Democratic incumbent faces challenge from the left in Chicago
By Andy Sullivan LEMONT, Ill. (Reuters) - Chicago-area Democrats cast their ballots on Tuesday in a nationally watched congressional primary election that could signal whether the anti-Trump sentiment that has galvanized the party's base could also sweep moderate lawmakers out of office. U.S. Representative Dan Lipinski is facing a stiff challenge from businesswoman Marie Newman, who says the incumbent's socially conservative views are out of touch with the district that first elected him in 2004. Lipinski, who opposes abortion and gay marriage, says Democrats need to avoid ideological litmus tests if they want to win back the working-class voters who supported Republican Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. "Marie Newman ... hasn't really had a positive agenda. She's more like the Tea Party, just saying no, yelling and screaming. That doesn't lead to any problem-solving," he told Reuters while greeting voters in Lemont, a suburb southwest of Chicago. Newman has drawn the support of national gay rights and women's rights groups, which have spent more than $1 million on her behalf. "I'm just a true-blue Democrat, and he's a far-right radical Republican," Newman said in an interview on Monday at her headquarters. Lipinski is among more than a dozen congressional Democrats who face credible challengers, mostly from the left, in nominating contests over the coming months that will determine the party's candidates for November midterm elections. Democrats need to pick up 23 seats to win control of the House of Representatives from Republicans, and two seats to win the Senate. Tuesday's nominating contest in Lipinski's district is not likely to affect Democrats' overall chances - the swath of Polish, Irish and Hispanic neighborhoods in Chicago's South Side and suburbs has not elected a Republican to Congress in decades. The lone Republican candidate this time, Art Jones, is a Holocaust denier who has been disowned by the state party. But the outcome could embolden progressive challengers and signal how widely this fall's crop of Democrats will include moderate and conservative lawmakers - a group that has shrunk dramatically since Democrats lost their House majority in 2010. Lipinski co-chairs the House's centrist Blue Dog Democrats, whose numbers have dropped from 54 in 2009 to 18 today. He has the support of the state AFL-CIO labor coalition and Democratic leaders in Congress, as well as many local political figures and voters who see him as a bulwark against changing social mores. "I know that he works for guys like myself," said retiree Scott Joseph. "I'm 71 years old, I'm old-school. I'm not up to date with all the stuff she represents." But many Democrats, including some of former President Barack Obama's top advisers, have criticized Lipinski for voting against Obama's signature Affordable Care Act health law in 2010. Several Chicago-area Democrats who serve with him in the House declined to endorse him. (Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Matthew Lewis)
