Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-- Not A Garden Variety Democratic Back-Bencher

I couldn't vote in my own Twitter poll, but if I could have, I would've picked "inspirational." Maybe I should have offered "inspiring" instead. One respondent suggested "fierce" should've been an option. Another castigated me for not making "courageous" an option. As you can see, it was a battle between those who see her as inspirational and those who see her as brilliant. The youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez has drawn the wrath of the establishment, first by beating "the next Speaker of the House," icon of congressional corruption Joe Crowley, and then by stepping on every toe she could find by behaving as though her campaign promises to her constituents in Queens and the Bronx actually mean something. She hasn't even been sworn in yet and she's already accomplished more than most-- yes-- MOST-- members do after 20 years... and she's become a Fox News Enemy Of The (Dumb) People. And Fox isn't the only media outlet gunning for her. Over the weekend, when Bloomberg News wanted to introduce 5 conservative Democrats who are unlikely to every have anything meaningful to say or ever accomplish a thing-- 5 Blue Dogs and New Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party they would like to see get some attention, their headline was Five House Democrats to Watch (Not Named Ocasio-Cortez).

The other day, a member of the freshman class I've known for 5 or 6 years was grousing-- in a real mean-spirited way-- that he couldn't get any press attention because he isn't a woman of color. He was referring to Ocasio, Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (MA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Deb Haaland (D-NM). What an asshole! First of all, he's a man of color and, like the five of them, a member of the Progressive Caucus. He campaigned on many of the cutting edge issues that they campaigned on, although I suspect he doesn't give a damn about any of them and is just mouthing what his consultants told him to mouth to win his super-progressive district. And he isn't the only member burning up with jealously over the attention Ocasio and "her gang" are getting.

I told him if he wants attention, DO something. Don't just sit around waiting for Pelosi and Hoyer to tell you what to do. Ask your constituents what they want and start making waves. That's what Ocasio is doing. That's what Omar, Pressley, Tlaib and Haaland are doing. They know why they're in Congress even if he doesn't. (And he doesn't... for him-- at least in his mind-- its just a career step.)

I don't know the guy who wrote the Bloomberg story, Albert Hunter, so I'm not going to call him a boob, but he did write that "These five members-- Sherrill of New Jersey, Hill of California, Allred of Texas, New York’s Rose and Spanberger of Virginia-- are the story of what is potentially the most significant new class of House members in our lifetime." I disagree. Their significance is strictly in what they can prevent from happening. These are conservatives running-- for whatever reason-- as Democrats who have thrown in their lots with the New Dems and Blue Dogs and who, whether they know it or not, will be, for as long as they remain in Congress, drags on progress that inspirational leaders like Ocasio and his friends are the new face of. None of Hunter's 5 faces, of course, have signed onto the GreenNewDeal. And none of them will, at least not before Hoyer says too.

Hunter's article reminds me of something a worthless old fossil from Nebraska once said, the two decades dead Republican Senator Roman Hruska. Hruska is known for exactly one thing, even apart from being one of the most conservative senators of his day and for going to his end still certain that Watergate was just a hoax to get Nixon. After overt racist Clement Haynsworth was rejected by the Senate for a Supreme Court job, Nixon's second pick-- a notorious closet case named G. Harrold Carswell who was soon after arrested by an undercover cop he groped in a Tallahassee public toilet-- was also under attack. Hruska went to the well to defend him: "Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos." Sorry for the tangent but Hunter-- the guy from Bloomberg I'm not calling a boob-- wrote that "A few bomb-throwers have attracted the most attention. New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, has become the darling of the left wing for her views and the favored target of the right wing, which portrays her as the face of new Democrats. But it’s the first group that could shape the new House. All five new representatives captured Republican-held seats, and four of them beat incumbents... Many of these five are mainstream progressives, who overall trounced Bernie Sanders lefties in the primaries this year, and who are more interested in results than rhetoric."

Maybe I will have to start calling Hunter a boob after all. None of them are "progressives," mainstream or otherwise. And only Mikie Sherrill "beat"-- in a David v Goliath contest, Sherrill being Goliath-- a Bernie Sanders lefty. And what results? Ending regulation on banksters? Loosening gun restrictions? Or, at least in Abigail Spanberger's case, building a wall to keep out immigrants from Mexico? "If successful," wrote the boob from Bloomberg, "they will shape the House majority in the era of Trump. They also will be the top targets of Republicans in the next election and the most at risk if Democrats fail." They are likely to lose their seats in 2022 by deflating the Democratic base in their districts. It's what always happens when garbage center-right candidates get swept into Congress in wave elections.

Spanberger acknowledges that some other rookies in Congress “want to put down a marker as opposed to enacting policies.” But she already sees “common ground” emerging on a number of issues.

The newcomers may be in for a shock when they try to deal with House Republicans. The party’s new leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, will be constantly looking over his right shoulder and is interested solely in winning political advantage.

But some newcomers say they are already talking to colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

Allred, a young African-American lawyer and former professional football player from an upscale Dallas district, has been talking to Van Taylor, a conservative Republican just elected from an adjoining district, about possible common ground.

Next week Allred has scheduled coffee with a constituent: former President George W. Bush.

While these goofballs posture with Republican bloodsuckers, Ocasio is fighting her way to power-- something that is NEVER given, only taken-- by trying to get a position on the vert consequential House Ways and Means Committee. Grassroots allies like DFA, who brush flees like the boob's 5 candidates off like dandruff, are fighting behind her. "If this November’s elections showed us anything," wrote DFA senior staffer Karli Wallace Thompson over the weekend, "it’s that people are ready for fresh, bold, progressive leadership in Congress-- and Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embodies that. [Note to Bloomberg's boob: pay attention and maybe you'll start getting a clue about what the word "progressive" means.] January hasn’t even begun and already Alexandria is making waves on Capitol Hill by shining a light on the causal corruption and hypocrisy in Washington, and by paying her interns at least $15/hour when many of her colleagues pay them nothing. She’s clearly keeping her promises and continuing to challenge the status quo... Alexandria is in the running for a spot on one of the most powerful committees in the House, the Ways and Means Committee, even though freshmen members are rarely appointed to it. Why? Alexandria is boldly pushing for this position because she firmly believes that Americans deserve to have someone who has shared their struggles representing their interests on the committee that oversees most of the economy, including taxes and revenue. And she’s going up against a Wall Street-backed establishment Democrat in the process."

Urging DFA's tens of thousands of activist members to sign a petition to Pelosi about the appointment, Thompson urges people who back Medicare for All, lower drug prices, and a fair economy for everyone, to have Alexandria’s back. What about Spanberger's back? The xenophobes and Know Nothings are in the other party.

Time To Finally Get Rid Of Wasserman Schultz (But Not With A Pipe Bomb)

The Joe Crowley of South Florida, Debbie Wassermann Schultz, has finally agreed to participate in a debate. She'll face Republican Joe Kaufman and progressive independent Tim Canova tonite at Broward College, conveniently after many FL-23 voters have already cast their ballots. That's Debbie! As low as they go! [NOTE: Now I'm hearing she's making excuses about not showing up tonight] On Tuesday, the Miami Herald published an OpEd by Canova, Here’s why I’m challenging Debbie Wasserman Schultz as an independent. He reminded the readers that just about 3 years ago he took a leave as a tenured law professor at Nova Southeastern University "to run for Congress and challenge an entrenched incumbent, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, then the chair of the Democratic National Committee. To me, she was the epitome of why the party was failing: a corporate funded incumbent supporting a trickle-down Wall Street agenda of corporate trade deals, payday lending, private prisons, and endless wars." Blue America had urged Tim to run and endorsed him on the day he declared. This cycle we've endured him again, even though, technically, he isn't running as a Democrat.

My agenda is full employment, a renewable energy New Deal, a national infrastructure bank, ending the drug war and mass incarceration, universal single-payer healthcare, and protecting and conserving the environment. These issues are too pressing, and that’s why I decided to run again, to build on the momentum of the last campaign and continue waking voters on these issues.

But voters often first want to know why I left the Democratic Party and decided to run this time with No Party Affiliation (NPA). My “DemExit” was an unexpected fallout from the aftermath of my 2016 primary. After falling short by a few thousand votes, I started receiving phone calls from election experts across the country questioning the accuracy of the results. Some suspected hacking or software rigging. Our own internal field numbers, based on more than 10,000 door knocks a week, also showed a far different outcome. To try to put the matter to rest, I decided to verify the vote by simply inspecting the paper ballots in some key precincts, as permitted under Florida’s public-records law and at my own expense. If the ballots matched up, the issue would be resolved.


Brenda Snipes, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections, stonewalled my ballot request for months. I filed a lawsuit in June 2017, and while the lawsuit was pending, Snipes destroyed all the ballots, violating numerous state and federal criminal statutes. She concealed the ballot destruction from the court for more than two months and admitted to all this in sworn videotaped deposition.


Snipes claimed there was no harm to the public because she says she maintained digital scanned images of the purported ballots. But no one is permitted to inspect the software that creates these digital ballot images. Instead, the software is “proprietary,” the private property of the same software vendors hired by Snipes. Under such circumstances, her illegal destruction of the ballots has undermined public faith and confidence in Broward elections.

In May, the Florida Circuit Court granted me summary judgment, finding that Snipes broke the law. We recently settled for $150,000 in lawyers’ fees and court costs.

I had been a Democrat most of my life, served as a legislative aide on Capitol Hill to a Democratic U.S. senator, volunteered my time and energy to several campaigns and was inspired in my academic work by Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal in banking and public finance.

But when Democratic Party officials in Florida refused to join my call for an investigation into Broward’s ballot destruction, that was finally enough. I am running as an independent to speak to a much wider part of the electorate. Although Republicans make up only 23 percent of registered voters in my district, independent voters are quickly approaching the number of registered Democrats. If there’s any district in the country where an independent can win, Florida’s Congressional District 23 is it, right here, right now.

Democratic Party politics appear petty when compared to the growing economic and environmental crises we face in Florida. For many people, this feels like year 10 of a Great Depression in jobs, incomes and savings. It’s why so many people voted for Bernie Sanders and so many others for Donald Trump. They know the system is broken, and that incremental change will change nothing.

Although Wasserman Schultz says climate change and sea-level rise are real, she then votes for billions of dollars in federal subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry and big agribusinesses, the industries contributing most to climate change. And she votes for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal subsidies for the Big Sugar industry, which along with those factory farms, are most responsible for polluting our waterways with toxic algae, endangering public health, harming tourism and threatening our oceans and aquifers.


I didn’t leave the Democratic Party as much as it left me. It’s much the same with the Republican Party. Both went so establishment and corporate that they abandoned the American people. That’s why although I’m running as an independent, I’m still the real New Deal Democrat in the race, and the candidate most in line with Teddy Roosevelt’s Republican progressive vision of trust-busting to protect workers and consumers, and to conserve our natural environment. Like during the Roosevelts’ era, our generation needs to tame capitalism without destroying it in order to liberate people while providing them with meaningful work in a dynamic economy.


 UPDATE From Tim

Tonight was to be the one and only debate in our independent campaign for Congress against Debbie Wasserman Schultz and a Republican opponent. Unfortunately, the debate has been cancelled.

First, Debbie Wasserman Schultz did not even have the good grace to respond to the invitation made by Broward College on behalf of their students. No response at all.

And here’s an indication of Wasserman Schultz’s absolute hypocrisy: Last night she attended a debate of candidates for Florida governor at Broward College! Apparently, everyone else should be expected to debate opponents and answer to voters, but not Debbie.

The debate was going to proceed without Wasserman Schultz. My Republican opponent, Joe Kaufman, had already accepted Broward College’s invitation. But Kaufman cancelled this morning, even though the replacement moderator was a Republican who has served as press secretary to a number of prominent Florida Republicans, including Florida’s Attorney General.

Broward College felt compelled to cancel the entire event, rather than letting me take the stage alone, as the only candidate in this congressional district willing to debate.

It’s absolutely revolting that candidates for Congress, including a sitting Congresswoman who proclaim their fidelity to democracy, are actually afraid of the voters and have such little respect in particular for younger voters. They believe that college students and other young voters will not turn out to vote. And by not speaking to young voters, they are hoping it has that effect.

My opponents have also rejected a Town Hall invitation from March for Our Lives, a group formed by high school students in the aftermath of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Parkland, Florida earlier this year. And once again, Debbie Wasserman Schultz did not even respond to the invitation. That’s vintage Debbie. If you have a $5000 check from a political action committee, Debbie will make time for you. If not, her staff won’t even return your calls or debate invitations.

Wasserman Schultz and Kaufman both pretend to care about school safety, the lousy conditions in our public schools, and the concerns of college students. Yet, when push comes to shove, they both avoid invitations from students to appear in public, debate the issues, and answer their questions.

As a professor, I know all too well what a difficult job market this is, even for college graduates, and the burdens they carry in student debt. That’s why I have an agenda for students, one that includes a plan to reduce interest rates on existing student debt and even to forgive much outstanding student debt-- the same way the Federal Reserve helped Wall Street banks and hedge funds following the 2008 financial collapse. I support tuition-free public colleges, and we also have a plan for voluntary national service for high school grads that would provide tuition-free higher education at any school, public or private, after three years of servic-- the same kind of deal my dad’s generation got after World War II with the G.I. Bill of Rights. A national service program would provide opportunities in civilian conservation in national forests and coastal waters, cultural production in the arts and music, and improving all kinds of infrastructure-- just like in President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. I also support Medicare For All, which would greatly help young people, many of whom presently lack any health insurance.

None of my opponents have any real agenda to address the concerns of our youth. No wonder why they run away from public forums and debates at our colleges and with young voters. The corrupt establishment is making such a mess of our world, I fear what the future will be like for our children.

This is what our campaign is fighting against: cowards who do not believe in democracy and who show such disrespect and disdain for young voters, and for people of all ages.

This is what our campaign is fighting for: a New Deal for all Americans!

Bad News For Congressional Republicans-- Followed By More Bad News For Congressional Republicans

That tweet from the wee hours of Friday morning will be the GOP midterm campaign platform. I don't think Democrats are shaking in their boots. It's a single-minded Trump-base strategy-- something to appeal to the low-IQ people who go to his rallies for a night of entertainment and meaning. He must have been all worked up after his exhilarating rally in Great Falls, Montana. Great Falls, with the population of under 60,000, is the county seat of Cascade County. It's the heart of Trump Country. In the 2016 primaries, Trump eviscerated Cruz-- 8,129 (74.7%) to 830 (7.6%). And Cascade County was all his in the general as well-- 57.0% to 35.5%. Far more tickets had been given away than there was space in ExpoPark so, thousand of Trump fans were turned away. He planned it that way. He "boasted about the size of the crowds he draws, saying he's 'broken virtually every record' and again calling his inaguration crowd a 'big monster' crowd. He said if there had been empty seats instead of vastly more tickets given out than could fit in the 6,600-capacity arena, he would be mocked. Instead, he should be mocked for all the bullshit was spouting all evening. A sample:

• After a little anti-McCain routine, he went after George H.W. Bush: "Thousand points of light? What does that mean? I know one thing. Make America Great Again we understand. Putting America first we understand. Thousand points of light, I never quite got that one. What the hell is that? Has anyone ever figured that one out? It was put out by a Republican wasn't it."
• Earlier he had attacked Maxine Waters, claiming she has an IQ even lower than his own: "Democrats want anarchy. They really do. And they don't know who they are playing with, folks. I said it the other day, yes, she is a low IQ individual. Maxine Waters. I said it the other day. I mean, honestly she is somewhere in the mid 60s. I believe that."
• "A vote for Jon Tester is a vote for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the new leader of the Democrat party, Maxine Waters.”
• "I am meeting with President Putin next week and getting along-- let me tell you, getting along with Russia and getting along with China and getting along with other countries is a good thing. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing... Now they're saying it with Putin. 'Well Putin is highly prepared. And Trump, will he be prepared for the meeting?' Trust me, we'll be just fine. Fake news. Bad people. Will he be prepared? Will he be prepared? And I might even end up having a good relationship. But they're going 'will President Trump be prepared? You know, President Putin is KGB.' And this and that. You know what? Putin's fine. He's fine. We're all fine. We're people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I've been preparing for this stuff my whole life. They don't say that."
• "I am going to tell NATO, you've got to start paying your bills. The United States is not going to take care of everything."
• Making the Supreme Court nomination process into a tawdry TV game show: "If you tune in Monday at 9 o'clock, I think you are going to be extremely happy."
• Baiting Elizabeth Warren: "We will say, 'I will give you $1 million to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you are an Indian and let's see what she does."

