{"id":389,"date":"2026-07-03T16:56:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=389"},"modified":"2026-07-03T16:56:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:56:49","slug":"my-doppelganger-trying-to-attack-aoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=389","title":{"rendered":"My Doppelg\u00e4nger Trying to Attack AOC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MD-edit.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"My Doppelg\u00e4nger Trying to Attack AOC\" title=\"My Doppelg\u00e4nger Trying to Attack AOC\" \/><\/div><p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"article-title-block_fe38544056bf25645614bc66565e2c4a\" class=\"article-title \">\n<div class=\"article-title__container\">\n<div class=\"acf-innerblocks-container\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>Martin W. Dolan, New York candidate for Congress, lost his primary by a landslide. But first, he drove me insane. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad-block ad siderail-ad float-r-w-3 break-r-4\">\n<p>                                    <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"ad-policy\" target=\"_blank\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n                                    <\/aside>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n<p>Molly Spears and Marty Dolan attend Yorkville Ball at The Union Club on November 9, 2024, in New York City. <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"credits\">(Sean Zanni \/ Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">Two summers ago, my name was all over New York City, though not for the reasons I\u2019d hoped. In <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/06\/19\/us-news\/conservative-group-backs-aoc-primary-challenger-with-times-square-billboard-100k-media-spend\/\">June of 2024<\/a> a series of billboards\u2014attack ads\u2014appeared above Times Square. \u201cHey AOC!\u201d they read, in Impact font. An unflattering photo of US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrapped across the boards\u2019 corners. Superimposed over her profile was a blood-red circle evocative, depending on your age, of either the Soviet Union or a rifle\u2019s laser sight. A laundry list of AOC\u2019s political sins lined the right edge: \u201cRising Crime.\u201d \u201cIllegal Immigrant Chaos.\u201d \u201cDefunding Police.\u201d Then, at the bottom: \u201cVote Democrat Martin Dolan now!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In case it\u2019s not obvious, I should clarify that the man who lent his name for these billboards is <em>not <\/em>me (Martin M. Dolan, b. 2001, Albany, New York). He\u2019s also not my father (Martin E. Dolan, b. 1963, Albany, NY) or grandfather (Martin T. Dolan, b. 1925, Mayo, Ireland). This other Martin, Martin W. Dolan, the self-styled nemesis of AOC, was born in 1957 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He had a long career as an insurance executive on Wall Street before retiring to the suburbs of Westchester County. He reentered the public sphere in 2024, having reinvented himself as a pragmatic, fiscally oriented political hopeful. The office in his line of sight was New York\u2019s 14th Congressional District, straddling the eastern Bronx and northern Queens, which Ocasio-Cortez has held since 2019.<\/p>\n<p>While Martin W. Dolan\u2019s name was being projected across Midtown, I was upstate, in my final semester of a master\u2019s degree in English literature, and trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do next. I half-heartedly applied to jobs and full-heartedly tried to line up freelance writing gigs. I cold-e-mailed the left-literary magazines I admired to try, at the very least, to build some sort of rapport. The responses I got were politely uninterested. I blamed my lack of a network, that I didn\u2019t know anybody, that no one recognized me. I had no idea that at the same moment I was trying to get my name out there, it was also being blown up across New York\u2019s busiest thoroughfares, taking potshots at the closest thing the millennial left has to a patron saint.<\/p>\n<p>Though my trouble landing writing gigs probably had more to do with my lack of experience than any confusion over the attack ads and associated <em>New York Post<\/em> articles, such cases of byline confusion do have a precedent. In the now-defunct <a href=\"https:\/\/thefineprintnyc.com\/article\/curse-of-the-byline-doppelgangers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Fine Print<\/em><\/a>, Andrew Fedorov interviewed newspaper journalists who entered the industry just a tad later than their identically named would-be rivals. Julian E. Barnes, a national security correspondent, has had to clarify on multiple occasions that he is not Julian Barnes, the Booker Prize\u2013winning novelist, who was born 20 years earlier. Alexandra Petri and Alexandra E. Petri tried to clarify that their names are even pronounced differently (\u2018pet-TREE\u2019 vs. \u2018PEA-try\u2019), though that\u2019s not the sort of thing that comes across easily in newsprint. The writer Naomi Klein, who doesn\u2019t even share a last name with the once feminist, now conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolfe, wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/culture\/naomi-klein-doppelganger\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an entire book<\/a> about this common mix-up and the unreality of the digital public sphere. (My favorite author doppelg\u00e4nger is the pioneering Black comic-book writer initially known as Jim Owsley, who, 15 years into his career, decided to start publishing under the same name as the already established and successful novelist Christopher Priest. The reasons for this change, and the artist formerly known as Owsley apparently angling for his readership\u2019s confusion, remain delightfully unclear.