In other words, if you have the audacity to help somebody challenge a Democratic incumbent, you’re dead to the DCCC. Even if you do it in a safely Democratic congressional district.

That’s the dismal upshot of an effort by House Democratic leaders to prevent members of their own party from primarying incumbents in 2020. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will no longer work with any consultant employed by an opponent of a sitting member of the House Democratic Caucus.

Democratic Party bigs are fully committed to making Congress look more like America. But not right now, thank you.

This is happening because some incumbents are freaked out by last year’s election, in which Ayanna Pressley defeated 10-term incumbent Mike Capuano to become the first black woman in the Massachusetts congressional delegation, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pulled off a similar upset in New York. The DCCC wants to protect other incumbents from that fate, even if it means maintaining a Congress where women, minorities, and younger Americans are starkly underrepresented.

“It sends a cold message about who is deemed to be the future of the party,” said Wilnelia Rivera, the political consultant who helped Pressley to victory last year. Rivera isn’t bothered by the prospect of being blackballed by the DCCC. But she’s rightly distressed that the party is shooting itself in the foot by attempting to close off opportunities to rise for women and minority candidates.


Maybe the party’s fear of primaries in seats Democrats barely won last year is understandable, though that would still be no excuse for blocking them so aggressively. But it makes absolutely no sense when it comes to seats like Pressley’s. And it veers into parody when it comes to the super safe seat held by Dan Lipinski, the Chicago congressman who is antiabortion, and who waffles on gay rights, yet who still enjoys DCCC support despite a credible primary challenge by a more progressive Marie Newman.


Pressley has made her feelings about the DCCC policy clear. “I am not in the habit of telling anyone to wait their turn, because too many people have told me that my whole life,” she said in an interview. “Primaries are healthy, and necessary in order for us to realize gender and ethnic and racial parity.”

Though it’s hard to imagine the DCCC directive as anything but a reaction to her election, Pressley insists she doesn’t take it personally. Earlier this week, she announced the formation of a political action committee, called “Power of Us PAC,” to fund programs that would build a diverse pipeline of activists and political staffers. She says the PAC is not a reaction to the DCCC policy. It will focus, she said, not on fielding candidates of color to run for office, but on making sure those “at the elbow of those seeking to be on the ballot” are more diverse.

“There is not some incumbent-slayer motive here,” she said.

Fair enough. But the pipeline Pressley wants to create will also produce potential candidates for public office. Even before the DCCC directive, their prospects would be limited: The Boston City Council where Pressley served, for example, is loaded with people who could run for higher office but have few avenues open to them.

What options do those aspiring to Congress have now? They can work on a long-shot run with renegade consultants who can live without the DCCC imprimatur. Or they can do what most hopefuls do — grow old waiting for some rep to retire.


Look, it’s natural that establishment Democrats are worried that bruising, expensive primaries will leave some incumbents vulnerable in general election contests. But primaries can also help: If the incumbent is the best candidate, he or she will be stronger for having to debate an opponent and answer to more constituents.

The party can’t take a victory lap over the election of an unprecedented number of women and people of color to Congress while the DCCC is trying to shut down the very kinds of races that got some of them there.

That’s rank hypocrisy. Worse, it’s undemocratic.

Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham can be reached at yvonne.abraham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeAbraham.