I encourage donations to individual candidates. You could give instead to the DCCC, the DSCC, the DLCC, the DGA,, or the DNC. This discussion is about the DCCC.
That organization that supports Congressional candidates made some great decisions in 2018. They supported a single candidate early in many California districts to ensure there was a Democrat in every run off. They wisely supported Jason Crow in CO 06. His opponent behaved badly.
The DCCC had no good reason to oppose Dana Balter in NY 24 or Kara Eastman in NE 02 in the primaries. The DCCC had no good reason to remain indifferent to them in the general election after they won their primaries. Did the DCCC think them too liberal to win? Each came so close in the general election that DCCC support might have elected them.
DCCC has announced that, in 2020, political consultants working with candidates challenging Democratic incumbents in primaries would be prohibited from working with any incumbents.
Not fair and not smart. Progressives intend to primary conservative Democrats in safe Democratic seats. Dan Lipinski from IL 03 (who barely beat a progressive challenger in 2018) and Henry Cuellar from TX 28 (who has an A rating from the NRA) are examples. Faced with the DCCC’s decision, the progressives are training their own consultants, creating conditions leading to more primaries against incumbents.
There are plenty of progressive incumbents now. Among them are progressive Democrats who got to Congress by winning primaries — Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (NY 14) Ayanna Pressley (MA 07), and Ro Khanna (CA 17).
Will the moderate Democrats on the DCCC rush to defend incumbent Ilhan Omar (MN 05)? She may have a primary opponent for 2020. Some of her comments have been seen as anti-Semitic.
Advice to the DCCC. Stay away from this stuff. Support primary winners. Advice to myself. The same.
I didn’t take that advice in 2018. Once. I wrote a note supporting Marie Newman who opposed Dan Lipinski. Supporting Lipinski in the general election was easy. The Republican he beat was a self-declared Nazi.