We’ve still got our our cut out for us fundraising-wise – with Four Directions in Montana (Jon Tester), Worker Power GOTV in AZ, an outstanding new (to us) Asian group working with youth in NC, and hopefully a Latino group, also in NC, all coming up. Not to mention the Native-made Lone Star quilt raffle!
The strategy is to support the groups and hold our fire on direct donations to candidates until we have a better idea of where our contributions can do the most good. It is, however, time to start thinking about candidates, and doing the research.
We all share the same goal – winning across the board in November – but I am shaking my head at some of the “donate to these guys” candidate lists I am seeing on-line.
Some things to think about:
- We want to be strategic even as we support candidates directly.
- To state the obvious, not all “toss up races” are the same.
- Some toss-up races are in states like CA where there’s plenty of money sloshing around.
- For some toss-up races, money is not the issue at all.
- We’re looking congressional races, state and local races, key down ballot races, anything that has a national impact.
- We are not looking for races that everyone else seems to be contributing to.
- We want our contributions to make a difference, not to be more salt in the ocean.
So this is your invitation to pitch us your ideas – just as we did in 2022. We supported a few great candidates last cycle that we might have overlooked had you guys not suggested them.
Oh, and in case you need some inspiration as you’re thinking about what we might be able to do, I offer these.
Good Lord. If she debates him it’ll be a war crime. pic.twitter.com/qlppiNl608
— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) August 23, 2024
.
This race just became personal… pic.twitter.com/7H6elcDZgy
— Jeremy London 🇺🇸 🦅 (@SirJeremyLondon) August 22, 2024
So have at it! Tell us folks you think we should think about supporting.
Also, open thread.
sixthdoctor
I want to get the most bang for your buck but I’m not sure about the best way to support state legislative races; best to support state committees or individuals? I know AZ and WI state legislatures are tossups but not sure which others would be best.
Blue24.org also just put up state Supreme Court donation links.
My current donations are to the Senate: Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown, Debbie Murcasel-Powell, Colin Allred, and Lucas Kunce, which I know is a dart in a wind tunnel but one can dream.
dc
Sister District is an organization that supports candidates for state legislature. They do a lot of research and have had success.
Perhaps the blog could use their homework.
https://sisterdistrict.com/
WaterGirl
I received email suggesting that we look into Dan Osborne, Independent for Senate, in Nebraska. Adding this here so it doesn’t get lost.
Marleedog
Charles Gaba has a list of 22 Congressional tossups with links to Act Blue.
Beijing Palmer had a link in a Twitter thread, and it was posted here several days ago.
That might be a good start if you are looking to flip the Congress.
Will try to find the link in less than 5 minutes.
dc
These are the states that Sister District is focusing on this year:
https://sisterdistrict.com/
KatKapCC
That video <3 Going after ANY child is gross, but mocking a disabled kid — or a disabled ANYONE — is just so utterly gross and repulsive. I’ve dealt with it firsthand and secondhand and it makes my blood boil that people can be that mean just for the fun of it or whatever.
Mousebumples
I need to figure out target districts, but Wisconsin has New Maps for State Leg this year. State Senate seats have 3 new assembly districts within them. And while US House districts are still gerrymandered, we could flip 1 or 2 (or 3,if I’m dreaming) in a wave year.
Plus we’re a swing state, Senator Baldwin is up for reelection… Lots of up and down ballot opportunities!
I’m at trivia championships today, so I’ll be going dark shortly. But more details to come from me to WaterGirl. 🤩
PST
Non-verbal learning disorder (NVLD) was new to me. Of course I assumed at first that it described someone with difficulty in communicating verbally, whereas it almost means the opposite: good at learning verbally but difficulty with non-verbal skills. I wonder if others, including the gentleman in the video clip who referred to his grandchild as autistic and non-verbal, are making the same mistake. I can imagine the monsters who love to find ridiculous ways to call Walz a liar will pounce the moment Gus gets caught on camera having a conversation.
rikyrah
Open thread?
I love some of TikTok.
Asking the Ocean how “she” knows how to target billionaires 🤣🤣🤣
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP81tNWdT/
Ken
Catching up on Colbert via YouTube, I’m not unexpectedly getting Harris fundraising ads. However, in an abject failure of The Algorithm, it’s also served up some Trump and Trump-adjacent ads.
