Image: AOC, Ilhan Omar, YouTube Screenshots

AOC Claims Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Biased Against Ilhan Omar, Progressives

By:
On:
In: CAMPAIGNS, X/TWEET

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Joe Kennedy over Ed Markey today in a heated Massachusetts Senate primary, US House Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has endorsed Markey, took to Twitter to criticize the move.

She also brought up Ilhan Omar and her primary challenge in Minnesota and blasted the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for what she believes to be a bias.

No one gets to complain about primary challenges again. So @dccc, when can we expect you to reverse your blacklist policy against primary orgs? Because between this & lack of care around @IlhanMN’s challenger, it seems like less a policy and more a cherry-picking activity.

Ilhan’s multimillion challenge was bankrolled by DC lobbyists & dark money groups. He blatantly admitted to using shell corporations to get around the DCCC blacklist, which all but means his vendors work w/ the Democratic Party. Yet DCCC hasn’t enforced policy. I wonder why

From CNN:

The “blacklist” refers to a rule instituted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that prohibits party consultants from working for primary challengers.

Those who do risk being banned from receiving contracts with other DCCC-aligned campaigns, a fact other progressives cited in calling out Pelosi’s endorsement Thursday.

“When progressives challenge Democrats who vote with Trump 2/3rds of the time, Nancy Pelosi cries foul and works with the (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) to make a blacklist for anyone helping the challenger. But when she likes the challenger, or the challenger has a rich and wealthy family, it’s okay?” Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash, whose group is one of Markey’s leading supporters, said in a statement. “It’s never been about protecting incumbents, it’s been about protecting big Democratic donors profiting off the status quo.”

Justice Democrats, the group that has drawn Pelosi’s ire for launching and supporting progressive primary campaigns against members of her caucus, accused the Speaker of hypocrisy and “using her power to undermine the next generation of Democratic voters and the progressive champions we choose to believe in.”

“For two years, Democratic Party leadership has endorsed incumbents over progressive primary challengers claiming it is their policy to always back incumbents — even when the incumbent was anti-choice and endorsed by the NRA,” Justice Democrats executive director Alexandra Rojas said. “But now, when a sitting US Senator champions the Green New Deal while wildfires blanket Speaker Pelosi’s home state in smoke, she chooses to endorse a challenger.”

Some left-wing Twitter users responded by telling the freshman Congresswoman that she shouldn’t speak out because of the upcoming elections.

Another said that they looked “forward to seeing who you support for Speaker of the House next session!”

Others were confused because they believed that since Pelosi endorsed Omar, there should be no issues.

David Caron
Latest posts by David Caron (see all)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *