Democratic infighting forced the deployment of an amusingly pointless campaign tactic last week — the co-endorsement.
Wading into the Democratic primary race for New York’s 14th Congressional District, where Rep. Joe Crowley is running for re-election, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., picked a candidate, then picked both candidates in the two-way race.
After endorsing Crowley, an establishment Democrat, over self-described “Democratic socialist” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna’s progressive bona fides took a hit from the base. The freshman lawmaker scrambled to save face. In less than a day, Khanna’s Crowley endorsement morphed into a “co-endorsement” of both Crowley and Ocasio-Cortez.
“I didn’t realize it was a significant race,” Khanna admitted to Politico. The laughable implication is that he had been comfortable throwing Crowley some love only because he thought nobody really cared. That says a lot about the value of his endorsement.
“I vowed that I would always support the concept that primary challenges make our party better,” he told The Intercept. “I have tried to balance that with being effective in the House and building coalitions.”
Khanna’s co-endorsement is symbolic of the Democratic Party’s larger struggle to balance the concerns of progressives with the more pragmatic concerns of the establishment (though much of the establishment, like Crowley, is fairly sympathetic to progressive policies). It’s a struggle that’s consumed organs of the national party like the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, tasked with mending the wounds of the 2016 presidential primary contest. If Khanna’s tack is any indication, Democrats still don’t have a good answer.
The primary between Crowley and Ocasio-Cortez takes place June 26. The candidate endorsed by Khanna will win. And also lose.
