Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam is challenging incumbent US Rep. Valerie Foushee in North Carolina’s 4th District Democratic primary in what may turn out to be a rematch of the 2022 race.
Allam has been a Durham County commissioner for five years, and served as chair from 2023 until this month. She was the first Muslim woman elected to office in the state. She’s now vice-chair of the board.
“I’m running for Congress because in a moment when our community faces dueling crises of Republican authoritarianism and corporate billionaire greed, we need leaders in Washington who will actually fight to deliver the brighter future we deserve and desperately need,” Allam said in a statement.
Her campaign announcement included endorsements from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont); David Hogg, president of Leaders We Deserve, an organization that aims to elect young progressives to Congress; the Sunrise Movement, a youth organization battling climate change; and the Working Families Party.
The national progressive political action committee Justice Democrats, a group that backed candidates like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, is also backing Allam.
Mary Patterson of Durham has also filed to run in the Democratic primary.
Foushee, a fixture in Orange County politics, defeated Allam and a half dozen other candidates in a crowded field to win the Democratic primary in 2022. Foushee won about 46% of the 2022 primary vote, with Allam placing second with about 37%.
Foushee went on to win her first congressional term in 2022 in the heavily Democratic district that includes Orange and Durham counties and parts of Chatham and Wake. She ran unopposed in last year’s primary and easily won reelection to a second term.
However, the former state senator’s tenure has not been without controversy.
Foushee was criticized in 2022 for accepting contributions from the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC. The state Democratic Party’s progressive caucus pulled its endorsement from Foushee that year because AIPAC supported Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election.
AIPAC was Foushee’s top campaign contributor in 2022, bundling donations topping $2 million, Indy Week has reported.
Foushee faced another round of criticism for her 2024 trip to Israel, paid for by an AIPAC affiliate, where she and other members of Congress met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Foushee campaign spokesperson told Indy Week in August that Foushee will not accept AIPAC contributions for the 2026 election.
A photo of Foushee in a group posing with Netanyahu is one of the images that flashes through Allam’s first congressional campaign video of the season.
“When right-wing and corporate PACs fund our politicians, they buy silence,” Allam says in the video. “I’m not taking a cent from AIPAC, crypto mega-donors, or corporate PACs,” she says. “You can’t serve them and fight for working families.”
Foushee did not immediately respond to NC Newsline’s request for comment.
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