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Two House candidates supported by Justice Democrats, a political action committee that helps to elect deeply progressive members to Congress, both lost their primary races in Tuesday's elections in Illinois.
Justice Democrats – founded in 2017 by Saikat Chakrabarti and Zack Exley, two leaders from the 2016 presidential campaign for Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Vt. – is a far-left organization that has helped elect candidates like "Squad" members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.
The first defeat of the night came after incumbent Democrat Rep. Marie Newman, who currently represents Illinois' Third Congressional District, lost her primary bid to represent the state's newly redrawn Sixth Congressional District against incumbent Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill.
Kina Collins, left, and Rep. Marie Newman, D-Ill., right. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Newman, considered a progressive Democrat in the House, was first elected in 2020 after she outshined incumbent Democrat Rep. Dan Lipinski in the Democratic primary with support from Ocasio-Cortez. She went on to defeat her Republican challenger in the general election.
In 2021, five months after taking office, Newman was slapped with a lawsuit from Iymen Chehade, a Palestinian-American adjunct professor at Columbia College Chicago, after she allegedly breached a contract. Chehade claimed Newman promised to provide him with employment and had asked him to stay out of the primary race for her seat so that she would have a better chance of winning. In exchange for not being a candidate, the congresswoman allegedly promised Chehade a $135,000 to $140,000 salary and title of both "foreign policy advisor" and "legislative or district director," if she won.
Newman, a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has offered support for a $15 minimum wage and the Green New Deal, has disputed certain aspects of the allegations and the House Ethics Committee investigated the alleged scandal. In a unanimous vote, the Office of Congressional Ethics signaled there was reason to believe Newman had made the employment promise.
Marie Newman speaks to reporters on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images)
In a statement shared after her loss, Newman said her team did not get the "result we wanted" and endorsed Casten in the general election.
"Win or lose, we have achieved something truly historic, and done so much good for this community," she said.
The second defeat for Justice Democrats Tuesday night came later in the evening after Kina Collins, who formerly served on President Joe Biden's transition team and task force for gun violence prevention, failed to garner her party's nomination to represent Illinois' 7th Congressional District. Collins faced off against incumbent Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., who has represented the 7th District since 1997.
Offering support for several controversial ideas in recent time, Collins has called for defunding the police and the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Collins was front and center filming a Facebook Live video of a "Defund the Police" rally in July 2020 and marched with protesters chanting to "defund the police" in a separate Facebook Live video the same day.
Claiming in multiple Facebook posts, some of which are no longer viewable, that "immigrant families are constantly living in a state of fear," Collins called for an end to ICE.
Kina Collins hosts a discussion on abortion access and reproductive rights at the Kehrein Center for the Arts in Chicago on May 16, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"Stoked by a US President fueled by white nationalism, immigrants are being targeted in violent attacks by extremists and at the same time are overpoliced and detained by a government that should be doing everything to protect them," Collins wrote at the time.
"There is no middle ground - ICE must be abolished and its practices and abuses under this administration must be investigated. #AbolishICE," she added.
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Collins also made a post to her Instagram page that called for people "to push legislators to defund ICE" before abolishing it completely.
She also supported the bail fund for arrested Black Lives Matter protesters in Atlanta, asking for a link to the fund in a June 2020 Facebook post so she and others "can start donating and getting our comrades out today and tomorrow."
As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Collins posted a photo of protesters burning down an Arby’s to her Instagram in May 2020 with the caption "AFRICAN PROVERB: The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth." That post by Collins appears to have since been deleted.
Fox News' Houston Keene contributed to this article.
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