House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal defeated challenger Alex Morse in their Massachusetts primary, surviving the latest test for establishment Democrats from the party’s left.
Neal, 71, had a single-digit polling lead on Morse ahead of their Tuesday primary for western Massachusetts’s 1st Congressional District. But the incumbent still outraised and outspent the 31-year-old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, who’s been in office for almost a decade and backs “Medicare for all” and the “Green New Deal.”
Neal earned endorsements from the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, in part due to his leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee. The panel is influential in federal lawmaking because it shapes tax policy.
But Morse touted support from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and far-left group Justice Democrats, among others. Liberals argued Neal hadn’t used his standing to support working families and sweeping reform. Instead, they alleged he prioritized campaign donors, including pharmaceutical companies, and knocked his preference for incremental change.
Morse and his allies criticized Neal for not seizing President Trump’s tax returns and opposing left proposals, such as one aimed at cutting surprise medical billing. In response, the 31-year congressman, first elected in 1989, talked up his work on the Affordable Care Act, creating renewable energy incentives, and lowering prescription drug costs.
University of Massachusetts Amherst College Democrats marred the race last month after they accused Morse of leveraging his position as an elected official and former guest lecturer to make students feel uncomfortable in social media messages. Morse, who is unmarried and gay, disclosed consensual relationships with students, though none under his instruction, and apologized for making anyone feel uneasy. It later emerged that the College Democrats, at least one of who wanted a Neal internship, engineered the claims.
The Neal-Morse contest caps a turbulent year for liberal Democratic activists. Centrist 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden beat their White House hopefuls, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Forgoing the presidency, they turned their attention to down-ballot primaries. They then successfully ousted House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, a long-term lawmaker from New York, and legacy Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay via Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush.
No Republican is running in Massachusetts’s Springfield-anchored 1st District. Neal also faced a surprisingly competitive primary in 2018.
