GOOD UPDATE! Katie Porter BEAT Republican Mimi Waters for the House Seat in California’s 45th District

June 9, 2019March 28, 2019 otycd1 Comment

Update, March 24, 2019: YES YES YES! Democrat Katie Porter defeated Republican incumbent Mimi Waters with 52.1 percent of the vote to Waters’s 47.9 percent.

Porter, a protege of Elizabeth Warren, quickly proved herself a worthy new member of Congress when she expertly exposed the ridiculous position of Equifax with a devastating quiz of its CEO, which you can see here:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90312551/watch-a-congresswoman-destroy-equifax-ceo-mark-begor-in-an-epic-privacy-burn

If you have money to give, please consider adding Porter to your 2020 Core Four. As a House of Representatives member, she runs for re-election every two years.

Original text of the 2018 post follows.

Support Democrat Katie Porter’s run to unseat California House Republican Mimi Walters.

To flip the House of Representatives to Democratic control, the party needs to pick up at least 24 seats. Those who know say that the Democrats need to gain at least a third of those 24 in California.

Katie Porter has a harder road to walk than, say, Harley Rouda or Gil Cisneros. Unlike those two, whose California Congressional districts the Cook Political Report rates as Toss-ups, the 45th district carries a Lean Republican tag.

Republican Mimi Walters, first elected in 2014, has fallen in behind Trump and has consistently voted for bills he likes. That should rankle those in her district, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Porter is a professor at University of California, Irvine and a protege of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. She specializes in fighting home mortgage lenders who mistreat their clients. When Kamala Harris was still the state’s attorney general, she chose Porter to monitor a $25 billion mortgage settlement on behalf of California.

Porter has an opening, but she’ll need support to make this happen. Have a look at the links below and see if she’s the right candidate for you.

See Porter’s campaign website:

https://katieporter.com

See her Issues page:

https://katieporter.com/issues

See her Endorsements page:

https://katieporter.com/endorsements

Choose Porter for your Core Four:

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

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!

Donate to Porter’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/kp18?refcode=header_donate

Like Porter on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/katieporteroc

Follow her on Twitter:

@katieporteroc

Read additional articles about Porter that predate the June 5, 2018 primary:

https://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/03/all-the-facts-on-katie-porter-challenger-to-rep-mimi-walterss-re-election-bid/

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article142177884.html

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

April 28, 2019March 24, 2019 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/

Candidates · Choose Your Core Four · Elections · Russian Scandal, Emoluments Clause · Stand Up for Civilization · Stand Up for Norms · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

GOOD UPDATE! Harley Rouda Beat 15-Term (!) Republican Incumbent Dana Rohrbacher for a House Seat in California’s 48th District

April 22, 2019March 24, 2019 otycd

Update, March 24, 2018: YES YES YES! Democrat Harley Rouda beat 15-term Republican incumbent and creepy Vladimir Putin fan Dana Rohrabacher for the House of Representatives seat in California’s 48th District.

As a member of the House, Rouda will be up for re-election in 2020. Please consider including him in your 2020 Core Four.

Original text of the 2018 post on Rouda’s campaign follows.

Support Democrat Harley Rouda’s campaign to win the House of Representatives seat in California’s 48th Congressional District and unseat Republican Dana Rohrabacher.

It was inevitable that the 2018 race in California’s 48th would command attention. Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher has held the seat since 1988 (that’s not a typo, you read that right, he’s been there almost 30 years) and he is widely seen as being in the pocket of Vladimir Putin and Russia.

This goes beyond an affinity for blinis and borscht.

In 2012, the FBI warned Rohrabacher that the Kremlin regards him as being so Russia-friendly that they gave him a code name:

In October 2017, news broke that House Republican leaders restricted his ability to use Congressional funds on travel because of his closeness to Russia:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-leaders-refusing-to-pay-for-dana-rohrabachers-travel-over-russia-fears

A June 2016 recording, which was subsequently heard and confirmed by Washington Post reporters, captured House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy stating, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.” House Speaker Paul Ryan reportedly stopped the conversation and swore everyone listening to secrecy.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-mccarthy-ryan-trump-putin-20170517-story.html

Politico wrote a November 23, 2016 story on Rohrabacher that bluntly calls him “Putin’s Favorite Congressman”:

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/putin-congress-rohrabacher-trump-231775

There’s enough there there that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was reportedly scrutinizing Rohrabacher as of November 2017:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/11/robert-mueller-dana-rohrabacher-russia-investigation

The good news is Rohrabacher’s entanglements with Russia have put his House seat in danger. Here are two stories on that theme, both from April 2018:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/everyone-is-painting-gop-congressman-dana-rohrabacher-as-putins-puppet

http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-rohrabacher-gop-20180405-story.html

The Cook Political Report shows the trouble the Republican incumbent is in. It rates his seat as a Toss-up.