One of the latter was a pitch for some sort of “Trump mystery box” — for sale, natch — that was pushed as being offensive to “fans of sleepy Joe”. I clicked out at five seconds, of course, but I realized how tragic it is for all those second- and third-level parasites who spent their marketing money before the shakeup.
Mousebumples
@dc: I agree with the 4 great women for 2024 in Wisconsin on that list! And we’ve written postcards for Jodi Habush Sinykin before! I think the district is now Lean Dem, if memory serves.
Kristine
@Mousebumples:
I wrote cards for her too! Glad to see her chances have improved.
Urza
@Ken: So tragic
TBone
We ride at dawn.
https://crooksandliars.com/2024/08/magayou-fck-gus-walz-you-fck-all-us
Video at link
HumboldtBlue
Michelle Obama set to music.
Phylllis
@rikyrah: I saw one the other day that said the ocean is telling us to stay out of its business. I cackled so loud my husband came downstairs to check on me.
Rocks
@KatKapCC: You mean like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9reO3QnUA
SuzieC
Simon Rosenberg at Hopium Chronicles has a list of 10 great candidates that his community is supporting. However, they have already raised $888,000 for these candidates so maybe BJ money should go elsewhere.
rk
I don’t want her to debate him. I’m hoping he’ll pull out. I think I’m too traumatized from the last debate. Everyone has such high expectations from her. That’s a lot of pressure on on one person. I wish people would stop thinking that she’ll destroy him in the debate (my co-worker who’s a huge Kamla fan said this). I expect her to do well but I’m just scared because too much is hinging on the debate.
Andrew Abshier
That’s a powerful testimony by Jeremy London. I think what the assholes did to Gus Walz is opening a lot of eyes.
I wish we had swing districts in Florida, but the Lege gerrymandered them out of existence. So I’ll be glad to donate where it will help.
Jackie
Open thread?
BOOM!!
eta: This should be the template for ALL artists to follow! DonOLD might pay attention if he’s financially contributing to Harris/Walz!😂
wmd
Bear in mind that helping with down ballot races has a long term positive effect, regardless of the election outcome – campaign experience for both a candidate and their team.
Census and redistricting may seem far away in 2030. A marginal improvement in a state house or senate likely doesn’t lead to policy outcomes in the near term. What it does do is show red state voters that it’s possible to become bluer, and develops the bench and infrastructure. 2030 election is 3 cycles away and that bench development is needed now. Donating to these campaigns helps.
BR
This video is an example — seems authentic — of a dude who was swayed by the Obamas and Adam Kinzinger to switch from Trump to Harris. So it’s an answer to the folks who were whining about GOP speakers at the DNC:
https://xcancel.com/maddenifico/status/1827406644872896733#m
Fake Irishman
Supreme Court races in AZ, and NC. NC is part of a long-term project to get the Dems back in control, AZ would knock out two terrible judges and give Katie Hobbs the ability to appoint two new ones. Also a ballot initiative that would take away judicial retention elections in AZ retroactively, so we want that to go down.
Tazj
I see on social media Republicans are trying to claim the Trump campaign is happy and joyful. Maybe Trump even said it about himself on Truth Social, I can’t remember but it’s so ridiculous it’s making me laugh.
Sure, Mr. American Carnage and you’ll be raped and murdered going to the grocery store is running a joyful campaign that will unite the country. Thanks Lauren Boebert for the laugh.
Phylllis
@Tazj: He said something about the country having joy every day if he is re-elected during his AZ rally last night.
BR
@Marleedog:
Here’s one such ActBlue with swing districts (in bold text):
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/houseblue24
Fake Irishman
Texas has some important state ledge races in the house. Greg Abbott managed to come within a seat or two of wiping out enough rural GOP reps who back public schools to get his voucher plan through. However, if Dems can pick up a few swingy seats, it might be enough to hold back the tide for another two years. Charles Kuffner, the dean of SE Texas local politics blogging probably has the district numbers to focus on: several Biden-won districts held by GOPers. These are small enough races to have some leverage
Jackie
@BR: From his lips to other Trump voters!👍🏻
SatanicPanic
@rk: she doesn’t have to kill it in the debate, she just has to be good and not let any of his insults get to her, which I think she can manage. After Biden’ and Trumps performances in the last one the bar is pretty low.
