Local Races 2018 and earlier

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Lone Star of Mind

by Anne Laurie| October 10, 20184:47 am| 143 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Religion, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

CNN is hosting a Beto O’Rourke town hall on 10/18. Adds: " Senator Ted Cruz (R) declined CNN’s invitation to participate in the town hall."

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) October 9, 2018

Plus: "Ted Cruz's campaign initially accepted CNN's invitation to participate but later declined, a network official said." https://t.co/tjclDdkIaH

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 9, 2018

I owe one of you a hat tip for this NYTimes article, “Beto O’Rourke May Benefit From an Unlikely Support Group: White Evangelical Women”:

… In the Senate race, one of the most unexpectedly tight in the nation, any small shift among evangelical voters — long a stable base for Republicans — could be a significant loss for Mr. Cruz, who, like President Trump, has made white evangelicals the bulwark of his support.

To Democrats nationwide, who have largely written off white evangelical voters, it also sends a signal — not just for the midterms but also for the 2020 presidential campaign — that there are female, religious voters who are open to some of their party’s candidates.

The women, who are all in their 30s, described Mr. O’Rourke as providing a stark moral contrast to Mr. Trump, whose policies and behavior they see as fundamentally anti-Christian, especially separating immigrant children from their parents at the border, banning many Muslim refugees and disrespecting women.

“I care as much about babies at the border as I do about babies in the womb,” said Tess Clarke, one of Ms. Mooney’s friends, confessing that she was “mortified” at how she used to vote, because she had only considered abortion policy. “We’ve been asleep. Now, we’ve woke up.”

Ms. Clarke, who sells candles poured by refugee women in Dallas, began to weep as she recalled visiting a migrant woman detained and separated from her daughter at the border. When an older white evangelical man recently told her that she couldn’t be a Christian and vote for Mr. O’Rourke, Ms. Clarke was outraged.

“I keep going back to who Jesus was when he walked on earth,” she said. “This is about proximity to people in pain.”…

Trump has been a true catalyst for America’s Evangelicals, and not just in Texas. The chemical reaction to his terrible, un-Christian sins and the general GOP piety-mouthing about ‘forgiveness’ has precipitated notice of the disconnect between those who actually believe in the tenets of Jesus, and those who just use His words as tribal markers for their own insular, mean-spirited band of bigots. Don’t know how much it can help Beto O’Rourke… but if I were a professional Christian, I’d be very worried about the next decade and beyond.

From a columnist at the Houston Chronicle:

Speaking of what people want to hear: it occurs to me that I have potentially good news for all Americans, but it's sandwiched between pieces of bad news which, together, explain the "potentially" hedge. 1/

— EricaGrieder (@EricaGrieder) October 10, 2018

show full post on front page

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Lone Star of MindPost + Comments (143)

Local Voting Open Thread: Good for Taylor Swift

by Anne Laurie| October 8, 20184:33 am| 37 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Popular Culture, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Taylor Swift cares more about black people than Kanye West and now I need to lay down because I got a headache just from tweeting that.

— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) October 8, 2018

I was told Swift’s real profit base is pre-teen and young-teen girls (and their parents), and it’s my impression that those girls are a lot more LGBGTQ-friendly than their Tennessee elders… Per the Tennessean:

… The 28-year-old superstar took to Instagram on Sunday night to weigh in on Tennessee’s closely contested U.S. Senate race, endorsing Democratic former Gov. Phil Bredesen as she offered a harsh rebuke of U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the Republican nominee.

Her endorsement of Bredesen marks the first time Swift has spoken publicly about politics.

“As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” Swift wrote, elaborating that “her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me.”

Swift specifically noted Blackburn’s vote against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, versions of which Blackburn has opposed in recent years. She also condemned Blackburn’s stance against marriage equality

“These are not MY Tennessee values,” Swift wrote…

In her Instagram post, Swift said she has been “reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.”

“I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country,” she wrote. “I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.”…

And if she’s just broken a few Nazi hearts, well…

“4chan Nazis devastated by Taylor Swift’s TN Senate endorsement” is the energy I needed to carry me into Monday.

— Matt Ford (@fordm) October 8, 2018

It’s worth saying the meme “Taylor Swift is a secret Nazi who worships Odin and voted for Trump” was always clickbait to push articles for years with no basis in reality requiring no work and triggering little public reticence, all capitalizing on hesitancy to push back at all. pic.twitter.com/c4SzFoQj9b

— SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) October 8, 2018

I think it says she votes in Tennessee. https://t.co/JcJwzeBisu

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 8, 2018

Local Voting Open Thread: Good for Taylor SwiftPost + Comments (37)

Open Thread: Andrew Gillum, Looking Better and Better

by Anne Laurie| September 20, 201811:00 pm| 46 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality

So-called Republican activist calls fmr President Obama a “Muslim n——r” and is indignant about being called a racist. Just a reminder ppl still think being a labeled a racist is worse than actual racism https://t.co/H3s4EUGvIN

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 20, 2018

From the Washington Post, “‘The Obama excitement’”:

ORLANDO — Salandra Benton used to campaign so hard for Barack Obama that her feet would swell as she walked through nightclubs, hair salons, apartment buildings and church parking lots telling people they had to vote.

