| Justice Democrats | |
| Abbreviation: | JD |
| Key People: | Saikat Chakrabarti Zack Exley Tara Reilly[1] Alexandra Rojas, Executive Director |
| Type: | Political action committee, caucus[2] |
| Registration Id: | C00630665 |
| Headquarters: | Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Revenue: | $1.46 million |
| Revenue Year: | 2017 |
| Disbursements: | $1.32 million[3] |
| Affiliations: | Brand New Congress National Nurses United Former affiliation: The Young Turks |
| Colorcode: |
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| Country: | United States |
| Founded: | 2017 |
| Seats1 Title: | Members in the House of Representatives |
| Seats1: | [4] |
| Seats2 Title: | Members in Senate |
| Seats3 Title: | Members in state legislature |
| Seats4 Title: | Members in local government |
Justice Democrats (JD) is an American progressive political action committee and caucus[5] [6] [7] founded on January 23, 2017, by two leaders of Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, as well as political commentators Kyle Kulinski and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks. The organization formed as a result of the 2016 United States presidential election[8] [9] and aspires "to elect a new type of Democratic majority in Congress" that will "create a thriving economy and democracy that works for the people, not big money interests". The group advocates for campaign finance reform (reducing the role of money in politics) and endorses only candidates who pledge to refuse donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists.
Kulinski and Uygur are no longer part of the group, later criticizing it for falling short in cultivating a unified cohort of legislators able to champion priority bills.[10] Alexandra Rojas became the organization's executive director in May 2018.[11]
During the 2018 elections, Justice Democrats ran 79 progressive candidates against Democrats, Republicans and Independents in local, state, and federal elections. The seven Justice Democrats candidates who won their electoral congressional races in 2018 were Raúl Grijalva, Pramila Jayapal, Ro Khanna, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.
The group endorsed considerably fewer candidates in 2020 than in 2018, a move its communications director defended as a strategy to focus its resources on the most promising candidates.[12] [13] Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, and Marie Newman were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.
In 2022, Greg Casar and Summer Lee were elected to the House, while Newman lost her reelection in the Democratic primary after facing an investigation by the House Ethics Committee.[14] In 2024, Delia Ramirez was endorsed by and joined Justice Democrats.[15]
After the 2016 presidential election resulted in a victory for Donald Trump, many progressives pointed to the perceived loyalty of politicians to large donors as a major contributing factor to Hillary Clinton's loss to Trump. These critics contend that a campaign finance model similar to that of Bernie Sanders, whose 2016 presidential campaign was funded by small individual donations, will increase public trust in politicians through increased accountability to their constituents.
On January 23, 2017, Cenk Uygur and Kyle Kulinski founded Justice Democrats with ten others, including former staffers from the Sanders campaign such as its Director of Organizing Technology, Saikat Chakrabarti, and MoveOn.org fundraiser Zack Exley.[16] [17] [18] According to the organization, it seeks to create a left-wing populist movement to support alternative Democratic candidates beginning with the 2018 midterm elections, in order to either defeat the incumbent Democrats or make them more accountable to their constituents. It requires its candidates to take a pledge to refuse financial contributions from billionaires and corporations.[8] In addition, it hoped to rebuild the Democratic Party on a national level and defeat Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
On March 20, 2017, Justice Democrats reported that they had received 8,300 nominations and raised $1 million (~$ in).[19] Also in March 2017, it teamed up with Brand New Congress, a PAC established by former Sanders campaign supporters, to further their goals.[18] By November 1, 2017, they had merged with fellow progressive group AllOfUs.[20] [21]
On May 9, 2017, Representative Ro Khanna of California's 17th congressional district announced that he had become a Justice Democrat, the first sitting member of Congress to join the organization. Over the following year, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona's 3rd congressional district and Pramila Jayapal of Washington's 7th congressional district also joined, bringing the number of sitting representatives in Justice Democrats to three.[22] Khanna and Jayapal were first elected to the House in 2016 while Grijalva has been an incumbent since 2002.
During the 2018 elections, Justice Democrats ran 79 progressive candidates against Democrats, Republicans and Independents in local, state, and federal elections. 26 of them advanced past the primary stage. All Justice Democrat candidates running for office were endorsed by The Young Turks, who provided them with a media platform on their interview show Rebel HQ.[23] The seven Justice Democrats candidates who won their electoral congressional races in 2018 were Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the three sitting members. All seven won districts already held by Democrats.
In 2020, Justice Democrat Marie Newman defeated incumbent Representative Dan Lipinski in the 2020 primary for Illinois's 3rd congressional district.[24] Jamaal Bowman defeated incumbent Representative Eliot Engel in New York's 16th congressional district's primary. Bowman was also endorsed by Justice Democrats. Another Justice Democrat-endorsed candidate won in Missouri's 1st congressional district, when Cori Bush defeated Representative Lacy Clay.
