Angela Gonzales-Torres is a lifelong Angeleno, the daughter of a deportee, and an equity and justice advocate. Her path from community organizer to congressional candidate reflects a strong commitment to uplifting immigrant and working families like her own.
Archiv: the American Left / progressives
Angela Gonzales-Torres Hopes to Bring International Solidarity to the U.S. House
DSAâs choice in a high-profile California congressional race hopes to build internationalism â understood as âsolidarity between working people across bordersâ â into her service in the U.S. House, should she be elected in November.
Los Angeles DSA and DSA National have endorsed Angela Gonzales-Torres in her race to represent Californiaâs 34th congressional district. The run-off election against embattled incumbent U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez will be one of the highest-profile DSA challenges on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election. Due to Californiaâs jungle primary system, both candidates in the general will appear on the Democratic ballot line.
Whither My Democratic Party?
In the current political environment, Iâm struggling with an extreme case of what psychologists call âcognitive dissonance.â Put simply, half of me is praying for a Democratic takeover of the House and Senate; and the other half is suffering fitful sleeplessness that the Democratic Socialist Alliance (DSA) and its fellow travelers may become the dominant voice in my once beloved Party.
âMy Name Is Abdulâ: El-Sayed Confronts Trumpâs Racist, Anti-Muslim Attacks Head-On in New Ad
In his latest campaign ad released late Monday, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate candidate in Michigan, struck a resilient and matter-of-fact tone that suggested the recent racist attacks on him, his Arabic name, and his Muslim faith are no secretâbut he has no plans to try to hide his identity to appease Republicans and Democrats who have claimed heâs an âextremistâ or accused him of terrorist ties.
No, the Democratic Party is not shifting on Israel
(August 25, 2026)
It is a strategy that the party is likely to repeat in the next Congress to secure Israeli interests while appearing to acknowledge votersâ demands.
Furthermore, the Democratic establishment has shown little interest in breaking its dependence on AIPAC. In April, the Democratic National Committee rejected even a symbolic resolution condemning the lobbyâs interference in Democratic primaries.
AI Under Control
Bring the World Along
âą International Public Cooperation and Governance Boards: We should negotiate a US-China treaty to pause and ban superintelligence, modeled on the Cold War deal in which Reagan and Gorbachev eliminated a class of nuclear missiles through inspections. A verification board would count chips and data centers, a scientific panel would share threat assessments, and a 24-hour hotline would flag incidents. Access to American chips and cloud services should be conditioned on signing and complying, and we should tighten chip export controls now.
âą No AI in Nuclear Command and Control: Humans, and only humans, should decide whether to use nuclear weapons. That is already US policy: Biden and Xi agreed to it in 2024. We must make it permanent, cover early warning and decision support, keep frontier AI out of the chain, and get every nuclear nation to sign on.
Safeguards Everyone Can Count On
âą Independent Audits: Outside experts test frontier AI before release. Even leading AI companies now accept this.
âą Protect Whistleblowers: Insiders who sound the alarm should get legal protection, back pay, and rewards.
âą Hands Off State Laws: No weak federal law should block states from protecting their people more strongly.
âą Be Ready: We need a national AI emergency plan, with regular drills across government.
âą Get AI Money Out of the Fight: Full disclosure of AI-industry political spending, including through super PACs and other dark money entities.
NEW: As Big Tech Billionaires Let AI Wreak Havoc, Abdul El-Sayed Releases Plan To Get AI Under Control
Plan Builds On Sanders-Casar Bill To Ban AI Superintelligence And Impose Severe Criminal Penalties For AI Abuse
New Proposals Address Growing Concerns In Wake Of AI Whistleblowers, Follows Release Of Abdulâs AI Under Democracy Proposal
In Stark Contrast, Mike Rogers Has Up To $2.6 Million In Investments In Tech Companies That Stand To Benefit From AI Boom, Calls Concerns About AI âFearmongeringâ
Republicans put spotlight on Abdul El-Sayed. He welcomes the fight
The exchanges captured two sides of a candidate who is the central figure in one of the nationâs most consequential Senate races. El-Sayed would be the countryâs first Muslim senator, and heâs crisscrossing the state to counter a Republican effort, fueled by tens of millions of dollars, to portray him as a dangerous radical. But he has also embraced his confrontational side by mocking and taunting Trump and Rogers.
