BREAKING: Sharice Davids WINS the Kansas Democratic nomination for the 3rd congressional district. https://t.co/Mn0cyPATrT
— Steve Vockrodt (@st_vockrodt) August 8, 2018
… and I’m slap-happy, but at least now I can sleep soundly.
… Davids, the winner of a six-way primary race, would be the first Native American woman elected to Congress if she prevails over U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, the incumbent Republican from Overland Park, in the general election.
She also would be the first openly LGBT person to represent Kansas at either the federal or state level.
Davids won Tuesday’s hotly contested and crowded Democratic primary by capturing 37 percent of the vote, edging out her closest competitor in Brent Welder, who received 34 percent, by 2,088 votes…
Yoder, who coasted through his primary contest on Tuesday, has won Kansas’ 3rd congressional district by double digits in every election going back to 2010.
But Democrats are optimistic about their chances in the suburban Kansas City district, which Democrat Hillary Clinton won in the 2016 presidential race…
Among those in the crowd was Jeff Harris, a member of the Westwood City Council, who first met Davids two months ago.
“When I think about who I want representing me, I’m interested in someone who can set a goal and motivate themselves to achieve it,” Harris said. “The other reason I’m supporting her: You know, never say vote for someone just based on their characteristics or their identity, but that experience of being a woman dominated in a world by men, of being a lesbian, of being Native American, she has had to learn about how to navigate spaces where she didn’t have power, where she didn’t have control.”
He continued: “That takes a lot of motivation and fortitude. When I think about who I want representing me, it’s a person with that type of experience and that type of strength.”…
Too many people have the odds stacked against them. I know what that's like. I’m running for Congress b/c everyone deserves an opportunity – and that starts with affordable healthcare, safe communities & quality education.
Help us share our message: https://t.co/ksp7I9r4t3 pic.twitter.com/xt50iFrneq
— Sharice Davids (@sharicedavids) July 25, 2018
schrodingers_cat
So Agent of Chaos, didn’t succeed afterall.
Aleta
Fantastic!!!!!
Baud
Congrats to her.
MomSense
YES!!!!
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: In fairness, I have not heard of any Wilmer-endorsed candidate this year acting petulant after a loss. That’s the most important thing after a primary, regardless of who wins.
Betty Cracker
Fabulous news! She seems like a really great candidate.
Aleta
@schrodingers_cat: The politician who keeps on giving … giving opportunities to be very angry at him, that is.
Platonailedit
Fabulous breakthrough after centuries. May she win in Nov.
DemJayhawks
On another note, the undervote in my county for the Republic gov nomination is about three times Kobach’s statewide winning margin (as it stands this morning).
I’d almost like to ask those people how they couldn’t find a candidate to support among their four legit choices, but I suspect the answers would just be infuriating.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: That’s good but Agent of Chaos jumped the gun by running around endorsing candidates around the country without first winning her own seat.
tobi
I just saw the news and I’m thrilled. The computer glitch in Johnson County has led Welder supporters to declare that there were election shenanigans. I hope he gives Davids a strong endorsement and does a unity rally with her. The district needs this to defeat the Republican incumbent.
Kay
@DemJayhawks:
Undervoting is infuriating. We get it here for down-ticket Democrats. They come in, vote for the Democrat in the top race and leave the rest blank.
jacy
Breaking news — NY GOP congressman Chris Collins just arrested by the FBI. Apparently he’s a staunch Trump defender……..
Aleta
@schrodingers_cat: I thought you meant Sanders.
Welder hasn’t made a statement yet. His last tweet was
Elizabelle
Wonderful news! You go, Sharice.
JPL
NBC News: Rep. Christopher Collins of New York has been arrested and indicted on charges tied to securities fraud. He surrendered himself to the FBI this morning
schrodingers_cat
@Aleta: His protege’, check the acronym. But your point about her mentor stands too.
Yutsano
@jacy: Oh boy. Looks like insider trading charges.
Of course my next thought is: can we grab his district now?
Elizabelle
@jacy: Interesting. The entire item: CNBC: New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins arrested over insider trading charges
Tokyokie
@Kay: Hey, I undervote all the time in general elections. I never vote a straight-party ticket; I’ll vote for a third-party candidate over a Republican in a race without a Democrat in the general. Libertarian, Green Party, La Raza Unida, doesn’t matter, I vote against as many Republicans as I can. And in the races in which a Republican is running unopposed, I won’t vote for anybody.