The Democrats won't be running their midterm campaign based on responding to Trump's lies and stupidity. The kind of people who go to his rallies aren't the target audience-- although Elizabeth Warren's retort, reminding people of Trump's multiple Atlantic City scams and bankruptcies-- was pretty damned amusing:

"Trump thinks he’s insulting me by calling me Pocahontas. The truth is, I’m proud of my heritage-- our casinos make money!"

Yesterday the folks at Politico early morning Playbook told us that Republicans warned them privately that "they think that a trade war with China is enough to cost them their majority in the House. The everyday economic impact-- higher prices, businesses laying off employees-- would blunt any positive impact of tax reform. Well, the trade war is here. Combine that with rising gas prices four months before Election Day."

The Wall Street Journal reported that the trade war with China is on. "The U.S. and China slapped levies on $34 billion of each other’s exports, the first tangible shots in a trade battle that both sides are bracing to fight for months-- if not years. The new levies took effect after midnight Eastern Time on Friday in the U.S. In response, a commission of China’s State Council said it applied tariffs on 545 items 'including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products,' according to state-run Xinhua News Agency."

Here's a message from a bastion of the GOP, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that Trump is too stupid to bother paying any attention to:

China, the EU, Mexico and Canada have already retaliated or announced plans to retaliate with billions of dollars in tariffs on American-made products.

Tariffs imposed by the United States are nothing more than a tax increase on American consumers and businesses-- including manufacturers, farmers, and technology companies-- who will all pay more for commonly used products and materials.

Retaliatory tariffs imposed by other countries on U.S. exports will make American-made goods more expensive, resulting in lost sales and ultimately lost jobs here at home.

This is the wrong approach, and it threatens to derail our nation’s recent economic resurgence.

...Millions of U.S. jobs depend on America’s ability to trade with other countries. Half of all U.S. manufacturing jobs depend on exports, and one in three acres of American farmland is planted for international sales. But recent and proposed trade actions by the Trump administration threaten as many as 2.6 million American jobs and will stymie our economic resurgenc

They urge voters to "send a message to Congress." And then go through expected damaged, state by state. Here are a few that supported Trump in 2016 but are likely to abandon the GOP in November:

Michigan

Wisconsin

Iowa

China's Prime Minister, Li Keqiang: "A trade war benefits no-one because it hurts free trade and the multilateral process... If a country wants to raise tariffs, China will respond to defend itself." He politely didn't name Trumpanzee or tar our whole country with that ignorant, entitled asshole.

Pennsylvania

Florida

Texas

Arizona

NPR: "As the day dawned across the U.S. on Friday, a new economic reality dawned with it: The tariffs long threatened against billions of dollars in Chinese goods took effect just at midnight ET while many Americans were sleeping-- but Beijing was ready immediately with a wake-up call of its own... [E]ventually those costs will take their toll on the average wallet-- and it likely won't be simply because of these tariffs. Jeremy Haft, author of Unmade in China, tells NPR's Noel King that Beijing has a number of arrows in its economic quiver, and that it is "already using these weapons."

The Democrats will have plenty to campaign on without wallowing the childish name calling and obvious lies that Trump's moron base finds so amusing. In the House, Democrats are likely to win something like 50 seats currently held by the GOP. One may be the very red-leaning TX-10. Mike Siegel is the Texas Democrat running in that very gerrymandered district, which stretches, incongruously, from the Houston suburbs to the Austin suburbs. Mike won his primary but the DCCC is ignoring the opportunity to replace Republican incumbent Michael McCaul with him. But you can contribute to his grassroots campaign here.

Yesterday, Mike told us that "Trump's clumsy and ill-advised trade war hurts hard-working farmers and ranchers in the Texas 10th. This District depends on exports of sorghum and corn, among other products that are now subject to retaliatory Chinese tariffs. The President has certainly helped my position, especially given that the incumbent, Michael McCaul, has done nothing to protect his constituents, and we now have crops growing that may not have a buyer on the other side. Texas Democrats have a strong statewide candidate for Agriculture Commissioner, Kim Olson, who will make sure that every rancher and farmer knows why their businesses are suffering. As Col. Olson has explained, 'Farm, farming and ranching production are not like assembly lines. You can’t just slow them down when you start to have trouble. That stuff grows based on mother nature and you get one chance a year to harvest, one chance for farmers to make a profit.' Unfortunately, Trump's attitude problem is affecting the lives of our neighbors who depend on agriculture for their livelihood. I would prefer he stand down, but if he does not, voters will know which party is ready to represent their interests."

Kara Eastman is in the same predicament as Siegel. A progressive, she won her Omaha primary against a wretched Republican-lite Blue Dog backed by the DCCC and Pelosi. So now they are shunning her and undermining her campaign-- which probably makes her a hero among local voters (if not to big donors). And she has a similar perspective on the impact of Trump's trade war. "This administration is leading us into a trade war that will hurt the Heartland," she told us last night. "The more we alienate our trade partners, the more Nebraskan farmers are at risk of losing their exports and revenue from their agricultural products. Many farmers are already struggling to break even in our current economy and it’s irresponsible for Trump to gamble with their livelihood."

