Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois, a blue dog Dem, has held on and won his primary against a more liberal challenger. This was by no means a certain outcome going in, and the race was close, but he pulled out a win.

Lipinski looks like he will hold on in #IL03.
With all precincts reporting in #IL10, Douglas Bennett leads Jeremy Wynes by 253 votes in the race to challenge incumbent Congressman Brad Schneider.
And in #IL06, Sean Casten is right behind Kelly Mazeski- he trails by 262 votes.

— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) March 21, 2018

Lipinski is pro-life. The “progressives” hate that so much that pro-abortion groups dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into trying to defeat him in the primary. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in a primary for a House seat. Lifenews reports groups supporting his challenger with big bucks included such luminaries as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Emily’s List.

A CNN report cited by Lifenews has more:

Planned Parenthood’s group alone has spent more than $150,000 on everything from polling services to direct mail to advertising in order to help Newman and oppose Lipinski, the FEC data shows. On the flip side, groups like Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion rights, have rallied to Lipinski’s cause. Nearly $120,000 from Susan B. Anthony List has been spent on not just ads and mailers but also money to fly canvassers to the district, put them up at hotels and transport them in vans to various neighborhoods.

The Hill reports that progressives were trying to paint him as being out of step with the new Democrat party. The nationwide effort to push the party left by progressives and “The Resistance” seems counter-intuitive based on election results so far, but they’re still trying. Especially where abortion is concerned. Democrats love abortion more than anything.

Lipinski’s victory will give the longtime congressman a sigh of relief, even despite the close margin.

The co-chairman of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition was targeted by a slew of progressive groups who characterized his views as out of step with the Democratic Party. He’s come under fire for voting against marriage equality, ObamaCare and the DREAM Act in 2010.

Abortion politics were a main focus of the primary battle. He’s also taken heat for being one of only six House Democrats who voted in 2013 for a ban on abortions after 20 weeks.

It’s not just that he’s pro-life and that he is co-chair of the progressive-hated Blue Dogs, he’s been against his party on several issues.

He was, for example, part of the bipartisan creation of the “Victims of Communism Caucus” in the house last November. Their goal was to educate Congress and Americans in general about the dangers and evils of communist states.

Progressives hate that, too.

Lipinski won’t have much trouble keeping his seat come November. His opponent is Arthur Jones, a white supremacist holocaust-denier who ran unopposed in the GOP primary and has been denounced by the party at all levels. Besides which, Illinois’s 3rd District is a Democrat stronghold.

As votes were being counted Tuesday night, the pro-abortion candidate Marie Newman, refusing to concede after the AP called the race, said to supporters “I would like to make Mr. Lipinski to have a very painful evening, so we‘re going to wait.”

“A very painful evening” she says. That’s one Democrat to another in a primary. And all because he doesn’t believe in killing babies in the womb.

They love abortion, and they hate people who are pro-life. Even incumbents with an easy win ahead. So much so they dropped a small fortune against him and wished ill upon him.

So if your question is, “did the progressive Democrat base learn anything from the last election?” I’d say signs point to “no.” Radical, vicious leftism is, arguably, one of the leading causes of Trumpism. But it looks like the activists and the donor organizations are doubling down on it.

Republicans have a tough road ahead, in large part due to the GOP’s own problems. It looks like some groups are going to make sure they aren’t adding to the GOP’s burden in November.