National progressive group backs Fulop, Baraka

One of the nation’s top grassroots progressive organizations is urging its thousands of New Jersey members to support Steve Fulop or Ras Baraka in next week’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee also cautioned Democrats to reject another candidate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), calling her a “milquetoast Democrat, not a bold leader.”

The group is closely allied with Elizabeth Warren, helping her flip a Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat in 2012 and boosting her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.  Its founder, Adam Green, was communications director for the New Jersey Democratic State Committee in the early 2000s.  PCCC also helped Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) win a Democratic primary for an open House seat in 2014.

Green said that Fulop “has made a case against corruption and party bosses” and that Baraka “made national news fighting Trump at an ICE facility in his home city – a moment that will go down in history.”

A survey of its New Jersey membership showed Sherrill and Fulop ahead, Green said.  The endorsement aims to cut into that support.

“When the fight against Big Pharma was happening in 2021-2022, Mikie Sherrill was nowhere to be seen,” Green said.  “As Trump and Elon Musk proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and child nutrition to fund tax cuts for billionaires, lots of Democrats made news by fighting back. Sherrill did not.”

An email to members also scolded Sherrill for taking donations from a corporate PAC affiliated with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“She would be better than a Republican,” stated Green.  “But not bold. Not extraordinary. Not itching for a fight at a time when voters want someone who will shake up a corrupt political and economic system.”