Moser, a lifelong Democrat, said she is running because "we must do everything we can to be the change that we want. I was tired of seeing the Democratic Party put up the same kinds of candidates year after year -- and then, when those candidates lost, return to the same old playbook. I knew there was a hunger for a new direction because I had the same hunger. I did not feel that the mainstream Democratic voter -- the one who worries about paying for college for the kids, the one who is shocked by Donald Trump's racism and corruption, the one who is terrified of the next hurricane season--was being represented."
Indeed, Moser's Vogue article from last August started off by saying what many women have been saying since the MeToo protests began: it's time to speak up.
"As a first-time congressional candidate, I've been warned not to criticize Ben Ray Luja'n and the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee...But I cannot hold my tongue while Luja'n and the DCCC abandon the commitment to human rights that brought me to the party in the first place," she wrote. "I believe that if Democrats -- not any one Democrat, and certainly not just me -- want to start winning races again, Luja'n's statement that the DCCC would fund candidates who oppose abortion rights puts our country in danger, and makes it all the more likely that the Republicans will continue to defeat us in election after election."
Moser's campaign finance reports showed she was out-raising the other Democrats in the race, a metric the DCCC usually lauds. Despite, as Moser said, "not a single one of my positions, be it on health care, women's rights, or repairing our infrastructure, is outside of the Democratic mainstream," the DCCC attacked.
"Democratic voters need to hear that Laura Moser is not going to change Washington," the DCCC said on its website. "She is a Washington insider, who begrudgingly moved to Houston to run for Congress...As of January 2018, she claimed Washington, DC to be her primary residence in order to get a tax break. And she has paid her husband's Washington, DC political consulting firm over $50,000 from campaign contributions; meaning one of every six dollars raised has gone to her husband's DC company."
Moser replied that the DCCC is being shortsighted, arrogant and immature.
"This is not about policy," she said. "It's a matter of people in Washington thinking that they, and not you, should decide who represents us... We're in a national emergency. It's not a time for high school shenanigans like quotes ripped out of context, doctored photos, and easily disproved allegations. It's a time for leaders who understand the seriousness of this moment and who are ready to rise to the occasion."
We will see what voters in Moser's Houston district decide on March 6. In the meantime, we will also see if the DCCC's treatment of Laura Moser is a one-time occurrence, or a sign of what's to come as other progressives are faring well in 2018's primary season. Texas votes first, followed by Illinois later in the month and many states in rapid succession after that.
Indeed, Moser's Vogue article from last August started off by saying what many women have been saying since the MeToo protests began: it's time to speak up.
"As a first-time congressional candidate, I've been warned not to criticize Ben Ray Luja'n and the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee...But I cannot hold my tongue while Luja'n and the DCCC abandon the commitment to human rights that brought me to the party in the first place," she wrote. "I believe that if Democrats -- not any one Democrat, and certainly not just me -- want to start winning races again, Luja'n's statement that the DCCC would fund candidates who oppose abortion rights puts our country in danger, and makes it all the more likely that the Republicans will continue to defeat us in election after election."
Moser's campaign finance reports showed she was out-raising the other Democrats in the race, a metric the DCCC usually lauds. Despite, as Moser said, "not a single one of my positions, be it on health care, women's rights, or repairing our infrastructure, is outside of the Democratic mainstream," the DCCC attacked.
Moser replied that the DCCC is being shortsighted, arrogant and immature.
"This is not about policy," she said. "It's a matter of people in Washington thinking that they, and not you, should decide who represents us... We're in a national emergency. It's not a time for high school shenanigans like quotes ripped out of context, doctored photos, and easily disproved allegations. It's a time for leaders who understand the seriousness of this moment and who are ready to rise to the occasion."
We will see what voters in Moser's Houston district decide on March 6. In the meantime, we will also see if the DCCC's treatment of Laura Moser is a one-time occurrence, or a sign of what's to come as other progressives are faring well in 2018's primary season. Texas votes first, followed by Illinois later in the month and many states in rapid succession after that.
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