{"id":1990876,"date":"2023-08-04T12:02:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T16:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/were-not-in-a-great-place-democrat-group-behind-the-squad-lays-off-half-its-staff\/"},"modified":"2023-08-04T12:07:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-04T16:07:06","slug":"were-not-in-a-great-place-democrat-group-behind-the-squad-lays-off-half-its-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/were-not-in-a-great-place-democrat-group-behind-the-squad-lays-off-half-its-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Democrat Group Behind the &#8216;Squad&#8217; Faces Layoffs, Struggles Continue&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwere-not-in-a-great-place-democrat-group-behind-the-squad-lays-off-half-its-staff%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1990876&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Left-Wing Organization Struggles to Stay Afloat<\/h2>\n<div>\n<figure><figcaption>Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and\u2062 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) \/ Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>A \u2064prominent left-wing organization laid \u200boff half its staff last month,\u200b a further sign that\u2062 Democratic\u200b groups are struggling to \u200cstay afloat.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Democrats, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-plans-to-cut-100000-names-off-state-voter-rolls-in-major-list-maintenance-effort\/\" title=\"Georgia Plans To Cut 100,000 Names Off State Voter Rolls In \u2018Major List Maintenance Effort\u2019\">progressive group founded<\/a> in 2017 following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-to-uyghurs-drop-dead\/\" title=\"Biden to Uyghurs: Drop Dead\">failed presidential run<\/a> \u2063of socialist \u200cVermont\u200d senator Bernie\u2062 Sanders, in mid-July \u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/newsletters\/playbook\/2023\/07\/15\/the-new-fissure-dividing-the-gop-00106475\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">let\u2064 go<\/a> 9 of its 20 staffers, <em>Politico<\/em> \u2064 reported. \u2062The group\u200c works to help\u2063 elect far-left candidates and is largely credited\u200b with helping create the &#8220;Squad&#8221; of House lawmakers that includes Alexandria \u2064Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) and Ilhan \u200bOmar (D., Minn.).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no secret\u2064 that Democratic and\u200d progressive organizations like \u200bus\u200d are \u2062in a\u2062 difficult fundraising environment right\u2063 now,&#8221; Alexandra Rojas, Justice Democrats&#8217; executive \u2064director, told <em>Politico<\/em> last month. &#8220;We\u200d had to make tough \u2063decisions to remain one of the most\u200d impactful progressive organizations in the country for\u200d years to come.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Progressives are worried about the state of\u200b the movement \u2063in light of fundraising\u2062 and growth struggles.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have huge champions \u200blike Bernie Sanders, AOC, Ilhan Omar, who are able to be successful political fundraisers,&#8221; a \u2062progressive House aide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/justice-democrats-financial-trouble-left-future_n_64c97bbce4b03ad2b89b5fe1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the <em>Huffington Post<\/em>. &#8220;But movement-wise, \u200dwe&#8217;re not in a great place \u2063right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With \u200bthe\u2063 prominent Justice Democrats flailing, smaller progressive groups are also getting hit.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunshine Movement, a climate-change activist group, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/justice-democrats-financial-trouble-left-future_n_64c97bbce4b03ad2b89b5fe1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">let go<\/a> 35 out of the\u2063 100 people on its team, the <em>Huffington Post<\/em> reported. Middle Seat, a progressive fundraising\u200b entity,\u2062 has also \u200dcut staff this year.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Democrats has had\u200d to bail itself out in past months,\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/political-action-committees-pacs\/justice-democrats\/C00630665\/donors\/2022\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pulling<\/a> \u2064hundreds of thousands of dollars from other \u200daffiliated PACs to \u200dhelp \u200ckeep the lights on.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2064 fundraising\u200d dry-up could hurt reelection campaigns for \u200bprogressive House members, including Jamaal \u200bBowman (D., N.Y.), \u200dwhose anti-Israel positions and\u2063 statements in the House are\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/jewishinsider.com\/2023\/07\/jamaal-bowman-israel-congress-isaac-herzog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resulting<\/a> in a potential\u200d primary challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Bowman supports a two-state \u200csolution \u2063and \u2063recently boycotted a speech \u200dby Israeli\u200d president Isaac Herzog. He also refused\u200b to vote for a resolution last month that Israel is not \u2064&#8221;racist,&#8221; leading to anger from his sizably Jewish constituency and a push for a Democratic primary challenger.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2063theme is common among progressives. \u2064One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-cabinet-pick-in-doubt-after-senate-committees-postpone-hearings\/\" title=\"Biden Cabinet Pick In Doubt After Senate Committees Postpone Hearings\">aide told<\/a> the <em>Huffington Post<\/em> that the Justice Democrats organization rarely met with its elected \u2063candidates, except to talk about Israel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Other than some Israel bills, we never\u2062 talked about legislation,&#8221; the \u200daide said.\u200b &#8220;There&#8217;s\u2063 a perspective that people with [Justice Democrats] \u2063 win their race\u2062 and come to \u200dCongress and do their own thing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Drying-up donations \u2062are a concern across the Democratic political world, \u2064 <em>Politico<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/08\/04\/biden-dems-grassroots-donations-00109766\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>One of\u200b the best online\u200c fundraising\u2064 days for Democrats this year\u2062 was the day of Joe \u2063Biden&#8217;s \u200ccampaign launch\u2014but even that day&#8217;s haul\u2063 was meager compared to his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-anyone-more-annoying-or-treacherous-than-barack-obama\/\" title=\"Is Anyone More Annoying or Treacherous than Barack Obama?\">campaign kickoff<\/a> four years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>That&#8217;s among the findings of an analysis of fundraising for the first half of the \u200dyear through ActBlue, the party&#8217;s primary\u200c donation processor. Small-dollar giving at the federal \u200clevel totaled\u2064 $312 million in the first half of\u200d 2023\u2014a drop-off of\u2064 more than $30\u2062 million compared \u2062to this point in the 2020 \u200ccycle.<\/em><em>The platform also\u200d had 32\u2062 percent fewer donors in the second quarter this year \u200bcompared to four years prior, although its \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/were-not-in-a-great-place-democrat-group-behind-the-squad-lays-off-half-its-staff\/\" title=\"'Democrat Group Behind the 'Squad' Faces Layoffs, Struggles Continue'\">total fundraising increased slightly due<\/a> to\u2064 several factors, including more recurring donors and\u2062 greater giving to non-federal \u2063groups.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Former \u200cSanders campaign aide \u2063Ari Rabin-Havt told\u200b <em>Politico<\/em> that the fundraising problem \u2064points to an &#8220;enthusiasm gap&#8221; among Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If people aren&#8217;t concerned about the drop-off in contributions, then they just aren&#8217;t paying attention or whistling past the graveyard,&#8221; Rabin-Havt said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) \/ Getty Images A left-wing organization, Justice Democrats, laid off half its staff last month, indicating the financial challenges faced by Democratic groups. Founded in 2017 after Bernie Sanders&#8217; unsuccessful presidential campaign, the progressive group is grappling to sustain itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1613,"featured_media":1990877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1990876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1990876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1990876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1990877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1990876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1990876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1990876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}