{"id":11737,"date":"2019-04-28T11:04:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T18:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=11737"},"modified":"2019-04-28T11:04:06","modified_gmt":"2019-04-28T18:04:06","slug":"young-democrats-at-40-college-campuses-call-for-boycott-of-the-dccc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2019\/04\/28\/young-democrats-at-40-college-campuses-call-for-boycott-of-the-dccc\/","title":{"rendered":"YOUNG DEMOCRATS AT 40 COLLEGE CAMPUSES CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF THE DCCC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Akela Lacy<\/a>
April 25 2019 (theintercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YOUNG DEMOCRATS AT 31 colleges across the country are boycotting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over its decision to cut off vendors working for primary challengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Harvard College Democrats released a letter Wednesday calling for a national boycott of donations to the party\u2019s House campaign arm, urging people instead to contribute to individual candidates until the DCCC reverses the rule. By Wednesday afternoon, 26 chapters of college Democrats from Spelman to Arizona State had signed the letter calling the policy \u201cregressive\u201d and \u201cundemocratic.\u201d By Thursday, 14 more joined, according to Hank Sparks, president of the Harvard College Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DCCC released guidelines last month for vendors working the 2020 election cycle, requiring them to agree not to work with any candidates challenging Democratic incumbents. The committee has stood by the change even as progressive leaders met privately with Chair Cheri Bustos and slammed it. Former committee Chair Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n has distanced<\/a>himself from the policy. And House Democrats \u2014 including Reps. Ted Lieu, former DCCC vice chair and current vice chair of House Democrats\u2019 LGBT Equality caucus; Ayanna Pressley; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Raul Grijalva; Joe Kennedy; Jahana Hayes \u2014 have voiced<\/a> their opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe rule would financially deter and greatly disadvantage vital new voices in our party, who are often younger and come from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities and identities,\u201d the students\u2019 letter reads. \u201cPrimary challengers are essential to ensure that the Democratic Party is continually held accountable to the needs of our constituents. This blacklist policy is undemocratic and antithetical to our values of inclusion and diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The students also call out the DCCC for releasing the vendor rule alongside diversity standards it will hold vendors to. They cite Pressley, who said<\/a> that Democrats \u201ccannot credibly lay claim to prioritizing diversity & inclusion when institutions like the DCCC implement policies that threaten to silence new voices and historically marginalized communities.\u201dJoin Our NewsletterOriginal reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you.I\u2019m in<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is young Harvard politicos\u2019 second moment in the national spotlight in the span of a week, as students from the school drew attention through aggressive questioning of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and others at a recent televised presidential forum. One student, in a health care question directed to California Sen. Kamala Harris, bizarrely caped for insurance companies. (Harris told the student not to be \u201cduped.\u201d) Another student told Sanders that the money he earned from his best-selling book \u201cundermines your authority as someone who has railed against millionaires and billionaires.\u201d A third demanded that he explain the \u201cfailures of socialism in nearly every country that has tried it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even for Harvard Democrats, though, the DCCC has gone too far in its pursuit of a monopoly over the direction of the party. Sparks told The Intercept that the students have been building a coalition over the last week, and that after the CNN town hall on Monday, they realized \u201cwe do have a platform to sort of bring attention to things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sparks said his chapter was heavily involved in phone-banking for the DCCC in 2018, particularly for races in districts designated as \u201cRed to Blue,\u201d where the committee identified promising challengers in Republican-held districts and gave them a boost in fundraising and organizational support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe do feel like we\u2019ve done a lot of work to sort of help build this new Democratic majority,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cAnd so we feel like we\u2019re stakeholders in this process as young Democrats. That they should consult us on policies like these.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

College students aren\u2019t exactly bundling big money for the DCCC. \u201cHonestly, it probably won\u2019t have a big financial impact,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cBut it\u2019s more about using this language of boycott to draw attention to the issue and to use our platform as students to hopefully get them to reconsider the policy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DCCC says its record of supporting candidates of diverse backgrounds speaks for itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DCCC is proud of its historic work, flipping 43 formerly Republican seats and electing the most diverse caucus in American history,\u201d DCCC spokesperson Cole Leiter said in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cAnd as Democrats in the House combat Republicans\u2019 attacks on Americans\u2019 health care, take on special interests in Washington, and fight for an economy that works for everyday Americans, we are already well into our work to fortify this newly won House Majority and take the fight even deeper into ruby-red districts come 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sparks and young students across the country poised to carry on the party\u2019s work don\u2019t see it that way. \u201cPrimary challengers like Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have brought to the fore issues like climate justice in a very, very new way,\u201d Sparks said. \u201cAnd I think to do anything that would silence voices like theirs would not be good for the party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a college student who is joining the boycott, contact this reporter at akela.lacy@theintercept.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correction: April 25, 2019, 1:51 p.m. ET<\/strong>
A previous version of this article misstated Rep. Ted Lieu\u2019s affiliation with House Democrats\u2019 LGBT Equality caucus, of which he is a vice chair. The article has also been updated to clarify that the DCCC set standards for diversity among vendors, rather than affirming its commitment to diversity. The piece has also been updated to reflect the growing number of college groups that joined the boycott. <\/em>
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Akela LacyApril 25 2019 (theintercept.com) YOUNG DEMOCRATS AT 31 colleges across the country are boycotting the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee over its decision to cut off vendors working for primary challengers. The Harvard College Democrats released a letter Wednesday calling for a national boycott of donations to the party\u2019s House campaign… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11737"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11738,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11737\/revisions\/11738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}