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alex morse
'Coordinated Homophobic Attack' on Alex Morse Denounced as Progressive Challenger Falls Short of Ousting Corporate Rep. Richard Neal
"We're not done yet," said Morse, who slammed Neal for raking in money from corporations that are "exploiting the working class people of this community and of this country."
Sep 02, 2020
After progressive challenger Alex Morse fell short of ousting powerful corporate-backed Rep. Richard Neal in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts' 1st congressional district on Tuesday, LGBTQ advocates decried the "coordinated homophobic attack" against Morse--reportedly orchestrated by state party leaders--that came to dominate the final stage of the race as the incumbent's lead in the polls began to slip.
"The efforts to sensationalize and weaponize Alex's sexual orientation certainly influenced the outcome of this race, but the backlash it engendered should give pause to those considering similar tactics in the future," said Annise Parker, president and CEO of LGBTQ Victory Fund, which endorsed Morse. "We are grateful Alex stayed in the race and took the body blows necessary to expose the double standards too often placed on LGBTQ candidates."
"We ran against one of the most powerful Democrats over the last 14 months who had access to millions and millions of dollars, the vast majority from corporations."
--Alex Morse, Holyoke mayor
Morse, the openly gay mayor of Holyoke, spent much of his post-election speech Tuesday night condemning a "broken" federal government that fails to guarantee healthcare as a human right while spending trillions on war and a Democratic establishment bankrolled by corporations guilty of "exploiting the working class people of this community and of this country." Morse also hinted at a possible second run for Neal's House seat in 2022, declaring, "We're not done yet."
"We ran against one of the most powerful Democrats--not just [any] Democrat, one of the most powerful incumbents in Washington--over the last 14 months who had access to millions and millions of dollars, the vast majority from corporations," said Morse, alluding to Neal's status as the top recipient of corporate PAC money in all of Congress, Republican or Democrat. "Corporations that aren't looking out for all of you... Big pharmaceutical companies that are making you pay egregious amounts of money for insulin, for medication in this country."
"This is who funds our congressman right here in western Massachusetts," Morse continued, also mentioning the healthcare lobby and the fossil fuel industry, both of which are major donors to Neal, who late last year helped tank legislation aimed at ending the scourge of surprise medical billing.
At the tail-end of his remarks, Morse condemned the "coordinated political attack" against him that "goes all the way up to Washington, D.C, Congressman Neal, the people around him, the Massachusetts Democratic Party, corporations that invested millions of dollars in attack ads over the weekend"--a reference to a spot from the Democratic PAC American Working Families that was widely denounced as homophobic.
"This isn't just about me," said Morse. "We have to send a message loud and clear that these kind of tactics in our communities are unacceptable."
Watch Morse's full speech:
Early last month, shortly before early voting began in the state primary, the College Democrats of Massachusetts released a letter accusing Morse of inappropriate sexual relations with college students, none younger than 18 years old. The letter alleged that Morse, who previously worked as an adjunct professor at UMass Amherst, used "College Democrats events to meet college students and add them on Instagram," among other vague accusations.
In response to the letter, which was immediately met with skepticism by many progressives, Morse said "every relationship I've had has been consensual" but apologized to anyone he "made feel uncomfortable."
"I will not apologize," Morse added, "for living out of the closet, for going on dates, and having consensual conversations."
Later reporting by The Intercept revealed the extent to which the College Democrats' letter was a product of coordination with the Massachusetts Democratic Party. According to The Intercept, state party leaders "connected the students with attorneys: among them was the powerful state party figure and attorney Jim Roosevelt, who worked with the college group on a letter alleging Morse behaved inappropriately."
\u201cWhat they did to Alex Morse, they will do to others. Let this be a cautionary tale. We need to stick together and help each other not walk into the traps they lay for us.\u201d— Fred (@Fred) 1599010139
In a statement late Tuesday, Justice Democrats--a progressive advocacy group that endorsed and remained supportive of Morse throughout the campaign--slammed the "manufactured scandal" targeting the progressive challenger who ran on a platform that included Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.
"While national and local media--particularly local television media--covered the initial allegations, there was little subsequent coverage of the investigative reporting that exposed the political hit job," the group noted. "Neal's backers even claimed to 'accidentally' release an ad the weekend before Election Day attacking Morse over the allegations."
Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said that despite Morse's loss, he emerges from the race "as an inspiration for his community who overcame a culture of fear instilled by the incumbent and desperate, manufactured attacks" while "Neal walks away damaged and vulnerable."
"Taking on Neal was always going to be our biggest battle," said Rojas. "He's the number one recipient of corporate PAC donations in all of Congress and wields an enormous amount of power over elected officials, labor unions, and community organizations as Ways and Means chair."
Parker of the LGBTQ Victory Fund said that "while Alex's loss is disappointing, it proved our community and our allies can respond forcefully in exposing the dog whistles and stereotypes that too often haunt LGBTQ candidates."
"We will not allow attacks on LGBTQ candidates to go unanswered during the final two months of this election cycle," said Parker.
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Progressive Democrats Look to Massachusetts for Next 2020 Primary Night Victories
"Today we vote for a future where clean air, healthcare, and a quality education are considered a human right; not a privilege."
Sep 01, 2020
As Massachusetts voters head to the polls Tuesday, progressives are pinning their hopes on some high-profile races in the Bay State.
The contest for Sen. Ed Markey's seat has drawn out the differences in Democratic Party factions, as challenger Rep. Joe Kennedy has garnered the endorsement of more corporate-friendly lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in his bid to unseat the progressive incumbent.
Pelosi's support for Kennedy arrived despite a declaration last year from the party's congressional campaign arm that it would blacklist firms working for insurgents seeking to oust incumbents.
Markey allies--including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Medicare for All activist Ady Barkan as well as progressive organizations including the Sunrise Movement, Our Revolution and Indivisible--have come out in support of the Green New Deal champion.
\u201cMassachusetts: You have one of the most progressive Senate delegations in the United States.\n\nToday is the day to protect it & champion a Green New Deal\ud83d\udc77\ud83c\udffc\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\ud83c\udf0e\ud83d\udc69\ud83c\udffe\u200d\ud83c\udf3e\n\n\ud83d\uddf3 VOTE @EdMarkey for US Senate \ud83d\uddf3 \n#GreenNewDealmaker\nhttps://t.co/E1ajyqEtiM\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1598979038
In a race marred by scandal, Holyoke, Massachusetts Mayor Alex Morse--an openly gay champion of Medicare for All and other progressive issues--looks to unseat incumbent Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, for the state's 1st congressional district seat. After reporting revealed how local state Democratic Party leaders conspired with local college Democrats use Morse's sexuality as the basis for a a smear campaign against the 31-year-old mayor, his insurgent campaign was bolstered by endorsements from former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Jamaal Bowman, who upset 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel in New York in June, and San Juan, Puerto Rico Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, a surrogate for Sanders' presidential run.
Morse, Markey, and Robbie Goldstein, an infectious disease specialist and Medicare for All champion looking to unseat longtime incumbent Stephen Lynch in the state's 8th congressional district, all outraised their opponents in the final pre-primary filing period, raising hopes that progressives will continue to tally big wins this cycle.
\u201cSounds to me like the good people of Massachusetts are done playing games with the establishment.\n\nWe have one week to go. Help @BrandNew535 send @AlexBMorse & @ihssaneleckey to Congress!\nhttps://t.co/BRUGS1Bpva\nAlex: https://t.co/XpmfZJEvCm\nIhssane: https://t.co/yh8BAD5YKZ\u201d— Cory Archibald CMArchibald@mas.to (@Cory Archibald CMArchibald@mas.to) 1598308980
Polls show Markey ahead of Kennedy in the U.S. Senate race, and a close race between Morse and Neal in the 1st district. Goldstein's campaign released an internal poll in August showing him behind Lynch by only 7 points.
"So the challenger might have a shot at an upset," Nathaniel Rakich and Geoffrey Skelley wrote for FiveThirtyEight Monday.
The race to fill Kennedy's U.S House seat in the state's 4th district is crowded and fairly open, with a new poll showing Newton City Councilor Jake Auchincloss and former Brookline select board member Jesse Mermell pulling ahead of the pack.
In a tweet Monday urging voters to cast ballots for Markey, the Sunrise Movement said, "Today we vote for a future where clean air, healthcare, and a quality education are considered a human right; not a privilege."
