An anti-establishment progressive who emerged as a bête noire of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has fallen far short in her runoff bid for Congress.
Democratic activist and writer Laura Moser has lost her primary runoff in a key House district in suburban Houston, Texas to attorney Lizzie Pannill Fletcher (D). Fletcher led Moser by 68 percent to 32 percent with 63 percent of precincts reporting. The Associated Press has called the race.
Moser drew national headlines when she was the target of aggressive attacks from the DCCC, who before the March primary highlighted controversial statements she’d made about her home state.
The attack is the only time the committee has taken a public swipe at one of their own candidates this election cycle — and in any recent cycle — and it seemed to backfire, helping Moser pull in some big dollars from national Democratic groups and possibly cementing her position in the runoff.
Tuesday’s results let national Democrats breathe a sigh of relief; groups like the DCCC had made clear that they saw Moser as a fatally flawed candidate who would have taken a winnable race against Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) off the map. Culberson’s district is historically very Republican but Hillary Clinton narrowly won it last election cycle, and Democrats are hopeful they can beat him with the more moderate Fletcher as their nominee.
“Born and raised in Houston, Lizzie Fletcher has dedicated her life to service and protecting economic opportunity for the people of this community,” DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said in a statement. “Lizzie is in a very strong position for the general election, and her inclusive message will strike a powerful contrast with her Republican opponent’s record of undermining investment in critical infrastructure and disaster preparedness, and raising the cost of health care for thousands of families across Texas.”
Moser essentially conceded the race in a Tuesday night speech, urging her supporters to back Fletcher if the results held.
It was not just Moser, who was a lead pipe cinch looser in a general election, but in each of the competitive congressional races today the “moderate” (aka electable) candidate won. Fletcher beat Moser (Houston suburbs); Ortiz Jones beat Trevino (to face Will Hurt in the border district, tx-23), Hegar beat Mann (in Tx-31, north of Austin), and Kopser beat Wilson (Tx-21, West of Austin).
All are competitive races, and in all the D’s got their preferred GE candidate.
In KY, while the “underdog” won, she is a military veteran and beat the first openly gay elected official (mayor of Louisville) and I think is probably the better GE candidate. While the DCCC recruited the mayor, the winner ran a much better race, and the DCCC after recruiting did not take sides.
Ditto in the Seat for Little Rock. Tucker was the most “conservative” candidate, and may be able to beat Hill (R-Little Rock) in the GE.
About the only race today where the “progressive” won was in the GA gubernatorial race where Adams beat Evens. It will be an interesting one to watch.
The D’s did not toss away any winnable seats, unlike with the Omaha seat last week, thank god…
Full disclosure: Fletcher is a friendly acquaintance of mine from long ago. I donated $50 to her campaign, although I’m not in her district.
Because I knew Lizzie way back when, I paid more attention than usual to this race, especially when it became a national shitstorm because of the DCCC’s ham-handed intervention. Even after looking, I’m not sure I can really identify a single meaningful policy difference between the two. That shouldn’t be all that surprising, though.
Good for Fletcher for winning, and good for Moser for conceding gracefully and keeping her eyes on the prize. I hope other Democrats in other races, “moderate” and “anti-establishment” alike, will do the same.
I know progressives will probably be upset about that but they should really take a look at that Congressional District before getting upset at Fletcher and/or the DCCC. Culberson first won in November 2000 and Hillary winning the district by 1% was pretty astounding.
Gray, and he’s a very good man, is the mayor of Lexington not Louisville. But, to your point, the far left lost up and down the ballot in KY.
Think purple.