Twitter is refusing to verify the accounts of primary challengers running for Congress in 2020, a policy that many candidates say is hurting their campaigns and helping keep the same handful of politicians in power. Cori Bush, a community activist who challenged 10-term incumbent William Lacy Clay in the St. Louis-based district last cycle, still hasn’t been verified on Twitter. She’s running in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District again in 2020, and even starred in a documentary about her first attempt. “Knock Down the House,” the Rachel Lears film Netflix bought for a record $10 million, followed the insurgent campaigns of Bush, Amy Vilela, Paula Jean Swearengin, and now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Despite this, Bush hasn’t been verified. Swearengin, an activist running for Senate again in West Virginia, hasn’t been verified either. In an email sent last May, Twitter’s Government & Elections team told Bush that while they develop a new verification program, their support team is actively reaching out to candidates after each state’s primary elections “to verify those who qualify to appear on the ballot for the general elections in November.” Twitter paused its general verification program in 2017, after facing backlash for giving a blue check mark to Jason Kessler: the organizer of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. The social media platform won’t make exceptions for a number of credible primary candidates, including ones who have large online followings and grassroots support, massive fundraising hauls, extensive news coverage, and in Bush’s case, a leading role in a Netflix documentary. Instead, Twitter’s government relations team has been telling candidates seeking verification that they won’t be giving any new contenders a blue check mark until after they win the state’s primary. Twitter did not respond to a request for comment. Verification can increase a candidate’s visibility and reach online among journalists, ordinary voters, and potential volunteers and donors. A lively social media presence alone certainly won’t win an election, but the ability to look credible online is an undeniable material advantage. And, for aspiring politicians targeted by trolls, being verified means their accounts are more protected. Lindsey Boylan, a former New York state official challenging Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler from the left, has seen her campaign covered everywhere, from the New York Times and Politico to Teen Vogue and Business Insider. Still, she’s had several unsuccessful attempts to get verified. “It’s not going to make or break our race — we’re running to win — but the reality is having verification really levels the playing field,” Boylan said. In practice, she argued, the verification policy ends up “artificially supporting and propping up incumbents” while hurting progressives.

“It’s not going to make or break our race — we’re running to win — but the reality is having verification really levels the playing field.”

As The Intercept reported on Wednesday, progressive challengers to conservative House Democrats have seen remarkable fundraising quarters. Marie Newman, who is once again challenging Rep. Dan Lipinski in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District, raised $350,000 in the most recent fundraising period. Morgan Harper, running against Rep. Joyce Beatty in Ohio’s 3rd Congressional District, raised $323,000 during the first quarter. Jessica Cisneros, facing Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas’s 28th District, raised $310,000. And Mondaire Jones, who’s running to succeed retiring Rep. Nita Lowey, raised more than $218,000. None of them have been Twitter verified. Still, the platform has verified countless candidates with relatively small online followings. Jason Fisher, for example, is a former candidate for Alabama state Senate and the 2017 special primary election for U.S. Senate. He has less than 2,500 followers and has a blue check mark. Robert Kennedy Jr., another former Alabama candidate who has a famous name despite local media at one point writing that no one knows who he is, is verified with less than 3,000 followers. Neither candidate responded to a request for comment by press time. Jose Caballero, one of the Democrats in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Susan Davis in California’s 53rd Congressional District, has also been denied verification. One of his opponents, Sara Jacobs, meanwhile, is verified. They both have fewer than 10,000 followers. In emails between Caballero and Twitter’s government relations team, the congressional hopeful asks why Briana Urbina, one of two candidates taking on House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in Maryland, has gotten verified before the primary. Caballero said Twitter stopped responding. Urbina told The Intercept her account was verified less than two months ago, after a staffer reached out to Twitter Ads about being considered. They provided FEC filing reports and their campaign website, and other things. Mckayla Wilkes, Hoyer’s other primary challenger, is unverified despite having over 16,000 more Twitter followers than Urbina. “Twitter also seems to make exceptions to their own policy, in opaque and arbitrary ways,” she said in a statement. “A clearer and more inclusive process would better serve our democracy.” Joshua Collins, a 25-year-old truck driver and democratic socialist running for Congress in Washington, believes the platform’s verification policy is “unethical and amounts to nothing less than election interference.” Collins said he first tried to get verified when he had around 20,000 followers, because there were fake accounts with his name and profile picture popping up every few days. “I have had to report and get about 15 different accounts banned for impersonating me, and I’m afraid there is some change voters will see something said by a fake account and think it’s me,” he told The Intercept in a Twitter DM. “Right wingers will, every once in a while, just mass report one of my Tweets, and then I’ll have to delete the tweet and be banned for 12 hours,” he added. “They can successfully do this with almost any Tweet, but if I were listed as a verified politician, the system wouldn’t automatically ban me.”