The group behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s shocking 2018 victory in New York is seeking the next battle to the West.
The Justice Democrats are influential left-wing PACs to help Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives expel Democratic incumbents, a major challenge to Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a four-term congressman representing a determined democratic Los Angeles area.
Group approval Angela Gonzalez-Torres The 30-year-old Highland Park resident was described Thursday as a fighter jet willing to bear the Trump administration and also willing to bear the corporate interests of Democratic institutions. The group also cited the millions of dollars the U.S. Israel Public Affairs Commission spent to support Gomez’s last cycle.
Powerful pro-Israel lobbying status among Democrats Has become a flash point The wider internal conflict in the Democratic Party in Israel in the ruthless war in Gaza.
The judge’s support for the Democratic Party candidate was a raucous and early advocate of the Gaza ceasefire, while AIPAC (a supporter of Democrats and Republicans) unleashed a torrent of spending in the Democratic primary to target candidates for Israeli vocal critics. AIPAC plays a corresponding role in USupported by two justices In 2024, Progressive Current Member of Congress.
As the Justice’s Democrats enter the competition, the battle in California’s District 34 will likely become a proxy war between AIPAC and Democratic activists, which describes the war in Gaza as genocide and the influence of AIPAC in the party.
Gonzales-Torres, a community activist and former chairman of the historic Highland Parks Council, said her worldview and advocacy were shaped by her childhood in the region, facing housing insecurities and raised by a single mother after her father was deported to Mexico. She criticized Gomez, also a child of working-class Latino immigrants, for being no longer rooted in the community, and accused him of being looked down upon by people to strongly support his previous campaign.
Gomez is a former state legislator and union organizer who was elected for the first time Special Elections in 2017 and reelected to a full term in 2018. He represents a majority-Latino urban district that stretches from Koreatown through Pico Union to Highland Park, Eagle Rock and East LA California’s 34th District is overwhelmingly composed of renters and include some of the most densely populated working-class neighborhoods in the country, as well as some of the most rapidly gentrifying sections of Los Angeles.
Gomez successfully avoided David Kim’s challenge in 2020, 2022 and 2024. Gonzalez-Torres has been recognized And don’t plan to run for the fourth time.
“I think Angelenos wants to see change. What we’re seeing is our current members of Congress accepting $2.3 million from the AIPAC and then failing to co-occur the only bill that calls for a ceasefire.” Launched in October 2023 This has been supported by nearly 20 Democrats. “What we see is Jimmy Gomez $500,000 from the Crypto Halland then vote to corruption Trump Encryption agenda. ”
Gomez is far from the tough pro-Israeli voice in Congress Calls on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignationseek humanitarian assistance from Gaza and support a ceasefire in the war. However, rival AIPAC helped him withdrew from Kim in previous cycles, leaving further on these issues.
She said Gonzales-Torres currently serves as an academic consultant in the Pasadena City College course, which supports previously incarcerated students and serves as project director for Altadena’s permanently affordable housing projects, after having interned in the administration of Mayor Karen Bass. She is also a member of the Metro Public Safety Advisory Committee.
“I’m running for Congress because I know what it feels like to do my homework on the dashboard of the car I live in Highland Park,” she said. “We are not dissatisfied with Lausd students right now, and I think it’s unacceptable to see things really have no benefits in 20 years. The people we’re closest to this pain should be the closest to these power positions so we can see real changes.”
The Democratic Justice stood out after Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 strike against the then-REP. Joe Crowley. A 28-year-old activist when She canceled the fourth Democrat in the House, representing parts of the Bronx and Queens. Her victory was a shooting of an arm in a freshman activist.
Justice Democrats supported other rebel members, such as Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and often targeted moderate Democrats on the left. Their active strategy and commitment to reshape the party led to a comparison with the conservative Tea Party movement.
With 10 employees, they are still a relatively lean operation. But over the past six years, they have gone from a little-known grassroots organization to a powerful force in national politics, with nine members of the Justice Democratic Party in Congress leaving words even in the lost race.
They spent a bruised year in 2024 and found themselves in an unlikely position: protecting their incumbents from challengers seeking to expel them. Last year, two incumbents supported by Democratic incumbents, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush, continued their upset last year, with Aipac giving Both Race.
But after the defensive cycle, the group is Again targeting those incumbent Support working-class progressives who will change the status quo. Gonzales-Torres is their second endorsement in the 2026 cycle, and Gomez is the first California Democratic business since their rise in 2018.
“We will use our network and small donors to raise funds for her and do everything we can to help Angie defeat Jimmy Gomez,” said Justice Democratic spokesman Usamah Andrabi.
Rep. Jimmy Gomez was at a 2021 press conference in Los Angeles.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
But Gomez is not a moderate person: Eagle Rock residents are more than many members who have tried to cancel before.
At 50, he was too old to be classified as a millennial, but still much younger than the septuagenarians and Sexagenarians whose current and former candidates were removed from the septuagenarians. Nor is he a white incumbent who is now a majority rank, as other members of the Slate have removed.
Gomez supports Green new deal and Medical insurance for everyone. He still had student loans when he took the oath to go to Congress A few years ago virus Infant son on the House floor during House speaker battle.
He was a speaker when Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders took his “fighting oligarch” journey to downtown Los Angeles. Ocasio-Cortez recognized Gomez in 2024, he used to Work with Pressley and Bush To expand federal eviction moratorium during the 19th pandemic.
But Andrabi believes that the Democratic base is calling for change, especially in areas like Gomez, the problem is not if Democrats will be elected, but what kind of Democratic voters want to see represent them.
“We can bring all these battles and excuses to the look of the swing state Democrats and the appearance of the purple front, but we shouldn’t have any excuses in the dark blue areas,” Andrabi said.
Gonzalez-Torres is One of six candidatesincluding Gomez, who have submitted paperwork to the 34th District Federal Election Commission. The region will remain the same if Gov. Gavin Newsom passes the re-division vote in November.