Fake Irishman
Also another one to keep an eye on: next April a Dem-held WI Supreme Court seat is up. That should be a major project no matter what happens in November. I’m sure Ben Wikler has a team thinking about it already, but we should be ready too.
mvr
NE-2 Vargas may be a good place to spend money in that it overlaps with the NE-2 Electoral vote for which Harris is ahead. Vargas is not ahead yet in the polls and he narrowly lost in 2022. But both Ds and Rs are putting money into the race and I think he could pull it off. I am sending him monthly contributions and he is an attractive candidate. His folks immigrated from Peru. His opponent styles himself as an R moderate but in fact votes with the party whenever it counts.
Vargas’s Omaha district obviously overlaps with Osborne who is an attractive candidate as an independent and polls well. But Osborne has to win the whole state, and the Western part of Nebraska will be hard to counteract. I’m sending him some money just for trying, but not as much as I’m sending Vargas.
Big R
I’ve been canvassing for Andrea Salinas (OR-6). The polling is showing us neck and neck with the Republican, who hasn’t even started a field operation yet. He’s at events, has yard signs, and is on the air, that’s it – and they’re at 45 apiece. This campaign is running on a bit of a shoestring: we don’t get tshirts or hats for canvassing, we get stickers. A couple of staff hires fell through because we didn’t have the resources to get the folks we needed.
On the downside of why this might not be the right race for BJ, this is a Tier I defense seat for the DCCC, so there is allegedly quite a bit of party money coming in, but it’s not clear to me where it’s going. However, there’s a number of state leg races in the district, many of which are also swingy; those might be better investments given ROI?
Almost Retired
@SuzieC: Agree with this sentiment. I’d rather find candidates that are flying under the radar or are underfunded.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Besides the money raised, these fundraising threads are valuable in that people learn more about candidates across the nation. You will have to concentrate on a relative few candidates, but these threads will provide an opportunity to learn about other good candidates as well, and I expect commenters will take advantage of this.
Ken
@Phylllis: There will be a whole chain of Joy Camps all across the United States, where people unhappy with Trump and Project 2025 will go and be taught how to be joyful.
RaflW
@Mousebumples: I’ll make a personal pitch for Brienne Brown for WI State Assembly. I’m not sure why Charles Gaba didn’t include her in his custom WI state fundraising page.
BF and I are throwing a party for her campaign on Sept 10th. Even if just a few of you can tip in a few dollars to her race, it’ll make a difference and I’ll be doing my job as a volunteer host. :) TY!
Her district was re-drawn for this cycle, she’s got a better chance, and her previous run (against a hand picked staffer from the former Rep. Lt. Gov’s office) was a solid effort in a then-red seat.
WG has my email info. If you live w/in an hour or so of Whitewater Lake, WI (e.g. Madison is 55 mins away, Milwaukee 1 hr) please reach out via her contact info (she said that was ok) and I’ll add you to the evite event.
We’d love to meet you and have you at our party! Tuesday, Sept. 10th, 5-7pm. Food, bevies and a lovely deck overlooking the lake. Come meet Brie (and me :) ). It’d be kinda like a balloon juice meetup.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you to WaterGirl for the sneak preview of coming fundraiser attractions!
WA State has a court-ordered, recently re-drawn legislative district (LD-14), which is in or near Yutsano’s old stomping grounds.
The Democrats have an excellent Latina candidate for State Senator: Maria Beltran. She’s pro-labor and pro-LGBTQ+.
I’m saving a bunch of Beltran links to send to WaterGirl in Sept. – here’s one of them.
https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2024/07/senate-hopeful-maria-beltran-is-working-to-put-a-legislative-district-in-central-washington-in-play-for-democrats.html
WaterGirl
@Marleedog: I think Charles Gaba has a lot of people listed that I don’t think are good choices. For what it’s worth
Not everyone focuses on the more strategic choices, like we try to do here.
frosty
I’m going to pitch a local race with national implications: PA-10. Janelle Stelson up against Scott Perry (spit). She’s a former TV anchor with 68% name recognition in one of the races on the toss-up list. The latest redistricting put more Democrats in Perry’s district.
I’d love to see him booted out. I’ll be knocking doors to help.
