The Democrat congressional primary in Ohio pitted the Sanders insurgency, along with AOC and the rest of the Socialist gang, against the Democrat establishment, most notably the Congressional Black Caucus.

The CBC had already beaten Sanders to the White House. But leftists had been impinging on the CBC’s establishment with radicals like Rep. Cori Bush. CBC vets, who have little to show for their time in office, feared a series of primary challenges from leftists. But they also saw the socialist movement hijacking the very movement of black Democrats out from under them.  

Rep. Jim Clyburn decided to strike back against Rep. Nina Turner, an AOC and Sanders-backed leftist. Democrat Jewish groups were happy enough to enlist in the fight (and predictably take the blame with Turner delivering a concession speech ranting about evil money, even though her backers outspent her opponent, Rep. Shontel Brown. 

Ohio became a test of the campaign savvy of the CBC vets and the AOC Left with the former prevailing.

AOC had always claimed that she and the Socialists won primaries because they campaigned harder. Ohio proved once again that they could be beaten. It didn’t help that Shontel Brown was a more pleasant and less abrasive candidate than Turner. Or that Jewish voters apparently turned out in sizable numbers. But this was ultimately a question of whether black voters would stick with the CBC or switch to the Left.

And the CBC won, just as it did the presidential primaries when it dragged Biden over the top despite the popularity of Sanders with white Democrats. 

Ohio was meant as a warning to leftist insurgents that while they may have gained enormous amounts of cultural and political ground, the CBC still has much more of a direct line with the church ladies who may not take part in BLM protests, but actually do vote.