Left-wing group looks west to oust L.A. congressman

Justice Democrats helped elect 'Squad.' They back challenger to Jimmy Gomez.

- JULIA WICK

IRFAN KHAN Los Angeles Times REP. JIMMY GOMEZ of California's 34th District will confront a bid to unseat him from the left.

The group behind Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s shocking 2018 victory in New York is looking west for its next fight.

Justice Democrats — the influential left-wing PAC known for helping Ocasio-Cortez and other progressives oust Democratic incumbents — is backing a primary challenge to Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, a four-term congressman representing a staunchly Democratic Los Angeles district.

The group endorsed Angela Gonzales-Torres on Thursday, characterizing the 30-year-old Highland Park resident as a fighter willing to take on not just the Trump administration, but also corporate interests in the Democratic establishment. The group also cited the millions of dollars that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent in support of Gomez last cycle.

The powerful pro-Israel lobby’s standing among Democrats has become a flash point amid broader internecine conflict in the Democratic Party over Israel’s unrelenting war in Gaza.

Justice Democrats-backed candidates were loud and early advocates for a ceasefire in Gaza, whereas AIPAC — which backs both Democrats and Republicans — unleashed a torrent of spending in Democratic primaries to target candidates who had been vocal critics of Israel. AIPAC played a consequential role in unseating two Justice Democrats-backed progressive incumbent members of Congress in 2024.

With Justice Democrats entering the fray, the battle for California’s 34th District could very well become a proxy war between AIPAC and the activist left flank of the Democratic Party, which characterizes the war in Gaza as a genocide and AIPAC’s influence in the party as existentially toxic.