The House Democrats who were outraised by primary challengers: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, a newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In yesterday’s edition, we explored how the Democratic Party’s generational divide was driving the early stages of some key Senate primaries. Today, we dig into how that dynamic is playing out on the House side. Plus, Ben Kamisar previews tonight’s New York City mayoral debate by looking back at the last one.

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— Adam Wollner

🚨 Breaking news: A federal grand jury has indicted former national security adviser John Bolton, a senior Justice Department official said. Bolton is the third person to be hit with federal charges in the last month after President Donald Trump called for their prosecution. Read more →

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These are the House Democrats facing well-funded primary challengers

By Ben Kamisar, Bridget Bowman and Joe Murphy

The Democratic Party’s ongoing reckoning is fueling more primaries against longtime lawmakers, new fundraising reports show — the latest in a string of signs that some veteran Democrats may next year face their toughest challenges yet, as the party grapples with generational and ideological divides.

Fourteen House Democratic incumbents are facing primary challengers who raised at least $100,000 from July through September, with nine also outraised by their primary opponents. The number includes some challengers who are pouring their own money into campaigns against entrenched incumbents, seeing the possibility of a rare political opportunity.

It’s rare for a sitting House member to lose a primary. Just four of the hundreds who ran for re-election last year — two Democrats and two Republicans — lost their bids for renomination. But the angst within the Democratic Party about its direction is providing more financial fuel for primary challengers than in recent years. Just five House Democrats faced primary challengers who raised over $100,000 at this point in the 2024 election cycle, according to a review of campaign finance filings from October 2023.

Two House Democratic primary challengers raised over $1 million in the third quarter: venture capitalist Eric Jones, 34, who contributed $149,000 of his own money and is challenging California Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson, 74, and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, 46, who is challenging 77-year-old Connecticut Democratic Rep. John Larson. Thompson raised $612,000 over the same period and Larson raised $809,000.

Three Democratic primary challengers also raised over $500,000 in the most recent quarter: former Biden White House aide Jake Levine, who is challenging Rep. Brad Sherman in California; town councilman Jack Perry, who is also running against Larson in Connecticut; and health care executive Quincy Bareebe, who is running against Rep. Steny Hoyer in Maryland. Both Perry and Bareebe almost entirely self-funded their campaigns.

Sherman raised $322,000 while Hoyer, a former top Democratic leader, raised just $43,000 in the most recent quarter, one of the lowest sums of any House Democrat. He ended September with $439,000 in his campaign account.

Along with Hoyer, Larson, Sherman, Thompson, the other House Democrats outraised by primary challengers include Rep. Sheila McCormick-Cherfilus of Florida, Rep. David Scott of Georgia, Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii and Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. District of Columbia Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton raised a paltry $3,000, the smallest sum of any sitting House Democrat running for re-election.

Read more →

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Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo face off again in a campaign defined by their clashes

By Ben Kamisar

One thing is certain in New York City’s race for mayor: There’s no love lost between the top candidates.

And as Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo prepare to face off in their first general election debate Thursday, along with Republican Curtis Sliwa, a review of the tape from Mamdani and Cuomo’s two Democratic primary debates shows how they have positioned themselves in diametric opposition to each other — and as the answer for voters seeking to address the other’s shortcomings.

To Cuomo, the almost 34-year-old Mamdani is a young man in a hurry whose lack of experience should disqualify him from leading America’s largest city. Not only that, Cuomo considers Mamdani to be the face of a wing of the Democratic Party that he believes is leading the whole organization astray on issues from support for Israel to economic policy.

To Mamdani, Cuomo is the manifestation of a broken Democratic Party establishment, a root cause of the affordability crisis at the center of his entire campaign, and a politician who has lost the public trust after being accused of sexual misconduct, allegations Cuomo denies.

Perhaps no exchange typifies the pair’s disdainful dynamic than one from the NY1/Spectrum News primary debate in early June, when both men were asked about their experience.

Cuomo responded by arguing that “inexperience is dangerous” before taking Mamdani head on. “He’s never dealt with a City Council, he’s never dealt with the Congress, he’s never dealt with the state legislature, he’s never negotiated with a union, he’s never built anything, he’s never dealt with a natural emergency, he’s never dealt with a hurricane, with a flood,” Cuomo said.

“He’s never done any of the essentials, and now you have Donald Trump on top of all of that — and he’s never dealt with what I think is the greatest national threat that we face, in this president. To put a person in this seat at this time with no experience is reckless and dangerous.”

Mamdani was ready with a laundry list of his own, as well as a dig at a rival who spent much of the primary campaign — and his time on the debate stage — incorrectly pronouncing his name as “Mamdami.”

“To Mr. Cuomo: I have never had to resign in disgrace; I’ve never cut Medicaid, I’ve never stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from the MTA, I’ve never hounded the 13 women who credibly accused me of sexual harassment, I’ve never sued for their gynecological records and I have never done those things because I am not you,” Mamdani replied.

“And furthermore, the name is Mamdani: M–A-M-D-A-N-I. You should learn how to say it, because we’ve gotta get it right,” he said.

Read more →

And follow coverage of the debate, which starts at 7 p.m. ET and is airing on NBC New York and Telemundo local stations, on our live blog →

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That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner.

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