TBone
@frosty: 👍
WaterGirl
@SuzieC: Absolutely! We find some great groups out there, too, but if they are super well funded, our money would be like salt in the ocean.
TBone
Field report from Union County, PA Democratic Campaign Headquarters on the main drag in our rural (college) small town:
The Bucknell students are all out in DROVES on this gorgeous afternoon, lining up for over half a block each at the two sidewalk registration tables, and the joint is JUMPIN’ inside the Campaign Headquarters office! Packed!
The Kidz are alright!
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf:
I read that as, “I have a bunch of Beltane links” at first, but it didn’t surprise me.
Leto
@Jackie: good. Hope more artists do this.
206inKY
@Fake Irishman: I don’t know if this is the time considering the urgency higher up the ballot, but Dems somehow need to start chipping away at Texas. It’s by far the Republican hold that is most dependent on voter suppression and gerrymandering, which makes it both a money pit for now and a long-term checkmate once we crack it.
There are 7 majority-minority states, only one of which is a GOP stranglehold (TX): Hawaii, New Mexico, California, Texas, Nevada, Maryland, and Georgia.
Mai Naem mobile
I know this is a long shot but I think the ND Dem candidate Katrina Christiansen is worth sending some $$$. It’s ND. It’s cheap. If nothing else it forced the GOP to spend some money defending ND. Also Christiansen is a good candidate. ND had Sen Heidi Heitkamp not that long ago. And they’ve had other Dem senators in the past. In a good environment for Dems she might get swept in. Same for Lucas Kunce(sp?) in MO. I was trying to look to see if they had any ND Native American GOTV campaigns. I found this but have no idea if it’s an organization worth donating to. https://ndnativevote.org/programs/get-out-the-vote/
TBone
@TBone: they have a message and a list:
https://mailchi.mp/f8bfa7be78df/updates-from-the-ucdc?e=2fcaa8e692
Dear friends,
By now, you may have heard that President Biden has dropped out of the race.
First and foremost, please take a breather and reflect on all that President Biden has accomplished as President:
Second, although we will have many conversations about what the top of our ticket will look like, we remain united in our work to defeat Donald Trump. We also have an array of down-ballot candidates who are smart, committed, hard-working, and deserving of our full and complete support:
Bob Casey for US Senate
Eugene DePasquale for Attorney General
Malcolm Kenyatta for Auditor General
Erin McClelland for Treasurer
Zach Womer for US Congress
Denise Maris for PA House District 76
Nick Jacobson for PA House District 85
H.E.Wolf
Hee hee! I looked at that sentence when I wrote it, and thought something seemed off, visually. Thanks for figuring out what it was. :)
Oh, and I saw a fleeting reference to Xochitl Torres-Small, a day or two ago (DNC Convention related?), and of course immediately thought of you.
206inKY
@mvr: Agree. NE-2 might be the single most important overall district in the country since Harris has paths to exactly 270 that depend on it, so any money spent on ground game for Vargas should help Harris too. In the Senate, Tester in Montana seems like the most important hold. (I think Brown is going to romp in Ohio and that we’ll be ok in both AZ and NV.)
frosty
@WaterGirl: I got an email from a friend who was on a Zoom with Stelson. He said she had 2x the cash on hand as Perry so maybe not the best use of our fundraising. Worth keeping an eye on the race though.
RaflW
@WaterGirl: Yeah, Gaba is useful to some extent but I think he’s too driven by Cook’s PVI data, and he tends to draw attention to races so if he’s covering it, do we need to?
I unfollowed him for a while because he was, IMO, irrationally angry at Ilhan Omar and was pushing money towards a crappy former city council member who was primarying her. I gently pushed back on that, making clear I had local knowledge in the T.C. and he was just “sorry, she’s terrible” so I let him go.
(It’s fine to be furious about various aspects of Israel-Gaza. But Omar is not the source of the problems there. If we’d have ended up with Don Samuels in the House, he’d have been a shit legislator AND a shit Democrat.)
WaterGirl
Really appreciating all the ideas and suggestions in this thread. Keep ’em coming!
Yet Another Haldane
@RaflW: I agree with you on Samuels, yikes. It’s very good news that he lost the primary.