Marianne Williamson's Love America Tour

Our old friend and comrade in arms, Marianne Williamson, is starting a tour of the U.S. in which she'll be-- among other things-- introducing some of the Blue America candidates to her followers. She's just setting the dates now. In fact this morning she started working with Kaniela Ing to set up an event in Honolulu. So far though, these are the set dates:

• Richmond Virginia, Huguenot High School Auditorium- Saturday, January 6, 2pm

• Winston-Salem, Benton Convention Center- Sunday, January 7, 4pm with Jenny Marshall

• Houston, Texas, Unity of Houston- Thursday, January 11, 7:30 pm

• Austin, Wyndham Garden Hotel- Friday, January 12, 7:30 pm with Derrick Crowe

• Las Vegas, Center for Spiritual Living- Saturday, January 20, 7pm

• Miami, Unity of the Bay- Friday, March 2, 6pm

• Phoenix, Unity of Phoenix Spiritual Center- Friday, March 16, 7:30pm

• Raleigh, Unity Church- Friday, March 31, 7pm

• Denver, Mile Hi Church- April 20, 7pm

Jenny Marshall, in a touch battle with far right incumbent Virginia Foxx in North Carolina, has been getting tremendous help from Marianne. "We are thrilled," she told us, "to have the help of Marianne as we fight for change in the 5th district. Since meeting Marianne back in June, she has shown us unwavering support.  We were thrilled to be included in the Sister Giant slate of endorsed candidates and now Marianne is coming to North Carolina as our special guest for a fundraiser.  The event is called Ignite the Change NC with Marianne Williamson.  It will take place on January 7th, 2018 at the Benton Convention Center 301 West 5th Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101.  We are hosting a private reception from 3:00-4:00pm for select ticket holders. the main event will be from from 4:00-6:00pm. Tickets can be purchased at this link.

Inviting her followers, Marianne noted that "The times in which we’re living are dramatic and unstable, yet pregnant with new possibilities for a future released from the shackles of fear. At a time when fear and hatred have been turned into a political force, is it possible to harness the powers of love and decency for political purposes as well?" And she has an answer:

Our task is to create a new, whole-person politics, breaking free of a paradigm based on a decidedly outdated view of the world and embracing a more enlightened understanding of our relation to the universe. We need a deeper, multi-dimensional understanding of our national story: where we have been, where we are, and where we need to go now.

As with other extraordinary times in our history-- from our Founding to Abolition to Women’s Suffrage to the Civil Rights era-- it is time once again to break free of an old way of being and embrace a new story going forward. As in the words of Abraham Lincoln, “… we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.”

I will be touring the country this year, discussing how a revolution in consciousness paves the way to both personal and national renewal. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”

This just came in as an email from Marianne as we were about to publish. And just as David Feldman was telling me that Derrick Crowe (TX-21) was the most effective guest I had gotten him for his podcast:

A Good Campaign Video Isn't Enough-- Staten Island

Two of the most outstanding campaign videos so far this cycle were the ones introducing Randy Bryce (WI) and Amy McGrath (KY). Bryce immediately proved himself an even better candidate than the one his video showed. He built a powerful populist brand that is going to bring him all the way to Congress and make history by taking down Paul Ryan, the Speaker of the House and a darling of the Beltway media. McGrath, on the other hand, was anything but ready for prime time. If Bryce's authenticity level is an "A," McGrath's is, a "C-minus" or, at best, a work in progress. There's nothing there there-- a candidate being created out of think air by some consultants. Like Bryce she has a compelling bio. Unlike Bryce, she has nothing to offer the voters.

Far worse than McGrath's launch was the one for Boyd Melson built around next eye-popping campaign video that came out. Very good video-- watch it just below-- but no campaign at all. Just nothing but a video. His campaign makes McGath's look like a bone-crushing success. Since the videos came out, this is how each of these candidates have fared in the fundraising departments:

• Randy Bryce- $1,460,551.03
• Amy McGrath- $807,125.72
• Boyd Melson- $94,048.19

There are at least seven candidates running for the only red district in New York City-- NY-11, which takes in all of Staten Island plus a significant chunk of southwest Brooklyn, from Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton through Bensonhurst and Gravesend into Flatbush. It includes the buildings in Brooklyn developed by Fred Trump-- where his then-unknown son Donald was caught discriminating against black and Puerto Rican would-be tenants-- and the parts of Brooklyn that flipped from safely blue to Trump territory in the last election. One, Omar Vaid, is a self-funder who put $105,532 of his own money into his campaign. There's a buzz that Melson, who isn't a registered Democrat and doesn't really live in the district, will drop out by the end of the week. And that leaves Max Rose, who has raised $325,379.60 so far as the likely Democratic nominee. It looks like the DCCC is leaning in his direction and none of the other candidates have raised any significant money or created any buzz outside of their now families.

