Leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Wednesday condemned the DCCC’s new policy of cutting off funds to primary challengers, saying the rule will shut down “competition of ideas” and alienate the party’s grassroots base.
“Primaries are often the only way that under-represented and working class people are able to have a shot at pursuing elected office.”
—Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”This unprecedented grab of power is a slap in the face of Democratic voters across the nation,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), the first-vice chair of the CPC, said in a statement to The Intercept after a closed-door meeting with DCCC chair Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.).
According to Politico, the meeting—also attended by CPC co-chairs Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.)—became “heated” as the progressive leaders said the DCCC’s rules would “blackball” important progressive vendors and strategists.
“It’s something even [former DCCC chair] Rahm Emanuel would not have done and is totally tone-deaf to the grassroots activists across our nation,” Khanna said. “Let’s be clear. If this policy remains in place, it will mean that we will not allow new Ayanna Pressleys or AOCs to emerge. It’s simply wrong.”
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Progressive organizations responded with outrage when the DCCC unveiled the new rules last week.
The policy states that the DCCC “will not conduct business with, nor recommend to any of its targeted campaigns, any consultant that works with an opponent of a sitting member of the House Democratic Caucus.”
Despite pushback from lawmakers and the grassroots, Bustos reportedly has no plans to reverse the new standard—which could deprive progressive primary challengers of millions of dollars in funds.
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