Socialists Win in Pennsylvania Democrat Primaries
Luke Rohlfing
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Pennsylvania voted on Tuesday to decide who will face off in the November general election. In the state that went to Trump in 2016, socialists had a great day.
Two Democratic Socialists of America members won the nominations for their respective state house districts as Democrats. Sara Innamorato and Summer Lee beat back their incumbent opponents, Dom and Paul Costa, who are cousins.
The two Costa’s have both spent many years in the Pennsyvania State House, with Dom being election in 2009, and Paul being election ten years prior in 1999. This upset shows the increased support for socialist policies in the Democratic party.
Both of the defeated candidates had concerns months earlier of their opponents being able to pull off a win. Dom Costa made waves over his strategy of courting Republican voters to his campaign. This strategy was clearly a desperate attempt to bring in more moderate Republicans to help him overcome the increasingly far-left views of modern Democrats. His strategy didn’t seem to work, but his cousin Paul ran a more traditional Democrat campaign and still lost, so who knows.
The popularity of socialist ideas among Democrats can be tied to the Presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, who publicly called himself a Democratic Socialist. Sanders likely would have won the Democratic nomination if it weren’t for high-level party officials like Debbie Wasserman Schultz working against his campaign.
But socialists weren’t the only group that brought home wins in Pennsylvania. Trump supporters saw a victory in the nomination of pro-Trump diehard Lou Barletta to face Democrat Senator Bob Casey in November. Barletta looks to have a great chance facing his Democrat opponent in a state that Trump won in 2016.
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