So who's Max Rose? Can he beat whichever Republican wins their bloody primary between establishment Republican Dan Donovan or Bannon's Mafia thug Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm? First watch the video up top-- good one, right? He's an Army vet who saw active duty in Afghanistan with a website that has no issues, beyond extolling "Duty.Patriotism.Service" and a video all about Staten Island without even mentioning Brooklyn, from which Democrats normally draw about 25% of their votes. He has a maters from the prestigious London School of Economics, but he doesn't seem to talk as much about that as he does about the Purple Heart he earned. "I’m running because I’m fed up" is what he tells voters but is there a single challenger from either party who doesn't say the same meaningless thing-- or meaningless if it isn't put into some deeper, non-soundbyte context. On the other hand resentment, self-victimization and anger seem to be what motivates State Island voters.

When Rose talks to the media, he uses fluffy Republican talking points like "Obamacare is broken, we all acknowledge that" and "Tort reform has to be on the table," the kinds of things Staten Island voters hear on Fox News and Hate Talk Radio.

Self-Funding Republicans Often Win; Self-Funding Dems Lose-- But That Doesn't Stop The DCCC From Recruiting Them

DCCC 2018 mascot-- "ex"-Republican lottery winner and self-funder Gil Cisneros

Last year, creepy Texas Blue Dog Vicente González bought himself a South Texas congressional seat. There were 14 very entitled multimillionaires who spent over a million dollars each on congressional campaigns last cycle. 4 were Democrats, 8 were Republicans and 2 were conservatives running as third party candidates. Self-funding is a perfectly respectable Republican thing to do and Republicans who set out to buy House seats often win. Democrats normally don't. 3 of the Republicans are now in Congress + the Texas Blue Dog who tends to vote like a Republican.

• David Trone (D-MD)- $13,414,225- lost primary
• Randy Perkins (D-FL)- $10,127,029- lost
• Francis Rooney (R-FL)- $4,136,754- won
• Paul Mitchell (R-MI)- $3,607, 287- won
• Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN)- $3,142,150- won
• Martin Babinec (I-NY)- $2,990,000- lost
• George Flinn (R-TN)- $2,795,000- lost primary
• Stewart Mills (R-MN)- $2,147,169- lost
• Christine Jones (R-AZ)- $2,044,909- lost primary
• Vicente González (D-TX)- $1,850,000- won
• Bob Poe (D-FL)- $1,825,308- lost primary
• Glen Robertson (R-TX)- $1,636,459- lost primary
• Mark Freeman (R-FL)- $1,627,756- lost primary
• Shawn O'Connor (I-NH)- $1,253,450- lost

This cycle, Trone is running again, self-funding again-- albeit in another Maryland district he doesn't live in. He plans, if necessary, to spend even more than the $13.4 million he spent in 2016. He'd be replacing another worthless multimillionaire self-funding, Wall shill and New Dem John Delaney, who claims to be running for president. Delaney, one of the worst Democrats in Congress. He originally bought his seat with $2,370,556 of his own money and spent another $937,912 of his own to hold onto it in 2014, but just $354,125 of his own last cycle.

The DCCC loves self-funders and promotes them relentlessly despite the fact that they usually tend to be conservatives-- actually that's a bonus for the DCCC. Their favorite candidates are always self-funding conservatives. This cycle they recruited a completely worthless lottery winner, "ex"-Republican Gil Cisneros, to run in a landlocked district far from his Newport Coast $10 million beachfront mansion.

The DCCC didn't dare interfere in the CA-34 special election to replace Xavier Becerra a couple months ago, but a rich, conservative "ex"-Republican-- albeit one backed by GOP officials-- Robert Lee Ahn-- was the substitute Republican Party candidate for the seat. Although officially Ahn "only" self-funded to the tune of $498,400, his father started a shady SuperPAC, Citizens For A Better Government, and put another $140,050 into the race against the actual Democratic candidate, Jimmy Gomez. In the end Gomez beat Ahn 59.2% to 40.8%, despite outspending Gomez $1,658,181 to $1,093,504.

Despite being constantly recruited by the numbskulls at the DCCC-- painfully incapable of learning from experience-- Open Secrets explained why self-funders usually lose.

Self-funders clearly face unfavorable odds-- but why is that?

“The main reason is they tend to be extremely inexperienced in politics,” said Jennifer Steen, associate research professor of political science at Arizona State University. “Often, they don’t have compelling resumes, they don’t have compelling credentials.”

“Campaigning is something that you get better at with practice, and they don’t know how to do it,” she added.

...How about President Donald Trump-- the cycle’s top self-funder-- who, when announcing his candidacy, said, “I don’t need anybody’s money.” Trump gave his campaign about $66 million in loans and contributions-- although some of that money found its way back to him.

“In Trump’s case, self-funding can also become self-profit,” wrote Stephen Wayne, professor of government at Georgetown University, in an email. “Look at the expenses paid to the Trump organization for rent and plane and other staffing expenses.”

Trump’s campaign paid more than $1.4 million to Trump Tower alone-- essentially recouping about as much as candidate Hillary Clinton contributed to her campaign overall.

Ultimately, Trump’s $66 million in self-funding accounted for less than 20 percent of the money his campaign raised (and fell short of the $100 million he said he’d contribute), as he also received nearly $267 million from other individuals and organizations. That fact is key, as Trump’s self-funding was complemented by his populist appeal and media attention, which allowed him to circumvent one reason for the dismal success rate of self-funders: Such candidates mostly miss out on fundraising’s potential to facilitate base-building.

“It really does make a difference if you raise a dollar versus writing a check,” said Steen. “Getting people to give you whatever amount is asking them to support you. So if you raise money from 1,000 contributors, that’s 1,000 people who are interested in your campaign and vested in your success.”