In July 2017, several progressive organizations, including Our Revolution, Democratic Socialists of America, National Nurses United, Working Families Party, and Brand New Congress, announced a push to encourage House Democrats to sign on to a #PeoplesPlatform, which meant supporting "eight bills currently in the House of Representatives that will address the concerns of everyday Americans".[25] These eight bills and the topics they address are:
On December 22, 2017, it was announced that Uygur had resigned from the organization, after the revelation of previously deleted but archived controversial blog posts he had written.[34] The next day, Kulinski announced that he had stepped down from the organization as he disagreed with staff members who pressed for Uygur's dismissal. He said his decision came as a result of a personal dilemma as he saw the posts in question upon rereading them as satirical. Kulinski noted that the decision to ask for Uygur's resignation came from Justice Democrat staff, not the candidates, and asked his supporters to continue backing the organization's candidates.[35]
In mid-November 2019, Uygur filed to run for Congress in California's 25th district, a seat recently vacated by the resignation of Katie Hill.[36] [37] [38] Uygur stated he would not run as a member of the Justice Democrats.
A central priority of Justice Democrats is to effectively eliminate the role of money and conflicts of interests in politics. As such, any candidate running with Justice Democrats must pledge to refuse donations from corporate PACs and lobbyists.[39] Declining money from corporate PACs and supporting Medicare for All have both been described as litmus tests for the organization.[40] Justice Democrats supports publicly funded elections, banning Super PACs, and banning private donations to politicians and campaigns. It also advocates for the reinstatement of provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and a ban on gerrymandering for partisan gain. Several members have voiced support for a constitutional amendment to remove money from American politics.[41]
To accompany its launch, Kulinski and Uygur published the following set of progressive founding principles for the coalition.[42] Adjustments have been made since 2017, resulting in a slightly different platform appearing on the Justice Democrats webpage at a given time.[43]
All Congressional Justice Democrats members are House of Representatives members from the Democratic Party. As of the 118th Congress, there are 12 declared Justice Democrats, all of whom are House members.[45]
| Name | State | District | Tenure | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raúl Grijalva | AZ–7, AZ–3 | since 2003[46] | ||
| Ro Khanna | CA–17 | since 2017 | ||
| Pramila Jayapal | WA–7 | since 2017[47] | ||
| NY-14 | since 2019 | |||
| Ilhan Omar | MN–5 | since 2019 | ||
| Ayanna Pressley | MA–7 | since 2019 | ||
| MI-13, MI-12 | since 2019 | |||
| NY-16 | since 2021 | |||
| MO-1 | since 2021 | |||
| Greg Casar | TX–35 | since 2023 | ||
| PA–12 | since 2023 | |||
| IL–3 | since 2023[48] |
Justice Democrats officially endorsed 79 candidates in the 2018 election cycle, seven of whom won general elections (three were incumbents).[52] The four first-time officeholders in the U.S. House make up "The Squad".
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland | Governor of Maryland | ||||||||||||||
| Michigan | Governor of Michigan | ||||||||||||||
| New York | Governor of New York | [53] | |||||||||||||
| Rhode Island | Governor of Rhode Island | ||||||||||||||
| Vermont | Governor of Vermont |
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island | Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island |
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deedra Abboud | Arizona | U.S. Senator from Arizona | |||||||||||||
| California | U.S. Senator from California | ||||||||||||||
| Delaware | U.S. Senator from Delaware | ||||||||||||||
| West Virginia | U.S. Senator from West Virginia |
Justice Democrats endorsed 17 candidates in the Democratic primaries for president, Senate and House. Twelve House candidates made it to the general election (7 incumbents, 5 newcomers). All the incumbents and three newcomers won.
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primaries | bgcolor=teal | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| President of the United States | 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries |
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine | U.S. Senator from Maine |
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (inc.) | Arizona | Arizona's 3rd congressional district | [62] | ||||||||||||
| (inc.) | California | California's 17th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| California | California's 53rd congressional district | ||||||||||||||
| Illinois | Illinois's 3rd congressional district | ||||||||||||||
| Massachusetts | Massachusetts's 1st congressional district | ||||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Massachusetts | Massachusetts's 7th congressional district | [63] | ||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Michigan | Michigan's 13th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Minnesota | Minnesota's 5th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| Missouri | Missouri's 1st congressional district | ||||||||||||||
| Nebraska | Nebraska's 2nd congressional district | ||||||||||||||
| (inc.) | New York | New York's 14th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| Jamaal Bowman | New York | New York's 16th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| Morgan Harper | Ohio | Ohio's 3rd congressional district | |||||||||||||
| Texas | Texas's 28th congressional district | ||||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Washington | Washington's 7th congressional district |
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | Ohio's 11th congressional district | [64] |
Justice Democrats endorsed 10 incumbents and 6 newcomers. All but one incumbent won, as did two newcomers.
Justice Democrats has endorsed 12 incumbents.
| bgcolor=teal | Candidate | bgcolor=teal | State | bgcolor=teal | Office | bgcolor=teal | Primary date | bgcolor=teal data-sort-type="date" | Primary result | bgcolor=teal | % | bgcolor=teal | General result | bgcolor=teal | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (inc.) | Arizona | Arizona's 7th congressional district | [79] | ||||||||||||
| (inc.) | California | California's 17th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Illinois | Illinois's 3rd congressional district | [80] | ||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Massachusetts | Massachusetts's 7th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Michigan | Michigan's 12th congressional district | [81] | ||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Minnesota | Minnesota's 5th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Missouri | Missouri's 1st congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | New York | New York's 14th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | New York | New York's 16th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district | |||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Texas | Texas's 35th congressional district | [82] | ||||||||||||
| (inc.) | Washington | Washington's 7th congressional district |