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">When you Google my\u2014I mean <em>our<\/em>\u2014name, the search results are a hodgepodge of middle-aged professionals. None of the Martin Dolans look particularly comfortable smiling for pictures. And maybe it\u2019s just the lifetime\u2019s worth of geotagged browser cookies on my laptop, but it seems like most of us haven\u2019t ventured far past the American East Coast, either. There are a few Facebook profiles in Dublin and one Australian poet, but at least online, we\u2019re mostly MDs in Massachusetts and JDs in New Jersey. A few of my articles make that first page of results, as does my roster photo from college cross-country. But right at the top of the Google query, crowding out the rest of us with SEO, is Martin W. Dolan, candidate for Congress. He\u2019s smiling dumbly on a pier with the city\u2019s skyline blurred behind him. The photo is accompanied by an AI-generated summary of his already not particularly coherent politics.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past two years, Martin W. had developed a reputation not as a moderate but as an outright anti-progressive Democrat. In an interview with the <em>Bronx Times<\/em>, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bxtimes.com\/marty-dolan-campaigns-for-second-time-to-challenge-aoc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">describes himself<\/a> a \u201cnew progressivist,\u201d hyper-critical of the way unabashedly leftist politicians like AOC and Zohran Mamdani govern as if \u201cwe\u2019re gonna have a revolution.\u201d He criticizes the way AOC and the party\u2019s progressive wing cater to \u201cniche needs\u201d like trans and immigrant rights, as opposed to more \u201cconcrete\u201d policies like tax reform. Though when he describes said tax policies, they sound strikingly redistributive. He proposes a \u201cFresh Start\u201d account opened for all young people, reimbursing them up to $25,000 in their past years\u2019 tax reductions when they turn 26. There are similar proposals for the parents of young children and working-class tenants, offering them cash to get them out of subsidized housing and into the open market or else as equity to lower future mortgage payments if they want to buy. He says that once in office, he\u2019ll be \u201cJohnny Appleseed, planting seeds.\u201d The platform doesn\u2019t make much sense, but then again, it doesn\u2019t have to: Dolan is emblematic of a vocal wing of Democrats\u2019 inter-party grievance politics\u2014dismissive of those to their left, while simultaneously preaching versions of the same platform of affordability for all Americans.<\/p>\n<div id=\"current-issue-block_99a0999ebc7fc8c972d32285a1d72e67\" class=\"current-issue  float-l-w-2\">\n<h4 class=\"current-issue__title\">\n                    Current Issue<br \/>\n            <\/h4>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/issue\/july-august-2026-issue\/\" class=\"current-issue__cover\"><br \/>\n        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/cover0726-1.jpg\" alt=\"Cover of July\/August 2026 Issue\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>But ultimately, to read too deeply into Martin W.\u2019s proposed policies would be to give him too much credit. In 2024, he wasn\u2019t really a serious candidate. For one, he didn\u2019t even live in the 14th district. Different publications alternately report him still living in Westchester or the Upper West Side, with a promise to move to the Bronx \u201cif he wins.\u201d The apparent thinking of his campaign strategy was that by merely appearing on the primary ballot as anyone other than AOC, he would attract some sizable portion of moderate voters.<\/p>\n<p>He might have overestimated his chances, but the logic that simply getting his name out there was worth something was, to an extent, sound. In June 2024\u2014as I, with no job offer in sight, resigned myself to a <a href=\"https:\/\/thebaffler.com\/outbursts\/and-theyre-off-dolan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">summer of service work <\/a>\u2014AOC won almost 82 percent of the NY-14 Democratic primary compared to Martin W.\u2019s 18. It was a decisive end to a not particularly decisive campaign. And yet Martin. W. was apparently unfazed by his trouncing at the polls. In 2025, killing time on my work-issued laptop, I read about his running for office again, this time for New York City\u2019s public advocate (now on the Unity Party ticket, a vaguely defined center-left movement he founded himself). Again, Dolan lost handily, and again, he seemed undeterred. Earlier this year, he announced that he\u2019d once more be challenging AOC for the 14th district House seat in June\u2019s Democratic primary.<\/p>\n<p>In that sense, Martin W. Dolan is an almost Trumpian figure. His repeated electoral defeats only make the case for why he\u2019s needed even stronger. Yet compared even to other reactionary, unserious contenders on the edges of New York politics, he lacks real star power. He\u2019s just another kooky political figure in a city already packed with them. He lacks the old New York yarn-spinning charisma of Curtis Sliwa or the digital-native shit-eating grin of Jack Schlossberg or the knack for shameless grifting \u00e0 la Rudy Giuliani. All Martin W. really has is deep pockets (though, presumably, not as deep as the Kennedys\u2019 or AIPAC\u2019s) and a hard enough head to lose election after election and still declare himself a candidate for the next cycle. Being so immune to rejection, he might\u2019ve better off pursuing a career in freelance journalism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">Given Martin W.