According to Fischer: “Generally speaking, when a candidate is running for office they need to build a base of support, and that includes fundraising from, ideally, a broad range of people. And if you’re self-funding you don’t necessarily have to go through the difficult work of building that base of both popular and financial support. You can plow straight ahead and hire staff, pay for ads and open campaign offices.”

Some candidates have plowed straight ahead, multiple times, to limited success. James Oberweis (R-Ill.), a businessman and member of the Illinois Senate, has mounted three self-funded campaigns: In 2004, 2008 and 2014. Those efforts cost him a total of over $8 million, to little avail.

Connecticut Republican Linda McMahon, of wrestling fame, channeled even more of her own money into her bids. She ran for the Senate in 2010 and 2012, and the two races combined put her back nearly $100 million. That price tag was so high that both of her candidacies are among the five campaigns that featured the highest amounts of self-funding since 2000. While McMahon hasn’t become a senator, she does now lead the Small Business Administration under Trump.

Indiana Has A Congressional Candidate With An Extraordinary Record Of Accomplishment-- Meet Dan Canon

IN-09 stretches from the suburbs north of Louisville and The Ohio River-- New Albany, Clarksville, Jeffersonville-- north through Bloomington and Martinsville and into the suburbs south of Indianapolis like Greenwood, Needham and New Whiteland. There are 13 counties in the district, although most of the votes come out of Johnson (south of Indianapolis), Clark (across from Louisville) and Monroe (Bloomington). Before the 2010 gerrymander, it was a swing district that would regularly replace Republicans with Democrats and Democrats with Republicans. The Republican legislature redrew the district to make it far more difficult for Democrats to win. Baron Hill, a Republican-lite Blue Dog, was elected in 1998, lost in 2004, won again in 2006 and lost in 2010. It's been a GOP bastion since then.

McCain beat Obama in 2008 by about 20,000 votes-- 53-46% and then Romney beat him by about 50,000 votes 4 years later-- 57-41%. Last year Hillary got wiped out by Señor Trumpanzee-- 61-34%. Local Democrats do better than the national ones. In 2008 Baron Hill was reelected 181,281 (57.8%) to 120,529 (38.4%). In 2012 Democrat Shelli Yoder lost to Republican incumbent Todd Young 165,332 (55.4%) to 132,848 (44.6%) and last year Yoder tried again and ran considerably ahead of Clinton, still losing 54.1% to 40.5%.

Hillary was the wrong candidate for IN-09. Trump won every county but Monroe in the general. Earlier, Bernie beat her decisively in Monroe--15,166 (65.3%) to 8,063 (34.7%). Bernie also beat Trump decisively in Monroe that day-- 15,166 to 4,412. In fact Bernie took almost double what all the Republicans took in Monroe combined. Bernie also beat Hillary in Johnson, Brown, Lawrence, Morgan and Orange counties.

Local Democrats are determined to make sure IN-09 is competitive and next year Berniecrat Dan Canon, a prominent civil rights attorney, is vying for the nomination with university instructor Tom Pappas (another progressive) and two centrists, orthodontist Tod Curtis and DCCC recruit, a DC establishment attorney they dropped into the district last month for the race, Liz Watson. At Blue America we're excited about the prospect of Dan Canon taking on Republican rubber-stamp Trey Hollingsworth and we asked him to introduce himself with a guest post.


Honesty Is The Best Politics
-by Dan Canon

I'm a progressive. I don't try to hide it. I couldn't very well run from it if I wanted to. I've been a civil rights lawyer, fighting for people and causes, for more than a decade. Sometimes those people and causes have been unpopular, or at least controversial. In 2015, I represented couples who won marriage equality at the Supreme Court. I helped people get marriage licenses when a county clerk refused to issue them. I sued a presidential candidate for ordering a mob of white nationalists to attack peaceful protesters. I've represented drug addicts, murderers, victims, cops, activists, doctors, patients, teachers, students, refugees, and people from all walks of life who needed help. I don't want to run from any of that. I've written about it. I've talked about it. I've taught seminars on it. I'm proud of it.

On the other hand, I'm not proud of everything I've ever done, written, or said. I've had a real life. I dropped out of high school. I got married, divorced, and remarried. But when I decided to run for Congress here in my home state of Indiana, I wasn't thinking "how do I sweep my entire past, my entire career, everything I care about, under the rug?" or even "how can I make this look as perfect and polished as possible?"

A recurring theme that comes up talking to political strategists trying to figure out ways to be both authentic and inauthentic. Be yourself, but don't talk about progressive stuff. Make a genuine connection with people, but obscure what you believe in. Let people know who you are, but don't ever tell them you did that. A political neophyte, I have not been fully indoctrinated into this way of thinking. I'm trying to resist it. So far, it's working.

So of course, the question that comes up time and time again is: how in the hell are you going to win? I'm a progressive in a red state. In a state that went overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. In rural America. Sure, it's a swing district. But don't you have to play the safe, milquetoast centrist to win?

There's a fluid strategy involved in winning a race; a strategy which will surely change at least 100 times between now and November of 2018. But for now, I can tell how we will not win. Progressive politicians won't win in the heartland by running from tough conversations, or by betraying our principles, or by pretending to be something we are not.

In a nutshell, we'll win by being honest. That sounds simplistic-- naïve, even. But I believe it. I've lived in my district for more than 30 years. People in Indiana know when you're hiding something, and they don't like it. We need to know that we can trust an elected representative, and I intend to demonstrate that I can be trusted. I'm going to knock on lots of doors, and have lots of tough conversations. I'm going to show up whenever, wherever, however I can.

