Joe Lieberman has endorsed Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in a race that Democrats likely need to win to seize the majority. Lieberman is even showing up in pro-Collins ads touting the independent bona fides of a Republican that liberals are eager to defeat.
In the wild race for a Georgia Senate seat, Joe’s son Matt Lieberman could play spoiler and allow two Republicans to advance to a runoff. Democrats are calling on Matt to drop out in favor of the party’s preferred candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock, but he is unbowed.
Taken together, the events show a political family once at the peak of Democratic politics directly undermining Democrats’ bid to win the Senate and haunting the party nearly eight years after Joe Lieberman left office.
The party’s campaign against Lieberman accelerated significantly on Thursday. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed Warnock just days after Barack Obama did, and the Working Families Party and Black Voters Matter launched a petition telling Lieberman to “drop out now.”
Democracy For America, a national progressive group, organized a letter being sent to Lieberman Friday, which is co-signed by 9 other progressive groups, urging him to drop out and encourage his supporters to back Warnock. In the letter, the groups write that his presence in the race “poses a very real and potentially disastrous threat” to Democrats.
Matt Lieberman is also coming under harsh scrutiny for authoring a book that’s offended Black leaders in the state. “He is not fit to represent the state of Georgia,” said Wanda Mosley, a senior state coordinator for Black Voters Matter in Georgia.
“Any eligible citizen has a right to seek office. I would never want to discourage anyone from doing so,” she added. “However, in this instance, I personally would want him to step down.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/02/lieberman-democrats-key-senate-races-424595