After Obama won Florida in 2008 and 2012, Benton hoped to step back from door-to-door campaigning. But then Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum shocked Florida last month by winning the Democratic nomination for governor, with the potential of becoming the state’s first African American chief executive.

Now, Benton has been drawn back into Florida’s political street fight on behalf of Gillum, who faces former congressman Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee, in the Nov. 6 election.

“I think this is even bigger than Obama, because this is even closer to home,” said Benton, 54, a union organizer who is African American. “The Obama excitement was, ‘We are finally going to get a black president.’ But now this is Florida’s son, in a state we feel black men have been attacked and not protected, so we are waking back up.”…

Gillum also is hoping he can do better among white voters than Obama did in 2012, when he carried 37 percent of the white vote, according to exit polls. The school shooting last year in Parkland, Fla., and concern about the ongoing “red tide” fish kill on the state’s western beaches may be loosening Florida Republicans’ hold on white voters, Democrats say.

“There is a swing-vote population, largely suburban white women in Tampa and Orlando, and I absolutely believe Gillum can do well with those voters,” said Steve Schale, a Florida political strategist who ran Obama’s state effort here in 2012…

Even before Gillum’s primary win, Florida activists said the state’s black community was more energized than in previous midterm elections, because of a host of local and national issues, including Trump’s battle with National Football League players as well as the state’s controversial “stand your ground” gun law.

“I think people are more aware of how much these races have consequences, and they are not going to deal with those consequences,” said Lydia Hudson, a Tampa resident and head of the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida, which claims it helped to double black turnout for Gillum during the primary compared with past off-year primary elections.

In the general election, activists say, African American turnout could be further boosted by a measure on the Florida ballot that would restore voting rights for some felons, something activists and church leaders have been aggressively campaigning for since the start of the year…

I think we can be sure the GOP will give these voters every possible reminder of how much is at stake.

Don’t think we have a dedicated ActBlue widget for Gillum yet, but here’s his campaign website.

You know how if you get in a lot of car accidents, even if they're not "your fault" your rates go up because the common denominator is you? Seems like the same logic would apply to those who habitually associate with racists. https://t.co/ZhedX9INJo

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) September 20, 2018

Open Thread: Andrew Gillum, Looking Better and BetterPost + Comments (46)

Long Read: “Beto O’Rourke Could Be The Democrat Texas Has Been Waiting For”

by Anne Laurie| August 23, 201812:02 pm| 120 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Beto O’Rourke skateboarding in the Whataburger parking lot https://t.co/PE5fWLddnN pic.twitter.com/OTQUaOaxsE

— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) August 19, 2018

Ted Cruz, not to be outmanuevered, shall release video of himself BMXing in the parking lot of WhatAboutBurger ending badly as he runs into the back of a truck

— David Rowinski (@bolekaja1001) August 19, 2018

I spent 5 days trailing the Beto O'Rourke campaign through West-Central Texas — and wrote a piece that's much more about the communities responding to him, and the idea of the midterms as "the election of our lifetimes":https://t.co/vBj8AU4UVZ pic.twitter.com/S1txsVpa3W

— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) August 19, 2018

… When O’Rourke speaks on the stump, he punctuates his points by moving his left hand up and down, like he’s directing traffic. His voice isn’t particularly melodic; he’s Lincoln-lanky; he lacks the preacher’s cadence that marked former president Obama’s speeches. But O’Rourke’s energy is palpable, infectious; his sweat is the physical evidence of that energy leaving his body. And it seems to be working. Even as he struggles with a continued lack of name recognition, in a state that has consistently voted Republican for the past three decades, recent polling places O’Rourke just two to six points behind Cruz. Among volunteers, there’s cautious yet barely contained glee: Could O’Rourke pull off an upset that, just six months before, seemed impossible?

