Top House Democrats are defending a move to protect their incumbents from primary challenges like the successful one that propelled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into Congress.
The move has prompted criticism from the Left that the plan will prevent fresh faces from entering Congress and, in particular, shut out adding women and minorities to the party roster.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, who became a New York representative after a surprise primary victory over longtime Democratic incumbent Joe Crowley, has called the new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee policy a “blacklist.”
“A third of our recruits are women right now,” DCCC Chairwoman Rep. Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “Women of color, by the way. So, we are doing pretty well on great candidates who are running all over the country. I’m pretty pleased about it.”
Progressive freshmen have decried a policy Bustos put in place in March prohibiting the DCCC from conducting business with political consultants and polling groups who work for candidates planning to challenge Democratic incumbents in primaries. The move is aimed at protecting the caucus’ majority: lawmakers from swing districts who ousted enough Republicans to push the Democrats into the majority in 2018.
But progressives see it as a move to stifle their effort to electing more left-leaning lawmakers to the House Democratic caucus.
Some of the consultants have argued that it will prevent the recruitment of new female candidates ahead of the 2020 election. Bustos, like most of the incumbents she seeks to protect, is a moderate. But not all moderate freshman like the new approach.
“I don’t agree with the policy, It’s just not necessary,” freshman Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., a moderate, told the Washington Examiner. “The DCCC’s job is not to protect incumbents.”
The most vocal protester of the policy has been Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known as AOC. In April, called the new DCCC policy a “blacklist” and instructed followers on Twitter to “pause your donations to DCCC & give directly to swing candidates instead.”
But top Democrats said the DCCC has always worked to protect incumbents, although they acknowledged the policy governing consultants and pollsters was new.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who ran the Democratic National Committee from 2011 to 2016, called the policy “an accountability mechanism for the consulting class” that is indeed aimed at protecting incumbents.
“We support our incumbents,” Wasserman Schultz said. “They are doing a good job, and we want them to come back.”
It won’t stop women from winning seats, she said, but female candidates should seek other posts rather than targeting veterans.
“There are a lot of opportunities in every community running for office, and they don’t need to be running against our incumbent members,” Wasserman Schultz said.
Hill said the new policy doesn’t make much sense because challengers are more likely to target “safe” seats in Democratic strongholds held by longtime incumbents, not the swing districts the House Democratic leadership is desperate to protect.
That was the case in 2018, when Ocasio-Cortez beat Crowley and freshman Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., defeated incumbent Mike Capuano by running to the left of both veteran lawmakers. Crowley and Capuano had served for two decades in Congress and never faced a threat from a Republican challenger.
Hill said Democratic challengers should not target “those of us who are in difficult races who just won.” Hill defeated Republican Rep. Steve Knight in a district held by a Republican since 1993.
Democratic challengers, Hill said, won’t try to oust her. “I think they are going to be targeting more long-term, safe incumbents,” she said.
Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries, D-Calif., said the goal of the DCCC “is to make sure we protect the House Democratic majority” and that the committee is not restricting members from backing challengers to incumbents.
At the same time, Jeffries said, “The House caucus as an institution is meant to allow for the renewal of our democracy, and we do want to proceed in a way that allows that spirit and principle of renewal to take place.”
