Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D., N.M.), the chairman of the Democratic Campaign Congressional Committee (DCCC), said Friday he does not regret getting involved in party primaries.
The DCCC has taken heat recently for opposing certain primary candidates it deemed difficult to elect in general elections, and MSNBC's Hallie Jackson asked if Luján was tipping the scales against progressives. Jackson specifically brought up Laura Moser, one candidate the DCCC opposed who made the runoff election after gaining momentum from the opposition research deployed against her.
Luján said he doesn’t regret attacking her.
"When you have a candidate that's been writing over the last 20 years they'd rather have their teeth pulled out than move back to the state that they're running in — without anesthesia — that's concerning," Luján said. "And then when they continue to write articles that offend the African-American community, people with disabilities, people from Texas, I think that's disqualifying, and I stand by that decision."
Moser, prior to running for office, said she would "sooner have her teeth pulled" than relocate to Paris, Texas, where her grandparents owned property. The DCCC released her comments, written in 2014, in an attempt to discredit her among voters. Moser has also apologized for her writings that offended some from the African-American community, and some took offense for a reference to a disabled person in one of her articles.
The progressive backlash against the DCCC propelled Moser ahead in the polls, leading DNC Chairman Tom Perez to say the DCCC made a mistake. But Luján explained it’s proper to oppose candidates with "disqualifying" records.
He explained California is a state where deeply divided primaries could hurt the party. The top two primary vote-getters across parties go to a runoff election in that state, and thus a party divided can be shut out of the general election, as Democrats were in a southern California congressional race in 2012.
"Especially in California, where it's been widely reported and we've also been asked and told by many progressive organizations that are out there of their concerns of not having a Democrat in the top two," he said. "Just as we learned when Congressman Pete Aguilar was defeated in 2012, and we didn't have a chance to have a Democrat in the top two in the general, and all of the work that the grassroots put in to make sure we were defeating Republicans — we've learned from that."
"California is a good example of why we need to be leaning in in some of the races," he added. "Ultimately it's up to the voters."
Progressives have lambasted this strategy for supposedly preventing candidates further to the left from being nominated. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) called the DCCC’s actions toward Moser "outrageous," but Luján said his actions had nothing to do with ideology.
"I think that some people try to make this about ideology, Hallie. It never was about ideology," he said. "I'm a progressive. I have a lot of strong progressive positions as well, and I stand by my record. That's not what this was about."