The older crowd may be on the outs for progressive Democrats, but if younger candidates want a campaign boost, the left wing’s old guard is where to turn first, a Washington Sun analysis of high-profile progressive endorsers finds.
It also found differing strategies in how the leading figures on the left decide when to formally bless aspirants to the U.S. House and Senate.
The analysis, which crunched data on endorsements from a number of leading figures on the left and subsequent donations from the endorsers’ networks in the current election cycle, found that through July 31 donors in Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders’ network contributed the most, followed by that of California Rep. Ro Khanna.
The Sanders imprimatur spurred his backers to dole out $9.1 million to 21 chosen candidates, for an average of more than $433,000, though the largest amount, $3.1 million went to the now-defunct Senate campaign of Maine’s Graham Platner. Khanna backed 15 congressional hopefuls, enticing his network to hand out an average of $227,000 to each campaign for a total of $3.4 million.
Trending
Among high-profile Democrats like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York) and Ilhan Omar (Michigan), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Warren has generated the most endorsements and donations, picking 11 congressional candidates and helping generate nearly $2.7 million, an average of more than $242,000 per candidate.
Ocasio-Cortez and Omar have been more conservative in naming favorites. Before the analysis’ July 31 cut off, the New York representative anointed seven candidates, who received $1.8 million from her network for an average of over $257,000. Omar threw her support behind nine candidates who landed nearly $1.6 million, or just under $174,000 a piece.
The data also reveal differing strategies, with Sanders and Khanna taking a riskier endorse-often and endorse-early approach. Sanders’ backing came a median of 103 days before his choices’ primaries. Khanna’s median is 96. Warren’s median endorsement date is also a relatively long 82 days ahead of time.
In the case of Khanna, who harbors national ambitions but isn’t as well-known, the early aid can be helpful in raising his profile and building gratitude with up and coming progressives. He’s also backed numerous non-federal candidates. In Sanders’ case, it marks a shift, said Julian Mulvey, one of the architects of Sanders’ first presidential campaign.
He told The Washington Sun it once “took a long time” for candidates to earn the Vermont senator’s support, but “that’s changed” with this cycle’s slate of endorsements. He praised Sanders and Khanna for their aggressive strategies, which helped raise resources and the profiles of left-leaning candidates who have won primaries.
Sanders supporters like Mulvey acknowledged the risk of a shoot-fast-and-early endorsement strategy. Platner is the prime example, having soared to prominence with help from the millions Sanders’ donors forked over only to drop his bid in July amid allegations of sexual assault. Sanders endorsed Platner 283 days before his primary victory in June, and stood by the oysterman through numerous earlier flare ups before calling for Platner to quit after assault allegations became public.
Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Omar ever endorsed Platner.
They wait until late, functioning more like closers in the final innings of primaries. Omar has endorsed candidates less than a month before their primaries — a median of 29 days. For Ocasio-Cortez, it’s just 20 days before the election.
While the slower endorsements could be seen as a sort of Johnny-come-lately caution, it can also reflect the extraordinary — and often hostile — attention directed at the pair, especially at Ocasio-Cortez.
“I don’t think anyone can quite appreciate the astonishing level of scrutiny that falls on her, it is like no one else in the party,” Mulvey said about Ocasio-Cortez. “I give her a tremendous amount of leeway to figure this out, because no one else has to face that level or scrutiny. I don’t blame her at all for being very careful, very judicious.”
The later endorsements also have the effect of delivering a more concentrated stream of cash that comes in over a compressed time frame, perhaps when it’s needed most.
For instance, Sanders backed the Senate campaign of Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan a full 474 days before the primary, and Khanna followed with an endorsement just a week later. Sanders supporters contributed nearly $2.1 million to El-Sayed after the endorsement, and Khanna’s network added just shy of $1 million.
Ocasio-Cortez endorsed El-Sayed just 33 days before his primary, and Omar threw her support behind the Michigan progressive 22 days before the election as the race was tightening. In the time after the endorsements, Ocasio-Cortez donors gave El-Sayed over $940,000 and Omar’s network contributed almost $735,000.
Another progressive strategist said the endorsements from Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and other leaders in the movement, no matter when they come through, are needed to capitalize on an environment that is “very amenable to progressive challengers.”
“Organizing is great, but even that requires money,” the strategist said. “Because progressive voters are extremely invested, a little money goes a lot further with them.”
The Sun determined the impacts of the endorsers by analyzing federal campaign finance records to identify donors who contributed to the progressive congressional leaders over several election cycles, then calculating how much those donors contributed in the 2026 midterm cycle to the campaigns that each lawmaker endorsed. Donors were matched using normalized names and ZIP codes. The analysis also examined the timing of endorsements, including how far ahead of an election they were made and when a leader’s donors began giving to endorsed candidates. The analysis supplemented Federal Election Commission data with ActBlue earmarked contribution data to capture small-dollar donations that do not always appear individually in a candidate’s FEC filings.
Author