âIf they want to make me the main character in the midterms, Iâm not shying away from it,â El-Sayed said in an interview. âRun against me. See how well that works out for you.â
âI Can Call Him Whatever the Hell I Wantâ: Trump Misnames Michigan Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed
During a rally in Tennessee on Saturday, President Trump repeatedly misnamed Michiganâs Democratic Senate candidate Abdul ElâSayed as âMohammed,â calling him a âjihadist.â
President Donald Trump: âLike Mohammed El-Sayed â I call him Mohammed. Somebody said, ‚His name isn‘t Mohammed; itâs Abdul.â I said, ‚To me, it‘s Mohammed.â Iâm the president. I can call him whatever the hell I want. To me, heâs Mohammed, and heâs a radical jihadist.â
JOINT DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP STATEMENT ON THE RAID ON ILHAN OMARâS HOME
(October 12, 2026)
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar issued the following statement:
The Trump administrationâs raid on Congresswoman Ilhan Omarâs home is deeply disturbing and raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trumpâs adversaries.
For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations. Now, less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.
The American people deserve transparency, and we will deliver full accountability for the rogue abuse of power from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice.
Democrat rips âinsanely corruptâ raid on Omarâs home
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) slammed the federal raid on Rep. Ilhan Omarâs (D-Minn.) home as âinsanely corruptâ in a post on social media Monday.
âAs [President] Trumpâs popularity craters amid rising prices and his deeply unpopular war, everything he does is an attempt to distract his remaining followers,â Beyer wrote in a post on the social platform X.
âBut raiding the home of a member of the opposing party right before the election â and tipping off FoxNews in advance so they are on hand to publicize it â is insanely corrupt even for Donald Trump,â he added.
Office of Rep. Ilhan Omar Statement on DHS Raid
The Office of Congresswoman Omar released the following statement following the DHS raid on her home.
âThis raid by Trumpâs DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies. For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back. Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.â
Trump rally crowd chants ‚deport‘ as president rips Ilhan Omar after federal raid
Two sources close to the investigation told Fox News Digital the search of Omar‘s home stemmed from a criminal fraud investigation into the Somali-born congresswoman‘s immigration paperwork, which was filled out by her late father.
âAbolish ICE,â Say Potential 2028 Candidates AOC and Khanna After Latest Shooting in NYC
âICE is a rogue, lawless paramilitary and surveillance agency,â said Ocasio-Cortez, who has been named as a potential 2028 presidential candidate or a contender for US Senate in New York, where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is up for reelection in 2028.
âIt does not belong in New York City and it should not exist in the United States of America,â said Ocasio-Cortez. âAbolish ICE.â
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), another potential candidate for president in 2028, joined the congresswoman in calling for ICE to be abolishedâa demand once dismissed as a fringe viewpoint, but now shared by about half the country, including 77% of Democratic voters and 52% of independents.
âHeâs Desperateâ: AIPAC Begins Spending Against Abdul El-Sayed to Boost Mike Rogers
A campaign finance report filed on Friday revealed that the American Israel Public Affairs Committeeâs super PAC, the United Democracy Project, has resumed spending on Michiganâs US Senate race, dropping $95,000 on mailers opposing Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed in a bid to help Republican Mike Rogers weeks ahead of the key midterm contest.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) report came a day after Rogers and El-Sayed clashed on the debate stage over healthcare, drug prices, military assistance to Israel, and other issues. Asked during the debate whether he would accept AIPACâs support in the race, Rogers said, âAnybody that wants to help my campaign stop [El-Sayed]… Iâll take all of that help.â
Peggy Flanagan for U.S. Senate
In 2015, Peggy was elected to the state legislature, where she led Democrats on child care issues and engaged her colleagues to form the POCI (People of Color and Indigenous) Caucus. During the 2017-18 session, when her party was in the minority, Peggy was one of only two DFLers to successfully chief author a bill that became law. Since becoming Minnesotaâs Lieutenant Governor in 2019, Peggy has made a difference for families. She helped pass Minnesotaâs paid family and medical leave program into law and make investments in education, healthcare, and housing. Sheâs helping support our family farms and small businesses and is leading the fight to make sure abortion stays legal in Minnesota.