Democrats need to gain at least 24 seats in the House of Representatives to take control of the chamber. Those who know say that eight of those 24 could flip in California. The 48th is one of those eight.

After a ferociously fought June 5, 2018 top-two primary that included eight Democrats among 15 challengers for Rohrabacher’s seat, Harley Rouda took second place by 126 votes. (Thanks again for your efforts, Hans Keirstead.)

This seat is eminently gettable, and Rouda is raring to get it. Please look at the links below and see if you can support him. Rouda promises to be tougher on Russia than Rohrabacher is, but to be fair, it’s mathematically impossible not to be tougher on Russia than Rohrabacher is.

See Rouda’s campaign website:

https://harleyforcongress.com

See his About page:

https://harleyforcongress.com/about-harley/

See his Issues page:

https://harleyforcongress.com/issues/

Choose Rouda for your Core Four:

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

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!

Donate to Rouda’s campaign:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/rouda?refcode=www

Volunteer for Rouda:

https://harleyforcongress.com/volunteer/

Like him on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/HarleyforCongress/posts/

Follow him on Twitter:

@HarleyRouda

Candidates · Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

See the Full List of Sitting Senators Who Are Up for Re-election in 2020

April 6, 2019February 2, 2020 otycd

See the full list of sitting senators who are up for re-election in 2020.

IMPORTANT! Since we at OTYCD published this story in April 2019, we have updated it with more accurate information (some of the Senators named in the original have decided not to run again) and information about who their Democratic opponents are.

See the UPDATED, IMPROVED list of sitting Senators who are up for re-election in 2020.

Original text follows.

2018 was a tough year for Democratic sitting Senators. Many more Democrats than Republicans were up for re-election. While we lost two, Bill Nelson of Florida and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, we managed to pick up two seats–Jacky Rosen defeated Dean Heller in Nevada, and Kyrsten Sinema won the open seat in Arizona.

Things could have been a lot worse, and would have been a lot worse in the absence of voters highly motivated by the unusually terrible performance of the Trump administration. If a more normal and routine Republican had been president in 2018, the Democrats might have suffered more losses.

The 2020 story is different. Many more Republicans are defending than are Democrats.

This post is a basic post that simply lists who’s due to run in 2020. It does NOT include notes about who’s vulnerable, etc. That material will appear in a later update.

Right now, we want to fill you in on what’s known as U.S. Senate, Class II, so you can make early choices for your 2020 Core Four. If you can start donating to the sitting Democrats now, please do. If you notice a Republican up in your state in 2020, consider earmarking money for that person’s eventual Democratic challenger.

The following Democrats are up for re-election in 2020:

Cory Booker of New Jersey

Christopher Coons of Delaware

Richard “Dick” Durbin of Illinois

Doug Jones of Alabama

Ed Markey of Massachusetts

Jeff Merkley of Oregon

Gary Peters of Michigan

Jack Reed of Rhode Island

Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Tina Smith of Minnesota

Tom Udall of New Mexico

Mark Warner of Virginia

The following Republicans are up for re-election in 2020:

Lamar Alexander of Tennessee

Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia

Bill Cassidy of Louisiana

Susan Collins of Maine

John Cornyn of Texas

Tom Cotton of Arkansas

Steve Daines of Montana

Michael Enzi of Wyoming

Joni Ernst of Iowa

Cory Gardner of Colorado

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi

James Inhofe of Oklahoma

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

David Perdue of Georgia

James Risch of Idaho

Pat Roberts of Kansas

Mike Rounds of South Dakota

Ben Sasse of Nebraska

Thom Tillis of North Carolina

See the official list of senators in Class II here:

https://www.senate.gov/senators/Class_II.htm

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!

Community Activism · Elections

Help Flippable Support Democrats in State Elections in 2019

April 5, 2019March 31, 2019 otycd

Help Flippable support Democratic candidates in state elections in 2019.

Recently we at OTYCD asked you to see if you have state or local elections in 2019.

If you don’t (or, hey, if you do and you have the bandwidth to take on more), and you’re up for helping win elections elsewhere in America, throw your weight behind the work of Flippable.

We at OTYCD have written about Flippable and its work before. It aims to help elect Democrats at the state level, which helps flip legislatures blue.

One of Flippable’s first great successes was the 2017 legislative elections in Virginia. Flippable and the Virginia Democrats wildly overperformed, coming within a coin flip of controlling the state’s House of Delegates–no one predicted that.

The winners included Elizabeth Guzman, Kathy Tran, Hala Ayala, David Reid, Cheryl Turpin, Jennifer Carroll Foy, and Danica Roem, to whom we also devoted a Believe It: You Matter post, because she’s just that awesome.

You can help any one of those defending incumbents in Virginia by looking up their campaign websites and giving them some money.

