Democratic strategist Lis Smith said on Monday that the Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez's insistence on not endorsing pro-life candidates will ruin the party's future.
Smith said that although she is pro-choice, she was disturbed that Perez said he would not support pro-life candidates.
She added that it is necessary for party leaders to trust grassroots movements to choose the best leaders to fit their locale, even if they may not completely align with the coastal states' ideology.
"My concern is that if we impose these purity tests, that we will purify ourselves into irrelevance and we will purify our party to the point where we can only win elections in states that touch salt water," Smith said. "And I think that is not the path forward for Democrats."
Few pro-life Democrats remain in higher office, including Congress. Most have been defeated by Republicans or by other Democrats in primaries.