JPL
NBC News: Rep. Christopher Collins of New York has been arrested and indicted on charges tied to securities fraud. He surrendered himself to the FBI this morning@jacy: Beat me to it. Trump and swamp are synonyms aren’t they.
also, it remembered by nym
Betty Cracker
@Aleta: I don’t know anything about Welder at all, but the fact that he’s an avid Turks promoter and viewer makes me question his judgment. Another reason to be happy Davids won.
Elizabelle
I’d like to see more and more prosecutions of corruption and self-dealing. Good to see it, DOJ. And all the state attorneys general.
This has legs, and encourages voters and citizens.
jacy
@Yutsano:
That was my first thought — haven’t had time to familiarize myself with it.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Wasn’t Tom Price connected to that also? Maybe I just take a short ride and see if there’s activity near his house.
Tokyokie
@Elizabelle: Now if only Wilbur Ross would face similar charges …….
schrodingers_cat
Did Kobach win his primary? If so that is really worrying, means that the nativist wing of Rs is on the ascendant.
zhena gogolia
Great news!
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat: Kobach up by 191 votes.
Kay
@Tokyokie:
“Undervote” is where Democrats vote for the top of the ticket in presidential and governor and senate races but leave everything below that blank. Republicans don’t do that. They vote every race.
Elizabelle
@Tokyokie: I think he will. Wilbur Ross is going down.
@JPL: No idea re Tom Price. What has he been doing since he got booted from HHS?
opiejeanne
@schrodingers_cat: I am so relieved.
I was disappointed for her last night because I thought Sharice Davids had been done in by the Wilmerites.
Humdog
@Elizabelle: So, if your insider trading tips got your fiancee’s dad arrested, as well as you, the groom, and the father of the groom, will the wedding still happen?
Humdog
guachi
I found the quote by Jeff Harris on why he supported Davis to be telling:
This is a great way to counteract the “Identity Politics” police.
H.E.Wolf
Hooray for Sharice Davids, and fingers crossed for a Democrat to win Collins’ seat in November.
Thank you to all the jackals who are getting out the vote, staffing the polling places, and doing a myriad of other tasks. I can’t recall all the ‘nyms, to my embarrassment, but I am grateful to everyone who’s doing this.
O. Felix Culpa
I’m glad Sharice won too. I don’t see how a Native Gay Female candidate – in f*cking Kansas, no less – wouldn’t be a progressive choice. But Wilmer moves in mysterious ways, I guess. Glad that Democratic Kansas voters chose otherwise. Now on to the general.
Aleta
The Johnson Cty election results as updated are here
https://jocoelection.org/sites/default/files/08-08-2018-07-36/Unofficial%20Final%20ResultsAug2018.pdf
Last I looked,
Sharice Davids 18,391; 39.12% of total
Brent Welder 13,059; 27.78 %
Tom Niermann 7,680
KSHB reported that at 8 am Davis was at 37% and Welder at 34%. (And that Kobach had won over current Gov. Jeff Colyer by less than 200 votes statewide.)
From KSHB
JPL
@Elizabelle: His wife is a state rep and running for reelection. It’s a safe seat, and even if he goes down with Collins, she would be tough to beat. I sent an email to a friend to see if she knows what is going on with Tom. He was involved in the same scam.
Elizabelle
@Humdog: Sounds like an episode of Law & Order. Or Better Call Saul. LOL.
Intrigued by JPL’s suggestion that Tom Price might be involved … moar perps, please.
Aleta
@Betty Cracker: I was more than a little shocked to see that tweet.
JPL
@Elizabelle: Price was grilled on it during confirmation. Here is one article
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/12/chris-collins-stock-trades-ethics-243721
Platonailedit
jimmiraybob
Meanwhile, practically next door…
STL Post Dispatch – “Robert McCulloch’s 28-year run as St. Louis County’s elected prosecutor came to a stunning end Tuesday when he was upset by a Ferguson councilman who promised to reform the criminal justice system.”
It was McCulloch and his grand jury that did not bring charges against officer Darren Wilson who shot Michael Brown in the back, sparking many nights of civil unrest in Ferguson.
opiejeanne
@Baud: That’s great, and those candidates are better than he is.