You can also donate to Flippable and its work helping get Democrats elected and re-elected in key states. Virginia is one of five focus states in 2019. Having done so ridiculously well in 2017, Flippable hopes to defend its wins and build on them to turn Virginia’s legislature properly blue in November.

See the Flippable home page:

https://flippable.org

Read the Flippable blog:

https://www.flippable.org/blog/

Read a February 2019 post Flippable published on Medium about its goals for Virginia.

Donate to the Flippable fund:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/flippablefund1?refcode=website-home-2donate&_ga=2.45035940.1636322384.1553383692-117533993.1502038586

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!

Like Flippable on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/flippableorg

Follow Flippable on Twitter:

@flippable_org

Read articles from 2017 on the coin flip to decide which party would control Virginia’s House of Delegates:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/22/that-coin-toss-election-in-virginia-dramatic-but-it-pales-in-comparison-to-other-historic-contests/?utm_term=.297c45a6d57b

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/virginia-democrats-house-of-delegates-election/548846/

Action Alerts · Candidates · Community Activism · Elections · Use Your Power, Recruit Friends · Vote with your Dollars

Support Build the Wave, Which Gets Grassroots Volunteers Involved in Critical 2018 Races

August 19, 2018July 19, 2018 otycd

Support Build the Wave, an organization that gets grassroots volunteers involved in critical 2018 races.

Build the Wave is yet another org created by campaign veterans who are doing an end run around the standing but rusty and expensive traditional political infrastructure and getting real people involved in races across America that need their help.

It’s all about the grassroots–the small-dollar donors, the digital activists, the tech-savvy, and the countless alarmed folks who want to do their bit to defend small-d democracy in the wake of Trump’s 2016 election.

Build the Wave’s clearest high-profile result was the narrow special election victory of Democrat Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania in March. Almost 250 of its volunteers sent more than 94,000 texts encouraging folks to vote. Its texting campaign reached a third of all of those who cast their ballots for Lamb. Its Facebook ads reached about 23,000, and its Lamb-related Twitter posts got more than 3 million impressions.

Visit the webpage for Build the Wave:

https://www.buildthewave.org

Learn how Build the Wave contributed to Conor Lamb’s victory:

https://www.buildthewave.org/conor-lamb

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!

Donate to Build the Wave:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/az-poll?refcode=website

Follow it on Twitter:

@BuildTheWave

Elections

OMG GOOD UPDATE! Democrat Manka Dhingra WON A Washington State Senate Seat and Turned the Whole West Coast Blue!

May 4, 2018April 8, 2018 otycd

This OTYCD entry originally posted in October 2017.

YES YES YES YES YES SO MUCH YES! Democrat Manka Dhingra won that state Senate seat in Washington, and with her win, she turned the entire west coast blue and gave the Democrats their seventh trifecta–a state in which they control the governorship and the state legislature.

Donate to the Flippable Fund

March 27, 2018March 18, 2018 otycd

Donate to the Flippable Fund and help fuel the blue wave on the state legislature level.

Flippable has done great work getting Democrats elected to state legislatures. As we at OTYCD have said before, 2018 is not going to be like 2017, with a special election here and a special election there. Thousands of seats are up for re-election in November, including more than 6,000 at the state level.

Flippable has launched a self-named fund that will assist the campaigns of 100 state-level candidates running in 2018 in strategic districts. These include special elections and standard elections scheduled for November.

Donating to the Flippable Fund and spreading the word about it is a great way to augment your Core Four work. And hey, who doesn’t love one-stop shopping?

Donate to the Flippable Fund:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/flippablefund2?refcode=website-actnow-chipin&recurring=TRUE&_ga=2.27058941.1322677820.1518359910-117533993.1502038586

See Flippable’s page on the Flippable Fund, as well as some of the candidates the fund is supporting:

https://www.flippable.org/act-now/

Volunteer to help candidates chosen by Flippable:

https://www.flippable.org/volunteer/

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!

Visit the Flippable home page:

https://www.flippable.org

Read the Flippable blog:

https://www.flippable.org/blog/

Learn about other upcoming elections that could use your help:

https://www.flippable.org/upcoming-elections/

Like Flippable on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/flippableorg

Follow Flippable on Twitter:

@flippable_org

One Thing You Can Do

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Tag: Flip It Blue

GOOD UPDATE! Katie Porter BEAT Republican Mimi Waters for the House Seat in California’s 45th District

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

GOOD UPDATE! Harley Rouda Beat 15-Term (!) Republican Incumbent Dana Rohrbacher for a House Seat in California’s 48th District

See the Full List of Sitting Senators Who Are Up for Re-election in 2020

Help Flippable Support Democrats in State Elections in 2019

Support Build the Wave, Which Gets Grassroots Volunteers Involved in Critical 2018 Races

OMG GOOD UPDATE! Democrat Manka Dhingra WON A Washington State Senate Seat and Turned the Whole West Coast Blue!

Donate to the Flippable Fund