On Monday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced that it had selected eight new candidates to join its “Red to Blue” program, which gives financial support to campaigns in swing districts.

Progressives aren’t happy, and say that the DCCC’s decision to elevate certain candidates over others betrays an inability to learn from Democrats’ past mistakes and a disconnect from the direction of the party.

“We’ve seen time and time again, the Democratic establishment say that they know who’s the best candidate to run in the district, and then that backfiring,” said Ravi Mangla, press secretary for the Working Families Party.

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The Working Families Party backs Randy Villegas, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao in California’s 22nd District. The DCCC selected Villegas’s opponent Jasmeet Bains for the “Red to Blue” program, despite the fact that the two candidates are neck and neck by any reasonable account of the race.

Neither Villegas nor Bains, a sitting assemblywoman, failed to meet the threshold to secure an endorsement from the California Democratic Party in February. So far, Villegas has narrowly outraised Bains and is pitching a populist message to a largely working-class Latino district (if elected, he would be the first Latino to represent the Central Valley).

“Voters have the power to choose who represents our community, not DC elites and corporate interests,” Villegas said in a statement on Monday. “We cannot win this election only to trade one corrupt Representative who’s sold out our community for another.”

As the Prospect reported last fall, Bains took PAC money from 53 corporations that also supported the Republican Valadao.

Establishment Democrats have long tried to elevate their preferred candidates, but recent races have proven that they don’t have their finger on the pulse of the party’s electorate.

Most notable is Gov. Janet Mills’s bow-out from the Maine Senate primary, which she announced last Thursday.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer personally recruited Mills and backed her campaign, arguing that she was the most electable. Her opponent, Graham Platner, is an oyster farmer who jumped onto the scene with a strong populist message, progressive endorsements, and his fair share of controversies.

Against the odds, Platner was able to weather the controversies around his Nazi tattoo and old Reddit posts that minimized rape and sexual assault. Platner has apologized for his past actions and words. He might have had a harder time of it had Mills not been potentially the oldest freshman senator in American history, had she won the election. Four Democrats have died in office in the current Congress.

Mangla argues that Mills’s failure in Maine speaks to the disconnect between Democrats in D.C. and voters on the ground. He’s concerned that the DCCC risks repeating the same pattern with its “Red to Blue” candidates.

“They are looking on paper at a district that went red,” Mangla said. “But that doesn’t mean that you’ll win that district with a moderate candidate … That surprised a lot of people in Maine when they thought that Janet Mills would be the candidate that resonated with voters.”

Maine isn’t the only example of the establishment’s disconnect from campaigns on the ground.

In Michigan’s Senate race, Rep. Haley Stevens is the moderate candidate favored by the establishment. She’s running against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and Abdul El-Sayed. So far, the race is tight. A poll of likely voters conducted in late April showed Stevens with 25 percent support, El-Sayed with 23 percent, and McMorrow with 16 percent.

Stevens faces an uphill battle. She’s doubled down on her pro-Israel record, which earned her boos from delegates at the Michigan Democratic Party Convention in late April.

After Mills dropped out of the race in Maine, McMorrow posted a video on X with the caption “The party establishment in DC doesn’t get to pick our next Senator. We do.”

“What we saw in Maine with Graham, what we saw in Michigan with Haley Stevens and Mallory, I think that [establishment Democrats] are showing that they’re not learning the lessons of the past—that people want to see free and open primaries,” Mangla said.

How Do You Beat a Central Valley Republican?

Villegas isn’t the only progressive who has balked at the DCCC’s intervention into their races. Besides Bains, the other seven candidates chosen to receive support are Marlene Galán-Woods in Arizona’s First District, Jessica Killin in Colorado’s Fifth District, Bob Harvie in Pennsylvania’s First District, Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania’s Seventh District, Bobby Pulido in Texas’s 15th District, Joe Baldacci in Maine’s Second District, and Johnny Garcia in Texas’s 35th District.

In Maine’s Second Congressional District, the DCCC chose state Sen. Joe Baldacci for the “Red to Blue” program, despite polls suggesting that it’s anyone’s race.

In a University of New Hampshire poll conducted in late February, three of the Democratic candidates—Baldacci, Jordan Wood, and Matthew Dunlap—had roughly equal odds against Republican incumbent Paul LePage.

“Once again, Washington D.C. insiders are trying to tell Mainers who can represent them,” Wood’s campaign said in a statement. “They endorsed the candidate with little grassroots support in Maine and [a] distant third in fundraising.”

As primary season continues, voters in swing districts will decide whether they’re drawn toward establishment moderates or progressive newcomers. California’s primary is on June 2nd, and Maine’s on June 9th.

If voters in these districts would prefer the leadership of establishment Democrats, or want to see fresh faces at the top of the party, those are the times to make their wishes known.

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Emma Janssen is a writing fellow at The American Prospect, where she reports on anti-poverty policy, health, and political power. Before joining the Prospect, she was at UChicago studying political philosophy, editing for The Chicago Maroon, and freelancing for the Hyde Park Herald.