NewDem Action Fund Makes Last Push Contributions In Name of Party Unity

WASHINGTON – Over the course of the 2020 election cycle, the NewDem Action Fund has backed 31 congressional candidates by either adding them to its “watch list” or fully endorsing them.

But on Friday night came word the fund, the political arm of the New Democrat Coalition, was sending out last minute contributions to a dozen candidates it hasn’t officially supported thus far into the race.

All of the recipients are on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s list of “Red to Blue” candidates, who are running in highly competitive districts, many of them in battleground states like Texas and Florida, that the party wants to flip from red to blue to expand its House majority.

Then recipients of the Fund’s support are:

• Joyce Elliott (AR-02)

• Diane Mitsch Bush (CO-03)

• Alan Cohn (FL-15)

• Rita Hart (IA-02)

• Michelle De La Isla (KS-02)

• Jon Hoadley (MI-06)

• Kara Eastman (NE-02)

• Dana Balter (NY-24)

• Lulu Seikaly (TX-02)

• Mike Seigel (TX-10)

• Candace Valenzuela (TX-24)

• Julie Oliver (TX-25)

In a letter to each of them, Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., chairman of the NewDem Action Fund, said the $1,000 contribution is “not an endorsement — but a show of support.”

“You may not plan to seek membership in the coalition should you win your election, and that’s okay,” he said. “But you are a committed Democrat who won their nomination and you’re putting up a strong fight in a competitive district.

“Our Coalition runs right down the middle of the Democratic Caucus. We understand that some Members lean more to the left, and some lean more to the right. Our party doesn’t agree on everything,” he continued.

“What’s important is that we can come together, put every idea on the table, and come to an agreement that lifts up every American, especially the least among us. That’s how progress gets made,” he concluded.