SHOWDOWN
Democratic Establishment and Progressive Left Go to War Over House Candidate in Texas
The DCCC and a Bernie Sanders spinoff group are now sparring over a U.S. House candidate who may or may not be too liberal to win a district now held by a tea partier.
A week ago, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made an unprecedented move and decided to weigh in against progressive Texas congressional candidate Laura Moser.
As a result, progressives inflamed by the intrusion into the primary battle are turning the tables on the national Democratic apparatus.
Our Revolution, an organization spun out of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign, endorsed Moser on Thursday and ripped apart the DCCC in the process.
“The DCCC’s ridiculous attacks on Laura Moser are why Democrats nationally have lost over 1,100 seats. Laura is a rising progressive advocate that the workaday people of Texas desperately need,” Jim Hightower, Our Revolution board member, said in a statement provided to The Daily Beast.
“She is an active organizer who takes on the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be—workers, consumers, small businesses, and just plain folks. From her support for a $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All to her commitment to improving the immigration system, Laura will not just hold a congressional seat, she'll put it to work creating policies that work for grassroots people, not just for the billionaires. The people of Texas should be allowed to make their own decisions on who to vote for without the influence of Washington insiders.”
Moser is competing alongside six other Democrats in a primary for tea party conservative Rep. John Culberson’s seat in Texas’ 7th congressional district. It is widely regarded as one of the top potential contests to flip to Democrats in November’s midterms and is a district Hillary Clinton actually won in the 2016 presidential election.
The DCCC released a memo of research on Moser last week in an attempt to stymie the progressive candidate’s bid, motivated by concerns that she would be the least strong candidate to win in the general election.
“Democratic voters need to hear that Laura Moser is not going to change Washington,” the memo read. “She is a Washington insider, who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress.”
It went on to cite a 2014 article in which Moser is quoted as saying she would rather have a tooth pulled without anesthesia than move to Paris, Texas.
“Unfortunately, Laura Moser’s outright disgust for life in Texas disqualifies her as a general election candidate, and would rob voters of their opportunity to flip Texas’ 7th in November,” DCCC spokesperson Meredith Kelly told The Texas Tribune. The memo also cites the fact that Moser paid over $50,000 to Revolution Messaging, a firm where her husband works, for her television ads.
Moser, for her part, has used the criticism as a rallying cry, raking in cash from supporters.