Left threatens Trump-friendly senators with primary challenges

Progressives are threatening primary challenges for Democratic lawmakers who don’t commit to full obstruction of President Trump’s agenda.

Democrats already face a daunting 2018 landscape, with 10 senators up for reelection in states that Trump won. However, the threat of primaries foes going up against vulnerable Democrats such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin further complicates the party’s chances of coming out with a net victory.

But the party’s left flank is convinced that a full embrace of progressivism is the only way to return to power, and it is ready to fight for the party’s soul.

We Will Replace You is the most visible effort gearing up to back primary challenges from the left. Spearheaded by a group of progressives, including two former senior staffers on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, the group’s website includes a warning for Democrats looking to avoid a competitive primary race.

“Do everything you can to Resist Trump, or we will replace you with someone who will,” the group’s statement reads.

The minimum qualifications for avoiding progressives’ wrath, the website adds, include voting against every Trump administration nominee, fighting against the confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, being willing to slow down the legislative process to block the president’s agenda and pushing for the ouster of controversial chief strategist Stephen Bannon.

LINK