Rep. Dan Lipinski is nominally a Democrat—but he opposed Obamacare, voted against Wall Street reform, didn’t support President Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, and only embraced a $15 minimum wage under pressure. He’s so anti-choice that it took a primary challenge to get him to skip the "March for Life," where he’d been slated to speak last year. That challenger, Marie Newman, fell short in 2018, but she’s running again in 2020, and this time, she’s already lined up big-time support from the progressive movement. EMILY’s List, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, MoveOn, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Democracy for America have announced a joint endorsement of Newman for 2020.
Newman did draw support from some of those groups in the 2018 primary, with ads from a NARAL-linked super PAC pointing to Lipinski’s anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ record—he opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, and voted against a bill banning job discrimination against gays and lesbians. But such support came late. This time around, Newman is picking up support early.
Newman will have another boost over 2018: in 2020, the Illinois presidential and congressional primaries will be held on the same day, which should increase turnout. But while the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee withheld its endorsement from Lipinski in 2018, it is now banning its vendors from working for primary challengers.