There has been much discussion about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) possibly challenging longtime leader Chuck Schumer in New York's Democratic Senatorial primary.
Many in the party are unhappy with the archliberal for voting in favor of the Republican spending bill, and they now question his leadership. A new poll compiled by Data for Progress shows AOC ahead of him by 19 points (55% to 36%) in a hypothetical 2026 primary.
"Democrats just keep moving farther left," says Robert Knight. "AOC is as far left as you can get. She's a Bernie Sanders Democrat, which means she's pretty much a socialist."
He says Chuck Schumer potentially losing his seat over this vote shows just how intolerant the Democrats have become.
Because he did not let the budget bill collapse, "he was condemned as a turncoat by the more leftist Democrats," Knight reports. "Schumer is going to have to bring some more moderates into his camp rooting for him, or he really is in big trouble."
In Illinois, Dick Durbin, who has been in the Senate since 1997 and is the chamber's No. 2 Democrat, this week posted on X that he will not seek a sixth term in 2026.
"I got a scoop that Dick Durbin would not be running again – that he was actually diagnosed with throat cancer and that he was going to resign and Rahm (Emanuel) was going to be appointed to the seat," relays P Rae Easley, founder and chair of ChicagoRED and a member of the Project 21 Black Leadership Network.
"Part one of it is true," she tells AFN. "He's not going to be back in office."
She hopes the part about Rahm Emanuel, Chicago's former mayor and Barack Obama's former chief of staff, does not pan out.
"If Rahm is chosen as the candidate that the DNC backs, then that's going to give us all of the evidence that we need of them functioning as a machine and not for the people," Easley submits.
That would confirm what ChicagoRED has been saying all along.
She thinks the intention is for Emanuel to clean up Durbin's "dirty" image, but she asserts that Chicago does not want him.
Easley does not know of any Republican prepared to challenge next year.
