Along with the much ballyhooed blue wave, it was also the usual AIPAC wave:
Not sure who needs to hear this, but not much is going to change in Congress REGARDLESS of who won when AIPAC controls 76% of Republicans and Democrats alike. https://t.co/rGYmOS08XB
— ThePatrioticBlonde™🇺🇸 (@ImBreckWorsham) November 5, 2026
And it was also a major victory for the parallel spook state.
A few weeks ago on Judging Freedom former MI6 officer Alastair Crooke offered a reminder of the CIA as a rogue state within a rogue state
…some years ago really after some scandals and the Cuban scandal and also the weapons scandal, the CIA went to look for independent funding. And so they’ve had independent funding from different sources, which means they’re not so constrained by budgets passing through Congress or the ability of a president to set their funding. For example, when I was involved in the Afghanistan events many years ago, the—if you like— when the Soviet Union had occupied Afghanistan, the funding for those myriad operations all came from Saudi Arabia. None of it came from American taxpayers or Europeans much I think either. It all came from outside funding. So, it gives great latitude. I mean, you go to, you know, you go to a source and say, “Look, we’ve got an operation we’d like to do. Um, can you let us have a billion dollars or something for it?” And so outside funding has also increased the independence of a CIA director…I’m not quite sure in practical terms how [this could be changed] because also the CIA have huge influence.
And the Military-Industrial-Complex continues to gain influence.
The blue wave swept into office even more former CIA, military—and military intelligence— and National Security Council officials into office. It’s hard to put an exact number on how many members of Congress now come from military-intelligence, but it’s safe to say they’re well-represented. USmilitary.org puts it at 76 with nine races still pending, but that’s only military veterans, and doesn’t cover representatives from the wide world of intelligence agencies and spook-aligned NGOs and private sector cutouts in fields like cycbersecurity and surveillance.
As the GOP sorts out its fight between neocons, MAGA true believers and the fakes, and spooks increasingly look to the Democrat party as a safe house. The leadership of the party, which for a period many decades ago now was more antiwar, is encouraging this migration.
The Democrat Party is, of course, not seeking out or encouraging vets to run who learned about the dark side of empire and oppose US imperialism. We know how the party reacts to candidates like that (see Graham Platner). No, these military vets, in almost every case, champion their roles in surveillance and killing and are enthusiastic about the empire.
Let’s look at some of the incoming Democrats with background in the vast web of imperial military-intelligence.
Rebecca Bennett, New Jersey’s 7th Congressional. She is a former Navy helicopter pilot deployed to the Middle East during the war in Afghanistan, serving in a carrier strike group. She then returned home and began working at pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson. In her campaign she promised to fight for “healthcare innovation.”
Luke Bronin, Connecticut’s 1st Congressional District. Former Navy intelligence officer deployed to Afghanistan as part of the US occupation regime. Was deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes in the Obama administration.
Cait Conley, won 17th Congressional District of New York. Army special forces, National Security Council in the Biden White House and then the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Unsurprisingly, Conley is voicing support for AI-Zionist-MIC darling Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker of the House.
Zach Dembo, member-elect representing Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District. He’s a former officer in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps.
Jessica Killin, Colorado’s 5th Congressional District. Former Army captain, she participated in European NATO military police missions in the Balkans and elsewhere. Later became an adviser to Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Elaine Luria, Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District. She served in the U.S. Navy for 20 years and reached the rank of commander.
JoAnna Mendoza, Arizona’s 6th Congressional District. She served in the U.S. Navy from 1994 to 1997 and the U.S. Marine Corps from 1998 to 2016. Mendoza did two tours in Iraq and one tour in Afghanistan.
Richard Ojeda, North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. Multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of US Army Airborne. He rose from second lieutenant to major in the course of more than two decades as an army officer.
Frederick Wellman, won Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District. Wellman served in the U.S. Army from 1987 to 2010, participating in two wars against Iraq. A graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1987, he also attended the Harvard Kennedy School in 2007.
You can add these incoming Democrats to an already-long list that includes governors and potential 2028 contenders like New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, and Michigan Senator Elisa Slotkin.
Others, first elected in 2024, won reelection. Those include reps like…
Jason Crow. Represents Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, which covers southeast Denver. He led a paratrooper platoon during the invasion of Iraq and then was part of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Afghanistan.
Jake Auchincloss, Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional. He’s a former Marine who “commanded infantry in Afghanistan and special operations in Panama,” and then dabbled in cybersecurity before his successful congressional run.
