Tag: Election

Plan Ahead–Take Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Off, and Maybe Other Days Too
Community Activism · Elections

Plan Ahead–Take Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Off, and Maybe Other Days Too

otycd

Plan ahead! Make sure to take Tuesday, November 3, 2020 off from work, and maybe Monday November 2 and Friday October 30 as well.

 

Election Day 2020 is going to be A Thing. You thought the 2018 midterms were a thing? Well, they were, but this is going to be A Bigger Thing.

 

You need to prepare for it.

 

Now is the time to think about what you will do on and around Tuesday, November 3, 2020 so you will be as effective as you can be in defending and upholding democracy.

 

It might make more sense for you to vote early or vote absentee so you can cover for co-workers to free them to head to the polls.

 

It might make more sense to take that Tuesday off from work, and maybe the surrounding days, too.

 

If you know you’re going to be out of town on that Tuesday, devote some time to getting your absentee ballot sorted.

 

Plan ahead, all!

 

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Do You Live In Or Near a 2020 Swing State?
Choose Your Core Four · Community Activism · Elections · Read, Educate Yourself, Prepare

Do You Live In Or Near a 2020 Swing State?

otycd

Do you live in a 2020 swing state? Find out. 

 

Whenever a presidential election approaches on the calendar, there’s much discussion of swing states–states that seem like they could tilt toward either the Democratic candidate or the Republican, and which should prove critical to a victory in the Electoral College. [A candidate has to rack up a minimum of 270 Electoral College votes to win the presidency. As of December 2019, the Electoral College consisted of 538 votes.]

 

Things have gotten ever more polarized over the years, which means the number of legitimate swing states has shrunk. But until we get rid of the Electoral College, swing states will exist, and they will matter more to the candidates than will states that are firmly red or blue.

 

In an August 2019 guest column for Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Alfred J. Tuchfarber identified six 2020 swing states:

 

Florida

Michigan

Minnesota

New Hampshire

Pennsylvania

Wisconsin

 

If you live in or near one of these states, it’s a good idea to pay closer attention and devote time and money to bringing about the result that you want to see.

 

In particular, you will want to stay on top of threats to the integrity of the voter rolls–attempts to restrict or suppress residents’ ability to cast a ballot–and you will want to do what you can to fight back.

 

And though Trump is notably weak on a national level, he might show stronger-than-expected poll numbers in specific states. For example, an early November 2019 CNBC piece shows Trump trailing Joe Biden in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin, but faring better against Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. [Important note: the  polls discussed took place weeks before the House of Representatives wrote and voted on articles of impeachment against Trump.]

 

A looser definition seems to apply to “battleground” states–those regarded as less important to the overall Electoral College count, but which could be in play in the next presidential election.

 

In an undated piece about 2020 Battleground States, Taegan Goddard counts the six swing states mentioned above and includes:

 

Maine

North Carolina

Georgia

Texas

Arizona

 

If you live in or near these five states, you’ll want to keep an eye on things here as well. That said, if you need to budget your attention, favor the swing states over the battleground states. The six swing states merit mention in both the Sabato and the Goddard articles.

 

 

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Support M.J. Hegar’s Bid to Unseat Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections

Support M.J. Hegar’s Bid to Unseat Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn

otycd

Support M.J. Hegar’s bid to unseat Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn.

 

If M.J. Hegar seems familiar, she should. She was featured in that amazing campaign video, Doors, which went viral in 2018.

 

Hegar lost the House of Representatives race for which she made that ad. (The final tally was 50.6 to 47.7, so, close, but not enough to win.) Undaunted, she’s now aiming at Senator John Cornyn, who’s up for re-election in 2020.

 

She’s picked a hard row to hoe. The Cook Political Report rates Cornyn’s seat as Solid Republican. And while Cornyn has racked up more than his share of jackholery in his time in the Senate, he’s not Ted Cruz.

 

Please consider M.J. Hegar for your Core Four for 2020.

