In Illinois' 9th House District, all three major candidates — left-wing
Kat Abughazaleh, progressive
Daniel Biss and AIPAC-backed
Laura Fine — had ads labeling them "fighters" and highlighting confrontations they had with ICE. Biss won the March 17 primary.Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas) ran an ad called "
Fighter," which featured the then-candidate in boxing gloves calling himself a "fighter who stands up and wins" and swatting away Trump and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.His top opponent in that 18th District race last month, fellow Democrat Amanda Edwards, also ran an ad called "
Fighter" labeling her "a different kind of fighter — one who delivers for the people" and saying "we need a fighter we can actually trust."
By the numbers: Democratic campaigns and outside groups have run nearly 50 ads as of Thursday featuring the words "fighter" or "fight," backed up by more than $22 million in spending.
The label has been a fixture of ads run by
progressive candidates who want to move the party to the left and vow to pressure leadership to take a more combative stance toward the Trump administration.But it has also been used by
AIPAC-linked PACs to boost more moderate candidates in those same primaries.Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), a centrist who ran unsuccessfully for New Jersey governor, ran an
ad called "Born Fighter" featuring AI-generated photos of him boxing with Trump.
What to watch: The term is already cropping up in Democrats' next big contest, the May 19 primary in Pennsylvania's 3rd House District, where more than a half dozen Democrats are competing to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.).
Pediatric surgeon and former Biden health official Ala Stanford is a "fighter and a champion," says a
new ad funded by 314 Action, a Democratic group that backs candidates with STEM backgrounds."Now's the time for Dr. Ala Stanford to bring her Philly fight direct to Donald Trump," it adds.
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