Targeted Political Fundraising Fall 2022

Update at 7:45 pm – We have a $1,000 match!

An angel will match Marie Gluesenkamp Perez ($750) and Susan Wild ($250).  That will put both of them over the top for the $4,500 we are trying to raise for each person.  I am making note of the donation amounts for each person right now, and as soon as Marie and as soon as each one increases by the amounts above, they will have hit at least $4,500 and will join Marcy, Sharice, Gabe and Elaine on “pause” while we get the rest to at least $3.500.

In a late comment on the last post, Mary Peltola (AK-01) was suggested for inclusion in this list.  My first thought was “yes!”   But yesterday was Sept 30, so I think we should wait for the quarterly fundraising figures, which we should be seeing really soon.  Let’s see what Mary Peltola’s race looks like funding-wise.  My gut feeling is that she will be getting national money from a whole bunch of sources, but we will know soon enough.  If our money can make a difference, I would love to see us add her.  If it turns out that she is swimming in money, we’ll let others support her and we’ll donate where our money isn’t salt in the ocean.

Matching: We met the $1,000 for Mercedes Krause (NV-02)!   So she has gained a lot of ground in the thermometer!  I really hadn’t thought of matching for these thermometers, but if anyone else is really invested in a particular candidate on the list, and you want to put up a match for your candidate, we can do that. 

Candidate Notes:  We added Emilia Sykes (OH-13) yesterday, too.  Susan Wild (PA-07) was the 5th person added to the thermometer, and she is at just over $4,000.  When she hits $4,500, she will join Marcy, Sharice, Gabe and Elaine in “pause” mode while we try to get everyone on the list to at least $3,500.

Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will be split 9 ways.  

These 4 have reached over $4,700 each, so they are currently paused on the list.

*Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
*Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
*Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
*Elaine Luria  (VA-02)

Current Recipients

Susan Wild (PA-07) – $250 match right now
Josh Riley  (NY-19)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez  (WA-03) – $750 match right now
Eric Sorenson  (IL-17)
Tony Vargas  (NE-02)
Yadira Caraveo  (CO-08)
Susie Lee  (NV-03)
Mercedes Krause  (NV-02)
Emilia Sykes  (OH-13)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

If you want to learn more about the folks on the list, click on the Targeted Political Fundraising Fall 2022 tag up top and check out some of the other posts in this series.

Here’s where we’re at right now:

Reminder:  our next thermometer will be Election Protection in Key States, which will be a series like this one.  Only we’ll be rolling out key races that have a huge impact on election protections, like Secretary of State, Attorney General, Governor, and possibly pivotal judges on state Supreme Courts.

All of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall (so far) are in the sidebar, and also at the link below.  I have a link to each one in the sidebar now.  The link doesn’t show the thermometer itself, but it takes you to it.  I thought it might be easier to remember what all the options are if they are listed.

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (AK-01?) Match Is ActivePost + Comments (27)

In our last post in this series, Balloon Juice peeps made the case for adding Emilia Sykes (OH-13) to our list.  She has been added!

About Emilia Sykes, from the comments yesterday:

Our candidate is is Emilia Sykes.  She is great with years of government experience in the statehouse. Their candidate is basically Marsha Blackburn with a law degree. Also with a beauty degree. Also on RWNJ talk radio. I think she had her own show.

I am in the new 13th, too! And Emilia’s opponent is totally unqualified.

Yes the most recent filing shows Emilia had $40,000 less than Gilbert but that was in June. I just got an email that said she was $13,000 short of her goal for the quarter. I know they always say that! But I contributed anyway! I am so excited there is a chance to be represented by a Democrat!

Always good to see yet another awesome Black female politician in the early stages of a great career.

Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will be split 9 ways.  

These 4 have reached over $4,700 each, so they are currently paused on the list.

*Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
*Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
*Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
*Elaine Luria  (VA-02)

Current Recipients

Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley  (NY-19)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez  (WA-03)
Eric Sorenson  (IL-17)
Tony Vargas  (NE-02)
Yadira Caraveo  (CO-08)
Susie Lee  (NV-03)
Mercedes Krause  (NV-02)
Emilia Sykes  (OH-13)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

If you want to learn more about the folks on the list, click on the Targeted Political Fundraising Fall 2022 tag up top and check out some of the other posts in this series.