Now, Peggy is running for Senate to stop Donald Trump and the billionaires ransacking our government from making it harder for families, like the one she grew up in, to have a fair shot. At a time when Washington is more rigged than ever, Peggy will be a Senator who has the guts to take on our toughest fights and win for Minnesota families.
Abdul for U.S. Senate
Abdul El-Sayed wasnât supposed to be a politician. He studied to be a doctor, but realized it was our broken politics that was making people sick. Abdul has dedicated his career to building government agencies that actually work for Michiganders. He is running for the U.S. Senate because he believes life in America shouldnât be this hard, and as your Senator, Abdul will fight to build a government that works for you, not Elon Musk, Donald Trump, or their billionaire friends.
Weighing 2028 White House Run, AOC Says Stakes of Race Would Be âAll or Nothingâ
As Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighs whether to run for president in 2028, there are numerous factors that complicate her decision: her identity as a Latina woman, her role as a leader in a progressive movement on the verge of unprecedented power, and her considerations about raising a family in the future.
Whatever decision the 36-year-old Democratic congresswoman makes, however, it will be âall or nothing,â she said in an interview published Tuesday by The New York Times, in which she spoke candidly about the stakes of what would be a historic and potentially transformative bid for the nationâs highest office.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on 2028: âLife Doesnât Wait for You to Be Readyâ
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said she will weigh the decision of whether to run for president after the midterm elections. The decision is clearly already weighing on her.
In an interview with The New York Times, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez revealed the electoral equations she is crunching and the mental âmathâ she is calculating as she approaches the biggest crossroads of her political career.
AUMF 2001
(search entries)
On 25th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, Condemnation of Global âWar on Terrorâ That Has Killed Millions
International human rights campaigners, United Nations experts, journalists, and anti-war activists marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US by paying tributes to the thousands of lives lost on that day while condemning what followed: an unparalleled expansion of state surveillance, crackdowns on dissent, arbitrary detention, torture, and catastrophic wars that cost trillions of dollars and millions of lives.
Mourning the lasting impact of âthose horrific acts of violenceâ perpetrated in the US a quarter-century ago, a group of more than 40 UN experts said in a joint statement on Friday that âwe equally acknowledge the millions of other victims worldwide of terrorist attacks, excessive counter-terrorism responses, and conflicts in the name of countering terrorism.â
Complicit Coverage
The titles of two new books about Israelâs genocide in Gaza succinctly state their shared argument: Corporate, mainstream media have been complicit in the horrific violence the Zionist state has inflicted and continues to inflict on Palestinians in Gaza. Print and online media, as well as cable news, have sold the genocide to their readers and audiences, turning reality on its head by portraying the Israeli perpetrators as victims of bloodthirsty terrorists and their Palestinian victims as bloodthirsty terrorists, terrorist sympathizers, or terrorists-to-be. As Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi said in a televised 2025 interview, âany childâ born in Gaza is âalready a terrorist from the moment of his birth.â
Adam Johnson, a media analyst and co-host of the podcast Citations Needed, and Robin Andersen, professor emerita of media studies at New Yorkâs Fordham University and contributor to various independent media, have meticulously documented how U.S. media enable Israelâs mass killings. Their reviews of print, online, and cable coverage illustrate how media have acted as virtual mouthpieces for Israelâs government and its military as well as for the U.S. State Department.
