Oklahoma City Voters Don't Need Another Democrat Too Scared Of Republicans To Stand Up For Working Families

As you already know, Blue America has endorsed Tom Guild for the Oklahoma City congressional seat James Lankford has abandoned to run for the U.S. Senate. He's an unabashedly progressive leader who isn't compromising principles and values to win himself a congressional seat. He's running for a House seat to promote those values and principles.

His main opponent, state Senator Al McAffrey, who jumped in when Lankford said he wouldn't run for reelection, wants to be the Democratic nominee as the next setp in his career trajectory. But what's his position on the issues important to Oklahoma Democrats? No one knows on most issues, because he appears to be trying to slip by on his charm and good looks and by repeating broad platitudes such as he is the “best candidate”…

We know that McAffrey doesn’t support raising the minimum wage to $10.10, despite the overwhelming support for raising the wage from Oklahomans and Americans nationwide. When the Republican-inspired legislation to "outlaw" any Oklahoma municipality from voting to have a higher minimum wage than the national wage, McAffrey went AWOL and refused to cast a vote one way or the other.

To make matters worse, a well know local activist gave McAffrey an opportunity to sign the petition to raise the wage to $10.10 in Oklahoma City by a vote of the people, and he refused to sign and said, "I can’t do that."

Like we've been saying since last year, Tom Guild is the progressive alternative-- who stands for something. Although Guild can’t sign the petition, because he lives in Edmond, he is circulating the petition, along with his campaign staff and volunteers. "Millions of American families," he told us on the phone today, "would move out of poverty and be able to pay their bills with a hike in the minimum wage. It is hard to estimate what this newfound independence would mean for those families and particularly the minor children in those families. No one should work full-time in America just to remain at or below the poverty line. Raising the wage is simply rational public policy and the right thing to do."

Guild also took part in the national petition drive spearheaded by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee to raise the wage nationally. Guild’s campaign, along with the PCCC gathered more than 60,000 signatures nationwide. Guild notified the press, and presented the hundreds of signatures gathered locally to Congressman James Lankford’s office, urging Lankford to vote to raise the wage in Congress.

People shouldn’t be handed a congressional nomination on a wing and a prayer. We’ve seen that movie before. Democratic nominees should represent working Americans, not the self-appointed elitist political class. Democrats should stand for something and make their views known. Despite his best efforts, McAffrey wasn’t able to hide his sketchy views on the minimum wage. He should be soundly rejected in favor of progressive Democrat Tom Guild in the June 24 Democratic Party primary in Oklahoma.

The difference between McAffrey and Guild is that Guild says stuff like this and McAffrey is as likely to say it-- or act on it-- as any of the Republicans looking to replace Lankford:

Expanding Social Security by implementing the plan put forward by Oklahoma native Senator Elizabeth Warren would give peace of mind and a semblance of economic security to tens of millions of American seniors. Her plan to provide an additional supplement to the income of Americans when they reached the age of 75 and again at the age of 85 would help account for the additional cost of living seniors have in providing for added medical needs. Her plan would also make the program completely self-sustaining for additional decades. Expanding benefits will make a great program even better.

You want to help a Democrat coming from there get into Congress… from Oklahoma? You can contribute to Tom Guild's campaign here.