\u2019s insistence on remaining in political life despite his losing record, what was I, the second-most-search-engine-optimized man with our name, to do? Both politically and professionally, I wanted to distance myself from his Wall Street\u2013y centrism. But I didn\u2019t want to give up my name, either. I could publish as \u2018Marty,\u201d I thought, the name my friends and family call me, but half the press clips about Martin W. refer to him by that nickname, too. The middle initial is timeless, but I\u2019m worried a single measly \u201cM.\u201d wouldn\u2019t distinguish enough. I\u2019m saving \u201cM. M. Dolan\u201d for my mid-career pivot to romantasy. Does my fully spelled middle name\u2014 \u201cMartin Michael Dolan\u201d \u2013scan as a precocious enfant terrible \u00e0 la Bret Easton Ellis or Paul Thomas Anderson? And if I did pick an entirely invented pen name, should it be realistic, nondescript? Or something punny and playful, like Gary Indiana or Richard Hell? I know for sure that I couldn\u2019t pull off a mononym. But other than that, the available options are daunting. This would be so much easier if it were 1930 and I had a SAG card and a union rep breathing down our necks about every union-card holder having a unique name.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cta-block_c7ee3206316ec1fa8bcd8481bfc84f38\" class=\"cta float-l-w-3\">\n<p>This dynamic\u2014having to compete not only for credit or trust but also mere recognition\u2014has become one of the core indignities of trying to market oneself as a writer or artist or politician or any sort of public figure today. In an Internet stuffed to the brim with slop, simply having people know you exist has, ironically, become an uphill battle. And so many in at least one respect\u2014trying, against the odds, to rise above the racket of the rest of the media, to be heard and hopefully even taken seriously\u2014Martin W. and I aren\u2019t so different after all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-dropcap\">New York progressives made a statement in last week\u2019s primary. Across three key races\u2014the seventh, 10th, and 13th districts\u2014establishment favorites were bested by a new generation of young, populist progressives. Like AOC and Mamdani before them, two of these new Democratic nominees (Claire Valdez in NY-7 and Darializa Avila Chevalier in NY-13) belong to the Democratic Socialists of America. This marks, in many commentators\u2019 eyes, the latest milestone in the city\u2019s ongoing political shift away from corporate interests and toward the socialist left. New York\u2019s politics are far from predetermined, but these key victories mark a moment. The evolving electorate\u2014younger, diverse, and sick of the establishment\u2019s roster of lobbyists, financiers, and tech executives\u2014see progressives and socialists as the future.<\/p>\n<section aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"ad fullwidth-ad contained row position-relative ad-block alignfull \">\n    <!--Ad policy starts here--><br \/>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/advertising-policy\" class=\"mid-ad-policy\">Ad Policy<\/a><br \/>\n        <!--Ad policy ends here--><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"popular-block_86e263982f141e8eea1ddcea704dee5c\" class=\"popular-articles\">\n<div class=\"swiper\">\n<p><h2>Popular<\/h2>\n<p>            <span class=\"swipe-msg\"><span class=\"sr-only\">\u201cswipe left below to view more authors\u201d<\/span>Swipe \u2192<\/span>\n        <\/p>\n<ol class=\"popular-articles__list\">\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"popular-articles__list-item swiper-slide\">\n<\/li>\n<\/ol><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>In all the commotion surrounding these key primary victories, AOC\u2019s dominance in NY-14 went practically unreported. Her win was, basically, assumed. Of all New York State primaries that went contested, AOC won with by far the highest margin, earning nearly 87 percent of the total vote, her most decisive victory since entering politics in 2018. Martin W. didn\u2019t even manage second place. With 6 percent of the primary vote, he was third, an also-ran to an also-ran.<\/p>\n<p>And so I\u2019ve decided <em>no<\/em>, I\u2019m not changing how I publish my name. Not even a middle initial for SEO\u2019s sake. Not for him. Martin W. and I can duke it out for dominance of our minuscule sliver of the public sphere. There\u2019s something charming, even quaint, about it. Because we\u2019re each, in our own way, fighting irrelevance. Him with his fealty to the last century\u2019s wonkish politics and me with my commitment to the written word. We\u2019re dinosaurs in the attention economy. Driven by hope that anything beyond the buzz\u2014say, the qualities of the man, of his ideas, of the work\u2014actually matters. And so, every two summers, when Martin W. reemerges to self-fund another doomed primary challenge, that will be my cue to make sure my writing is just a little bit better. May the best Martin Dolan win.<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-end-\" class=\"article-end \">\n<div class=\"article-end__authors\">\n<div class=\"article-end__author\">\n<h5 class=\"article-end__author-name\">\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/martin-dolan\/\">Martin Dolan<\/a><br \/>\n                    <\/h5>\n<div class=\"article-end__author-bio\">\n<p>Martin Dolan is a writer from upstate New York. His essays have appeared in <em>The Baffler<\/em>, the <em>Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>, <em>Full Stop<\/em>, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_incontent_2 --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<!