I was at campaign HQ for our US Senator Maria Cantwell and Congressperson Suzan DelBene last night and I heard some loudmouth braying that HE HAD RUN AGAINST SENATOR PATTY MURRAY. He was a youngish guy so I am wondering about him, who he was on that ballot in 2016; she was the incumbent and four Democrat men ran against her in the primary. I’m kind of annoyed by that.
JPL
Here’s another article on Price
https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-price-trump-hhs-pick-innate-immunotherapeutics-investment-2017-1
I wonder what Collins will say… hmmm
jimmiraybob
@jacy:
Also too:
* In addition to GOP Rep. Chris Collins of New York. Keeping the crime in the familia is apparently all the rage amongst trumpers.
Aleta
@jimmiraybob: I’m SO glad for his defeat. May he have many more if he ever runs for anything again.
lurker dean
native american deb haaland won her primary in june so she will also be another potential native american woman in congress in november!
https://debforcongress.com
tobie
Dyed in the wool liberal women (Davids, Whitmer) did very well last night. Right to work was thrashed in Missouri, Ferguson is going to have a new AG, and we almost did it in OH-12. Good night all around.
Baud
@Aleta: Right. Apart from the fact that he likes TYT, what an odd thing to tweet. A form of virtue signaling, I guess.
tobie
@jimmiraybob: This is justice too late but it is justice.
Aleta
And then there’s Wilbur Ross.
Forbes: A multimillion-dollar lawsuit has been quietly making its way through the New York State court system over the last three years, pitting a private equity manager named David Storper against his former boss: Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. The pair worked side by side for more than a decade, eventually at the firm, WL Ross & Co.—where, Storper later alleged, Ross stole his interests in a private equity fund, transferred them to himself, then tried to cover it up with bogus paperwork. Two weeks ago, just before the start of a trial with $4 million on the line, Ross and Storper agreed to a confidential settlement, whose existence has never been reported and whose terms remain secret.
(—)
Two former WL Ross colleagues remember the commerce secretary taking handfuls of Sweet’N Low packets from a nearby restaurant, so he didn’t have to go out and buy some for himself. One says workers at his house in the Hamptons used to call the office, claiming Ross had not paid them for their work. Another two people said Ross once pledged $1 million to a charity, then never paid. …
There are bigger allegations. Over several months, in speaking with 21 people who know Ross, Forbes uncovered a pattern: Many of those who worked directly with him claim that Ross wrongly siphoned or outright stole a few million here and a few million there….,These allegations—which sparked lawsuits, reimbursements and an SEC fine—come to more than $120 million. If even half of the accusations are legitimate, the current United States secretary of commerce could rank among the biggest grifters in American history.
“The SEC has never initiated any enforcement action against me,” Ross said in a statement, failing to mention the $2.3 million fine it levied against his firm in 2016. …
Those who’ve done business with Ross generally tell a consistent story, of a man obsessed with money and untethered to facts. “He’ll push the edge of truthfulness and use whatever power he has to grab assets,” says New York financier Asher Edelman. One of Ross’ former colleagues is more direct: “He’s a pathological liar.”
Elizabelle
@Aleta: Thanks. I’d not seen that Forbes article. Will check it out.
bjacques
@schrodingers_cat: Fun fact: The original Agent Of Chaos was named Boris Johnson!
zhena gogolia
There’s also this:
Gin & Tonic
Kinda sorta OT, but I was driving to work after my doctor’s appt and had BBC World Service on the radio, when they interviewed our old friend Frank Luntz about the OH special. The interviewer sort of made a point of calling attention to the GOP (apparent) victory, but, to his credit, Frank was having none of that. He said this is very bad news for Republicans, who should have taken that race by 8-12 points.
Gretchen
@tobi: What was the computer glitch? I didn’t hear about that. I was excited to vote for Sharice. I don’t need to be mad about Bernie coming any more.
This was the first time my voting machine had a paper trail.
Stupid Greg Orman should quit his third-party bid for governor. But he has to get his signatures verified to get on the ballot by – Secretary of State Kris Kobach! If it was possible for Kobach to rig the vote to win, he’d o it.
Aleta
@Baud: Using that moment to promote a network or show–seems strange for any independent-minded candidate. It’s more like T does for Fox. It also seems untrue, since of course they’d be following other coverage. Weird choice of timing to do that. Unless someone asked him to.
