Democrats disavow Obama's creation of rival political group

To this day, many Democratic Party officials still fume about Barack Obama’s decision to create his own political group outside of the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for Action.

Now they’ve ensured it won't happen again if a Democrat wins the White House in 2020.

The Association of State Democratic Committees announced Tuesday that every leading presidential contender has vowed not to create “any organizing or messaging infrastructure that is parallel or duplicative" to the DNC or state parties. The signed pledge also binds candidates to publicly call on their supporters not to launch outside groups on their behalf.

It's an enormous change for the party, one that will likely strengthen the DNC and state parties after what many Democrats considered neglect of the party infrastructure during the Obama years. It also throws into question the future of Our Revolution, the Bernie Sanders-created grass-roots organization, which state party leaders say would appear to violate the agreement if Sanders wins the general election.

“It's a huge shift,” said Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party. The move sends two messages, she added: "You cannot create another OFA," and "the DNC is an important national infrastructure, but it's not in the states — we are.”

“[State parties] are never the shiny object that gets funded with all the appeals from podcasts or big donors,” Kleeb added.

Organizing for Action, the political group that grew out of Obama's first presidential run, decentralized power from the DNC by building a parallel infrastructure that competed for donors. It was a move that many state party chairs loathed, and in the years since have faulted for Democrats' losses at the gubernatorial and statehouse level.

“It wasn't helpful to the political work that needs to get done in building a bench,” said Stephen Handwerk, executive director of the Louisiana Democratic Party. "We have a political tool in the state parties and the president should use them."

The pledge, signed by Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg and 16 other contenders, requires candidates to use state parties as their organizing, messaging and political arm should they become their party's nominee. Many state parties are run by full-time and unpaid chairs who are expected to recruit, train and get candidates elected. But many have few resources at their disposal, and the deal announced Tuesday is an attempt to fix that.

The agreement also mandates the eventual nominee to share all of the data he or she collects during the campaign with the DNC and state parties, which is already a requirement to get access to the party's voter file. The new agreement doesn’t require the nominee to share his or her email list, a notable concession and one that party officials hope could be revisited.

Harris was the first leading candidate to sign the pledge, drafted by the Association of State Democratic Committees, according to multiple sources. Warren had already signaled that she wanted to operate within the existing party infrastructure, donating $5,000 to each of the 50 state parties last year.

But Our Revolution was a point of contention during discussions with the Sanders campaign, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Sanders has long identified as an independent in the Senate, though he caucuses with Democrats. He is a self-described democratic socialist.

It's uncertain what the agreement will mean for organizations like Our Revolution and Next Gen, an outside political group formed by billionaire Tom Steyer, who's now running for president.

“We can't have competing centers of gravity as we move forward,” said Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and president of the state Democratic committees. “We've learned the lessons of the past."

“If Sen. Sanders is the president, he would put his energy and political capital into the Democratic Party,” Martin added.

Sanders’ campaign argued that Our Revolution could remain in operation because the group already acts and operates “independently” from the Vermont senator. Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Sanders, said outside groups such as Move On, Progressive Change Campaign Committee or Third Way would likewise not be affected by the pledge.

"Is Move On going to go away? Is PCCC going to go away? These groups will all continue to exist,” he said, adding that “Joe Biden is not going to shut down Third Way” if he becomes president because he doesn’t control it.

During his campaign, Sanders has promised to pursue change with a mass movement of workers if elected president. Weaver said the pledge will have no effect on Sanders’ ability to rally supporters.

"There’s no reason the Democratic Party can’t be the vehicle to bring 1 million people to the [Washington Mall] to fight for single-payer,” Weaver said. “In fact, they should be.”

But others disagreed with Weaver's interpretation. The centrist Third Way wasn’t created by Biden, and PCCC and MoveOn similarly weren’t founded by a current presidential candidate.

Our Revolution, by contrast, is a creation of Sanders and his political operation. Nina Turner, the co-chair of Sanders’ campaign, was previously president of Our Revolution, and the group had access to Sanders' massive email list when it formed.

Even Kleeb, who serves on the board of Our Revolution, said the organization would need to substantially change.

“If Sen. Sanders becomes the nominee and the president, I do think that Our Revolution would have to shutter or really focus only on local candidates,” Kleeb said. “But Our Revolution would have to really shift its message.”

Though Sanders is not involved in Our Revolution's operations, a legal line the organization follows, the current goal of Our Revolution is to reform the party by getting people elected to the DNC and state parties. The portion of the organization dedicated to that “would have to end,” Kleeb said.