 

See Hegar’s campaign website:

MJ for Texas

 

Donate to her campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mjh_website?refcode=web_homepage&amount=25&recurring=1

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

 

Like her on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/MJforTexas/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1945077182405313&ref=page_internal

 

Follow her on Twitter:

@mjhegar

 

Rewatch her stirring Doors campaign video:

 

See Ballotpedia’s page on Hegar:

https://ballotpedia.org/M.J._Hegar

 

See Ballotpedia’s page for the Texas Senate election in 2020:

https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Senate_election_in_Texas,_2020

Senator Doug Jones Needs Your Support in 2020. Also, Stop Talking Shit About Alabama, Please.
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

Senator Doug Jones Needs Your Support in 2020. Also, Stop Talking Shit About Alabama, Please.

otycd

Please support Democratic Senator Doug Jones in his run for re-election in 2020. Also, stop talking shit about Alabama, please.

 

Doug Jones pulled out an electrifying victory in the Alabama special Senate election in 2017. In a state where Democrats have trouble getting traction, he defeated Republican Roy Moore.

 

It was awesome. Jones’s win was one of the great cheering victories of the post-2016-election era.

 

The victory was firm, but close–1.5 percent. Moore was an especially noxious Republican candidate. Alabamans of all persuasions joined forces to defeat Moore, and Tony the Democrat’s team of GOTV postcard-writers contributed, too. Had Jones run against anyone else, he might not have won.

 

Well, Jones is up for re-election in 2020. He’s regarded as the most vulnerable Senate Democrat. He needs your help.

 

The good news: the Cook Political Report regards the Alabama Senate race as a toss-up, rather than one that’s lean Republican, likely Republican, or solid Republican. And it feels weird to say Roy Moore’s entry into the race is a good thing, but it is as far as Jones is concerned. He beat him once already, and the national GOP is committed to rejecting Moore.

 

Please consider including Doug Jones in your Core Four for 2020.

 

Also? Stop talking shit about Alabama. Yes, the state’s leaders have been up to some seriously dispiriting nonsense of late.

 

But when you write Alabama off, you write off hordes of native Alabamans who have been, and still are, fighting the good fight.

 

More to the point, you’re writing off the people who toiled to elect Jones in 2017. Cut it out. Don’t cut them out. Ok?

 

See Doug Jones’s campaign website:

https://dougjones.com

 

Donate to Jones’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/jones-homepage1

 

Like him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/dougjonessenate/

 

Follow him on Twitter:

@DougJonesHQ

 

 

 

 

Support Emerge America, Which Trains Democratic Women Candidates to Run for Office
Candidates · Community Activism · Elections · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms

Support Emerge America, Which Trains Democratic Women Candidates to Run for Office

otycd

This OTYCD post originally ran in May 2018.

 

Support Emerge America, which trains Democratic women candidates to run for office.

 

Founded in California in 2002, Emerge America now has outposts in 24 states, and has hopes to expand to all 50. Its aim is to increase the number of Democratic women who hold office in America by recruiting them, training them, and building a network of them.

 

Emerge America offers a 70-hour training program, spread over six months (one weekend per month), which covers vital topics such as campaign strategy, public speaking, fundraising, endorsements, mastering new media, field operations, ethics, networking, and more.

 

Their work is starting to pay off. In 2016, the win rate for Emerge America alumnae was 70 percent. In November 2017, it was 73 percent.