By the time O’Rourke reaches the peaks of his stump speech in Kerrville — advocating for better treatment of Texas’s teachers, arguing for universal health care, and decrying family separation at the border — his shirt is full-on stuck to his back, and the crowd feels ready to ignite. When he announces that he hasn’t taken any money from PACs, instead raising $10.4 million (with an average donation of $33) to Cruz’s $4.6 million over the last quarter, the audience explodes.

show full post on front page

Afterward, an endless line forms to meet and take selfies with the candidate. One man makes small talk with O’Rourke’s communications director, Chris Evans, who’s filming the entire thing — as he does every town hall — for Facebook Live. “You’ve got to get that man another shirt,” the man says. “He knows he only gets one shirt for the day,” Evans responded. “He sweat through this one early.”

A politician’s stump speech has the same effect as a good sermon. For those who already believe, it reenergizes the faithful. But a truly great stump speech also appeals to the skeptic — and provides moments of near-spiritual conversion. That’s what a Beto O’Rourke speech does. It makes people believe: believe that the country doesn’t have to feel the way it does right now, that people who think differently can still have a conversation, that you can be conservative and vote for a candidate without an “R” beside their name. While we’re 30 years removed from the election of a Democrat like Ann Richards to run the state — current governor Greg Abbott is a hardline conservative — a Beto O’Rourke speech makes people believe that a Democrat can win a major statewide race in Texas again. And these believers can help make it happen.

O’Rourke has taken to calling the coming election “the most important of our lives,” which, depending on one’s age, may or may not be an overstatement. But it’s an expression of how many people, including the 10,000-plus who’ve volunteered for his campaign, conceive of it. In supporting O’Rourke, they’re supporting a different vision of both Texas and the United States — one, as O’Rourke emphasizes, in which politicians show up to listen to all citizens, no matter their political inclination, or the size of their town, or their ability to donate to the campaign. One in which Texas — one of the most diverse states in the nation — models an empathetic, progressive way forward for a divided country…

Speaking with dozens of hopeful supporters over five days in West Central Texas, it’s clear that the enthusiasm and organization around O’Rourke’s campaign is there. And based on conversations with independent and Republican voters at his events, his message is traveling beyond progressive bubbles. He’s in small towns like Iraan, population 1,236, talking to a dozen people about rural issues like broadband internet; he’s filling theaters in bright red cities like Abilene. He has a veritable army of volunteers. But there’s a gap between energy and obtaining the kind of power that can effect change, and it’s one that it’ll take more than a “blue wave” to fill. It’s not just about convincing voters to swing O’Rourke’s way. It’s about convincing people to vote, period.

Like so many other blue-wave candidates across the US during these midterm elections, O’Rourke must convince nonvoters that voting actually matters — that they have the capacity to change their own lives and the lives of those around them. Texas is an enormous and varied state, and one that — no matter how purple its political demographics might seem — still votes red. How many shirts must O’Rourke sweat through to win its heart?…

Long Read: “Beto O’Rourke Could Be The Democrat Texas Has Been Waiting For”Post + Comments (120)

Open Thread: Repubs Running… for Cover

by Anne Laurie| August 20, 20187:00 pm| 130 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Hail to the Hairpiece, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!

(Jim Morin via GoComics.com)
.

Don’t lose hope just yet, we’re scaring the bastids. From Jonathan Swan at Axios, “A blue wave is obscuring a red exodus”:

Dave Wasserman, the Cook Political Report’s House analyst, says the most under-covered aspect of 2018 is that “a blue wave is obscuring a red exodus.” Republican House members are retiring at a startling clip — a trend that senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told me earlier this year was worrying her more than any other trend affecting the midterms.

What’s happening: There are 43 Republican seats now without an incumbent on the ballot. That’s more than one out of every six Republicans in the House — a record in at least a century, Wasserman says.

Why this matters: Just in the past eight months, the number of vulnerable Republican seats has almost doubled, according to Wasserman. Democrats need to win 23 seats to claim control of the House. Today, the Cook Political Report rates 37 Republican-held seats as toss-ups or worse. At the beginning of the year, it was only 20.

The big picture: Wasserman says the most important sign that 2018 will be a “wave” year — with Democrats winning control of the House — is the intensity gap between the two parties. In polls, Democrats consistently rate their interest in voting as significantly higher than Republicans. And Democrats have voted in extraordinary numbers in the special elections held the past year, despite Republicans holding on to win almost all of these races…

Open Thread: Repubs Running… for CoverPost + Comments (130)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Sail On, Sail On, O Mighty Ship of State!

by Anne Laurie| August 16, 20185:17 am| 138 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Local Races 2018 and earlier, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Daydream Believers

Longfellow published the poem quoted in Cohen’s song in 1849, another bad divided era of American history. We survived the inevitable conflict that was brewing then, and if we have the same courage and dedication, we’ll survive this one as well. (Hopefully with less bloodshed, since we’ve got that earlier example to remind us.)