RaflW
BTW, three quarters of a billion dollars has been raised on ActBlue since Joe Biden announced he was leaving the ticket. Maybe that’s relatively in line with 2020 numbers, I dunno. But it’s a lot. I assume that big dollar donors write checks to avoid the fees, but don’t know that. Just seems like a ton of grassroots Dem energy, and that’s great!
wmd
@RaflW: I’m really curious about volunteer counts. If memory served it hit 250,000 by the time the “X identity group for Harris” got done with white dudes. Total count of volunteers and number that have renewed their commitment through following up.
WaterGirl
@frosty: Do all the former TV anchors have the crazy eyes, or is it just the republican ones?
Another Scott
Lots of smart people here help us direct our resources in smart ways. Thank you.
The States Project has a list of states and races they’re supporting. I don’t know if it’s a good list, but they’ve done some work on weeding out that they think is important.
It’s a project of the PAC for America’s Future which is some sort of hybrid PAC/SuperPAC according to OpenSecrets. They donate to state parties and state candidates according to OpenSecrets.org. It looks like about 18.5% of donations is expenses of various kinds – I don’t know if that’s normal or high or what.
I suspect our overhead here is much less than 18.5%!!
Thanks for putting this – and everything else – together, WG!
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Marleedog
@BR:
Thanks, I missed the edit window then got distracted.🙄
Gaba’s Twitter feed has many links ro local fundraising, much along the lines of what Watergirl and Balloon Juice is working to achieve
WaterGirl
@RaflW: Yes, and I think he removed Marie G. and one other person from his lists because they called for Biden to step down.
I’m not sure anyone is more unhappy than I am with the HOW of how we got to this good place we are in, but 10x more than that, I want a strong majority in the House, and if it’s not Marie G. in that seat, then it’s a Republican.
Just win, baby! Eyes on the prize.
Fake Irishman
@206inKY:
Newsflash: we’ve been chipping away at Texas for eight years. After 2014, the GOP held something like 99/150 seats in the state House. Even after a new Gerrymander in 2021, and a not-great election in 2022 they hold 86. We’re more than halfway there.
Dems have taken over several important mid tier Appeals courts in 2018 and are trying to hold them this year. We’re starting to make inroads in big suburban counties and even run a few (Fort Bend)
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: Our overhead for political fundraising on Balloon Juice is exactly ZERO!
Unless you count sweat equity, in which case I would be owed a ton of money. :-)
twbrandt
Driving on I-94 in Michigan this morning, I saw two billboards next to the freeway near DTW. One had a image of Kamala with the words “A NEW WAY FORWARD”. The other had an image of someone whose name I didn’t catch with the words “A FORMER REPUBLICAN WHO IS NOT VOTING FOR TRUMP”.
The only Trump signs I’ve seen are lawn signs, and fewer of them than I saw in 2020.
Fake Irishman
@WaterGirl:
Agreed. As obnoxious as Manchin and Sinema have been, they’ve ensured we’ve gotten scores of judges and a major Covid relief bill and the IRA through, not to mention control of the floor agenda, which stops anything bad from coming up for a vote. MGP as our 218th vote is far better than a GOPer.
AM in NC
@Fake Irishman: Yes. We in NC HAVE to hold the Democratic sets on our Supreme Court this election, and then we have a shot in 2028 of regaining a majority.
It’s the only hoe we have of ending the egregious gerrymandering of our state by Republicans.
Geminid
@RaflW: Gaba also trashes Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, so I’d say he’s an equal opportunity snob. I respect Reps. Omar and Gluesenkamp Perez a lot more than I respect Mr. Gaba.
Maxim
@rikyrah: 🤣🤣🤣
marcopolo
Caveat: This info is for folks who want to send a few bucks to a really really longshot/darkhorse candidate. I’m not advocating that there be an official BJ effort for him, just want to get this out there for anyone who might be interested.
So there’s this guy, Dan Osborn, who is running for Senate in Nebraska as an Independent against the two term Republican, Deb Fischer. A totally under the radar race to me–hell, I had to look up Fischer who’s been a Senator for 12 years. Osborn’s not your typical candidate (website). From his xtwitter account yesterday:
According to the elections number crunchers that I follow (including Lakshya Jain & Sam Wang) he might actually have a slim shot at winning. The most recent poll (538 polling for NE Senate) shows a race w/in the margin of error (Fischer +2). All polls to date have been partisan campaign polls.
