Scott Powers
Former Congressman Alan Grayson has garnered the backing of Blue America PAC in his challenge to U.S. Rep. Darren Soto in Florida’s 9th Congressional District Democratic primary battle.
The national progressive organization dedicated to replacing “to replace the bipartisan Conservative Consensus in Congress with a strong and activated progressive movement,” endorsed Grayson while blasting the elections of “more Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.”
Soto, who succeeded Grayson in 2016 after beating his wife Dena Grayson in the Democratic primary while Alan Grayson ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, is a member of the New Democrats Coalition, but is not a member of the Blue Dog Democrats Coalition. He also has been pushing his own progressive Democratic chops, and has announced several endorsements by progressives and progressive groups, including the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which he is a member.
Grayson was a leader of that caucus and is running as he always has, as an unabashed progressive Democrat.
The winner of the primary will face Republican businessman Wayne Liebnitzky in the general election. Soto beat Liebnitzky in 2016.
“I’m running for Congress because our progressive goals — justice, equality and peace — need a champion in Congress,” Grayson stated in a Blue America PAC statement issued by his campaign. “Think about it. Who can you think of, in the U.S. House of Representatives, whom you would call a champion for progress? On a good day, one or two or three of them. On a bad day, none.
“We need someone in Congress who actually knows how to get things done. And I passed 121 pieces of legislation — more than anyone else — even when the Republicans were in charge,” he added.
Blue America PAC blasted Soto, calling him, “a bump on a log New Dem who slithered out of the state legislature.”
Grayson, the PAC stated, is “better than your garden variety bump on a log congressmember — making people’s lives better, not just a career in self-service.”
