The DCCC’s First Big Test of 2018 Blew Up in Its Face

Caleb Holder/Shutterstock

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee waded into the seven-way primary for Texas’ seventh congressional district last month with a specific goal in mind: delivering a knockout blow to Laura Moser, a freelance writer and Resistance activist with a large national following, who it feared would crater the party’s chances in the closely watched swing district.

But the DCCC’s attacks on Moser 10 days before the primary—a broadside so clumsy and transparent it drew criticism from DNC chair Tom Perez and members of Congress—didn’t work as intended. Moser raised $87,000 in the days after the DCCC nuclear barrage and basked in the free publicity during the homestretch of the campaign. And on Tuesday, she secured a spot in the May 22nd runoff against Lizzie Fletcher, a Houston lawyer backed by EMILY’s List who led the field in the first round of voting.

Now Democrats in the seventh district, a longtime Republican stronghold that swung harder to Hillary Clinton than any other district in the country in 2016, will be faced with an unusual choice: a progressive candidate denounced by the official campaign organ of the House Democratic caucus, or a more moderate candidate rejected by the AFL-CIO.

The DCCC’s attacks on Moser steered clear of policy, instead focusing on the candidate’s residency (she only recently moved back to her hometown from DC) and something she once wrote about not wanting to live in rural East Texas (which is not part of the district). But with another two-and-a-half months to go, the differences between the two candidates will likely sharpen.

Moser has taken pains to frame her candidacy as a rejection of traditional Democratic party politics—she believed Democrats played it too safe during President Barack Obama’s administration, and she even fired a preemptive shot at the DCCC months before they attacked her, slamming it in essay in Vogue for sometimes supporting pro-life Democrats. Moser subscribes to the theory, popular on the party’s left flank, that progressive candidates in 2018 ought to go big or go home.

Fletcher, who has more experience with Texas politics as a longtime booster of Planned Parenthood, offers a more moderate approach befitting a swing district that’s home to the Texas legislature’s last pro-choice Republican. (In an interview last August, Fletcher emphasized the district’s “moderate…centrist hue.”) But she’s not exactly a Blue Dog either; after the Parkland shooting Fletcher proposed a ban on all “military-style assault weapons,” along with high-capacity magazines.

Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primaries offered little resolution in Houston or elsewhere. Democrats are targeting three swing seats in Texas and are mulling their options in three or four more, but with as many as seven candidates running in the first round of voting in some districts, most of the competitive Democratic congressional primaries won’t be decided until the runoff election.

But two other primaries in safely Democratic districts were notable—Veronica Escobar, a county judge, and Sylvia Garcia, a state senator, easily cleared 50 percent in their quests to replace retiring Democratic congressmen in El Paso and Houston. That means that barring something wholly unforeseen, Texans will have their first two Latina members of Congress next year. No non-incumbent Democratic woman has won a House race in Texas since 1994.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate