No, and I say this as somebody who knows a fair share about him thanks to my internship this summer. If you really think he deserves a primary, I urge you to consider his effectiveness in Congress.
Lipinski is one of the most important Democrats for transportation issues. He introduced major protections for airline consumers, and while that bill did not pass, some provisions from it ended up in the FAA bill being considered. His work on manufacturing is big too. The National Manufacturing Strategy Act, his work on Buy American legislation, etc bring both parties together for American jobs. On the NDAA, he led the charge for greater collaboration with univesities on cybersecurity at the DoD. He's leading the effort for bipartisan tax reform and healthcare reform. Maybe he's not out there being a left wing Democrat, but Lipinski is incredibly effective in Congress. If you've ever lamented polarization and stymied progress in Washington, you ought to support Lipinski.
Also, he's not a right winger either. Maybe he is not a flaming liberal, but he voted against the Hartzler Amendment, against the sanctuary cities bill, for legislation to investigate Trump, for campaign finance reform, against TPP, against Obamacare repeal efforts. Lipinski gets things done for Chicagoland. His constituent services are incredibly well done, and he helps the district obtain important federal grants.
Add to that, his district is not liberal. He fits it quite well. With a high Polish, Irish, and Greek population, it's socially more to the right than most Democratic districts. Add to that about a third of it being Hispanic (not a very left wing population), and you have a district that fits its congressman like a glove. I know the national special interests ignore that, but it's the truth.
I still stand by what I said, but this is a really, really good argument. I tend to only know the general profile of out-of-state (non-Maryland) congressmen.
Something that I use for a litmus test for almost all D+5 or more districts is whether the congressman in question supports any form of nationalized health care; i.e. single-payer, Medicare-for-All, etc. You had people like Sanford Bishop co-sponsoring HR676, but Lipinski did not. If Democrats ever get a trifecta back, which they almost certainly will by the mid-2020s, I'm worried that congressmen like Lipinski, who also holds a leadership role on the Blue Dog Coalition, would lead the Democratic opposition to a single-payer bill.
Obviously HR676 isn't suitable to pass in it's current form, but the general idea is what matters; iirc Medicare was originally supposed to cover everyone before it got gutted to only covering the elderly. It's approval ratings are in the high 70s, which is why Republicans will never get rid of it. Conservatives have realized that the only way to keep a privatized healthcare system is to stop a public sector one from ever coming to fruition.
I don't think Lipinski should be a high priority target. Take people like Feinstein, Cantwell, and especially Menendez out first, or if you want representatives, Jim Cooper and Mike Thompson are clearly too conservative for their districts, more so than Lipinski.
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