The mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts announced he will launch a primary challenge against House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, who liberals say “had to be dragged kicking and screaming to request Trump’s tax returns.”
Neal, 70, is among the highest-ranking House Democrat targeted so far by liberals, who are eager to push the Democratic caucus further to the left in the next election.
Neal, who since 1989 has represented Western Massachusetts, parts of which are ultra-liberal, runs the powerful tax-writing panel. Neal has aligned himself with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on matters related to investigating Trump through the courts and pumping the breaks on liberal proposals such as universal healthcare.
Neal steered the panel to the court to pursue Trump’s tax returns, rejecting calls to hold contempt votes for Trump administration officials who refused to turn over the forms.
Liberals say Neal has got to go.
Neal’s challenger, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, 30, who is gay, was first elected to run the city when he was 22.
Morse said his parents grew up in public housing and didn’t go to college.
Morse graduated from Brown University.
Morse said the success he’s achieved in Holyoke, population 40,000, would serve as “a roadmap” for Congress.
“There is an urgency in this moment and in this country and that urgency is not met by our representative in Congress,” Morse said in a video announcing his candidacy Monday.
Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green said Neal not only resisted pursuing Trump’s tax returns, he had little interest in holding hearings on “Medicare for all.”
Green said Neal also approved a measure preventing the IRS from offering a free tax filing system.
“We will very likely support a primary challenger against Richie Neal because he consistently sides with giant corporations and the political establishment against progress for his constituents,” Green said.
