This is part of a broader Indivisible effort to remake the Democratic party – check out Leah Greenberg explaining why California Indivisibles should get involved!
Too many Democrats in Congress refuse to be a real opposition to MAGA – instead they treat our era as one of “politics as usual,” in which both major parties believe in democracy. As Indivisible National puts it:
Sadly, too many Democratic leaders have been content to watch the battle unfold from the sidelines, or worse, have actively abetted the regime’s corruption and abuse. It’s no surprise that the party has fallen to historic levels of unpopularity and earned a reputation as weak, feckless, and directionless. This is not a Democratic Party we can count on to defeat fascism.
No wonder we get headlines like this one from NBC News in March: Democratic Party hits new polling low, while its voters want to fight Trump harder. Voters get it that these are no ordinary times. The American people need the Democratic party to understand that we’re in an emergency, and that they need to resist MAGA using every tool in the toolbox.
Democrats are in the Congressional minority now, but in the 2026 elections we’re going to win the House and even have a shot at winning the Senate. When the new Congress is sworn in, we need as many Democrats as possible to be fighters not folders.
The primaries offer an incredible window of opportunity: we can use them to get rid of dead-weight Democrats and ensure that the Democrats on the November ballots understands the urgency of the moment.
To take advantage of this window of opportunity, Indivisible National launched its 2026 primary program with the rallying cry: Let’s fight for a Democratic Party that’ll Actually fight for us. The program encourages Indivisible groups to formally endorse fighters in the primaries, and then support those candidates in the primary election by turning out their members to volunteer and donate.
A few Indivisible leaders from diverse regions in California said: challenge accepted! They worked with California chapters to support their primary efforts, developing a Making the Case deck, and a candidate assessment rubric, and a candidate questionnaire (along with other resources).
Indivisible East Bay then worked with Indivisible Fremont and Indivisible Tri-Valley to form the CA-14 District Council. Working alongside the other Council members, IEB engaged in a rigorous endorsement process:
- The Council adapted the candidate assessment rubric for CA-14 and volunteer researchers completed the rubric (see the summary dashboard here, along with a tab for each of the candidates).
- The Council also sent a candidate questionnaire to all six candidates. Four candidates completed it (see their responses here).
- A Council committee used the questionnaire responses to complete the assessment rubric ratings.
- The Council considered the assessment ratings along with candidates’ background and endorsements by other organizations – taking all of that into account, the Council recommended that groups endorse Senator Wahab.
- IEB leadership sent the candidate assessment rubric and the questionnaire responses, along with a recommendation, to IEB members living in CA-14, asking for votes (using a ranked choice voting tool).
- Senator Wahab received 90% of the votes.
Aisha Wahab is the fighter we need and IEB formally endorsed her on April 14. She is explicit that she plans to use “every vote, every hearing, every coalition, and every public platform” to block the MAGA agenda – pairing inside tactics like oversight and procedural opposition with outside pressure from grassroots groups, labor, and communities.
She is not one to tinker around the edges. She describes governing as a “firewall:” blocking MAGA legislation, using committees and oversight aggressively, leveraging the power of the purse, and forcing a daily contrast between MAGA and a people-first agenda. In other words, not just opposing authoritarianism, but actively constraining it.
If the problem with Democratic electeds is their weakness, then the solution is candidates who are clear-eyed about the stakes, willing to use every available tool, and committed to both institutional hardball and grassroots accountability. Senator Wahab is positioning herself as that kind of Democrat: one who won’t normalize what’s happening, and won’t sit it out.
Now let’s help Aisha Wahab win the primary! Sign up to volunteer here, and donate here!