The party is already looking to add to these numbers in the 2028 cycle. Adam Dunigan, a former CIA officer and Marine combat veteran, has already announced his candidacy for Congress in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District.
Add it all up, and the dozens of military-intelligence Democrats far outnumber the members of the party who could be considered anything approaching Left. Unsurprisingly, the Democrats are already talking about boosting support for the CIA war against Russia.
🇺🇸🇪🇺 Trump’s Ukraine policy is coming to an end.
Democrats are discussing $15 billion in new military aid and tougher sanctions against Russia.
Senator Blumenthal also plans legislation supporting Ukraine and stronger oversight of Starlink.
Tankers carrying Russian diesel have turned back as buyers fear legal consequences.
With sufficient Republican support, Democrats could secure two-thirds in both chambers to override Trump’s veto.
https://t.co/v6ShUkqkzh
— Renaissance Europe Institute (@reieurope) November 8, 2026
“Trump’s Ukraine policy is coming to an end.” Do they mean the fact that the CIA’s operations are now “much more aggressive” than they were during the Biden administration? Is that coming to an end? Of course not.
Note that Blumenthal, who took office in 2011, served in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1970-76, attaining the rank of sergeant.
Back to the Democrat’s current crop of candidates. Despite the influx of the new spooky reps, if the party was really interested in gaining more popular support, winning elections, and governing, it might want to rethink their NatSec election strategy. While some of these candidates from blue and battleground districts managed to ride the wave against Trump’s awful record into office, far more did not. In solid red districts many military-intelligence Democrat nominees were routed, but hey, at least the voters there got to hear from two war- and surveillance-loving candidates about how dangerous the world is and the benefits of more capital accumulation. Some of the losing spooky Democrat candidates include:
Alan Bradstock, Air Force veteran of the first Iraq War and a former FBI counterterrorism special agent, ran in Pennsylvania’s 14th Congressional District where he lost to Navy JAG attorney Guy Reschenthaler.
Kevin Burge, a former defense intelligence officer, lost Texas’ 24th Congressional District.
Don Coover, a former military intelligence officer, lost in Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District.
Justin Early, who worked as LAN systems administrator at the Defense Intelligence Agency, lost the race in Texas’ 31st Congressional District.
Lee McInnis, who spent three-plus decades in the “defense intelligence community,” including Acting Director of Intelligence for NATO/USA Special Operations in Afghanistan, was crushed in Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District.
Caitlin Rourk, a former military intelligence officer, lost the 10th Congressional District in Texas to Chris Gober, former director and chief lawyer of America PAC, which was founded by one of the national security state’s most important business partners, Elon Musk.
And let us not forget that the Republicans can also play this game. A few of the GOP-MIC incoming congresspeople:
Chris McGowan won Iowa’s 4th Congressional District seat. He’s a former Intelligence officer in the Air National Guard.
Ed Gallrein who took out Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District is a former Navy SEAL who deployed “countless times around the globe from Panama to the Persian Gulf including on classified operations to keep us safe at home.”
Despite the constant churn of military-intelligence through the halls of Congress, despite the CIA running a war against Russia and conducting operations across the globe (including inside the US), and despite its freedom to seek out funding from foreign governments and the private sector, the spooks are still complaining they don’t have enough power. A recent piece from Reuters paints the picture of a rogue agency and describes how intelligence officials are currently holed up in Stanford University’s Hoover Institution drawing up plans to seize more power under the next administration:
The infighting between the agencies — triggered when Gabbard’s office revoked the security clearances of current and former intelligence officials a year ago …
The National Intelligence Council, which for decades has been a key resource for officials and lawmakers making foreign policy decisions, lost its main author when the CIA stopped writing into the assessments last year.
The assessments are meant to consolidate the views of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, and the council relied heavily on the CIA for analysis on topics like Iran and Russia. While the CIA continued sharing intelligence with the NIC and working with it on some reports, its analysts focused on their own assessments….
Now, some former officials are working on a bipartisan basis at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution to draw up plans to rebuild the intelligence community in the next administration, four former US officials said.
“All of these things are adding up in a really complex world where policymakers need to have a more sophisticated, nuanced, and integrated view of the world, and they are getting less,” said Beth Sanner, a former deputy director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term.
No doubt the incoming military-intelligence Democrats will be more receptive to this view of the world.
By
