Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom was the latest prominent Democratic figure on Sunday to embrace candidates endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as socialists dominate primary elections.
Newsom told Jack Cocchiarella during a livestream on his YouTube channel that he rejects the idea that socialist candidates are a “threat” to the party, relating it to facing past “purity tests” while running for mayor of San Francisco in 2003.
“This is all familiar, and it’s very healthy,” Newsom said. “I don’t think it’s unhealthy. So, I completely reject this notion. And, look, I’m for addition, not subtraction.”
“The Democratic Party needs to be in the addition business if we’re going to get back into the majority. Yeah, we need to get our base out there. We got to turn out. … I’m not offended by this notion of a big tent.”
“And I think it’s important, though, that big tent is a big tent, because there’s folks, you know, on this side that don’t want folks on that. I think we’d be better off to look at the things that bind us together, the things we have in common.”
“And I know the purity tests are going to get tougher and tougher in the next few years. But I am enthusiastic about the success and the energy and the vibrancy that’s happening at the grassroots in this country. I think it’s a healthy damn thing.”
Newsom’s comments echoed several other Democratic Party members who have supported welcoming socialist candidates into their “big tent” after a socialist sweep in New York’s primary elections.
“We have a big tent party, that’s what it says,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told Fox News Digital last month.
“This is a democracy,” he continued. “You’re going to have lots of perspectives. It’s up to the voters to decide, and they did.”
Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin also told Fox News Digital he was “all about new leadership” when asked about DSA-backed candidates like Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez defeating incumbent candidates.
Last month, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., issued a warning to her Democratic colleagues against discouraging socialist candidates.
“I actually think the more important advice that I would give would be to my incumbent colleagues, which is you will create a self-fulfilling prophecy by deciding who these young women are before you’ve met them,” Ocasio-Cortez said on MS NOW.
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