The official campaign arm for House Democrats took the unusual move of attacking a Democratic candidate in a Texas primary Thursday, drawing outcry from progressive groups.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee posted opposition research on Houston journalist Laura Moser on their website. Moser isn’t running against a Democratic incumbent. Rather, she’s competing against five other Democrats in a bid to unseat Republican Rep. John Culberson in the 7th District of Texas.
National Democrats have remained quiet in most Democratic primaries, careful not to appear as though they are tipping the scales. That changed Thursday when DCCC blasted Moser for comments she made about living in Texas.
DCCC charged that Moser wouldn’t change Washington, but is a “Washington insider” who said she’d rather have a tooth pulled than live in her native state of Texas. Meredith Kelly, DCCC spokeswoman, doubled down on the post, in a statement to the Texas Tribune.
“Voters in Houston have organized for over a year to hold Rep. Culberson accountable and win this Clinton district,” Kelly said. “Unfortunately, Laura Moser’s outright disgust for life in Texas disqualifies her as a general election candidate, and would rob voters of their opportunity to flip Texas’ 7th in November.”
DCCC is referring to a piece in Washingtonian magazine, in which Moser said she’d rather have her teeth yanked out without anesthesia than move back to Paris, Texas.
Moser’s gained the support of influential liberal groups, but the powerhouse Emily’s List backed Democrat Lizzie Pannell Fletcher in the primary. The DCCC’s aggressive move against Moser is the first national Democrats have made against a Democratic candidate and could be a sign of what’s to come. Moser’s race is one of the countless crowded Democratic primaries across the country where candidates have mounted bids in reaction to President Trump.
Some operatives predicted DCCC could be testing the waters in Texas because it’s an early primary. If they’re successful in knocking Moser out, the committee may lob similar attacks against progressives they think threaten the party’s chances of flipping seats, strategists said.
“For the past year the Democratic Party leadership has been encouraging leaders of the resistance to get involved and run for office,” said Waleed Shahid, spokesman for the grassroots Justice Democrats. “Laura Moser was an active woman in the resistance and was organizing people to resist Donald Trump’s agenda and now that she’s running, the party establishment cracks down on her.”
Shahid predicted that the move could “backfire” on the DCCC. “The DCCC is revealing a strategy that has shown to be unsuccessful: That when you push moderate Dems who cater to the agenda of the wealthy donor class you lose,” Shahid said.
Justice Democrats took particular issue with the DCCC posting such savage opposition — typically reserved for Republicans — on Moser after asking all Democratic candidates to sign a memo promising not to engage in tactics that harm the party’s chances of winning in the general election.
Liberal group Democracy for America piled on, bashing the DCCC. “The hypocrisy would be funny if it weren’t so ruinous to Democrats efforts to retake the house in 2018,” DFA tweeted.
“We’re used to tough talk here in Texas, but it’s disappointing to hear it from Washington operatives trying to tell Texans what to do,” Moser said in a statement. “These kind of tactics are why people hate politics. The days where party bosses picked the candidates in their smoke filled rooms are over. DC needs to let Houston vote.”
As primaries draw closer though the DCCC is expected to jump in, especially in hotly contested races with crowded fields where Democrats need a strong candidate to emerge for the general. DCCC has intervened in the past, and on rare occasion did so against more establishment candidates.