Ryan Grim, part of the Intercept team who broke the story of the state Democratic Party's involvement in the Morse smear campaign, will be live on The Young Turks (TYT) tonight to cover results. TYT's schedule is here.
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'Honor of My Life': Alex Morse Scores Big Boost with Ocasio-Cortez Endorsement
AOC's Courage to Change PAC targets influential corporate-backed incumbent Richard Neal in a bid for yet another progressive upset.
Aug 26, 2020
Taking aim at one of her party's most influential members, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday endorsed embattled progressive upstart Alex Morse in his Massachusetts congressional race against Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Ocasio-Cortez, often known by her initials AOC, made her endorsement via her political action committee, Courage to Change, the New York Timesreports. Morse, the 31-year-old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, faces an uphill battle in his bid to unseat a long-serving incumbent, just as Ocasio-Cortez did in her successful 2018 primary challenge against Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.).
Morse tweeted that he was "so proud" to gain the endorsement.
"When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took on her own entrenched incumbent in 2018, she changed public service for the better, further inspiring me and so many others to fight for our districts and empower those who have long been forgotten," Morse wrote in a statement, referring to the former bartender and organizer's historic upset of Crowley, who represented New York's 14th Congressional District for 20 years.
"I am honored to have the congresswoman's Courage to Change in our corner, and it will be the honor of my life to bring the people alongside me to Washington."
Although only a first-term congresswoman, Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist former surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, has become an influential leader of the progressive left. Along with other members of "The Squad"--Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)--she is widely reviled by supporters of President Donald Trump, and disdained by backers of more moderate Democrats.
Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement comes in the wake of a tumultuous test for Morse, who has weathered accusations of sexual impropriety leveled by two campus chapters of the College Democrats of Massachusetts. Leading members of the groups claimed Morse abused his position as a part-time lecturer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in order to pursue consensual sexual relationships with students.
As the scandal broke earlier this month, Morse considered dropping out of the race. However, it was later revealed that some of Morse's accusers had plotted to destroy his candidacy as far back as last October, and that Timothy Ennis, the chief strategist for the UMass Amherst College Democrats at the center of the allegations against Morse, aspired to work for Neal. The Massachusetts Democratic Party announced in mid-August that it would investigate the matter following the September 1 state primary election.
Neal, who is serving his 16th term in the House, is the most prominent incumbent targeted by Ocasio-Cortez, who since taking office has been cautious about offering her endorsements to candidates. Courage to Change has endorsed fewer than a dozen candidates, including Jamaal Bowman, who defeated Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.)--a 30-year incumbent backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and other power Democrats--in last month's Democratic congressional primary.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Ocasio-Cortez has personally endorsed just three progressive challengers during the 2020 primaries, while Courage to Change has now endorsed eight progressive candidates. In comparison, Sanders has endorsed five candidates, as have the activist groups Justice Democrats and Indivisible, while the pro-Sanders group Our Revolution has endorsed 15. Two of the three candidates personally endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez--Bowman and Marie Newman, who unseated anti-choice conservative Democrat Dan Lipinksi in Illinois--won their primaries.
Massachusetts voters are faced with a stark choice between Morse, who supports Medicare for All and a Green New Deal and who is not accepting corporate PAC campaign contributions, and Neal, one of the top recipients of corporate money in Congress. The latter counts insurance and pharmaceutical companies among his biggest contributors, and has taken over twice as much money from Big Pharma as the number two House recipient, Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.).
Ocasio-Cortez's endorsement comes less than a week after Pelosi endorsed Kennedy over Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in that state's Senate primary.
"No one gets to complain about primary challenges again," Ocasio-Cortez, who co-authored a Green New Deal climate resolution with Markey, tweeted on August 20 in response to the move by Pelosi, who like other Democrats has criticized members of her party for taking on incumbents.
\u201cNo one gets to complain about primary challenges again. \ud83e\udd17\n\nSo @dccc, when can we expect you to reverse your blacklist policy against primary orgs?\n\nBecause between this & lack of care around @IlhanMN\u2019s challenger, it seems like less a policy and more a cherry-picking activity.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1597944389
Pelosi's endorsement of Kennedy gave the impression that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's shunning of primary challengers "seems like less a policy and more a cherry-picking activity,'" Ocasio-Cortez wrote.
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