 

 

See the Emerge America webpage:

https://emerge.ngpvanhost.com

 

 

Learn about its training program:

https://emerge.ngpvanhost.com/training

 

 

See if your state is among the 24 that has Emerge America chapters, or among the five in development:

https://emerge.ngpvanhost.com/states

 

 

Donate to Emerge America:

https://emerge.ngpvanhost.com/contribute

 

 

Like Emerge America on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EmergeAmerica

 

 

Follow Emerge America on Twitter:

@EmergeAmerica

 

 

Read a Washington Post story about a post-Trump class of Emerge America graduates:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/this-group-trains-women-to-run-for-office-heres-how-one-outraged-post-trump-class-fared/2018/02/12/d9de3d02-020d-11e8-bb03-722769454f82_story.html?utm_term=.dc20866b4866

Read “How to Turn a Red State Purple (Democrats Not Required)”
Community Activism · Elections · Read, Educate Yourself, Prepare

Read “How to Turn a Red State Purple (Democrats Not Required)”

otycd

This OTYCD post originally appeared in April 2018.

 

Read How to Turn a Red State Purple (Democrats Not Required), a Politico Magazine cover story on how a small, dedicated group of Alaskans are turning their state blue.

 

The long story details how a handful of left-leaning, highly motivated young Alaskans studied the political landscape of their state and have managed to reshape it, as this passage explains:

 

“In the five years since [Jonathan] Kreiss-Tomkins’s upset victory, a most unusual thing has happened: Alaska—which elected Sarah Palin governor and has not supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson—has turned from red to a bluish hue of purple. Throughout the state, unknown progressives, like the kind Kreiss-Tomkins once was, have been winning. Before the elections of 2012, conservatives controlled all the major seats of power in Alaska: the governorship, both houses of the Legislature, and the mayoralty and city assembly of Anchorage, where 40 percent of the state’s 740,000 residents live; now, progressives and moderates control all of those offices but the state Senate, which has been gerrymandered beyond their control. More than half of the 40-member Alaska House of Representatives has been newly elected since 2012, most of them Democrats or independents; together with three moderate Republicans, they have remade the Democratic-independent caucus into a 22-18 majority.

 

Not all of these newcomer state legislators are typical progressives—’the NPR-listening liberals hunt, fish or camp here,’ says Joelle Hall, political director of the Alaska AFL-CIO—but in defeating more conservative candidates, they accomplished something that didn’t happen anywhere else in November 2016: In a state that went for Trump by 15 points, they flipped a red legislative chamber to blue…

 

…Their emerging coalition has been a boon for the Democratic Party, of course, but what’s remarkable is how little of this transformation has depended on the party. To the extent that the Democratic Party has helped in its own revival—and in transforming Alaska from deep red to a blue-ish purple—it was in part by getting out of the way. As progressives across the country try to pry Republicans out of power, they have important lessons to learn from a state where they are wrongly thought to have no power at all.”

 

It’s worth setting aside 15 minutes or more to read the whole story and mull it over. Then  read it again and think about whether and how its lessons apply to your state.

 

A few tactics jump out: the Alaskans sometimes ran Independents in areas where progressives could win if they didn’t have a “D” next to their names; they actively recruited candidates for office rather than waiting for them to volunteer themselves; and they created Ship Creek Group, an entity that provided support, key staff, and campaign advice, which made it easier for reluctant recruits to say yes.

 

Read How to Turn a Red State Purple (Democrats Not Required):

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/12/how-to-turn-red-state-blue-purple-alaska-politics-2018-216304

 

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Welcome Independents, Libertarians, and Typically Republican Voters Who Plan to Vote for Democrats In 2018
Community Activism · Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends

Welcome Independents, Libertarians, and Typically Republican Voters Who Plan to Vote for Democrats In 2018

otycd

This OTYCD post originally appeared in June 2018. In the lead-up to the midterms, we’re re-running important posts. Please click on the announcement from Sarah Jane to learn why you’re not seeing timely daily posts.

 

Welcome Independents, Libertarians, and typically Republican voters who plan to vote for Democrats in 2018.

 

We live in weird times. We have a manifestly unfit person sitting in the Oval Office. The second that Trump finished the oath of office on Inauguration Day 2017, his business entanglements put him in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, making him impeachable.

 

Still more evidence for impeachment has piled up since then, but the Republican-controlled Congress hasn’t started to begin to consider thinking about bestirring itself to do its job and remove Trump from office.

