DCCC Chair Cancels Appearance At Anti-Abortion Dem’s Fundraiser After Backlash

Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-IL) (C) speaks during a press conference with other Mayor's and House of Representative members calling on US President Donald Trump and Congress to end the shutdown in Washington, DC on... Congresswoman Cheri Bustos (D-IL) (C) speaks during a press conference with other Mayor's and House of Representative members calling on US President Donald Trump and Congress to end the shutdown in Washington, DC on January 24, 2019. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-IL) announced on Wednesday evening that she’s cancelling her appearance at Rep. Dan Lipinski’s (D-IL) reelection fundraiser.

Both Bustos and the DCCC came under fire last week after the chairwoman was announced as the headliner at a fundraising event for Lipinski, a socially conservative Democrat with a notorious record of voting against abortion rights. Critics pointed at the hypocrisy of the DCCC condemning the Draconian anti-abortion laws recently passed in Alabama and Georgia while still throwing its support behind an anti-choice candidate.

“[Lipinski] asked me to attend a fundraiser for him several months ago, and I agreed to do so, but I’ve determined that I must cancel my participation in this event,” Bustos said in a statement tweeted by the DCCC’s communications director on Wednesday. “I’m proud to have a 100 percent pro-choice voting record and I’m deeply alarmed by the rapidly escalating attacks on women’s access to reproductive care in several states.”

However, Bustos signaled that her decision didn’t mean that the DCCC would stop supporting Lipinski or start boosting his progressive primary challenger, Marie Newman.

“While Congressman Lipinski and I do not agree on women’s reproductive health care, this does not change how I will work as DCCC Chair to protect our big tent Democratic caucus,” Bustos said.

“Even though we may not agree with each other 100 percent of the time, it’s a fact that every dollar spent trying to defeat one of our Democratic incumbents is a dollar that we cannot spend defeating Republicans,” she continued.

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Notable Replies

  1. Why is the DCCC supporting Lipinski in any way, shape or form? They should show some spine and kick him out of the caucus. We don’t need the likes of him.

  2. Hmm I called it, but it still rankles that Bustos as DCCC chair is willing have this guy in the tent.

  3. When a member doesn’t support the rights of women to have agency over their own bodies then it’s time to say

  4. a socially conservative FAKE Democrat…

    “While Congressman Lipinski and I do not agree on women’s reproductive health care, this does not change how I will work as DCCC Chair to protect our big tent Democratic caucus the DCCC establishment,” Bustos said.

    …and that’s another good reason why people are angry with the democratic party. the Dem Party is contemptuous of their base (they’d vote for a class of water") and eager to pander to the repug base.

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