'Big Tech's Best Friend': Progressives Target Top Democrat on House Antitrust Panel

The lobbying arm of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee targeted Democratic Rep. Lou Correa on Friday for opposing a trio of bipartisan antitrust measures that passed the House last year but later died in the Senate thanks in large part to the upper chamber's majority leader, Chuck Schumer.

P Street, which bills itself as the "progressive alternative to K Street," sent mailers that describe Correa as "Big Tech's best friend in Congress" to more than 36,000 of the California Democrat's constituents on Friday, The Hill reported.

The mailers, a copy of which was shared with The Hill, say that Correa has "betrayed consumers and left small businesses at the mercy of Big Tech and other monopolies."

Correa, who took office in 2017, is currently the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust. Correa was named to the post after Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.)—who previously chaired the subcommittee and led major investigations into Big Tech—stepped down earlier this year.

A day after news broke that Correa would be the ranking member of the antitrust panel, CNBC reported that the California Democrat's chief of staff "lobbied on behalf of Amazon and Apple as recently as 2022, including on the very issues the ranking member will oversee in his new role."

"Correa's a former banker and real estate broker, a Chamber of Commerce Democrat (they endorsed him in 2022), and his position on corporate power follows from that."

In addition to opposing the three bipartisan antitrust bills that cleared the House last year but have yet to be revived since Republicans took control of the chamber, Correa voted against a funding boost for federal antitrust agencies.

"At a time when President [Joe] Biden and congressional Democrats are trying to lower costs for families by fighting monopolies and price gouging, it makes no sense for the top Democrat on the antitrust subcommittee to put corporate tech monopolies over consumers and small businesses that would benefit from a competitive marketplace," Emma Lydon, P Street's managing director, said in a statement to The Hill.

Correa, who represents California's 46th Congressional District, does not currently have a primary challenger.

"While Correa's home state of California has lots of tech interests in it, his actual district, which encompasses Anaheim and the heavily Latino city of Santa Ana, isn't exactly a tech hotbed," The American Prospect's David Dayen noted in June. "It's the home of Disneyland, and big business certainly plays a role, but Correa's affinity for Big Tech is serving a donor base, not a base of constituents who he directly represents."

"Correa's a former banker and real estate broker, a Chamber of Commerce Democrat (they endorsed him in 2022), and his position on corporate power follows from that," Dayen added.