 

Once upon a time, Republicans did the right thing and threatened President Richard Nixon with impeachment over the Watergate scandal, prompting him to resign. Today, tribalism is stopping the Republicans from doing the right thing with Donald Trump. It’s shameful. History will judge them harshly for it, and so will voters.

 

Some Alabamians who normally vote Republican realized that staying home would not be enough during the December 2017 special election for Senate. Some–admittedly a minority–went to the polls and voted Democrat for the first time in their lives to do their bit to stop Republican Roy Moore from winning.

 

People across the country who don’t normally vote for Democrats are coming to the same conclusion that Republicans in Alabama did. They’re watching Trump’s antics, and watching Congress do nothing, and realizing they have to act by voting for candidates who will do what their party will not.

 

They’re starting to speak up publicly as well. Consider this March 2018 piece from The Atlantic, by Jonathan Rauch and Benjamin Wittes, of Lawfare, who both describe themselves as “true independents”. Bluntly titled Boycott the Republican Party, it counsels Americans to methodically vote for Democrats to send a message to the GOP in hopes of getting it to straighten up and fly right (pun not intended):

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/boycott-the-gop/550907/

 

Key quote:

“So we arrive at a syllogism:

(1) The GOP has become the party of Trumpism.
(2) Trumpism is a threat to democratic values and the rule of law.
(3) The Republican Party is a threat to democratic values and the rule of law.

If the syllogism holds, then the most-important tasks in U.S. politics right now are to change the Republicans’ trajectory and to deprive them of power in the meantime. In our two-party system, the surest way to accomplish these things is to support the other party, in every race from president to dogcatcher. The goal is to make the Republican Party answerable at every level, exacting a political price so stinging as to force the party back into the democratic fold.”

 

On June 7, 2018, the Washington Post reported on a poll that shows that around a quarter of Republicans favor candidates who will act as a check on Trump.

Here’s the piece:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/06/07/a-quarter-of-republicans-say-they-want-candidates-who-will-be-a-check-on-trump/?utm_term=.db5e5358b5a8

 

And here’s the key passage:

“Perhaps the most interesting part of this poll, though, is that more than a quarter of Republicans want candidates who will act as a check on Trump. On net, Republicans were 11 points more likely to say that they would be turned off by a candidate acting as a check on Trump, but it’s still the case that 27 percent would be encouraged to vote for a candidate willing to check Trump. That even as Republicans support candidates who support Trump on policy issues. By more than 60 percentage points, Republicans are more likely to support candidates that stand with Trump on taxes and immigration. But they’re nearly split on candidates who stand up to Trump generally.”

 

And since we at OTYCD drafted and queued this piece, more longtime GOP supporters have publicly defected and called for others to join them.

 

Steve Schmidt, a high-ranking GOP strategist who helped elect George W. Bush, worked on John McCain’s 2008 campaign, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign in California, quit the party. On June 19, 2018, he tweeted (and it’s now his pinned tweet):

29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump.

 

Read stories on Schmidt quitting the Republican Party:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/veteran-republican-strategist-steve-schmidt-renounces-gop/2018/06/20/7bcf53fe-74c7-11e8-bda1-18e53a448a14_story.html?utm_term=.872cc10a5f60

https://www.yahoo.com/news/steve-schmidt-helped-run-republican-212844307.html

 

 

On June 22, 2018, prominent conservative George Will, who won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1977, put out a blunt column installment in the Washington Post titled Vote Against the GOP This November.

 

He hasn’t decided he likes the Democrats. He doesn’t, and he won’t. His call to vote Democrat this fall is intended as the corrective Trump needs, and which the GOP-controlled Congress has been too feckless to give. Here’s the final paragraph from the piece:

 

“In today’s GOP, which is the president’s plaything, he is the mainstream. So, to vote against his party’s cowering congressional caucuses is to affirm the nation’s honor while quarantining him. A Democratic-controlled Congress would be a basket of deplorables, but there would be enough Republicans to gum up the Senate’s machinery, keeping the institution as peripheral as it has been under their control and asphyxiating mischief from a Democratic House. And to those who say, “But the judges, the judges!” the answer is: Article III institutions are not more important than those of Articles I and II combined.”

