Progressive Laura Moser clears 1st round of Texas primaries

JTA

(JTA) — Laura Moser, a Jewish writer and anti-Trump activist, secured a spot in a Democratic primary election in a Houston area Congressional seat.

Moser clinched 24 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s primary elections in Texas’s 7th Congressional District, coming second to Lizzie Fletcher’s 29 percent, the Texas Tribune reported.

Because Fletcher did not win a majority of the vote, the two will both advance to a runoff on May 22, Politico reported.

The winner of the second and final round will in November’s midterm elections face incumbent Republican John Culberson in a district where opposition to President Donald Trump has given Democrats hopes of taking over from the GOP despite it being a stronghold of that party.

In late February, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ official campaign arm, infuriated progressives by inserting itself in the primary in Texas’s 7th Congressional District. The committee took the extraordinary step of publishing opposition research against Moser, a progressive, pro-choice woman who has been a leader in the resistance to Trump. The committee condemned Moser as a “Washington insider.”

In 2017, Moser drew national attention when she created Daily Action, which enables subscribers to receive a text message every morning with a political action to take that day. She said it was an activism platform established in opposition to Trump.