Happy last week of summer. (Sorry!)
First, a fun fact: We have candidates running in 21 out of the 28 congressional pick up opportunities identified by the Cook Political Report. Their voter contact efforts will make a huge difference in the top-of-ticket turnout.
On to the good stuff…some great reading for you this week, especially as we lead up to primaries in Arizona and Florida tomorrow…
Our candidates in the news
- Meet Cedric McMinn, who could be the first out African-American lawmaker in Florida — my favorite part of Cedric’s campaign is that his sexual orientation is purely incidental to his efforts.
- Also in Florida: Emma Collum is part of the “pink wave” of women running in the Sunshine State. She’s personally knocked 7000+ doors ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
- Chris Haulmark’s story and campaign is knock-your-socks-off inspiring: If he wins his race for Kansas House of Representatives, he’ll be the first deaf legislator in the country. His goal is to knock all 8,000 doors in his district himself. (He’s well on his way.)
- We’re working with Jake Rybczyk, one of a crew of students runnings for local office across Orange County, CA. The LA Times profiled these badass candidates.
- There’s an unprecedented number of African Americans running for office in Arizona — including our endorsed candidate, Marcus Ferrell, who’s running in a competitive primary for a district that is nearly half people of color but has never been represented by a person fo color in the state House.
- Meet Lis Kenneth Regula, candidate for Portage County Auditor against a six-term GOP incumbent and Ohio’s first ever transgender candidate.
Related reading…
- Ross wrote a great op-ed in The Hill that lays out exactly why our conventional definition of “viability” or “electability” is racist, classist, sexist, and ultimately leads to crappier candidates. FiveThirtyEight has a long read on the same topic that’s worth reading, too. (Although for what it’s worth, I like Ross’s piece better.)
- Ross also wrote a quick 100 words on why it’s important to lower the barrier to entry for young candidates. Spoiler: If we don’t, we’re looking at four more years of Trump and another decade of a gerrymanderered Congress.
- Big surprise: It’s really hard to be a woman running for office. In spite of often relentless harassment and threats, they persist. But even beyond that, there are structural barriers in place: Vice dug in on the ways women running for state and local office struggle as ethics & elections boards refuse to let them use campaigns funds to pay for childcare. It’s such bullshit.
As we head into the final week of summer before Labor Day kicks off the sprint to Election Day, thanks for making all this possible. We couldn’t get it done without you.
P.S. — Two events to put on your calendar… We’ll be hosting a fundraiser in NYC on September 20th. On October 4th, some incredible folks are doing “upward facing Dems” yoga in D.C. to support us — my personal favorite overlap of activities.