 

 

Read Will’s full column:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/vote-against-the-gop-this-november/2018/06/22/a6378306-7575-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?utm_term=.97ccad43bccf

 

 

This is where you come in.

 

If you know someone who doesn’t normally vote for Democrats, but who gets that they must in 2018 in order to right the GOP and provide a check on Trump, you need to be welcoming and gracious toward them.

 

In other words, don’t be an asshole, and be extra-careful not to come off as an asshole to these people.

 

Don’t assume they’ve gone all liberal and progressive because they’re going to vote for Democrats this fall. They haven’t.

 

Respect the fact that these folks wouldn’t vote this way under normal circumstances.

 

Respect the fact that they think differently about politics than you, and respect the fact that they’re doing what needs to be done for the sake of our country, and our democracy.

 

Also, keep your interactions pleasant and fun. Don’t bring up politics unless they do, and if they do bring up politics, let them lead the conversation. Be supportive. Commiserate.

 

After Labor Day, start talking about plans to go to the polls together. Offer a ride. Offer to have lunch or buy a drink after you both vote. If it makes sense, offer child care or offer to cover a shift for your friend if it will help them reach the polls on November 6, 2018.

 

Also, do not say “Thank you”. Seriously. It’s not appropriate because it could be read as insulting.

 

Think about it–should you get a cookie for stepping up and blocking a wannabe dictator from destroying our democracy? No, it’s the right thing to do. If someone has decided it’s time to cast a punitive vote against their home party, they would definitely be offended at the notion that they deserve praise for doing it.

 

Instead, you can say, “I look forward to the days when we can go back to disagreeing with each other.”

 

If you want to show lasting gratitude to those who don’t normally vote for Democrats, but are doing so to send a message to the GOP, you can do this:

 

You can promise to listen to them.

 

Not just now, in the breach, but going forward, too.

 

Listening to them does not mean agreeing with them. It does mean making a good-faith effort to hear out those who don’t share your view of politics, and trying to understand them.

 

 

Here, again is the March 2018 piece from The Atlantic that urges Republicans to boycott the GOP and vote for Democrats:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/03/boycott-the-gop/550907/

 

 

And here, again, is the June 2018 Washington Post story on the poll on what sort of candidates Americans are likely to support in the midterms. In addition to 25 percent of Republicans favoring candidates who would provide a check on Trump, the story says that voters, in general, were 25 percentage points more likely to vote for a candidate who promised to push back against the president:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/06/07/a-quarter-of-republicans-say-they-want-candidates-who-will-be-a-check-on-trump/?utm_term=.db5e5358b5a8

 

 

Read December 2017 stories from Newsweek and the Washington Post on how Republican affiliation has fallen by five points since Trump was elected:

 

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-scaring-voters-republican-affiliation-dips-year-election-poll-730604

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/11/a-lot-of-americans-spent-2017-bailing-on-the-republican-party/?utm_term=.d6e51e7a9cc0

 

 

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GOOD UPDATE! Gil Cisneros WON His Race for the House Seat in California’s 39th District
Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

GOOD UPDATE! Gil Cisneros WON His Race for the House Seat in California’s 39th District

otycd1 Comment

Update March 24, 2019: YES YES YES! Democrat Gil Cisneros defeated Republican Young Kim for the House seat vacated by Republican Ed Royce. Cisneros pulled in 51.6 percent of the vote to Kim’s 48.4 percent.

 

Cisneros faces re-election in 2020. Please consider him for your next Core Four.

 

Original text of the post follows.

 

Support Democrat Gil Cisneros, who’s running for the House of Representatives seat in California’s 39th District that Republican Ed Royce is leaving.

