcare and childcare. By investing in our own workforce, we can lift thousands of American families out of poverty and get people to work doing the work that needs to be done. Rebuild Our Crumbling Infrastructure Our infrastructure gets a grade of D from the Society of Civil Engineers. The government should invest trillions in rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, schools, levees, airports, etc. There’s no reason why we can’t have the world’s #1 infrastructure. Block Bad Trade Deals Americans have lost millions of decent paying jobs due to unfair trade deals. It’s time to end the race to the bottom and renegotiate these rigged deals that only benefit elites. We should not sacrifice our sovereignty. The only people who are allowed to make laws for the United States should be the American people, not multinational corporations. End Tax Dodging and Loopholes Corporations dodge $450 billion a year in taxes by using offshore tax havens. We should end this injustice, as well as chain the capital gains tax to the income tax, increase the estate tax, and implement the Buffet Rule so that no millionaire CEO pays less in taxes than his or her secretary. It’s time for a tax system that benefits the middle class and the poor, and makes the top 1% and multinational corporations pay their fair share. End Unnecessary Wars and Nation Building The United States maintains 800 military bases worldwide at a cost of $100 billion a year. This is money that can be spent at home creating jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, and investing in the future of the people. The disastrous war in Iraq cost trillions, the war in Afghanistan is going on 17 years in with no end in sight, and we’re currently bombing 7 different countries. We spend more on our military than the next 8 countries combined. It’s time to end the wars and the perverse monetary incentive structure that makes politicians flippant about sending young men and women to die. Unilateral U.S. military force should only be used as a last resort to defend the nation. The current budget could be cut drastically if we used our department of defense for what it was intended — defending us, instead of waging interventionist wars. Protect Our Rights The growing disparities in income and wealth among our nation’s people have long-term impacts on our population — for wealth accumulation, debt reduction, and educational attainment. Medicare for All The United States should catch up to every other modern nation and implement a single payer, Medicare for All system. It’s time to end the destruction of American health care by rapacious, price gouging, for-profit, private health insurance middlemen. Free Public Colleges and Trade Schools Educating the citizenry of a nation pays dividends in the long run, with the economy getting back much more than is initially put in. Crushing student debt for higher education would no longer burden young men and women trying to improve their lives through hard work. We should strive to have the best education system in the world. Defend and Expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid Republicans have been trying to privatize and cut earned benefit programs for decades. Corporate Democrats have been willing to go along with them under the guise of a ‘grand bargain’ and ‘reform’. We pledge to staunchly oppose this. Social Security reduced the elderly poverty rate from 35% to 10%. 3.4 million Americans would immediately fall into poverty without Medicaid. Gutting these vital programs is not an option. Ensure Paid Vacation Time, Sick Time, Family Leave, Childcare The United States is one of just three countries in the world that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave, the others being Oman and Papua New Guinea. We are the only industrialized nation that doesn’t offer paid vacation time. This should be changed immediately. Fight for Racial Justice Racism and xenophobia have always been part of our country's history. Since our nation's founding, the wealthy and the powerful have always used divide-and-conquer tactics to make working people fight each other instead of the people on top. African Americans and Latinos in particular, and people of color generally, have been targets in our nation’s continued assault against their rights, liberties, and humanity. As did generations before us, we will continue to advocate and push for justice, equity, and equality in all manner and forms, and will sponsor and vote on legislation to secure the same. We support a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate the generational harms caused by slavery and Jim Crow and propose remedies. Protect Women's Rights We support the Paycheck Fairness Act and we support repealing the Hyde Amendment. We oppose Republican cuts to Planned Parenthood and women’s health clinics all across the country. In 2016 alone, 60 TRAP laws targeting abortion were passed in 19 states. We will vigorously oppose all efforts to dismantle reproductive rights. Combat Homelessness More than 600,000 Americans are homeless on any given night, including over 57,000 veterans. Studies show the cost of leaving a homeless person on the streets is $30,000 while the cost of housing them is just $10,000. Addressing this crisis is both the moral and fiscally responsible thing to do. Police Reform For-profit policing and for-profit prisons should be abolished. Police training should be retooled to emphasize de-escalation tactics, and body cameras should be mandatory on all officers. Furthermore, community oversight boards should be created and broken windows policing should be eliminated. Stop & frisk — which disproportionately targets African Americans and Latinos 87% of the time — has a 97% failure rate. On top of being discriminatory and ineffective, it’s also unconstitutional and should be ended. Special prosecutors must also be appointed to hold police accountable. We should invest more in jobs and education, less in jails and incarceration. Enact Common-Sense Gun Regulation 92% of Americans want expanded background checks, 54% want a ban on assault weapons, and 54% want a ban on high capacity magazines. We agree with the majority of the American people and support these measures. Over 30,000 Americans die every year from gun violence, including over 10,000 homicides. The time to act is now to address this public health crisis. Voting Rights Since 2013, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous Shelby County v. Holder decision, states across the country have been actively working to reverse the hard-fought protections for voting rights secured during the Civil Rights Movement. Fair and equal access to the ballot is essential to our ability to uphold and protect our nation’s democracy. We believe every