NOTE:  Mercedes Krause (NV-02) was added to the list yesterday, and we have a $1,000 match offer for her donations.  Mercedes is kind of the exception to our rule.  Her race is not a toss-up, but the folks at Four Directions think there is a chance that she may be able to pull it off.  Bret said that the Native voters are VERY EXCITED about Mercedes, as she is a great candidate and is Native herself – so even if she doesn’t win, they believe she will help bring out the native vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

Bret will personally match $1,000 of Balloon Juice donations to Mercedes.  I will watch the thermometer on the back end, and as soon as we hit $1,000 for Mercedes, he will add his $1,000 to the thermometer.

Here’s where we’re at right now:

Reminder:  our next thermometer will be Election Protection in Key States, which will be a series like this one.  Only we’ll be rolling out key races that have a huge impact on election protections, like Secretary of State, Attorney General, Governor.

Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall (so far) are in the sidebar, and also at the link below.  I have a link to each one in the sidebar now.  The link doesn’t show the thermometer itself, but it takes you to it.  I thought it might be easier to remember what all the options are if they are listed.

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (OH-13)Post + Comments (54)

First off, what you guys did yesterday was amazing!  Over $5,000 raised for our flash fundraiser for Catherine Cortez-Masto in less than 4 hours!

But we’re so close to the election now, and there’s no rest for the wicked weary. :-)

As I mentioned on Tuesday, David Plouffe talked about how critical Nevada is for this cycle, for executive offices like governor and secretary of state.  There are also 3 toss-up House races in Nevada this cycle (NV-01, NV-03, NV-04).

We met Mercedes Krause (NV-02, not a toss-up) when she joined Four Directions for our zoom in August, where they give us the scoop from on the ground in NV.  I think she is doing really well, and NV-02 is such a huge district that it includes land that borders on 4 different states!

So we’re back to thinking about NV-01, NV-03, and NV-04.  It turns out that Almost Retired knows someone who is well-connected to the political scene in Nevada, and she says it’s Susie Lee (NV-03) who really needs our help.

I have reached out to Four Directions to see how well that matches up with what they are seeing on the ground.  I’ll let you know as soon as I hear back from Four Directions.

In the meantime, I have added Susie Lee (NV-03) to our list!

Elaine Luria, Gabe Vasquez, Marcy Kaptur, and Sharice Davids – our original four – are each within $300 or $350 of the $5k goal for each.  So as soon as those they people reach $5k, I plan to take them off our list for whatever time it takes to get everybody to at least $3,500.  At that point we’ll add everybody back in for folks who want to continue to support those candidates.

Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will be split 8 ways.  But I hope that within an hour or two we can make that an 8-way split because we will have reached $4,500 for each candidate marked with an * below.

*Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
*Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
*Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
*Elaine Luria  (VA-02)

Current Recipients

Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley  (NY-19)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez  (WA-03)
Eric Sorenson  (IL-17)
Tony Vargas  (NE-02)
Yadira Caraveo  (CO-08)
Susie Lee  (NV-03)
Mercedes Krause  (NV-02)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

If you want to learn more about the folks on the list, click on the Targeted Political Fundraising Fall 2022 tag up top and check out some of the other posts in this series.

Here’s where we’re at right now:

And just so you know where we’re headed after this, it’s the Election Protection in Key States thermometer, which will be a series like this one.  Only we’ll be rolling out key races that have a huge impact on election protections, like Secretary of State, or Governor. We’ll also be including a few Attorneys General –  like in Wisconsin, where it’s the State AG who controls the elections, not to mention that AGs will have a huge impact on abortion access in particular states.

Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall (so far) are in the sidebar, and also at the link below.  I have a link to each one in the sidebar now.  The link doesn’t show the thermometer itself, but it takes you to it.  I thought it might be easier to remember what all the options are if they are listed.

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Update at 5:45 pm

Having met Mercedes Krause – she is quite impressive – I made the wrong assumption.  I assumed that her race (NV-02) was not a toss-up because she was expected to win.  But that’s not the case.  She is a fierce candidate and fierce campaigner, but the powers that be believe the Republican incumbent will win.

But the folks at Four Directions think she may be able to pull it off.  So I’ll be adding Mercedes to the list in a minute.  If anyone wants to give to Mercedes, specifically, you will have to customize your amount in the thermometer.