-- Tag ID: thenation_registration_billboard --><\/p>\n<section class=\"collections collections--col-0\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<h2 class=\"collections__title\">More from <span class=\"not-italic\">The Nation<\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"collection__row\">\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/250th-trump-congress-republicans-supreme-court-fight-back\/\" aria-label=\"Celebrate America\u2019s Birthday by Fighting a Wannabe King\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-250th-stage-getty.jpg\" alt=\"President Donald Trump leaves after speaking during a rally to kick off the Great American State Fair on the National Mall on June 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>Congress and the courts aren\u2019t going to rescue us\u2014but the public just might.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/content\/column\/\" class=\"collections__label\">Column<\/a><br \/>\n                                            <span class=\"collections__divider\"><br \/>\n                            \/<br \/>\n                        <\/span><br \/>\n                                                                        <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/sasha-abramsky\/\">Sasha Abramsky<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/raphael-warnock-book-excerpt-july-4\/\" aria-label=\"Raphael Warnock: Why I Refuse to Give Up on America\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2267241951.jpg\" alt=\"Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) attends a rally to speak out against the SAVE America Act outside the US Capitol on March 18, 2026, in Washington, DC.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, the Georgia senator writes about why we must keep the faith in the promise of our democracy\u2014and fight for that promise to be realized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/raphael-g-warnock\/\">Raphael G. Warnock<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/francesca-hong-wisconsin-election-socialist-history\/\" aria-label=\"Can a Democratic Socialist Win Wisconsin? Fran Hong Says \u201cYes!\u201d\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2281583527.jpg\" alt=\"Francesca Hong speaks on stage during Wisconsin Democrats 2026 Convention on June 14, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin.\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>Amid all the talk of \u201celectability,\u201d a Midwestern state\u2019s radical history points to what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/john-nichols\/\">John Nichols<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"collections__card   \">\n            <a class=\"collections__card-image-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/colorado-democratic-primaries-melat-kiros\/\" aria-label=\"A Mile-High Uprising\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"collections__card-image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-275x173.jpg 275w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-768x484.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-810x510.jpg 810w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-340x215.jpg 340w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-168x106.jpg 168w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-382x240.jpg 382w, https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros-793x500.jpg 793w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Kiros.jpg\" alt=\"Democratic House candidate Melat Kiros at the Denver victory rally for her upset primary victory\"\/><br \/>\n        <\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"collections__card-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-nation-dek article-title__dek\">\n<p>Colorado voters continue the left rebellion in Democratic primaries. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"knockout \">\n                                                                            <a class=\"collections__author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/authors\/patricia-calhoun\/\">Patricia Calhoun<\/a>                                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>        <!-- Tag ID: thenation_btf_medrec --><\/p>\n<p>\t\t        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"tpContentAuthor\" value=\"Martin Dolan\"\/><br \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"tpTags\" value=\"congress,government,political-figures,political-ideologies,politics\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"03e4e3856e1652518b62e0aa-text\/javascript\">\n\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n\t\t{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n\t\tif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n\t\tn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('init', '233793277040432');\n\t\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t\t\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin W. Dolan, New York candidate for Congress, lost his primary by a landslide. But first, he drove me insane. Ad Policy Molly Spears and Marty Dolan attend Yorkville Ball at The Union Club on November 9, 2024, in New York City. (Sean Zanni \/ Patrick McMullan via Getty Images) Two summers ago, my name&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MD-edit.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[812,86,811],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-aoc","tag-attack","tag-doppelganger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}