Sunday, January 26, 2020

How A Progressive's Bumper Sticker Ended Up Next To Trump Bumper Stickers.

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Washington's 5th congressional district takes up the entire eastern end of the state, from the Canadian border to the Oregon border and right along the Idaho border. The biggest population center is Spokane and most of the votes come from Spokane County, a swing county. The other three counties are Walla Walla, another swing county, Whitman, a blue county and Stevens, a red county. It's a winnable district, although Democrats have been doing badly there in recent years. Obama lost the district both times he ran and Trump crushed Hillary 52.2% to 39.1%. Last year, a former state legislator from the district, Lisa Brown, went toe-to-toe in the money-raising department with conservative incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers-- $5.7 million each-- but still lost by 9 points. Brown's moderate, New Dem message didn't work, not even in an anti-red wave election year.

This year's Democratic candidate, Chris Armitage, isn't a former legislator and isn't going to raise $5.7 million. Nor is he going to align with the New Dems or any other faction of the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Chris Armitage is a working class FDR kind of Democrat who is speaking to working class families about working class issues from a working class perspective. Blue America endorsed him today and he wrote this guest post to introduce himself.

Winning Back A "Trump District" With A Progressive Message
-by Chris Armitage


“What are we doing differently?” I get asked this often. My name is Christopher Armitage and I am a 27-year-old who has never run for office. As an Air Force Security Forces veteran, former first responder, and 911 operator, politics was not exactly a direction my life seemed to be headed.

In mid-December, I sat down with a family in our district. They told me about how their son died of stage 4 cancer at 19 years old. It was entirely preventable, but the insurance company would not approve payment for a test they deemed “exploratory.” By the time Colin told his football coach he wasn’t feeling well and was rushed to the hospital it would be too late. The cancer had, by the doctor’s measure, been advancing undetected since age 12 and would ultimately take his life at the young age of 19.

Once Colin's mother Trina finished sharing his story, I told her about how, while Active Duty, I had incredible insurance that involved no profit margins or insurance haggling. When a military doctor felt you should get a test, they sent you to get it because your safety was their top priority, not billing. When they sent us for those tests, the military doctors didn’t need to fill out endless forms to justify their referrals and recommendations. Doctors just focused on one thing-- being doctors to patients in need.

Why does someone come to a person running for office and share their story? Simple: advocacy and change. Because they hope to prevent future tragedies from hurting others like they have been hurt. So I told this family about how I was simultaneously receiving incredible military healthcare while I was helping a family member of my own out from under crippling medical debt. I told her I had met a woman two weeks before who was splitting a single insulin prescription between three family members. We talked about how our corrupt and predatory for-profit healthcare system is destroying lives in our communities every single day.

Concerned friends and family immediately asked: “How are you going to pay for it?” It’s a question we get daily anytime we bring up how critical a single-payer healthcare system is. But this is not something we expected to hear from a loved one to a grieving mother. It was hard for me to hear that question during such an emotionally charged discussion. However, as a mother who faced the preventable death of her son first hand, she has turned that tragedy into a life of advocacy and she kept telling us her son’s story. Once the conversation was done and everyone was leaving, one of Colin’s relatives walked up to me and surprised me with a big hug.

They said “I am a Trump supporter, and I disagree with you on some things, but I know you’re straightforward. I want to put your bumper sticker on my car next to my Trump bumper sticker.” He is a family man, works at an auto repair shop, and really wants to see healthcare and jobs come to his district.

What about the other bumper stickers out there? As a former 911 operator, the smallest of three brothers, and a stand up comic, I have been in many positions where avoiding physical confrontations was ideal. Early on in the campaign, we had the idea of running a Facebook ad targeted to Trump supporters. The ad had my picture on it and said “Mad at Democrats? Feel free to call and yell at one.” So, needless to say, someone must be pretty mad to call the number in that ad. They were.

Sure, some people cursed at me and hung up, but for those who stayed on the line? All my life experiences from serving in the military to staying on the phone talking people down from self-harm and suicide to getting a bully laughing became incredibly useful. I actually made some friends over those few days. Some of them I spent hours on the phone with. Most importantly, though, I discovered what was darkening people’s hearts. Economic despair, healthcare challenges, underemployment and unemployment, these are what we are all concerned about out here-- regardless of our political parties.

We have an interesting story from Washington State’s 5th congressional district. Former Speaker of the House Tom Foley (D) held this seat until the early ’90s until he was defeated by a Republican challenger who focused his campaign on term limits. Even in defeat, Tom Foley’s legacy still resonates here. A few months ago I met Sally, an 89-year-old fellow comedian who remembers Tom Foley’s first campaign, and she put me in touch with his widow, Heather. Both of these incredible women echoed the same sentiment on how he won even the most rural of counties: he did it by visiting every small town tavern across the district.

“Yeah, I know Tom. Saw him at the grocery store more than a few times” was a common refrain throughout the community. I doubt many members of Congress, let alone Speakers of the House, could claim to have such a close relationship with the working-class members of their district. He was the kind of man who would take a minute to chat with your 12-year-old child about whatever they wanted to talk about. Those are the conversations and relationships where a person shows their genuine passion and care for a community. Those are the barside chats and grocery store run-ins that win votes in our district.

Today, under 25 years of Republican House Representation in this district, we currently have counties with over 10% unemployment and more than 1/3rd of residents in some counties under the poverty line-- triple the national average. In Walla Walla public schools, over 60% of the students are on reduced or free lunch. We are struggling out here and we are feeling left behind by our representative. We are ready for representation that is part of this community and someone who keeps themselves accountable to the people of Eastern Washington.

Goal ThermometerWe can win this race. My opponent is Trump’s Washington State Fundraising Chair, someone who has sought and received the endorsement of white nationalist leaders locally, who has abandoned us with bill after bill crafted to bring in more money for corporate donors while selling out our farmers, our families, our livelihoods.

We will win this race by bringing a campaign directly to the people that speaks to folks with respect and that demands accountability. Americans, regardless of their political party, know corruption is a problem in our political system. The same people who have continuously sold us out and fought to keep us poor for decades will not be the ones to fix this. We have to fix it ourselves. We will win by building a campaign focused on improving the lives of people who live here in Washington’s 5th District, not lobbyists and billionaires in D.C. That message resonates from the amber grain fields of the Palouse to the dense green forests in Colville.

This is what we are doing differently. This is why we are going to win.




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