Bret at Four Directions will personally match up to $1,000 of Balloon Juice donations to Mercedes, and if we get there, he will add $1,000 of his own money to our thermometer.  He believes that any funds we can get to Mercedes at this point will be helpful, so I would like to be able to get her and Susie Lee $5k each.  (and everyone else on this list, but they are the two newbies today)

So let me know in the comments how much you have donated to Mercedes specifically, and I’ll track that for Bret’s match.

Bret said that the Native peeps are VERY EXCITED about Mercedes, as she is Native herself, and he believes that she will help bring out the native vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (NV-03)Post + Comments (50)

There have been a lot of great nominations for who to add to our Winnable House Races in Purple Districts thermometer.

From the previous post:

There were some great candidates that I haven’t added because they seem to be in good shape financially and I’m thinking that our funding wouldn’t make a difference.  So let’s stick with this 10; I think we’re gonna call it quits on adding any new people for awhile.

Lest we spread ourselves too thin… if there’s someone who really should be added, we will need to take someone off.

I was listening to David Plouffe on Pod Save America this morning, where Plouffe talked about how important Nevada is, both for executive offices like governor and secretary of state, but also because there are 3 toss-up House races in Nevada this time around.

So… what do you guys know about the candidates and the races in NV-01, NV-03 and NV-04?

Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will now be split 10 ways.

Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
Elaine Luria  (VA-02)
Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley  (NY-19)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez  (WA-03)
Eric Sorenson  (IL-17)
Tony Vargas  (NE-02)
Yadira Caraveo  (CO-08)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

If you want to learn more about the folks on the list, click on the Targeted Political Fundraising Fall 2022 tag up top and check out some of the other posts in this series.

Here’s where we’re at right now:

Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall are in the sidebar, and also at the link below.  Besides this one, there are thermometers for the AZ Executives (Firewall) and one for Charlie Crist so we can give DeSantis the boot, and make him a one-term governor and a zero-term president!

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (NV-01, NV-03, NV-04)Post + Comments (43)

There have been a lot of great nominations for who to add to our Winnable House Races in Purple Districts thermometer.  I did some research on the nominees, and I have added 3 more: Eric Sorenson (IL-07), Tony Vargas (NE-02) and Yadira Caraveo (CO-08)

There were some great candidates thatI haven’t added because they seem to be in good shape financially and I’m thinking that our funding wouldn’t make a difference.  So let’s stick with this 10; I think we’re gonna call it quits on adding any new people for awhile.

Lest we spread ourselves too thin… if there’s someone who really should be added, we will need to take someone off.

Since it’s a Saturday afternoon, I’m including a photo of Miss Willow.  She thinks Henry has been in the spotlight long enough!

Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will now be split 10 ways.

Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
Elaine Luria  (VA-02)
Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley  (NY-19)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez  (WA-03)
Eric Sorenson  (IL-17)
Tony Vargas  (NE-02)
Yadira Caraveo  (CO-08)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

If you want to learn more about the folks on the list, click on the Targeted Political Fundraising Fall 2022 tag up top and check out some of the other posts in this series.

Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall are in the sidebar, and also at the link below.  Besides this one, there are thermometers for the AZ Executives (Firewall) and one for Charlie Crist so we can give DeSantis the boot, and make him a one-term governor and a zero-term president!

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (IL-17, NE-02, CO-08 Added)Post + Comments (33)

One of our Bj peeps, Kent, suggested that we consider adding Marie Glusenkamp Perez (WA-03) to our Winnable House Races in Purple Districts thermometer.  I did some research and I wasn’t convinced – until I found some information that was published just yesterday in a local paper.

Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will now be split 7 ways.

Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
Elaine Luria  (VA-02)
Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley  (NY-19)
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

Kent:

I would add Marie Gluesenkamp Perez here in the WA-3rd.  The incumbent GOP-er Jaime Herrera Beutler went down to a rabid Q-Anon Trumper type.  So I think the seat is winnable, especially in light of Dobbs.  And Marie is a really good candidate for this district.

The most recent polling has Joe Kent leading by +4 The one before that had Marie leading by +2. It was a Trump +4 district in 2020.

After Jaime Herrera Beutler was defeated in the primary it shifted from solid Republican to leans Republican by Cooks.

She is running very hard on Dobbs and calling out Kent for his MAGA extremism, especially on abortion. Other than Dobbs she is running more or less as a blue collar Democrat which suits this district.

