Justice Democrats


Justice Democrats is an American progressive political action committee and caucus 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 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 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. Alexandra Rojas became the organization's executive director in May 2018.
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. 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. In 2024, Delia Ramirez was endorsed by and joined Justice Democrats.
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History

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. 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. 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. Also in March 2017, it teamed up with Brand New Congress, a PAC established by former Sanders campaign supporters, to further their goals. By November 1, 2017, they had merged with fellow progressive group AllOfUs.
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. 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. 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 House of Representatives elections in Illinois|2020 primary] for Illinois's 3rd congressional district. 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.

Summer for Progress

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". These eight bills and the topics they address are:
  1. Medicare for All: H.R. 676, the Medicare For All Act
  2. Free College Tuition: H.R. 1880, the College for All Act of 2017
  3. Worker Rights: H.R. 15, the Raise the Wage Act
  4. Women's Rights: H.R. 771, the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act of 2017
  5. Voting Rights: H.R. 2840, the Automatic Voter Registration Act
  6. Environmental Justice: H.R. 4114, the Environmental Justice Act of 2017
  7. Criminal Justice and Immigrant Rights: H.R. 3227, the Justice Is Not for Sale Act of 2017
  8. Taxing Wall Street: H.R. 1144, the Inclusive Prosperity Act

Uygur's resignation

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. 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.
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. Uygur stated he would not run as a member of the Justice Democrats.

Ideology and political issues

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. Declining money from corporate PACs and supporting Medicare for All have both been described as litmus tests for the organization. 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.
To accompany its launch, Kulinski and Uygur published the following set of progressive founding principles for the coalition. Adjustments have been made since 2017, resulting in a slightly different platform appearing on the Justice Democrats webpage at a given time.

Members

All Congressional Justice Democrats members are House of Representatives members from the Democratic Party. As of the 119th Congress, there are 9 declared Justice Democrats, all of whom are House members.

Announcements

Political activity

2018

Justice Democrats officially endorsed 79 candidates in the 2018 election cycle, seven of whom won general elections. The four first-time officeholders in the U.S. House make up "The Squad".

2020

Justice Democrats endorsed 17 candidates in the Democratic primaries for president, Senate and House. Twelve House candidates made it to the general election. All the incumbents and three newcomers won.

2022

Justice Democrats endorsed 10 incumbents and 6 newcomers. All but one incumbent won, as did two newcomers.

2024

Justice Democrats endorsed 12 incumbents, and all but two won re-election.

2026

Justice Democrats endorsed 9 incumbents, 1 former representative, and 9 newcomers.