Anyway, with Walz having NE roots & the fact there will be resources put into winning the NE-02 (Omaha) congressional seat (Walz has already done an event in NE) for that electoral vote I’d say there’s a chance. And a win here would be totally unexpected and quite delightful. If you have $5, $10, $25 to put down on a long long shot you might consider going to his website above and dropping some coin. It isn’t going to be a really expensive race and a few dollars should go further than say in MT (second caveat, I do already give to Tester). For me, this is like buying a lottery ticket.
If you have access to twitter & want to see the original back and forth about this it shows up on Lakshya Jain’s feed about an hour ago (2 pm central) w/ links to Wang and Osborn’s xtweets from there. Oh, and Jain’s last comment was:
Westyny
Making a pitch for Josh Riley in NY-19, a district that was reapportioned by feckless NY Democrats before the last election, which Riley narrowly lost to Marc Molinaro. Riley has outraged Molinaro in visible money so far, but Molinaro is still a favorite on sites like The Hill. Riley can win this in a turning point year and is close. He’s great and worked for Franker’s office when Franken was in the Senate.
Roberto el oso
@rk: I’m with you on this. I have complete confidence that KH will do exceedingly well but there just doesn’t seem to be any way to prepare or successfully counter the absolute firehose of lies that he’ll bring. And I don’t trust the moderators not to just sit there and let him get away with it.
marcopolo
@WaterGirl: I think Gaba is very good at raising awareness (and funds) for races that don’t get as much attention, and I’d imagine that his various lists also manage to get donations to campaigns that otherwise would never happen. It’s not for everyone, but it doesn’t have to be. I say the more the merrier when it comes to getting folks excited to give to campaigns.
Hell, I used to focus a lot on the DCCC’s red to blue races for campaign contributions but this year I’m concentrating on holding the Senate cause that’s the area I’m most concerned about atm. Plus a few Run for Something candidates.
Anyway, BJ has been knocking it out of the park the past few years so thanks to you and everyone else here that’s helping out.
Another Scott
@marcopolo: Thanks for the pointer, and the info.
Donated.
(I’ll be checking out the other mentions in this thread as I get time.)
Cheers,
Scott.
frosty
@WaterGirl: Well, from the pictures, she looks normal. If I get a chance for a Zoom I’ll let you know.
KenK
@PST: our 7 yr old grandson is ‘mildly’ autistic and struggles to communicate verbally. He is the sweetest and mild mannered young boy you’d meet.
Westyny
@Westyny: Outraised, not outraged. Sheesh.
Dan B
@WaterGirl: Mare Gluesencamp Perez’ opponent, Joe Kent, is horrific. His staff includes Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer activists. He’s been endorsed by Neo Nazi Nick Fuentes. Gaba’s pulling of his endorsement for MGP is incredibly disturbing.
Marleedog
The same for Jared Golden. His stated reason is that both of these reps said that they might not even vote for Biden if he stayed in the race, and that was a bridge too far for Gaba.
@Dan B #76
Wombat Probability Cloud
@Mai Naem mobile: Late to the thread, but I also was going to suggest Christiansen as a compelling candidate who fits well the themes of this election cycle. The poll I looked at (sponsored by her group, dated 2 August) showed her down by 13, but up from -37 mid-June, suggesting to me that upon exposure people like her.
Armadillo
Lanon Baccam is trying to flip a congressional district in Iowa. Although he may already be well funded. At least he has a nice website. I haven’t done the mathematical calculus that Charles Gaba and others have done. I’m just suggesting him because 1) flipping Iowa congressional district and 2) I think I’m (somewhat distantly) related to him.
https://lanonbaccam.com/
WaterGirl
@Dan B: Yeah, it doesn’t inspire confidence.
TxTiger
Bolts Magazine has written “Your State-by-State Guide to the 2024 Supreme Court Elections”
The article highlights Ohio and Michigan where the outcome of the election could change control. These seem worth investing in.
Mai Naem mobile
I know the thread is basically dead but the Dem candidate running for Maricopa County recorder is a really important position. The current Republican who is not an election denier lost his primary to an election denier. The Dem.candidate is Tim Stringham. https://timstringham.com/meet-tim. He could win with a good turnout for Gallego and Harris. At least it’s Maricopa County so it’s basically Metro Phoenix with a few rural/exurb areas.