With a tiny handful of exceptions– basically Kara Eastman, Joyce Elliott and Dana Balter (who is running in a D+3 district)– Cheri Bustos and her DCCC have once again decided to spend all the big money on corporate-friendly conservative candidates backed by the Blue Dogs and New Dems.
To say movement candidates don’t get a fair shake from Bustos would be the understatement of the cycle…
Remember the #DCCCBlacklist?
We’ve just re-activated Blue America’s Abandoned by the DCCC ActBlue page, which you will find by clicking on the thermometer on the right.
These are progressive candidates who won their primaries. More importantly, each is on the verge of flipping a red seat blue— without any real help– or in most cases, without any help— from the DCCC, which endlessly whines that progressives are “too liberal” for the districts they’re running in.
I spoke with a movement candidate who looked over the list of the DCCC favorites.
He said, “I think we can persuade some of them to vote progressive at least some of the time.”
OK, better than nothing, but what about candidates you don’t have to persuade, leaders like Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Beth Doglio and Cori Bush who have already proven that they don’t need any persuading?
I’m thinking this is going to be the last Blue America ask before the election. So please, read what history of ideas professor– and Riverside County progressive candidate– Liam O’Mara told me about what’s behind the DCCC abandonment of progressive candidates:
“The idea that I am ‘too progressive for the district’ is rubbish… We currently have the best early return rate of any Democrat in recent memory, and that follows a primary cycle that saw more votes to the Dems than any previous primary in ages. Right now FiveThirtyEight gives my campaign a better chance of flipping the district than they’ve seen yet, and a higher chance of flipping the seat than quite a few candidates in the long list of candidates the DCCC is spending on.
Progressive-populist leaders used to dominate in the most socially conservative corners of the country, because more people vote their wallets and their hopes than anything else. To say that we are out of touch with the needs and wishes of the electorate is to surrender preëmptively to Republican control and Republican arguments… when what we ought to be doing is standing out there and winning over hearts and minds.
The Democratic party needs to stop focussing on safely blue seats and start trying to win people over… and we can’t do that with tepid, half-baked conservatism.”
So, what we’re asking this week is, (if you have the resources to do so, obviously) to donate what you can to these progressives who have been abandoned by the DCCC.
Thanks for always doing what you can to make this a better world,
Howie, for the entire Blue America team
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You can contribute to our ‘Better House 2020’ candidates on this page, or our ‘Better Legislatures 2020’ candidates on this page.
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PO Box 27201
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Make the check out to BLUE AMERICA. Thank you!
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