Democrat Mai Tran, a candidate in California's 39th Congressional District, defied the national Democratic Party by refusing to end her campaign before Tuesday’s primary.
Tran, a doctor who came to America as a Vietnamese refugee when she was a child, hit back at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in an interview that aired on MSNBC Tuesday, saying it had no right to tell her not to continue her campaign.
"Is it true that the national Democrats asked to you get out of the race?" Correspondent Jacob Soboroff asked.
"They just called me and said, ‘Look, we did a poll; the poll shows that you don't have any viability, so you should consider dropping out,’" Tran said.
"Was that a crazy thing to hear?" Soboroff asked.
"Oh my gosh, it was," Tran said. "I said, well first, who gave you that right? And secondly, how dare you?"
"It's a funny thing to hear from a Democrat," Soboroff said.
"I know," she replied. "I didn't want to do that."
Tran is running against a slew of Democrats that includes Gil Cisneros. Republican Rep. Ed Royce announced his retirement this year, leaving the seat open and leading to six total Democrats to make the primary ballot.
The problem for Democrats lies in California's so-called jungle primary, in which the top two vote-getters face off in a general election regardless of whether they come from different parties. To avoid two Republicans being on the ballot in November, the DCCC has backed Cisneros despite allegations from a Democratic state assembly candidate that he sexually harassed her. Cisneros has denied the allegations.
Tran said last week that the party was foolish to try to strong arm her out of the race.
"My response to them was that I didn’t believe in the polls, that I think it’s not fair to the voters to be asking the only woman—the only qualified woman—the only doctor, the only first-generation immigrant, the only working mom who’s raised the most money in the field, and the one who’s been campaigning the longest, to drop out," Tran said.
The DCCC selected Cisneros for its "red-to-blue" campaign aimed at flipping key districts, while Republican Young Kim is running with Royce's endorsement and is expected to make it to the general election.