A Policy to Quash the Women’s Wave. From Democrats.

Over the next few months, candidates across the country will file papers so they can run for Congress. But we’ll never know how many talented women and people of color sit out, discouraged by a rule the House Democrats imposed in March that prohibits anyone working to oust an incumbent from doing business with the party.

The rule was meant to protect the Democrats’ fragile House majority, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee claims. But everyone knows the real reason. When Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York unseated popular, well-established male members of the Democratic caucus in 2018, it angered party insiders, beholden to corporate and special interests who are threatened by candidates like them.

In my 30-plus years of working in politics, I have never seen a more anti-democratic policy from my party. It even requires vendors to sign a loyalty oath. In June, I made a difficult personal decision to publicly oppose it. I knew the rule would harm women and people of color whose route to Congress is often only by challenging incumbents in blue districts who are out of step with voters. And I knew it would damage less established consultants who work on those races.

Afterward, I was flooded with hundreds of calls, texts, emails and social media posts. The public responses were all supportive, but the private ones were alarming. I heard stories from people who were terrified that signing — or not signing — would have a negative impact on their businesses, campaigns and values.

Several candidates privately told me that people are afraid to talk to them. Jamaal Bowman, who is running for Congress in New York, reportedly struggled to hire young people because they fear retaliation later on in their careers. One consultant admitted to me that she wants to “do something without burning down my business.” Another lamented that it’s going to hinder “the next wave of people doing this work.”

The policy effectively forces voters, consultants and vendors to support candidates whose values run counter to our party’s — Republican-esque people like Representative Dan Lipinski of Illinois, who opposes abortion and voted against the Affordable Care Act. But we are supposed to oppose his Democratic challenger, Marie Newman, who embodies our shared values. That’s also true of Jessica Cisneros, running against Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, a man who opposes abortion and boasts an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association.

While the D.C.C.C. is screening political consulting firms for “incumbency loyalty,” it’s not doing the same for real values. That means firms working for corporate interests — pro-gun, anti-choice, anti-environment, anti-health care — are welcome. A friend from another firm recently bragged about working with the D.C.C.C. and making millions of dollars from oil and gas. That’s why I’m supporting Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts for president and her call for “big structural change” to end the corporate stranglehold on much of our party and elected officials.

One night in September, I hosted a group of state legislators for dinner at my home. They were diverse women from all across the country. Although I had never met them before, I discovered that they too were upset by the loyalty oath. Our discussion was filled with outrage. These accomplished lawmakers felt offended and disappointed that the Democratic Party was telling them they had no right to run for higher office.

That’s a shame because if there’s a silver lining to President Donald J. Trump’s devastating election, it is the enormous number of women, young people and other underrepresented people stepping up to run for office. Organizations dedicated to helping elect women, like Emily’s List, Emerge America and She Should Run, are overwhelmed by women seeking their support. Groups like Run for Something and the Collective PAC, committed to promoting and electing young and diverse leaders, are thriving. New ventures like Supermajority and She the People, formed to harness the energy of women across our country, are exploding. The Democratic Party should be part of embracing this energy, not creating policies to quash it.

For perspective, more women were elected to the Congress in November 2018 than ever before. This achievement is worth celebrating until you realize women make up only 24 percent of this body, and the United States ranks 75th out of 193 countries in the world on this measure. Women are half of the population but still struggle for parity. Even in the Democratic caucus, women account for only 37 percent. This will change when women run for office against men and win. I hope more women challenge incumbents to get there.

This isn’t just about ideology or even race and gender. Leaders like Ms. Pressley and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez personify the transformational leadership so desperately needed in our party today. And while their votes in Congress are similar to their predecessors, their leadership styles are radically different. They also inspire many young girls and people from diverse backgrounds to believe they too can run without “permission” and win. Instead of trying to stop them, we should be celebrating their victories and mimicking their campaigns.

It’s painful that standing against this blacklist damaged me professionally. One of my clients dropped out. The same is true for others who spoke out. I’m secure enough to take the heat from our party’s leaders. But what about those who are not?

It’s true that this rule has been a de facto one for years. The party has long worked to “clear primaries” to get the most “electable” candidates — who, unsurprisingly, are never diverse. When I was working at the D.C.C.C. years ago, they even tried to stop Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin from winning her nomination for Congress. But now, vendors and consultants are now forced to comply with the rule.

I hope the Democrats realize the damage of this bad policy and immediately reverse it. Incumbent advantage and institutional bias are so strong, we shouldn’t be leaning into them to the detriment of our democratic systems. Unless our party lifts up and promotes women and people of color, especially black and Latinx women, we will lose in 2020 and beyond.

Amy Pritchard (@AmyPritchard) is a former political director of the Democratic National Committee and a former regional political director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She runs a political consulting firm called AP Campaigns.

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