Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), appearing with four progressives who won in swing seats in the midterms, called for Democrats to pass populist legislation “every week” in the next term focusing on corporate corruption, lower costs, and higher wages. The Progressive Caucus, which expects to welcome at least 25 new members, and will begin the upcoming 120th Congress with more than 100, is putting down an early marker on how Democrats should conduct themselves, with what is likely to be one of the biggest House majorities since the early 1990s.
“We have won immense amounts of political power, and now is the most important time to deliver to keep that power,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), a vice chair of the caucus and co-chair of the CPC’s political action committee, which spent millions of dollars in swing seats this year. “The way we’re going to keep Democrats in office is by passing bold pieces of legislation that show you when you vote Democrats in office, your life will get better.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), a former CPC chair who still co-chairs the PAC, concurred. “We are not popular as a Democratic Party across the country right now,” Jayapal said. “We’ve got a shot to show that we can deliver on the bold populist change people ran on and won on.”
So far they haven't broken the precedent, and the tradition of democratic primaries is still strong enough that I don't think the Dems would break it.
And they know that if they ever do, there would be backlash. Someone would run as an independent, and if that spoils the vote and gets a republican elected, then the blame would fall squarely on the party leadership who refused to honor the results of the primary.
So let's not make up hypothetical doom scenarios. We have enough doom in front of us without admixing our imaginations with reality.
But yes, the act of voting shows them we're serious, and gives them a reason to care what we think. That's why boycotting elections is stupid (among other reasons).
And besides, if we didn't vote then they wouldn't need to ignore the results of the primaries to begin with, because they'd already be getting their chosen candidate anyway.