âWe Are in a Constitutional Crisisâ: Congress Urged to Sue Trump to End Iran War
With no end in sight to President Donald Trumpâs illegal war with Iran, Congress is being urged to take legal action to bring the conflict to an end.
Jamal Abdi, executive director at National Iranian American Council (NIAC) Action, said on Wednesday that Congress must go to court to enforce the war powers resolution that passed in the House and the Senate earlier this year.
âOrganized People Wonâ: Aisha Wahab Defeats Millions in AIPAC Spending to Win US House Race
Wahab, who ran on slashing prescription drug costs and ending forever wars, will represent Californiaâs 14th Congressional District until at least January. In November, Wahab will face Bay Area Rapid Transit board member Melissa Hernandez again in a race for a full two-year term in the US House. Tuesdayâs special election was significantly closer than earlier primary contests, signaling a highly competitive race later this year.
Our Revolution, a progressive advocacy organization that backed Wahab, called her win âa national model for how progressives can defeat big-money outside groups and build a Democratic Party rooted in working people.â The United Democracy Project, AIPACâs super PAC, spent $2.5 million on the contest in an effort to boost Hernandez.
The Left Notches Another Win With This Secret Weapon: Old-Fashioned Organizing
(August 19, 2026)
The group of volunteers for her underdog Senate campaign sat inside a union office in suburban Broward County, a liberal stronghold in the increasingly Republican-leaning state. It was a small group, maybe a dozen people.
But donât worry, Ms. Nixonâs political director, Rachel Gilmer, reassured them: âThis tiny room is part of many, many tiny roomsâ across the state, she said, with more volunteers also ready to knock on Democratic votersâ doors.
Socialists Are Winning Using Old-Fashioned Democratic Means
(June 17, 2026)
We live in an intensely atomized society, and at no point have we been more alone than today, when the old bonds of community have largely eroded after decades of neoliberalism.
(…)
When this is connected to a project of expanding the electorate instead of only trying to persuade frequent voters, at its best, the result is a feeling of equality and common cause between the canvasser and the voter: you knocked on my door, nobody ever knocked on my door before, and you brought to my attention a vision of politics which I hadnât before been exposed to. I and others have even on occasion recruited people to DSA in this way, after winning a voter over to our candidates.
âThe Fight Has Just Begunâ: Angie Nixon Delivers Shocking Upset Win in Florida
In a surprise upset described variously as âstunningâ and âa shockerâ in headlines, State Rep. Angie Nixon won the Democratic primary for the open US Senate seat in Florida on Tuesday, defeating Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, the former national security official who many presumed would sail to victory with the support of the party establishment and a massive cash advantage.
Nixon, a former union organizer and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, will now face Sen. Ashley Moody, whom Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to the seat after former Sen. Marco Rubio became Secretary of State, in the general election.
Angie For Florida
What Led To This Moment
Angie Nixon is a Florida State Representative, union organizer, and mother born and raised in Jacksonville who has spent her career fighting for hardworking Floridians. In the State House, she expanded childcare, took on corporate price-gouging, and led the fight against DeSantisâs unfair voting maps. Her leadership is rooted in lived experienceâwatching her mom work two jobs to get by, attending public schools, and losing her cousin to gun violence. Angie is running to lower costs, raise wages, and build a people-powered government that puts families firstânot greedy billionaires.
FULL: Angie Nixon gives victory speech after winning Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate
Florida State Rep. Angie Nixon, from Jacksonville‘s Moncrief neighborhood, beat former Trump Administraton whistleblower Alex Vindman in a stunning upset.
Angie Nixon, progressive Jacksonville firebrand, wins Democratic primary for U.S. Senate
Vindman ran a centrist camapaign focused on corruption and the need for congressional checks on the Trump administration. But some strategists have said his campaign was a sleepy one, centered more on the general election than on the primary, where he faced an experienced campaigner.
Vindman declined to debate Nixon during the campaign. He conceded the race Tuesday night, applauding her âhard workâ and Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate. ââI will be standing by her,â he said, âand my hope is that she wins this election, because again, the stakes couldnât be higher.â