 

To flip the House of Representatives to Democratic control, the party needs to win at least 24 seats in the fall elections that are currently Republican.

 

California offers many opportunities for Democratic pickups–at least eight. The 39th District is one of them. Ed Royce, a particularly noxious Republican who held the Orange County seat for the last 26 years has announced he would retire.

 

Cisneros came second in a very crowded June 5 primary. California uses a top-two system where the two candidates who get the most votes advance to the general, no matter what party they’re from. He beat 15 other candidates to earn the right to compete.

 

The only person who got more votes than him, the Royce-endorsed Young Kim, drew almost 22 percent of the vote to Cisneros’s 19.3 percent.

 

The California 39th seat is gettable. The Cook Political Report rates it as a Toss-up.

 

Please learn about Cisneros and see if he is someone you can support.

 

 

See Cisneros’s campaign site:

https://cisnerosforcongress.com

 

 

See his Meet Gil page:

https://cisnerosforcongress.com/meet-gil/

 

 

See his Issues page, which includes sections on health care for all, getting corporate money out of politics, and holding President Trump accountable:

https://cisnerosforcongress.com/gilsplan/

 

 

Donate to Cisneros’s campaign:

https://secure.ngpvan.com/cS9iYUBauE2-Znc9wKbzkA2

 

 

Choose Cisneros for your Core Four:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/04/08/choose-your-core-four-for-2018/

 

 

Like him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/GilCisnerosCA/

 

 

Follow him on Twitter:

@GilCisnerosCA

 

 

Read a July 2017 Los Angeles Times piece about Cisneros’s entry into the race, in which he mentions that he left the Republican Party in 2008 because he didn’t like the direction in which the party was going:

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-ed-royce-challenger-gil-1500080377-htmlstory.html

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the button on the upper right of the page. And tell your friends about the blog!

 

 

Read stories about Ed Royce’s retirement from Congress:

http://www.anaheimblog.net/2018/01/10/veteran-rep-ed-royce-wont-run-for-re-election/

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/01/08/ed-royce-longtime-o-c-congressman-plans-to-retire/

 

See How Many Members of the House Freedom Caucus We All Managed To Vote Out in November 2018
Elections

See How Many Members of the House Freedom Caucus We All Managed To Vote Out in November 2018

otycd

See how many members of the House Freedom Caucus we all managed to vote out of office in November 2018.

 

One of the most consistently popular posts on OTYCD is the one titled See This List of Members of the House Freedom Caucus So You Can Vote Them Out in November.

 

Its appeal is self-evident. It occurred to us that now the 2018 mid-terms are done, we should do an update post and tell you how things went.

 

As noted in the original article, which is linked above, the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) does not publish a roster of its members or otherwise identify them.

 

As you look at this update and note the Democrats who pushed some HFC members out of office, think about adopting one or more of those victors for your 2020 Core Four. Also keep in mind that the HFC folks come from ruby-red areas of the country, the sorts of places that the Cook Political Report tends to dub “Solid Republican.”

 

 

Justin Amash, representing Michigan’s 3rd District. He won a fifth term.

 

 

Joe Barton, representing Texas’s 6th District. In November 2017, he announced that he would retire from Congress after a three-decade career in the House of Representatives. This statement came soon after news broke of his involvement in extramarital affairs. It should be said that no one has accused Barton of sexual misconduct or harassment, and the affairs were consensual. Regardless, he felt it best not to run again.

 

Republican Ronald Wright defeated Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez for the seat Barton vacated, garnering 53.1 percent of the vote to Sanchez’s 45.4 percent.

 

According to Ballotpedia, Wright signaled his interest in joining the House Freedom Caucus. See this link: https://ballotpedia.org/Texas_congressional_Republican_Party_primary_runoffs,_2018

 

So, while Barton declined to run again, he was replaced with a new HFC member.

