Hi Friends,

We've just released our new report: Bad Blues 2026.

In it we detail the outrages committed by six Democrats in the House who deserve to be primaried by progressive challengers. One of them is Ritchie Torres of New York's fifteenth district. We've pasted his profile into this email below, which you should feel free to share.

You can read the full report here.

Congressman Ritchie Torres, from the Bronx, was elected in the poorest district in the country — a district won by mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, with no endorsement from Torres.

Torres claims to work for the benefit of the poor, though his record includes significant dedication to war and the militarism that takes funding away from many other projects. He quit the Progressive Caucus in 2024, months after Lois Frankel (see above), over its insufficient support for the U.S.-funded Israeli attack on Gaza. He has also been open about moving to the right while in office, including deleting online records of his past positions. Even when first elected in 2020, Torres announced that he would not join the progressive "Squad" because it did not support condemning the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against the Israeli government. Like Frankel, Torres joined with Republicans and roughly 20 Democrats in censuring Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib over her criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza, distorting Tlaib's statements.

Torres has been a defender of Israel’s war on Gaza, parroting a great deal of Israeli propaganda. He’s been heavily funded by pro-Trump, pro-Netanyahu funders. In response to anti-genocide protests on campus, Torres even proposed federally-sanctioned "antisemitism monitors" at U.S. universities. He voted to send weapons to Israel as the Gaza genocide was unfolding.

In 2025, Torres was one of 46 Democrats who joined all Republicans in voting for the controversial Laken Riley Act expanding Homeland Security agents’ power to detain. He has also introduced what he apparently saw as a solution to ICE agents murdering people in the street, namely putting QR codes on ICE uniforms so that, while they're attacking you, you can somehow scan a code, open a website, and find out their name.

In his short congressional career, Torres has taken in a whopping $6.7 million from AIPAC and aligned organizations promoting the Israeli government’s agenda. Thus far in the current election cycle, he has taken in $5,961,570 from all sources, with AIPAC his top organizational donor, and with the second-biggest funder having put in just over 10% of what AIPAC has.

A progressive candidate is running against Torres in the primary: Michael Blake, a community organizer and ordained minister.

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Thanks for all you do!

In Solidarity,
The RootsAction Team

RootsAction.org