A feud between liberals and the Democratic establishment is escalating in a congressional primary where Democrats have a real shot at flipping a seat in deep red Texas.
After the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee released opposition research on one of the Democrats running in the 7th Congressional District primary, progressives retaliated.
Closing ranks around liberal Laura Moser, a member of the resistance movement that sprouted in response to President Trump, progressive groups unleashed a flurry of attacks on the DCCC. And they aren’t letting up.
On Thursday, Our Revolution, founded by Bernie Sanders after his 2016 presidential bid, endorsed Moser, and criticized the DCCC’s move against the candidate. Six other Democrats are running in the primary.
Now, Our Revolution, in conjunction with fellow progressive organizations CREDO Action and Justice Democrats, is circulating a petition targeting DCCC chairman Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.
“Tell DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujan to stop attacking progressives in the Democratic Party,” reads the petition issued Friday. “Primary season is here and the official congressional campaign arm of the Democratic Party is starting to crack down on progressives.”
The petition highlights the DCCC’s decision to post opposition research typically reserved for Republicans, but it also knocks the committee for advising candidates not to politicize mass shootings. The groups also criticize the DCCC for having zero black candidates in their Red to Blue program, which is a selective list of candidates the party has chosen to throw substantial resources behind.
“The DCCC has lost touch with its base,” said Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution. “Despite facing continued losses, they have yet to realize that the path to the majority requires supporting diverse candidates who hold progressive values.”
When the DCCC made the unprecedented move against Moser, it pointed to a 2014 interview in which the Houston journalist said she’d ranked have her teeth pulled than move to Paris, Texas.
The DCCC hit Moser for paying her husband’s consulting firm for ads she ran. Multiple strategists were quick to point out that the many party organizations are guilty of the same thing.
There’s a caricature of the DCCC as the “big bad wolf,” one Democratic strategist said, and “it’s as though they were trying to live up to that.”
“That major escalation of party involvement in a primary is the building of an imperial DCCC,” the strategist said, adding that it’s not going over well in Texas.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez piled on.
DNC chair @TomPerez faults the @DCCC for its opposition hit on @lcmoser in TX primary. “I wouldn’t have done it,” he told @jameshohmann & me on @CSPAN Newsmaker.
— Susan Page (@SusanPage) March 2, 2018
Moser saw a surge in contributions in the last week. She’s third in fundraising amongst Democrats in the race.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a GOP super PAC dedicated to keeping Republicans in power in the House, released polling Friday that put Moser close behind Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher. The poll shows Moser is in a position to make the runoff.
The poll, conducted March 1, surveyed 726 likely Democratic primary voters and has a margin of error of 3.63 percent. It found that 61 percent of likely voters “disapprove” of the party’s attack on Moser.
Fletcher led in support with 28 percent backing her, and 17 percent backing Moser.
The DCCC did not respond to a request for comment.
