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Media, Democrats Slam DCCC for Attacking Dem Female Candidate in Texas

Laura Moser / Twitter Screenshot
February 23, 2018

Members of the media and Democratic activists are castigating the campaign arm of House Democrats for publishing opposition research against a Democratic congressional candidate in Texas.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Thursday published opposition research on its website against Laura Moser, calling her a "Washington insider" and criticizing her for speaking negatively about Texas, according to press reports.

Moser, who created a text-messaging tool instrumental in channeling progressive anger into activism against President Donald Trump, is running to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. John Culberson in Texas' seventh district near Houston.

"Democratic voters need to hear that Laura Moser is not going to change Washington," the DCCC website says. "She is a Washington insider, who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress. In fact, she wrote in the Washingtonian magazine, 'I'd rather have my teeth pulled out without anesthesia' than live in Texas."

"As of January 2018, she [Moser] claimed Washington, D.C. to be her primary residence in order to get a tax break," the DCCC continues. "And she has paid her husband's Washington, D.C. political consulting firm over $50,000 from campaign contributions; meaning 1 of every 6 dollars raised has gone to her husband's D.C. company."

DCCC communications director Meredith Kelly blasted Moser in a statement.

"Voters in Houston have organized for over a year to hold Rep. Culberson accountable and win this Clinton district," Kelly told the Texas Tribune. "Unfortunately, Laura Moser's outright disgust for life in Texas disqualifies her as a general election candidate, and would rob voters of their opportunity to flip Texas' 7th in November."

Democracy for America (DFA), the progressive activist group that endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) for president during the 2016 Democratic primary, slammed the DCCC for attacking Moser, who they have supported since mid-2017.

"The idea that some faceless hacks are calling themselves Democrats while sitting in a D.C. office throwing bombs at a pro-choice Democratic woman in support of a lawyer who built her career at a law firm for union-busters is precisely why Democrats lost over 1,000 elected offices over the last decade," said Annie Weinberg, DFA's electoral director.

Journalists and Democratic activists were quick to blast the DCCC's strategy.

Moser, a Houston journalist, is running against six other Democrats in the March 6 primary to unseat Culberson in November.