The Democrat Party, faced with its lowest approval ratings in years, also appears set to fight a civil war at the top as the chair of Democratic National Committee publicly slammed his vice chair Thursday.
DNC Chair Ken Martin said Thursday that party officers should be banned from taking sides in primaries, countering DNC Vice Chair David Hogg’s plan to raise money for candidates challenging Democratic incumbents.
‘No DNC officer should ever attempt to influence the outcome of a primary election, whether on behalf of an incumbent or a challenger,’ Martin told reporters.
Martin’s proposal escalates a public feud between the new DNC boss and Hogg, who rose to prominence as a gun-control advocate after surviving the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Since then he has been active in progressive causes – and at one stage called to ‘abolish ICE’ – and in February won one of five DNC vice chair spots, as the party intensified its efforts to appeal to more progressive voters.
The chair said he’s drafting proposed bylaw changes to require officers to remain neutral in all Democratic primaries.
Martin said party neutrality is crucial to maintaining the confidence of voters, pointing to the bitter feud that emerged after supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders´ 2016 campaign.
More liberal voters believed Sanders was stymied by party insiders putting their thumb on the scale in favor of Hillary Clinton, who won the nomination but went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump.
‘You can´t be both the player and the referee,’ Martin wrote in an opinion piece published by Time.
Hogg has said he’ll raise millions of dollars through a political action committee unaffiliated with the DNC to support primary challengers running against longtime incumbents in solidly Democratic congressional districts.
Notably, Sanders sent out an email to his supporters on Thursday asking them to run for something and promising his support, suggesting he was on board to primary the establishment.
Hogg says the party needs a shakeup to bring in leaders who will more aggressively confront Trump and connect with younger voters.
He added in a statement posted on social media that he is not breaking any current DNC rules, and his actions don’t interfere with the party’s responsibilities.
This includes setting a presidential nominating calendar, supporting state Democratic parties, building data infrastructure and creating the campaign infrastructure for a future Democratic presidential nominee.
Voters don’t view Democrats as a ‘real alternative to the Republican Party,’ he said.
‘That will not change if we keep the status quo,’ Hogg said. ‘We have no other option but to do the hard work of holding ourselves and our own party accountable.’
Also on Thursday, Martin said the DNC would increase its financial support for state Democratic parties by $5,000 to $17,500 per month, with an additional $5,000 monthly for Republican-led states.
The Democratic Party is engaged in a roiling battle over its future, which has progressives insisting on more aggressive responses to President Donald Trump and Republican initiatives, ranging from U.S. immigration and border security policies to tax cuts for the wealthy and the future of the Social Security retirement program.
Many Democratic establishment figures instead want to steer the party toward expanding the Democratic base by appealing to more moderate rural and working class voters that have abandoned the it over the past several years.
Martin also unveiled an ‘organize everywhere, win anywhere’ strategy that he said will see $1 million a month being transferred from the DNC to Democratic organizations in all 50 states.
‘I’m done with Democrats myopically focusing on just a few battleground states every few years,’ he added.
Republicans won control of both chambers of Congress in addition to the White House in November, which has left Democrats with almost no ability in Washington to limit Trump’s policies, and sparked a wave of intra-party recriminations.
Democrats hope to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress in next year’s election, with the House of Representatives seen as competitive, though they face a tough path to recapturing control of the Senate.