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Progressives running for Congress had a good night on Tuesday. To discuss the results, the Signal spoke with Aaron Chappell, the political director for Our Revolution, a grassroots member-driven movement that emerged following Sen. Bernie Sanders 2016 run.

The group endorsed and organized on behalf of former Austin City Councilman Greg Casar, who won his contest in Austins TX-35 by a landslide, as well as state Rep. Jasmine Crockett (TX-30) and immigrant rights attorney Jessica Cisneros (TX-28), who each secured a runoff in their races.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

On a federal level yall endorsed Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett and Jessica Cisneros. What are your thoughts on this weeks primary in Texas?

Were thrilled about the results in Gregs race and about the margin in Jasmines race as well. Overall, this is about where we hoped to be.

It would have been amazing obviously to avoid a runoff in Jasmine Crocketts race, but she dominated in that race so its just another hoop to jump through. But it doesnt seem like a threat to her viability to have a runoff in that race, there were a lot of candidates in that race, its reasonable to not hit 50 percent with 9-10 candidates in the race.

Cisneros as well, we knew that was a challenging race and she appears to be making a runoff. Thats a victory in itself, an 18-year incumbent with millions of dollars backed by the fossil fuel industry.

Do you think that says anything that Cisneros race was so close? I know Cuellar said he was going to be in full campaign mode, that it would be a blowout. What does the tightness of that race mean to yall?

The fact that a real progressive like Jessica Cisneros can poll even with an 18-year incumbent that has the backing of Texas iconic oil industry, its amazing. Its a tougher district than the other two were talking about.

And so props to Jessica Cisneros and to groups like ours that have been pounding the phones and pavement to turn out voters there. Cuellar is one of the worst Democrats in the House. He is blocking the most popular parts of the Democratic agenda with his fight over the Build Back Better Act. We were particularly incensed by his call to support continued subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, which is a critical piece of mitigating climate impacts and of paying for the important measures in that bill. Hes the only Democrat in the House that voted against the Protect the Right to Organize Act that would help level the playing field and get workers the ability to exercise their right to join a union and create better jobs. Thats the kind of thing that hurts the Democratic Party as a whole.

We see in South Texas, trends going I dont want to overstate the trends but theres been a lot of reporting about trends toward the Republican Party among Latino voters in South Texas. And why not if Henry Cuellar is what they think Democrats represent?

What has Our Revolutions involvement been in these races so far and what are the plans for the future in the state?

Were a huge network of people that came out of the Bernie movement. So were very focused on turning out our own base and own contacts. Weve just been emailing, texting, calling in each of those races. We made about 40,000 dials with 50 to 100 volunteers plus sending lots of emails and texts to reach those folks that are part of Our Revolution.

I think thats a bit unique, were not coming in before a race with an ad war. Were running a ground game and were there for the long haul. We have our folks in Texas, were not just coming in every two years. We were very involved in local elections last year and then we stay around and work with candidates when they become elected officials.

What is Our Revolutions overall strategy? It sounds like a lot of ground game. Has it changed at all since 2016?

Its always been about small donors, were grassroots funded, were not getting grants or foundation money. Were getting support from our members. Several of these candidates are our members. Greg Casar is a member, Jasmine Crockett is a member. We have members running on the local level as well.

That focus hasnt changed. We believe in turning out the base and organizing. We believe that progressive issues are popular winning issues for the Democratic Party. And I think Greg is a great example of the success of that vision.

Weve seen increasing strength of the progressive movement, increasing viability of progressive candidates. We see people that were inspired by the Bernie movement coming out to run. And again, our own members running for office.

Greg is someone Ive known personally from the beginning from his days as a labor organizer to city councilman. Weve had the opportunity to build a deeper bench of candidates, Greg is a perfect example. We supported him at the city council, hes proven himself as a leader and effective elected on the city council.

Same with Jasmine Crockett, we supported her for statehouse and saw her do a tremendous job, especially last year summer in the voting rights fight. We know shed be a great member of Congress and a real outspoken progressive.

Theres been time for our movement to mature and deepen our bench of candidates and our base.

I wanted to get your thoughts on the upcoming midterms in Congress. Theres some predictions saying Dems will lose the House. What can Our Revolution and other progressive organizations do to have their elected leaders have more of a voice in the Democratic Party? I remember the Force the Vote movement on Medicare for All, and Ive seen some folks suggest that maybe progressive Democrats should operate in a more disruptive fashion, kind of like the Tea Party. Whats your thoughts on how progressives should operate as a minority in the House?

Id love to talk about this because its not what progressives have done. Nobody forced the vote, people fought with a reasonable outlook on what was achievable through the Build Back Better Act to expand access to Medicare not to force the vote on Medicare for All, because we know that we have winnable issues and we want to show that we can win on these issues.

Progressives are the ones who fought the hardest for President Bidens agenda. It was Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema who blocked the agenda, the so-called moderates that arent willing.

Progressives are trying to deliver on the most popular items on the Democratic platform that would help them win in the midterms, and they were stymied. We cant save the Democratic Party if they cant pass their own agenda, but we can certainly fight to get more progressives elected for the future.

See the rest here:
Our Revolution on progressive wins in Texas primaries - The Texas Signal