American citizen is entitled to vote, and we will work to secure voting rights, challenge ultra-partisan gerrymandering, and put an end to affronts to our democratic representation. Defend Our Democracy We cannot afford to continue partisan jockeying on these issues; there is too much at stake. Americans must be provided a better chance to succeed in the face of rising income inequality and continued machinations by corporate giants. Abolish ICE ICE was created in 2003 as a reaction to 9/11. Since then, it has turned into a state-funded terror group that regularly violates basic human rights. We don't need a special enforcement agency for undocumented immigrants. We can rely on our existing criminal justice agency to arrest those who have committed a crime, just like we did before 2003. End Corruption Super PACs should be banned, private donations to politicians and campaigns should be banned, and a clean public financing system should be implemented to end the takeover of our government by corporations and billionaires. Americans deserve free and fair elections — free from the corruption of big money donors. The Supreme Court has effectively legalized bribery. We need public financing of our elections. Reform Our Criminal Justice System America imprisons more people than any other nation in the world. With 4.4% of the world’s population, America incarcerates 22% of the world’s prisoners (716 per 100,000). Even as the national crime rate remains on a steady decline, incarceration rates continue to climb. On top of that, our criminal justice system currently targets Black and Brown people leading to higher arrest rates and longer sentences. That needs to end. Criminal justice reform requires sweeping and comprehensive policy changes that reverse our nation’s trends of unjust mass incarceration, and works to address the root causes of criminal behavior while mitigating the negative consequences of inappropriate policing practices. Implement Comprehensive Immigration Reform We won’t give an inch in our opposition to Trump’s outrageous proposals. Ideas like a ‘total and complete’ shutdown of Muslim immigration and deporting all undocumented immigrants are anathema to America. We will fight for comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship. America is a proud nation of immigrants. Progressive Foreign Policy We recently gave Saudi Arabia billions in weapons and watched the civilian death toll in their vicious bombing campaign in Yemen tick up. We continue sending Egypt arms as they violently crack down on peaceful protesters. Israel received $38 billion in aid and promptly announced new settlements and "annexation" of the West Bank. One major step toward a progressive foreign policy is to ensure that our aid to other nations is used to promote peace and security, not to violate human rights and undermine peace. End the Failed War on Drugs The racist War on Drugs has torn families apart all across our country. Politicians in both parties created a system of mass incarceration while divesting resources from the most vulnerable communities. Legalizing marijuana is a racial and economic justice issue. Black Americans are four times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession despite similar usage rates. Billions of taxpayer dollars are spent to uphold a racist system. We must legalize marijuana and ensure that the records of those who were incarcerated for marijuana-related charges are expunged. As we legalize marijuana, we must also follow the models set in Massachusetts and Oakland that make sure that profits, investment, and business opportunities are going toward communities unfairly targeted by the racist war on drugs. Abolish the Death Penalty Humans are fallible, we’ll never get the right answer 100% of the time. 4% of the people on death row are not guilty of a crime and have been wrongly convicted. A system that puts innocent people to death is indefensible and should be reformed. We want justice for the American people but killing innocent people on death row is the exact opposite. Democracy Reform 73% of congressional districts in America are deemed "safely Republican or safely Democrat" and do not have competitive general elections. We support bold reforms to provide voters an equal say in our democracy. This includes efforts to expand the House of Representatives and the Fair Representation Act to create multi-member districts and ranked-choice voting. We also support the movement to provide statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico in order to bring balance to the increasingly skewed Senate. These efforts are in line with movements for racial and economic justice in our country. We also support public financing of elections and the removal of the corrupting influence of corporate and big money in our democracy. Oppose Bigotry We must speak out against racism, sexism, xenophobia, and all forms of bigotry. Non-discrimination protections that currently apply to race, religion, and gender should be expanded to include the LGBTQ community. Defend Net Neutrality These days, our reliance on technology has become second-nature, and the Internet has become a great enabler of industry, connectivity, and commerce. For all the wonders the internet provides, its benefits are fragile in that at any moment, large corporations seeking to pad their bottom lines and deliver outsized returns to their shareholders can, at any moment, hinder our access to the Internet - a platform for freedom of expression and medium for improving our lives. For more than a decade, the Internet has served as a great equalizer, and has provided an opportunity and platform for small businesses and voices (who may not otherwise have a platform to compete in the market alongside big corporations and other powerful entities) to meet new audiences and expand their impact. Widespread access to the internet and net neutrality have been essential for providing Americans a better chance to succeed in the face of rising income inequality and continued machinations by corporate giants. We believe in upholding net neutrality as a condition of Internet Freedom, and will work with our colleagues in Congress and around the country to ensure that Congress once and for all adopts a legislative solution to uphold the open internet. We cannot afford to continue partisan jockeying on this issue. The rules have changed consistently over the past ten years based on who occupies the White House and which party in Congress dominates in the realm of legislative control. There is too much at stake and on the line to stop now. Internet Freedom is a must, and we will do what it takes to ensure that all people have the opportunity to access the internet freely, openly, and affordably.	”
—Justice Democrats