It will be an uphill battle. But it is winnable I think. We shall see.

Local reporting that I found today:

A poll published by the Northwest Progressive Institute shows Democratic congressional hopeful Marie Glusenkamp Perez trailing Donald Trump-endorsed Republican Joe Kent by just three percentage points in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.

In a poll of 834 likely District 3 voters surveyed Sept. 19-20, 44% said they would vote for Glusenkamp Perez and 47% said they would vote for Kent.

Nine percent said they were unsure.

Glusenkamp Perez’s campaign represents one of the strongest Democratic contenders for an upset victory in the 2022 midterm elections, as the 3rd Congressional District hasn’t been won by a Democrat since 2008 when Brian Baird defeated Republican Michael Delavar.

More about her here:  Marie for Congress

Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall are in the sidebar, and also at the link below.  Besides this one, there are thermometers for the AZ Executives (Firewall) and one for Charlie Crist so we can give DeSantis the boot, and make him a one-term governor and a zero-term president!

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (WA-03 Added)Post + Comments (72)

One of our Bj peeps, hells littlest angel, has made the case for Josh Riley (NY-19) to be added to our Winnable House Races in Purple Districts thermometer.   Unless you customize the amounts, donations to this thermometer will be split 6 ways.

Marcy Kaptur  (OH-09)
Sharice Davids  (KS-03)
Gabe Vasquez  (NM-02)
Elaine Luria  (VA-02)
Susan Wild (PA-07)
Josh Riley  (NY-19)

 Winnable House Races Purple Districts

Josh Riley is about even in dollars with his opponent, with most of his funding coming from out of state. I can’t find any polling data, but the race is considered a toss-up.

Josh Riley on Choice:

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson, which overturned Roe v Wade, is an affront to progress, liberty, and women’s rights. We must not allow it to stand. (You can read Josh’s op-ed on this issue here.) Josh will take the following steps to fight back:

First, Josh will sponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify Roe’s protections in federal statute. The bill states that a health care provider has a right to provide abortion services, and the provider’s patient has a right to receive them—and that’s exactly the way the law should be.

Second, because it is not enough for Congress simply to codify Roe, Josh will also work to close the loopholes that states have used to create “bounty programs” to circumvent Roe’s protections. Congress should update jurisdictional and procedural statutes to make clear that the Justice Department and aggrieved individuals have recourse in the courts when their freedom is infringed.

Third, we must ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. In Dobbs, the Supreme Court concluded that the 14th Amendment’s protections for liberty do not cover abortion. Instead of relying on the 14th Amendment—and the Supreme Court’s incorrect interpretation of it—we should enact a new amendment making women’s reproductive freedom crystal clear. As an attorney, Josh submitted a federal court briefing arguing for ratification of the ERA, and he will continue that fight in Congress.

Fourth, the federal government should do everything it can to protect and expand women’s access to FDA-approved abortion medications, which are approved for the first ten weeks and are used for about 50% of abortions today. After a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked in May, Josh sent a letter to the Justice Department, urging it to file lawsuits against states that try to ban those medications. Under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, the federal government’s ruling authorizing the use of abortion medications takes precedence over state laws prohibiting them – so women have a legal right to abortion medications today even with Roe being overturned. The Justice Department must enforce that right. In addition, Josh has written a letter to the FDA, urging it to extend its approval for these medications from 10 weeks to 12.

Fifth, Josh will use the congressional appropriations process to fight back against the Dobbs decision. A few years after Roe was decided, anti-choice lawmakers attached the Hyde Amendment to government funding bills to prohibit the use of federal funds for abortion services, thereby denying necessary medical care to low-income women. Now, in response to Dobbs, it is time for pro-choice lawmakers to turn the tables by attaching amendments to appropriations bills to withhold certain funding from states that restrict women’s access to reproductive healthcare.

Reminder: all of the targeted fundraising thermometers for this fall are in the sidebar, and available right here and through the link in the sidebar. Besides this one, there are thermometers for the AZ Executives (Firewall) and one for Charlie Crist so we can give DeSantis the boot, and make him a one-term governor and a zero-term president!

All Targeted Fundraising Thermometers

Totally open thread!

Winnable House Races in Purple Districts (NY-19 Added)Post + Comments (24)