From the Washington Post, “Sharice Davids, who sees past discrimination as her asset, could become the first gay Native American in Congress”:

… If elected in November, she would be the first gay Native American to claim a seat in the Capitol’s chambers. She would also become the first openly gay person to represent Kansas in federal office and possibly one of the first two Native American women to enter Congress. Deb Haaland, a Democratic nominee in New Mexico, is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe; Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.

The history-making potential of Davids’s candidacy is not the focal point of her pitch to voters. After all, this is Kansas, where only a slim majority of people said they supported same-sex marriage in polling conducted last year.

“I definitely think there are quite a few people who are excited about that, but the thing I hear more often is that people are excited about electing someone who just has a shared experience,” Davids, 38, said, still basking in her victory in last week’s six-way primary…

Enumerating the experiences she shares with Kansans, Davids described being raised by a single mother, being first in her family to attend university, starting out at community college and having to work while in school, whether as a carhop at a Sonic Drive-In or as a bartender at a Marriott.

At first, she didn’t even note her sexual orientation — the reason, said Brett Hoedl, chairman of the Kansas City Metro chapter of Equality Kansas, that so many gay voters placed their trust in her.

“It’s one thing to fight for someone else’s rights versus having someone who has experienced discrimination or experienced the issues that the LGBT community has faced,” Hoedl said. This desire, to have someone of your identity representing you, is driving a surge of gay candidates seeking office this year, just as it’s driving a surge of female and Muslim candidates, he said. “When you look at the rhetoric coming out of this administration, and some of the policies getting rolled back,” he said, “there’s a need to actually have these folks in office.”…

At the beginning of the year, when Davids looked at the slate of candidates vying to take on Yoder — a fellow attorney who was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 2002, the same year he earned his law degree — she wasn’t satisfied, she said. There was no woman in the race, for one. “I remember looking around and thinking, ‘who is a strong woman who could get into this race?’ I felt like since I was asking the question, I should be part of the solution.”…

Thursday Morning Open Thread: <em>Sail On, Sail On, O Mighty Ship of State!</em>Post + Comments (138)

Friday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

by Anne Laurie| August 10, 20185:28 am| 219 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Local Races 2018 and earlier, NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat

This is just going to be some EPIC fanboi caterwauling if it happens

Also, he’d be great in the role. Bond is about presence and menace, both of which he has.

https://t.co/C1ujtVhSSc

— QHatSecretMessages (@Popehat) August 10, 2018

Pretty sure the people who would be most angry about Idris Elba as James Bond haven't seen a James Bond movie since Roger Moore.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 10, 2018

In before the Friday News Dump, assuming we get another one here in mid-August…

A winner won't be declared in #OH12 until Aug 24th, but regardless of the outcome here is something to feel good about:

Dems regained all 11% that Trump won the district by in 2016

If Dems can recreate that shift statewide we'll win Ohio's Senate & Governor's race in November.

— Nate Lerner (@NathanLerner) August 9, 2018

**********

Since January, Sen. Mazie Hirono has been asking *every* Trump nominee in her committees, under oath, about any sexual harassment in their past. Top defense officials. Judges. It's awkward and pointed every time.

Brett Kavanaugh is next. https://t.co/2NjfpqsRoN

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 9, 2018

And for you, I went back and counted ALL the Trump nominees Hirono has asked under oath if they've ever sexually harassed anyone. This is between 5 Senate committees, top defense + energy officials, judges, even the VA Secretary.

It's nearly 100. https://t.co/2NjfpqsRoN

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 9, 2018

***********
In support of Marcia Blackburn’s opponent:

Jason Isbell, Ben Folds to headline Phil Bredesen fundraiser https://t.co/6d4IhkhIzY

— Tennessean (@Tennessean) August 9, 2018

***********

Dudes, C’mon. A “poll” by HarrisX, a firm that does market research in the telecom industry? Why even bother to pretend you care about reliable data? https://t.co/iuqO1VbZyj

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 10, 2018

Three quarters of Americans don’t want Nancy Pelosi replaced, bc three quarters of Americans don’t have opinions on Nancy Pelosi, bc less than three quarters of Americans could even tell you who Nancy Pelosi is.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 10, 2018

show full post on front page

Friday Morning Open Thread: Readership CapturePost + Comments (219)

cckids on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Sep 19, 2024 @ 1:02am)

Trivia Man on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Sep 19, 2024 @ 12:51am)

Jackie on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Sep 19, 2024 @ 12:43am)

Mart on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Sep 19, 2024 @ 12:43am)

frosty on Wednesday Night Open Thread (Sep 19, 2024 @ 12:42am)

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

I was promised a recession.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

T R E 4 5 O N

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Republicans in disarray!

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.