 

Read OTYCD‘s post on Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/05/26/keep-an-eye-on-jana-lynne-sanchez-who-is-running-for-a-texas-house-seat-in-2018/

 

 

Andy Biggs, representing Arizona’s 5th District. He won his second term.

 

 

Rod Blum, representing Iowa’s 1st District. He was DEFEATED in his bid for a third term by Democrat Abby Finkenauer. Please consider giving her a head start by donating to her 2020 campaign.

 

 

Dave Brat, representing Virginia’s 7th District. He was DEFEATED in his bid for a third term by Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

The election was close, however, with her getting 50.3 percent to his 48.4 percent. If you’re able to start donating to Spanberger’s 2020 re-election campaign now, please do.

 

Mo Brooks, representing Alabama’s 5th District. He won his fifth term in 2018.

 

Ken Buck, representing Colorado’s 4th District. He won his third term in 2018.

 

Ted Budd, representing North Carolina’s 13th District. He won his second term in 2018.

 

Warren Davidson, representing Ohio’s 8th District. He won his first full term in 2018.

 

Ron DeSantis, representing Florida’s 6th District. He retired from his house seat to run for the governor of Florida in 2018, and ultimately defeated Andrew Gillum in a close contest.

Republican Michael Waltz defeated Democrat Nancy Soderberg for DeSantis’s old seat by 56.3 percent to 43.7 percent.

Nothing in Waltz’s Ballotpedia entry indicates that he’s joined the House Freedom Caucus. So, while the seat is in Republican hands, it might not be in HFC hands.

 

Scott DesJarlais, representing Tennessee’s 4th District. He won his fifth term in 2018.

 

Jeff Duncan, representing South Carolina’s 3rd District. He won his fifth term in 2018.

 

Matt Gaetz, representing Florida’s 1st District. He won a second term in 2018.

 

Tom Garrett Jr., representing Virginia’s 5th District. He sent mixed signals in late May, saying he wouldn’t run for a second term, and then saying he would. He ultimately withdrew.

Republican Denver Riggleman represented the party instead. He defeated Democrat Leslie Cockburn by 53.2 percent to 46.6 percent.

Riggleman’s Ballotpedia entry doesn’t say anything about the House Freedom Caucus, so odds are he is not a member.

 

 

Louie Gohmert, representing Texas’s 1st District. He was re-elected in 2018.

 

Paul A. Gosar, representing Arizona’s 4th District. He won his fifth term in 2018.

 

Morgan Griffith, representing Virginia’s 9th District. He won his fifth term in 2018.

 

Andy Harris, representing Maryland’s 1st District. He won his fifth term in 2018.

 

Jody Hice, representing Georgia’s 10th District. He won his third term in 2018.

 

Jim Jordan, representing Ohio’s 4th District (he’s also co-chair of the HFC). He was first elected to the House in 2006. He won re-election in 2018.

 

Raúl Labrador, representing Idaho’s 1st District. He left the seat to run for governor of Idaho in 2018, and lost in the Republican primary.

Republican Russ Fulcher won the seat in 2018. His Ballotpedia entry makes no mention of the House Freedom Caucus.

 

Mark Meadows, representing North Carolina’s 11th District (he’s also co-chair of the HFC). He won a fourth term in 2018.

 

Alex Mooney, representing West Virginia’s 2nd District. He won a third term in 2018.

 

Gary Palmer, representing Alabama’s 6th District. He won a third term in 2018.

 

Steve Pearce, representing New Mexico’s 2nd District. Pearce left his House seat to run for governor of New Mexico in 2018, and did not succeed.

Democrat Xochitl Torres Small won the seat, beating Republican Yvette Herrell by 50.9 percent of the vote to 49.1 percent. Again, please consider donating to Small’s 2020 re-election campaign.

 

Scott Perry, representing Pennsylvania’s 4th District. In February 2018, the state’s Supreme Court threw out the old Congressional district map, deeming it illegally gerrymandered. What was the 4th now covers much of what was the 13th district.

