House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said there is “absolutely” room in the Democratic Party for pro-life candidates, as one moderate incumbent faces a serious primary threat from a pro-choice challenger.
“It’s an issue of conscience that people have to answer themselves,” the Maryland lawmaker told reporters Wednesday. “That doesn’t mean we’re not a pro-choice party. But that doesn’t mean the speaker or I believe that we want to exclude people who have a different view.”
His comments came after Illinois Rep. Dan Lipinski’s opponent Marie Newman scored a high-profile endorsement from liberal superstar Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“It’s going to take a bigger, stronger Democratic Party — one that’s returned to our FDR roots & fights for working people — to change our future in 2020,” the freshman congresswoman tweeted Tuesday, tagging Ms. Newman.
“We can’t afford deep blue seats fighting against healthcare and equal rights,” she added.
As one of the few pro-life Democrats still on Capitol Hill, Mr. Lipinski has come under fire from progressive activists who want to defeat him in 2020. He narrowly defeated Ms. Newman in the last primary by a little more than 2,000 votes.
When asked about Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s endorsement against an incumbent, Mr. Hoyer focused on the need for party unity.
“We work on party unity and will continue to work on party unity,” he said. “We think it’s very important to keep the majority. Obviously not just because we want to keep the majority, but because the values the parties reflect is very, very, disparate.”
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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