Enraged Democratic candidates turn on their own leaders

• "If they go low, I'm going to the gutter."

State of play: Axios interviewed dozens of Democratic congressional candidates — some challenging longtime Democratic incumbents, others running in open primaries in blue or purple seats.

• What was consistent across many of those interviews was a notion that the Democratic party establishment has not met the moment since President Trump returned to office in January.
• That echoes what Democratic elected officials have heard from their constituents, particularly their liberal grassroots, for the last nine months.
• And it signals a headache ahead for Democratic leadership, which may have to grapple with its own version of the Tea Party wave that wreaked havoc on GOP leadership.

What they're saying: "The American public wants to ... be part of a movement to fight back for their rights," said former Houston city councilwoman Amanda Edwards, another leading candidate in the Texas special election.

• Trump "is willing to go as far as he can possibly go" and has "no limitations," she said. "At what point are we going to be in a position where we ... are ready to fight back and have a strategy?"
• Kat Abughazaleh, a prominent progressive influencer running in Illinois, told Axios: "You need to show the people that you're angry — and not just that you're angry, that you're going to do something about it."
• "We're at the brink of an authoritarian coup," said Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech entrepreneur and progressive operative challenging former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "People want to see legislators actually showing up at these courthouses and confronting ICE."

Between the lines: Dozens of Democratic candidates for U.S. House are refusing to commit — or outright declining — to vote for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as speaker or leader, as Axios reported Wednesday.

• "Democratic leadership has to take a much stronger stand against the Trump administration," said Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, another one of the leading candidates in Abughazaleh's race.
• Biss added: "We can't be afraid to use our leverage to fight back, and we have to speak out clearly and forcefully about the damage Trump is doing to our communities."
• "People are angry, they are frustrated, they are deeply dismayed by what they are seeing, of course by the Trump administration, but honestly a lot is a profound disappointment with the Democrats," said attorney Patrick Roath, a primary challenger to Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.).

Zoom out: Many of the leading Democratic candidates in key battleground primaries are Jeffries loyalists or recruits. But it may only take a handful of renegades to frustrate leadership if he wins a small majority next year.

• The nearly dozen House Democrats retiring or seeking higher office this cycle have left a slew of crowded Democratic primaries in their wake that leadership will have difficulty controlling.
• That is in addition to the 10 older House Democrats who are facing well-funded primary challengers, as Axios reported Thursday.

The bottom line: "I just think that the days of following a playbook [are over]. There's no way I'm following rules when other people aren't," Jones, the House candidate in Texas, told Axios.

• "If you grew up in the hood like me, that's the fastest way, literally, to be killed. ... My brother was murdered, my aunt was murdered, my cousin was murdered," she added. "My dad blew his brains out."
• "So, I come from a different world where everything isn't so pretty like the Democrats want. Sometimes sh*t is ugly. And you've got to be able to fight ugly."