It looked like Perry wouldn’t run again in 2018, but he did, in Pennsylvania’s 10th district, and he won.

Democrat Madeleine Dean defeated Republican Dan David to represent Pennsylvania’s 4th District. Please help her hold the seat by donating to her 2020 re-election campaign.

 

Bill Posey, representing Florida’s 8th District. He won a sixth term in 2018.

 

Mark Sanford, representing South Carolina’s 1st District. If the name sounds familiar, yeah, this was the guy who melted down as governor of South Carolina over extramarital affairs. Remember “hiking the Appalachian Trail”? Yeah, he’s that guy. Anyway, he won the House seat in a special election in 2013 and ran for re-election, but didn’t get past the Republican primary.

Democrat Joe Cunningham won the seat in 2018. Please help him hold it by giving to his 2020 re-election campaign.

 

David Schweikert, representing Arizona’s 6th District. He won a fifth term in 2018.

 

Randy Weber, representing Texas’s 14th District. He defeated Democrat Adrienne Bell to win a fourth term in 2018.

 

See OTYCD‘s post on Adrienne Bell:

https://onethingyoucando.com/2018/05/26/support-adrienne-bells-run-for-the-house-seat-in-texass-14th-district/

 

Ted Yoho, representing Florida’s 3rd District. He won a fourth term in 2018.

 

 

 

We relied in part on Ballotpedia to research and fact-check this post.

 

 

See the Ballotpedia home page:

https://ballotpedia.org/Main_Page

 

 

Donate to Ballotpedia ($18 corresponds to the cost of a single article):

https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:Donate

 

 

Like Ballotpedia on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Ballotpedia?ref=br_tf

 

 

Follow Ballotpedia on Twitter:

@ballotpedia

 

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!

 

 

As for cites on the House Freedom Caucus…

 

Read about the HFC’s drafting of articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-allied-house-conservatives-draft-articles-of-impeachment-against-rosenstein-as-last-resort/2018/04/30/d78af412-4c97-11e8-b725-92c89fe3ca4c_story.html?utm_term=.5a0ab3b10263

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/384217-impeaching-rosenstein-some-republicans-are-talking-about-it

 

Read the actual articles of impeachment against Rosenstein, obtained by the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/05/01/republicans-highly-political-articles-of-impeachment-against-rod-rosenstein-annotated/?utm_term=.402747613668

 

 

Read a USA Today Op-Ed on how the impeachment effort against Rosenstein represents a violation of ethical rules and an attempt to hobble Mueller’s probe:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/05/02/impeachment-articles-rosenstein-sabotage-russia-probe-column/572548002/

 

 

Read a CNN story on a Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee decrying the HFC’s shens:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/01/politics/david-cicilline-rod-rosenstein-impeachment-cnntv/index.html

 

 

Read stories about Rod Rosenstein standing firm in the face of the HFC’s threat:

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/05/02/mark-meadows-rod-rosenstein-extortion-justice-department-mueller/573291002/

 

 

And read some background on the HFC:

http://time.com/4718360/freedom-caucus-donald-trump-what-to-know/

See If You Have Off-Year Elections Where You Live, And Get Involved
Action Alerts · Elections

See If You Have Off-Year Elections Where You Live, And Get Involved

otycd

See if you have off-year elections where you live, and get involved.

 

It’s 2019. The mid-terms were last year. The presidential election is next year.

 

That doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on.

 

Some states are having legislative elections in 2019, and you might be having local elections in the fall, for mayor, city council, selectmen, and the like.

 

You can find out by checking your local newspaper’s website or the website for your city or town hall.

 

If you have local elections, note the date, and start following information about the elections and the candidates.

 

Figure out where each candidate stands. If you like one, consider donating to or volunteering for him or her.

 

Subscribe to One Thing You Can Do by clicking the blue button on the upper right or checking the About & Subscribe page. And tell your friends about the blog!