Political activity

See also: PACs and Super PACs

As a nonconnected political action committee (PAC), Justice Democrats is not affiliated with any corporations, labor unions, membership organizations, or trade associations. The group raises funds from individuals who wish to contribute to the committee and disburses funds to support federal candidates according to federal contribution limits.

2020 elections

As of July 2020, Justice Democrats had announced its support for six primary challengers to House Democratic incumbents in 2020, two general election candidates for U.S. House and one for U.S. Senate, and its endorsement of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) in the Democratic presidential primary.. The group continued its efforts to recruit primary challengers to Democratic U.S. House incumbents in districts it considered unlikely to be competitive in the general election with a recruitment drive known as #OurTime. Compared to 2018, Justice Democrats planned "to spend more on fewer candidates and is working to build a larger infrastructure and a bigger fund-raising arm," according to The New York Times.

Justice Democrats endorsed challengers, 2020
Candidate	District	Primary date	Incumbent
Georgette Gómez (D)	California's 53rd Congressional District	March 3, 2020	Susan Davis (D)
Jamaal Bowman (D)	New York's 16th Congressional District	June 23, 2020	Eliot Engel (D)
Cori Bush (D)	Missouri's 1st Congressional District	August 4, 2020	William Lacy Clay (D)
Jessica Cisneros (D)	Texas' 28th Congressional District	March 3, 2020	Henry Cuellar (D)
Kara Eastman (D)	Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District	May 12, 2020	Don Bacon (R)
Morgan Harper (D)	Ohio's 3rd Congressional District	March 10, 2020	Joyce Beatty (D)
Alex Morse (D)	Massachusetts' 1st Congressional District	September 15, 2020	Richard Neal (D)
Marie Newman (D)	Illinois' 3rd Congressional District	March 17, 2020	Daniel Lipinski (D)
Betsy Sweet (D)	United States Senate, Maine	June 9, 2020	Susan Collins (R)

As of July 2020, the group had also endorsed seven U.S. House incumbents for re-election.

Justice Democrats endorsed incumbents, 2020
Candidate	District	Primary date
Raul Grijalva (D)	Arizona's 3rd Congressional District	August 4, 2020
Ro Khanna (D)	California's 17th Congressional District	March 3, 2020
Ayanna Pressley (D)	Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District	September 15, 2020
Rashida Tlaib (D)	Michigan's 13th Congressional District	August 4, 2020
Ilhan Omar (D)	Minnesota's 5th Congressional District	August 11, 2020
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D)	New York's 14th Congressional District	June 23, 2020
Pramila Jayapal (D)	Washington's 7th Congressional District	August 4, 2020

2018 elections

In 2018, Justice Democrats recruited 12 Democratic primary challengers and endorsed 66 other candidates. The only Justice Democrats-recruited candidate to win election to Congress that year was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D). The group endorsed the following Democratic congressional candidates in 2018:

Justice Democrats endorsed candidates, 2018
Candidate	District	Primary date	Result
Kerri Evelyn Harris	U.S. Senate-Delaware	September 6, 2018	d Lost primary
Mary Matiella	Arizona's 2nd Congressional District	August 28, 2018	d Lost primary
Raul Grijalva	Arizona's 3rd Congressional District	August 28, 2018	a Won general
Brianna Westbrook	Arizona's 8th Congressional District	August 28, 2018	d Lost primary
Deedra Abboud	U.S. Senate-Arizona	August 28, 2018	d Lost primary
Audrey Denney	California's 1st Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost general
Roza Calderon	California's 4th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Dotty Nygard	California's 10th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Ro Khanna	California's 17th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	a Won general
Bryan Caforio	California's 25th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Laura Oatman	California's 48th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Doug Applegate	California's 49th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Ammar Campa-Najjar	California's 50th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost general
Alison Hartson	U.S. Senate-California	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Stephany Rose Spaulding	Colorado's 5th Congressional District	June 26, 2018	d Lost general
Chardo Richardson	Florida's 7th Congressional District	August 28, 2018	d Lost primary
Michael A. Hepburn	Florida's 27th Congressional District	August 28, 2018	d Lost primary
Lisa Ring	Georgia's 1st Congressional District	May 22, 2018	d Lost general
Kaniela Ing	Hawaii's 1st Congressional District	August 11, 2018	d Lost primary
Courtney Rowe	Iowa's 1st Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Pete D'Alessandro	Iowa's 3rd Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Marie Newman	Illinois' 3rd Congressional District	March 20, 2018	d Lost primary
Sameena Mustafa	Illinois' 5th Congressional District	March 20, 2018	d Lost primary
Anthony Clark	Illinois' 7th Congressional District	March 20, 2018	d Lost primary
David Gill	Illinois' 13th Congressional District	March 20, 2018	d Lost primary
Daniel Canon	Indiana's 9th Congressional District	May 08, 2018	d Lost primary
Brent Welder	Kansas' 3rd Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost primary
James Thompson	Kansas' 4th Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost general
Juana Matias	Massachusetts' 3rd Congressional District	September 4, 2018	d Lost primary
Ayanna Pressley	Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District	September 4, 2018	a Won general
Ben Jealous	Governor of Maryland	June 26, 2018	d Lost general
Matt Morgan	Michigan's 1st Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost general
Rob Davidson	Michigan's 2nd Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost general
David Benac	Michigan's 6th Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost primary
Fayrouz Saad	Michigan's 11th Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost primary
Rashida Tlaib	Michigan's 13th Congressional District	August 07, 2018	a Won general
Abdul El-Sayed	Governor of Michigan	August 07, 2018	d Lost primary
Ilhan Omar	Minnesota's 5th Congressional District	August 14, 2018	a Won general
Cori Bush	Missouri's 1st Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost primary
John Heenan	Montana's At-Large Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Kara Eastman	Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District	May 15, 2018	d Lost general
Amy Vilela	Nevada's 4th Congressional District	June 12, 2018	d Lost primary
Peter Jacob	New Jersey's 7th Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Antoinette Sedillo Lopez	New Mexico's 1st Congressional District	June 05, 2018	d Lost primary
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez	New York's 14th Congressional District	June 26, 2018	a Won general
Jeff Beals	New York's 19th Congressional District	June 26, 2018	d Lost primary
Patrick Nelson	New York's 21st Congressional District	June 26, 2018	d Lost primary
Ian Golden	New York's 23rd Congressional District	June 26, 2018	d Lost primary
Jenny Marshall	North Carolina's 5th Congressional District	May 08, 2018	d Lost primary
John Russell	Ohio's 12th Congressional District	May 8, 2018	d Lost primary
Greg Edwards	Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District	May 15, 2018	d Lost primary
Jessica King	Pennsylvania's 11th Congressional District	May 15, 2018	d Lost general
Jimmy Darnell Jones	Texas' 2nd Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost primary
Lorie Burch	Texas' 3rd Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost general
Laura Moser	Texas' 7th Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost primary
Vanessa Adia	Texas' 12th Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost general
Adrienne Bell	Texas' 14th Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost general
Derrick Crowe	Texas' 21st Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost primary
Mary Wilson	Texas' 21st Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost primary
Rick Treviño	Texas' 23rd Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost primary
Linsey Fagan	Texas' 26th Congressional District	March 06, 2018	d Lost general
Darlene McDonald	Utah's 4th Congressional District	June 26, 2018	d Lost primary
Dorothy Gasque	Washington's 3rd Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost primary
Pramila Jayapal	Washington's 7th Congressional District	August 07, 2018	a Won general
Sarah Smith	Washington's 9th Congressional District	August 07, 2018	d Lost general
Randy Bryce	Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District	August 14, 2018	d Lost general
Paula Jean Swearengin	U.S. Senate-West Virginia	May 08, 2018	d Lost primary

Finances

As a nonconnected political action committee (PAC), Justice Democrats raises funds from individuals who wish to contribute to the committee and disburses funds to support federal candidates in the following amounts, according to data from April 2019:

• $2,800 to each candidate or candidate committee per election
• $35,500 to the national party committee per calendar year
• $106,500 to other national party committee accounts per calendar year
• $10,000 (combined limit) to state, district and local party committee per calendar year
• $5,000 to any other political committee per calendar year

Justice Democrats reported the following fundraising information to the Federal Election Commission:

Annual financial information for Justice Democrats
Year	Total receipts	Total disbursements	Cash on hand	FEC document
2019	$1,773,641.70	$1,381,796.30	$578,869.41	Filing
2018	$1,267,047.83	$1,222,566.84	$187,024.01	Filing
2017	$1,459,910	$1,317,367	$142,543	Filing

Donors

According to Justice Democrats' co-founder Cenk Uygur, the group opposes corporate donations and only accepts funds from small donors. He told Wired in January 2017, "You can’t raise money on TV by asking people to go to a website later. And we’re not going to take money from corporations. We’re going to do it with small online donors, Bernie style."

