After hours of her passionate volunteers’ hard work, House Representative Nikki Budzinski flipped IL-13 to a Democratic seat. Budzinski sourced this support by channeling the currents of feminist and labor movements. Given this portfolio, it was easy for Democrats to get excited and come out for now-Representative Budzinski. Despite this, in a Republican fashion, Budzinski has already sold out and condemned her own constituents.
Through her campaign, Budzinski championed proposals from and connected herself to popular social movements. Given that she was vying to represent a major college town -Champaign-Urbana- and population centers like Springfield and East St. Louis, this was important for building a winning coalition.
Budzinski illuminated her connections to these movements throughout an interview I conducted prior to the election. In this interview, she connected herself to the labor movement and calls to expand access to higher education. Additionally, she supported policy changes at the intersection of these two movements by expanding access to technical education through our public colleges which lead to unionized industries.
On top of this Budzinski attached herself and took much credit for the push in Illinois to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, a proposal that was nationally popularized by socialist Senator and socialist Congressperson Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Additionally, she deployed large amounts of out-of-district money to run campaign ads disparaging her opponent’s Christian Nationalist values and presenting herself as the mirror opposite. In these ads, Budzinski set herself apart by positioning herself as a champion of women’s rights.
Unfortunately for many voters that supported her for these reasons, Budzinski has already given up her credibility on these issues and it took only weeks for her to do so.
One of Budzinski’s first actions as an incoming congressperson was to choose a caucus within the Democratic party. Despite no obligation or mandate to do so, rather than appealing to her voters, Budzinski decided to join the New Democrats. Attaching herself to this group meant, rather than joining with the large Progressive Caucus, Budzinski preferred to be involved with the last remaining pro-life Democrat who’s been embroiled in legal troubles and has immeasurable ties to the oil industry: Henry Cuellar.
To be clear, joining the Progressive Caucus means close to nothing and is not the same thing as the truly progressive sect of the Democrats often termed “The Squad.” The Progressive Caucus itself is much more moderate than the name would suggest and requires no policy positions to be taken to join. Any representative in the Progressive Caucus only has to worry about paying caucus dues to retain membership.
Nevertheless, despite her campaign rhetoric mirroring many progressives, joining with moderates in the Progressive Caucus as a nod to her voters was a bridge too far for Budzinski. In complete rejection of her own message, Budzinski aligned herself more closely with right-wing obstructionists in the Democratic Party like Joe Manchin than even moderate leadership like Progressive Caucus member, Nancy Pelosi.
Many will look at this without surprise. Politicians in America seemingly mislead voters at every possible turn. Budzinski, however, has recently elevated this to a uniquely condescending degree in publicly denouncing her own voters.
In early February, working with the Republicans and the right wing of the Democratic Party, Budzinski with her caucus brought to the house floor and voted for H.R. 9, a bill denouncing socialism. This bill equated the actions of all socialists to murderous genocidal maniacs.
In many parts of the country, this message could win an election. Most of these areas, however, are held by Republicans. Budzinski, very differently, doesn’t just represent a Democratic district but a progressive stronghold.
In the last two presidential elections, Champaign County -one of Budzinski’s largest constituencies- has rejected moderate Democrats in favor of socialists. In the most recent presidential election, Senator Bernie Sanders. -a socialist- beat all other opponents in Champaign County. Also, as a member of the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, Budzinski should be intimately aware that, Bernie Sanders nearly doubled the support Clinton could muster up in this county.
This is not to say that this county and its voters are all socialists. It is to say, however, that in addition to tacking onto popular socialist rhetoric during the campaign, a large percentage of Budzinski’s voters have supported the most prominent socialist in the country.
To denounce socialism in all of its forms means to denounce those who support it. In voting for this bill, along with publicly denouncing many other Democratic politicians, she was denouncing her voters.
Short of this, assuming she believes what she publicly supports, the only explanation is that Budzinski views her voters as too blind, immature, infantile, and/or stupid to understand what they have voted for.
As one of Budzinski’s voters who has supported socialists, I can wholeheartedly say I was not supporting the recognition of healthcare, higher education, and collective bargaining as human rights murderously or mistakenly.
The only other explanation is that Budzinski denounced this large segment of her voters in order to secure further electoral prospects. Some have claimed that this bill will stand to convince Republicans that the Democrats are not socialists and they will stop claiming they are.
This is extremely deluded and will not work. Come next election cycle, despite this vote taking place, the entire Democratic Party will continue to be brandished as socialists by right-wing politicians and media.
This has been the strategy of Republicans at least as long as I’ve been alive and will continue to be. Despite this ongoing tactic, Democrats -including socialists- have won thousands of races across the country. So, the most charitable view of denouncing her voters is that it was done as a faulty political tactic that will fail.
So, as a voter that’s either been condemned or is being viewed as too dumb to make decisions, I am shocked. Everyone in IL-13 regardless of political orientation should be offended and disturbed that their representative was so quick to disregard their opinions.
To recap, upon being elected Budzinski immediately diverted from her campaign rhetoric by joining with bigots and corporatists in the New Democrats. Shortly after, she expanded on this by wholesale denouncing a political movement she solicited for support by publicly disavowing its supporters. At the end of the day, she either believes that her supporters are devilishly evil, thinks they’re too stupid to know they’re supporting evil, or sold us out to support a flawed political tactic.
There are less than two years before Budzinski will be back on the campaign trail and there needs to be some accountability. Our communities’ voters, primarily college students who overwhelmingly support the left of the Democratic Party, should keep this in mind going forward. The 13th district’s students, university and college faculty, union workers, feminists, LGBTQ+ community, and anyone disturbed by a politician so willing to publicly disparage their own voters need to join together to make our voices heard and keep the dishonesty, ill-calculated politics, and hate out of the 13th district’s representation.