It’s been a tough week for Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats.
Primary flashpoints with progressives are breaking into the open all over the country: from the epicenter in Colorado – where the DSCC is smothering progressive candidates in favor of a failed presidential contender who doesn’t even believe he’d be a good Senator – to North Carolina, Maine, Kentucky, New Mexico, and Iowa. Here’s what Democrats are saying about the Democratic establishment’s heavy hand in stifling progressives:
- Colorado Senate candidate Angela Williams: “Offensive… this is not who we are in the state. And we’re better than this.”
- Colorado Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff: “A lot of folks I’ve met all across the state believe the system is rigged against them and, the worst part is, they’re right… I didn’t expect to have to fight the Democratic death star”
- Colorado Democrat Joe Salazar: “For the DSCC to put their money on a guy who has some serious flaws as a leader, I just find it to be abysmal.”
- Colorado Democratic Party official Paula Ozzella: “It is getting to the point that people feel, why bother showing up, as decisions have already been made by the higher ups? A slap in the face”
- Democratic strategist Rebecca Katz: “Once again, they are ignoring what Democratic primary voters want for who may look better on paper.”
- North Carolina Senate candidate Erica Smith: “The special interest groups and big, wealthy donors out of New York are trying to buy this Senate seat, and it’s just shameful and it’s embarrassing.”
- Iowa Senate candidate Mike Franken: “Let’s just let the voter decide.”
- Kentucky prospective Senate candidate Matt Jones: “To take down the [Democratic] Party first, and the Republican party second, that’s not exactly easy.”
- Maine Senate candidate Betsy Sweet: “No one ever talked to me. No one ever reached out to me.”
- New Mexico operative Heather Brewer: “They’re threatening people’s livelihoods, if people dare break with what the insiders in Washington want. It’s extortion.”