Last Tuesday, all factions of the Democratic Party were cheering on Jon Ossoff, watching as he fell inches away from seizing Congressional District 6 in Georgia from Republicans. The race is going to a runoff and will be decided in June. However, Jon Ossoff’s candidacy has quickly transformed from an opportunity for Democrats to take a seat and start winning back the House to a pie-fighting contest between different factions of the Democratic Party.
Yesterday, member of our party leadership Bernie Sanders, when asked about Jon Ossoff, stated that he was unsure whether or not Jon Ossoff is a progressive. Very quickly a vocal minority used this opportunity not to continue to steadfastly support Ossoff and focus all efforts on electing him but instead to hijack his campaign to attack leadership of the Democratic Party.
Not only does this contribute to the disunity in the party in a time when we need unity, but these acts to damage Jon Ossoff’s prospects of winning his district as it fractures the broad coalition supporting him, that supported him whether or not he is a “progressive.” The people that care about these comments from Bernie Sanders are not those who may reconsider supporting Ossoff because of Bernie, who are scarce to nonexistent, but rather those who wish to use this opportunity to snipe at a leader of our party.
If this disrespect and disregard to Ossoff’s campaign in the name of attacking one of our most distinguished leaders continues, only the voters in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District and the American people at large will suffer when we fail to retake the House in 2018 due to people who continue to insist on re-litigating the primaries.