Liberal groups, led by freshman House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attacked Speaker Nancy Pelosi for endorsing Rep. Joe Kennedy III in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race.
Pelosi’s announcement first broke in the Boston Globe and appears to counter Democratic leadership opposition candidates who challenge their party incumbents.
The California Democrat chose Kennedy, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, over incumbent Sen. Ed Markey, who is endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez. The two face off in the Bay State’s Sept. 1 primary.
Both Kennedy and Markey are liberal, but Markey, 74, has a much longer career as a progressive legislator. Kennedy, 39, has campaigned as a candidate who can usher in a new generation of leadership.
Pelosi picked Markey’s competitor despite a policy put in place by the party’s House fundraising arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, banning business with groups that back candidates challenging Democratic incumbents.
“No one gets to complain about primary challenges again,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted at the Democratic leadership, noting the apparent hypocrisy.
“When can we expect you to reverse your blacklist policy against primary orgs?”
Ocasio-Cortez accused Democratic leaders of “cherry picking activity” and pointed out that the DCCC has not opposed the primary opponent running against Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Omar has clashed with leaders as part of the “Squad” led by Ocasio-Cortez and has been widely criticized for anti-Semitic tweets and comments.
Officials at the Sunrise Movement, a far-left group that helped author the “Green New Deal” and backs progressive candidates, put out a statement that called Pelosi’s endorsement of Kennedy over Markey “an embarrassment.”
Markey was one of the few senators who stood alongside Ocasio-Cortez outside the U.S. Capitol when she announced her plan to introduce the “Green New Deal,” an environmental agenda that would upend the economy by eliminating fossil fuels, among other drastic provisions.
Markey introduced the bill in the Senate. Pelosi opposes it.
“This endorsement is embarrassing because it plainly reveals a ridiculous double standard,” Sunrise Movement officials said in a statement. “This has never been about protecting incumbents; it’s been about protecting big Democratic donors profiting off the status quo.”
Markey, who was a House member for 36 years, is leading in recent polls, thanks in part to his campaign’s ability to harness progressive groups in the state to help phone-bank on his behalf.
Markey won the endorsement of the Boston Globe in July.
Markey on Thursday issued a statement about Pelosi’s endorsement, congratulating Kennedy. “Any candidate would be proud to have her endorsement,” he said.
