AIPAC and the crypto PACs of 2024 are now supplemented by AI PACs, as outside billionaire and corporate political spending to influence Democratic Party elections continues its relentless rise. Similarly, pink-slime news continues to grow as real local journalistic outlets decline.

Among Democratic climate and environmental political groups endorsing Congressional candidates, the Jane Fonda Climate PAC (JanePAC) and Sunrise Movement back progressive candidates who oppose corporate polluters, while the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) and 314 Action are part of the corporate-consultant New Dem bloc, willing to endorse active allies of the oil and gas industry such as Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) and state Rep. Jasmeet Bains (D-Calif.).

Many groups are way behind this cycle: MoveOn has endorsed only Nida Allam for North Carolina’s 4th, and Food & Water Watch and Friends of the Earth have not made any 2026 endorsements. [Correction: Food & Water Watch has made some endorsements but has not listed them.]

Although Indivisible announced a major campaign to contest Democratic primaries last November, the organization has not made many endorsements yet, in part because they require local chapters to act first. Other groups fighting the AIPAC-AI PAC onslaught, usually aligned with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, include the Working Families Party, Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America, Justice Democrats, and Beyond the Ballot.

The official campaign arm of the House Democrats, the DCCC (financed by dues collected from its members) is beginning to weigh in on competitive swing-district primaries, picking candidates aligned with favorites of the official New Dem PAC and allied groups like EMILY’s List and Defend the Vote.

March Primaries

Early voting is well underway for the March 3rd primaries in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Texas. North Carolina and Texas Republicans have redistricted to improve Republican chances; Rep. Don Davis (D-NC-01) is now facing a more GOP-friendly electorate; Reps. Al Green (D-TX-09), New Dem Julie Johnson (D-TX-32), and Green New Dealer Greg Casar (D-TX-35) are vying for election in new districts while Marc Veasey (D-TX-33) and Lloyd Doggett (D-TX-37) have chosen retirement.

Mississippi’s primaries are on March 10th, and Illinois’s on March 17th; Illinois began early voting at the beginning of February.

The hottest March Democratic primaries for climate hawks are North Carolina’s 4th and Illinois’s 2nd, 8th, and 9th. The Illinois primaries are so active because five Chicagoland incumbents are leaving safe Democratic seats, either to retire or for a shot at the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Dick Durbin.¹  AIPAC groups have spent a recorded $13.7 million on their four preferred Chicagoland candidates.

North Carolina’s 4th

Incumbent: Valerie Foushee (D)
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 3

As Hill Heat previously discussed, this race is an expensive rematch between incumbent Valerie Foushee—elected in 2022 with AIPAC and crypto cash and now backed by AI PAC slop and the cartoonishly corrupt LCV—and climate-hawk challenger Nida Allam. Nida is backed by Sunrise, Our Revolution, Justice Dems, and the new anti-AIPAC super PAC American Priorities, managed by progressive operative Hannah Fertig.

North Carolina’s 11th

Incumbent: Chuck Edwards (R)
Rating: Likely R
Primary: March 3

Republican Chuck Edwards is the incumbent, and will be vulnerable if there is a Democratic wave in November. In the Democratic primary, the DCCC is backing Jamie Ager, a farmer running a strong campaign on a sadly milquetoast platform in a district ravaged by the fossil-fueled Hurricane Helene.

Texas Senate

The race for corporatist climate denier Sen. John Cornyn’s (R) seat is wild on both sides of the aisle—the radical climate denier Ken Paxton has a good chance of unseating Cornyn as the GOP candidate, and Democrats Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are in a knockdown, drag-out race. Neither Crockett nor Talarico are climate hawks, though Crockett is more aligned with the movement.

Texas’s 15th

Incumbent: Monica De La Cruz (R)
Rating: Likely R
Primary: March 3

Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX-15) is the most vulnerable Republican incumbent. On the Democratic side, the Tejano star Bobby Pulido, a national recruit, is backed by the Blue Dogs and Progress Texas, while Dr. Ada Cuellar has the support of Jasmine Crockett but is running on an anti-climate platform.

Texas’s 18th

Incumbent: Christian Menefee (D)
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 3

Young climate justice champion Christian Menefee, backed by JanePAC, just won special election and is going directly into a primary again against Rep. Al Green, redistricted out of Texas’s 9th. Menefee is expected to win easily.

Texas’s 28th

Incumbent: Henry Cuellar (D)
Rating: Leans D
Primary: March 3

Unfortunately, the oil-and-concentration-camp Rep. Henry Cuellar, by far the most corrupt, fascism-friendly Democrat in Congress, is not facing a serious primary challenge.

Texas’s 30th

Open (Crockett)
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 3

In Jasmine Crockett’s current Dallas seat, Sunrise is backing Rev. Frederick Haynes III, Crockett’s pastor, against former Dallas City Council member Barbara Mallory Calloway and pastor Rodney LaBruce.

Texas’s 33rd

Open
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 3

In the redistricted Dallas-area TX-33, two near-incumbents are battling it out: current freshman TX-32 Rep. Julie Johnson, a New Democrat, and former TX-32 office holder Colin Allred, who left the seat in a failed bid against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Johnson has picked up almost all of the institutional support. Tech executive Zeeshan Hafeez is backed by Progressive Democrats for America in an long-shot anti-AIPAC bid.

Texas’s 34th

Incumbent: Vicente Gonzalez (D)
Rating: Tossup
Primary: March 3

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez is, like Cuellar, a corrupt Oil Dem. Frankly, if we lost this seat to a Republican the party would be better off.

Illinois Senate

Open (Dick Durbin)

The Democratic primary is expected to be decisive in the race to succeed Senate whip Dick Durbin, first elected to the Senate in 1997. The top contenders are Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, both of whom are running on platforms of anti-Trump economic populism, boxing out economic progressive Rep. Robin Kelly.

Illinois’s 2nd

Open (Robin Kelly)
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 17

State Sen. Robert Peters is the progressive favorite, a Green New Dealer backed by numerous groups including Sunrise; Jesse Jackson, Jr. is the crypto PAC and AI PAC candidate; Donna Miller the AIPAC favorite.

Illinois’s 8th

Open (Krishnamoorthi)
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 17

Junaid Ahmed is the Sunrise-backed progressive, while former Rep. Melissa Bean is the AIPAC-AI PAC contender.

Illinois’s 9th

Open (Schakowsky)
Rating: Safe D
Primary: March 17

The most entertaining of the races, in the seat being vacated by the octogenarian Jan Schakowsky, features AIPAC-aligned Laura Fine running against popular Evanston mayor Daniel Biss, the pick of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, LCV, and 314 Action, and the dynamic Palestinian-American online activist and media critic Kat Abugazaleh, who is backed by the Sunrise Movement. The dreadful possibility is that Kat and Daniel manage to split the progressive vote, putting in the billionaire-backed Fine. All three have raised millions of dollars, though Fine’s money is mostly from out-of-state big money.

1  In Illinois’s 4th, Rep. Chuy García retired at the last possible minute, leaving only his chief of staff Patty Garcia able to get on the ballot; all the top candidates in Illinois’s 7th to replace Rep. Danny Davis are mediocre to bad, although progressives like Anabel Mendoza and Reed Showalter are making a valiant effort.