Manyakitty
@zhena gogolia: What am I missing about Ilhan Omar? Doesn’t she count?
rikyrah
YEAH!!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
ON TO NOVEMBER
Aleta
@Aleta: s.b. “they’d be following other coverage as well”
zhena gogolia
@Manyakitty:
She’s Somali, so not Arab-American, I guess.
DemJayhawks
@Gretchen: The votes are moved from each precinct to the central office on an encrypted USB drive. There are nearly 200 precincts. It supposedly took “seconds” during testing to move the vote data to each drive. In production, last night/this morning, it supposedly took several minutes for each drive. How no one thought of this problem in advance is beyond me.
Mnemosyne
@Gretchen:
Berners have already decided that there was election fraud, because it’s impossible that people preferred Davids to their candidate. Funding from Emily’s List is now corporate money, don’t’cha know. ?
Kathleen
@tobi: Election shennagians is right out of the Slanders playbook.
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: They are just such a tedious bunch of one-way monkeys.
Miss Bianca
All I gotta say on the subject of this post is:
WOOT!
Manyakitty
@zhena gogolia: Okay, that makes sense.
maryQ
I’m delighted. But, is it bad that that my delight is only partially about Davids, who I think is awesome and to whom I’ve given some (out of state) money, and also partially about how Comrade Senile and Westchester Barbie’s candidates are 0-3 last night?
tobie
@zhena gogolia: I think Rashida Tlaib was the only DSA-style candidate who won last night. I don’t like that she refers to elected Democratic leaders as “corporate Dems” and that she’s railed against Nancy Pelosi, but it’s good to have more Muslim Americans, and especially Muslim American women, in Congress as an counter to Trump’s anti-Muslim policies. Ironically it was the fact that she ran against the Democratic Party and Pelosi that got her so much national coverage and probably pushed her over the edge in a tight race. Does anyone here even know what her opponent Brenda Jones looks like? I have no clue.
tobie
@Gretchen: The delay in reporting what happened in Johnson County has raised questions, I gather. Can’t believe that the Secretary of State responsible for this mess has become the Republican candidate for governor!
Brachiator
I had not been looking at the primary results until this morning. Sharice Davids win is great news.
@Mnemosyne:
Really? Jesus.
L85NJGT
@DemJayhawks:
Seconds = I was fucking around on my phone and didn’t notice how long it took.
burnspbesq
@Brachiator:
Tiresome, isn’t it?
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Sour grapes are sour.
Bobby Thomson
@Aleta: taking direction from Cenk should be disqualifying.
Captain C
@O. Felix Culpa: She doesn’t constantly utter the shibboleths that the Wilmer Purity People require on an hourly basis.
ruemara
@Baud: Welder didn’t endorse his opponent after his loss. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s a thing.
@Kay: This is what pisses me off the most about the left, Dems et al. FUCKING VOTE FOR THE ENTIRE TICKET. SEATS ARE IMPORTANT.
@Mnemosyne: Just got done tweaking a berner yapping this argument. I told people asking last night who said we’ll see if tomorrow they claim fraud, it would only take about 2 hrs. I knew it.
Bob Smith
Because you are lazy and didn’t bother to go to her actual website and she her policy positions.@O. Felix Culpa:
giantslor
I was torn between Welder and Davids right up to the moment I voted, and I finally decided to roll the dice for Welder. But I’m happy that Davids won. I think she can turn out both moderates and progressives to beat Yoder in November.
giantslor
@tobie: Kobach hasn’t won yet. There are still provisional ballots to count, and there will be a recount regardless.
jl
@giantslor: I think both Davids and Welder would be very good candidates. I defer to local people to make the best decision and with races so close, silly to use them as an excuse to keep the HRC/BS feud going. I’m with Cracker that the feud needs to become history.. I’ll contribute to Davids.
@giantslor: Seems to me that is the real story. Kobach returns start to go south and suddenly the one county with returns outstanding that can make a difference goes wonky. And I just saw a news story that a Kobach crony was in charge of the county’s elections. Local news story pointed that out, so seems like funny coincidence got some attention and I hope there is follow-up. I’m very reluctant to think politicians would resort to outright criminality in elections, but Kobach is one of the few people who are an exception. I wouldn’t be that surprised if there were meddling, and hope there is a thorough investigation. (Ha ha, Kobach runs elections in that state).
rikyrah
@tobie:
Brenda Jones?
I bet Black woman.
jimmiraybob
@Miss Bianca:
WOOT! Indeed!!
(Haven’t seen a WOOT! in a while)