Daniela Altimari/CQ Roll Call via AP Images
Gabe Amo, a Democrat running in the special primary in Rhode Island’s First Congressional District, greets voters Cynthia and Mark Butler in Barrington, Rhode Island, July 31, 2023.
Former Biden White House official Gabe Amo pulled off an upset victory in Rhode Island’s First Congressional District Democratic primary election to replace outgoing Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI). Amo, who had never run for political office before, will face Republican Gary Leonard, a Marine veteran, in the general election for the reliably blue seat.
In a crowded field of candidates, Amo beat out the leading progressive in the race, former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg, as well as established political figures in the state such as Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos and state Rep. Sandra Cano. He will likely become the first Black person to represent Rhode Island in Congress.
Regunberg was the front-runner in Amo’s own internal polling as recently as the middle of August, and he received high-profile endorsements from New England and national figures. So how did he squander the lead, and what does it mean for a degraded progressive campaign infrastructure that now looks shaky in winnable races?
IN SOME WAYS, REGUNBERG was a victim of his own success. Other candidates lit into him in the race’s final weeks with a barrage of attacks, just as they did to take down the previous front-runner, Matos, after she submitted forged signatures to qualify her for the ballot.
The attacks were less about policy priorities than a campaign finance issue involving Regunberg’s family members. Regunberg received support from a super PAC, Progress RI, bearing a $5,000 contribution from his mother and $125,000 from his father-in-law, an executive at a global investment firm. The funds for mailers and digital ads were relatively paltry, but since Regunberg pledged to not take money from corporate PACs, it opened him up to criticism, even though other candidates had far more assistance from corporate PACs. Whatever benefits the super PAC might have been able to deliver Regunberg, it also compromised his anti-corporate image.
Matos, who was endorsed by the New Democrat Coalition, received over $800,000 in super PAC funding affiliated with Emily’s List, the Bold PAC (an arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus), and Elect Democratic Women, according to campaign finance reports. Yet she finished a distant fourth. Money mattered less in this campaign than being defined by scandal.
Whatever benefits the super PAC might have been able to deliver Regunberg, it also compromised his anti-corporate image.
Late in the race, Regunberg’s backers tried to target Amo’s corporate ties. A memo released by the Working Families Party, Regunberg’s main backer, revealed that Amo had received $21,126 in corporate lobbyist money over the course of the campaign. The donations came from lobbyists representing the tobacco industry, financial behemoths such as Blackstone, pharma firms, and Big Tech (Amazon and Google). Amo himself also worked as a registered lobbyist for Home Depot, which has consistently contributed to Republicans over the years.
After the memo was released, Amo responded by going on the offensive in ways that reveal the self-inflicted wound of Regunberg’s super PAC.
“I refuse to be lectured by the Working Families Party,” Amo told The Boston Globe. “My father works behind the counter at his own liquor store, and my mother is recovering from her second knee replacement surgery, having spent her career as an SEIU nurse, while the WFP’s endorsed candidate’s Super PAC gets checks of $5,000 and $125,000, respectively, from his mother and father-in-law.”
DESPITE LOW NAME RECOGNITION in the district, Amo’s service in the Biden White House as deputy director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, where he mainly oversaw coordination between state and local governments for disaster preparedness and COVID-19, enabled him to win high-profile endorsements—like former chief of staff Ron Klain—and connect to the Democratic mainstream.
While emphasizing his government experience, Amo focused his campaign on standard Democratic issues such as protecting Social Security and Medicare and instituting gun safety measures. Amo ran a solid campaign, but it’s striking that, for all the doom and gloom about President Biden’s approval ratings, a relatively unknown candidate can win a House seat in large part on his Biden résumé.
Amo also had a powerful attack dog. Patrick Kennedy, the former representative of the district until 2011, endorsed Amo with a lyrical campaign ad that played heavily on Camelot nostalgia, with cameos from John, Robert, and Teddy.
But in the final days before the election, Kennedy went on a tirade against Regunberg, painting him as “too extreme” for the district. Kennedy in particular took issue with the progressive hopeful’s promise to cut defense spending, which he claimed would hurt defense industry jobs in the state.
“The notion that he would come out against the largest economic driver, the defense economy, left me flabbergasted … The notion that you can be a good Democrat and liberal and not also support a strong national defense and good jobs here at home makes no sense,” Kennedy said at a press briefing.
In response, the Regunberg campaign shot back.
“The campaign’s more than comfortable with a closing argument centering around the urgent need for Medicare for All and tackling the greed of the military-industrial complex,” said a source close to the Regunberg campaign.
But in the end, the stamp of approval from the Kennedy legacy won out over Regunberg’s progressive bona fides.
WHILE REGUNBERG SPORTED NATIONAL ENDORSEMENTS from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, he didn’t benefit from some of the progressive campaign infrastructure that was successful in 2018 and 2020 House races. Justice Democrats, which helped power several progressives to victory, has struggled with financing and undergone several rounds of layoffs in recent months.
Progressive campaigns hit a speed bump last cycle with a flood of money from pro-Israel groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in winnable primaries, mostly attacking progressive candidates. Campaigns have become so paranoid about this that they have focused heavily on bulletproofing themselves from this onslaught. Regunberg, whose uncle is Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), a major pro-Israel Democrat, worked hard to keep AIPAC funding out of the race. Only the Working Families Party supported Regunberg, however, not other campaign groups, despite it being the only contested House primary of the year.
Regunberg received final endorsements in the last days of the campaign from Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and also Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a longtime progressive in New England and close ally of Cicilline’s. Though Cicilline did not endorse, he named in an exit interview both DeLauro and Rep. Jamie Raskin (who also supported Regunberg) as his “two favorite members of Congress,” all but putting a stamp on Regunberg as the desired successor. Regunberg was also endorsed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which Cicilline is a member and former vice chair.
Sen. Sanders even visited the district in late August to hold a rally alongside Regunberg and about 600 supporters, seeking to put an exclamation point on the front-runner’s candidacy. The enthusiasm seemed to offer a glimmer of hope to Regunberg’s supporters that the candidate could prevail.
But the event also highlighted an intra-left skirmish that had dogged the campaign since the beginning. The local chapter of the DSA in Providence objected to Sanders’s “compromise endorsement” and stumping for a “wealthy Super PAC candidate.” The local DSA issued an anti-endorsement of Regunberg along with another local left-wing group, largely for his support for state party leadership while he sat in the legislature. They did not endorse an alternative candidate instead.
It remains an open question what bearing the feud had on the race, though it forced the Regunberg campaign to put resources into consolidating the progressive vote over other contenders. State Rep. Sandra Cano also ran in the progressive lane with endorsement support mainly from the state teachers unions due to her consistent support for school funding.
Now, those left groups will have to bring Amo around to their priorities, when he didn’t need their support at all to win the primary.
The fractured left and the inability to convert on a winnable race, meanwhile, should alarm national progressive groups as they limp into the next election cycle.