Leadership

As of July 2020, Justice Democrats' leadership team consisted of Alexandra Rojas and Nasim Thompson.

Noteworthy events

DCCC blacklist

On March 22, 2019, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced that it would no longer do business with firms who also worked with primary challengers to Democratic U.S. House members and encouraged House members' campaigns to do the same.

In an interview with National Journal, Rep. James Clyburn (D) praised the policy change. He argued that the existing policy had been unfair because it meant that the DCCC was providing funds to firms who were working to oppose the re-election of dues-paying House Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) criticized the policy on Twitter, calling it "extremely divisive & harmful to the party". She urged supporters to halt donations to the DCCC and give directly to candidates instead.

Following the announcement, influencer groups opposed to the decision, including Justice Democrats, Democracy for America, and Our Revolution, launched DCCC Blacklist. The website's purpose is "to fight back and provide potential primary challengers with a database of go-to vendors, organizations, and consultants who will continue to support efforts to usher in a new generation of leaders into the Democratic Party."

On March 9, 2021, the chairman of the DCCC, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D), reversed the policy. "This policy change means that the only criteria for a vendor to be listed in the directory are our standards for fair business practices," said Chris Taylor, a spokesman for Maloney.

Click [show] to view a full list of sponsoring organizations.

As of September 19, 2022, organizations listed as participants on the DCCC Blacklist website included: Justice Democrats Think Rubix Democracy for America Indivisible Left Rising Middle Seat Center for Popular Democracy Mijente New Deal Strategies Our Revolution Progressive Change Campaign Committee Reach Seneca Strategies Data for Progress Working Families Party Center for Popular Democracy Action Revolution Messaging Slingshot Strategies Color of Change PAC Anat Shenker Osorio Communications Brand New Congress Fenton Grassroots Analytics Jet PAC Nimblebot OpenField People's Action ShareProgress Strategy & Hustle MVMT Communications

What others are saying

This section contains selected quotes which are representative of arguments made by Justice Democrats' supporters and detractors. To suggest a quote for inclusion in this section, submit it here.

“	“I hear members talk about [Justice Democrats] from time to time,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.), a Crowley confidant and former vice-chair of the caucus. “They do wish that they would recognize that our own members aren’t the enemy. ...We probably agree on 90 percent of everything.”	”
—Politico

“	That’s because turning the Democratic Party into a truly progressive force will require turning “primary” into a verb. The corporate Democrats who dominate the party’s power structure in Congress should fear losing their seats because they’re out of step with constituents. And Democratic voters should understand that if they want to change the party, the only path to do so is to change the people who represent them. Otherwise, the leverage of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex will continue to hold sway.	”
—Huffington Post

“	Focusing more on blue districts would be “unnecessarily ceding ground,” said Adam Green, the cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which is closely aligned with Elizabeth Warren. “Economic populism is the key to winning in red and purple districts.” “That idea is going to run into the brick wall of reality,” said Ben Tulchin, a progressive pollster for Bernie Sanders. “Raising money is hard — any institutional donor isn’t going to give money to unseat an incumbent. And a lot of incumbents, if they’re doing their job right, are going to be very popular in their blue districts. Nancy Pelosi is very popular in San Francisco.”	”
—"Buzzfeed News

“	Justice Democrats has the potential to change the game because there’s never before been a progressive organization single-mindedly focused on deliberately courting ideologically-driven primaries.	”
—Vox

“	"They flipped exactly zero House seats. Zero point zero," said Matt Bennett, a senior vice president of the centrist Democratic thank tank Third Way, referring to two prominent progressive groups that emerged from Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential bid — Our Revolution and Justice Democrats.	”
—NBC News

Media

Uygur discusses Justice Democrats on The Young Turks, January 23, 2017.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Justice Democrats. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Justice Democrats - Google News

See also

• The Young Turks
• Political action committee
• PACs and Super PACs
• Bernie Sanders

External links

• Justice Democrats homepage
• Justice Democrats on Twitter
• Justice Democrats on Facebook