Beyond the visceral response provoked by honesty (or dishonesty), there's a perfectly practical reason to be as authentic as possible. It seems self-evident that we will never win an election on principles and policies if we can never convince anyone that our principles and policies are good. Until recently, we haven't even tried. The enormous success of Bernie Sanders (a self-proclaimed socialist who makes no effort to hide it) and Donald Trump (an unhinged fascist who makes no effort to hide it), should have been a wakeup call. People want something different. People want something real. And people want a bold way forward-- or maybe even backward, just so long as we are forging a path in some direction.

And yet, even after 2016, conventional beltway-insider wisdom suggests that we should run tepid, safe, opaque campaigns in order to try to please all the voters all the time. It doesn't work. We know it doesn't work. Why do we still do it?

No one agrees on everything. Acknowledging that up front goes a long way. The people I grew up with value honesty, integrity, and authenticity more than they care about specific policy points. I suspect this has always been true, but our political machines create political robots. And the Democratic robots this machine wants to make are ones that surgically avoid hot-button issues - even issues so commonsense as renewable energy, livable wages, fair taxation, or universal healthcare. The Republican robots, on the other hand, have boldly and successfully led working-class people to believe that they should sacrifice those things so that the rich may become infinitely richer. And so we persistently slide further to the right, the yawning chasm between the rich and the poor growing ever wider because no one is brave enough to talk about closing it.

  We have to do better than that. Even if it means we lose an election or two along the way, we have to take control of the conversation. We have to provide a way forward, we have to say that we are right, and we have to believe it. We won't win in the short run, and we cannot possibly win in the long run, if we don't.

Trump's Collapsing Presidency

Señor Trumpanzee's very shady modeling agency, Trump Model Management, is under investigation again. One guy Trumpanzee can't fire is New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman-- but I bet he wishes he could. One of his investigations, coordinated under both the Financial Crimes Bureau and the Organized Crime Task Force, involves the beleaguered modeling agency as part of a possible future Enterprise Corruption indictment.

There is some speculation that Preet Bharara's office was investigating the Trump Organization under federal RICO statutes and that after Trump fired him without cause, Schneiderman took over the investigation with a state-level version of RICO: Enterprise Corruption.

Trump himself-- and his rapidly expanding legal defense team-- are more focused on the Putin-Gate scandal than the "petty" crime that has marked Trump's entire sleazy career. This tweet is just pathetic: his whiny attempt tp guilt congressional Republicans into coming to his aid even more overtly than many of them already have.

"Carried over the line on my back?" The man is delusional. Most Republican incumbents did better-- many much better-- than Trump, who, after all, did lose to Clinton by nearly 3 million votes-- 65,853,516 to 62,984,825. In most constituencies Trump wasn't carrying anyone on his back. He was an anchor. He certainly helped defeat Republican Senate incumbents Mark Kirk (IL) and Kelly Ayotte (NH), each of whom outpolled him, Kirk 2,184,692 to 2,146,015 and Ayotte 353,632 to 345,790. In fact, in New Hampshire, he also dragged incumbent Tea Party congressman Frank Guinta to a career-ending debacle. Nor was Guinta the only Republican who lost his seat because of Trump. The voters in Mark Kirk's old House district in Illinois also threw out Bob Dold while they were defeating Trump and Kirk. Florida voters ousted GOP incumbents John Mica and David Jolly and in Nevada, where Trump lost to Hillary, he dragged down the Republicans' Senate candidate, Joe Heck, and two House candidates, incumbent Cresent Hardy and challenger Danny Tarkanian.

Not even an utterly fact-free imbecile like Trump is likely to claim he carried Utah Senator Mike Lee over the finish like on his back. Lee took 760,241 votes to Trump's very sad 515,231. Trump has been bitching a lot about Kansas Senator Jerry Moran not supporting his proposals or defending him from attack. But if anyone carried anyone on their back, it was Moran, who got 732,376 votes, carrying Trump, who only won 671,018 votes, to a win in Kansas. Trump may grouse that Chuck Grassely's efforts to protect him aren't enough but Grassley is doing way too much already and certainly won way more votes that Trump did in Iowa-- 926,007 to Trump's relatively weak 800,983. Other Republican Senate incumbents who outpolled Trump last year include McCain (AZ), Rubio (FL), Rob Portman (OH), Johnny Isakson (GA), Mike Crapo (ID), Richard Burr (NC) and Ron Johnson (WI).

And in the House, the Republicans who came closest to losing their seats were all dragged down by Trump. A good example was in CA-49, the San Diego/Orange County district where Hillary beat Trump 50.7% to 43.2% dragging Darrell Issa to his worst result ever and nearly costing him his seat. In the end Issa eked out a miserable 155,888 (50.3%) to 154,267 (49.7%) win over newcomer Doug Applegate, even though Issa outspent Applegate $6,275,754 to $2,041,091. Or take TX-07, the Houston district represented by John Culberson. Hillary won 48.5% to 47.1% and Culberson, despite running against a Democrat with virtually no support suffered his worst election result ever and, like Issa, is likely it be defeated in 2018.

Meanwhile, Trump is still tweeted veiled threats to Republicans in Congress growing increasingly sick of him and his childish, vindictive behavior. Is this one a threat? The real repercussions will be to the 20 to 30 million Americans who lose their healthcare if TrumpCare in ever enacted. And if that isn't enough of a repercussion for the self-absorbed, Adderall-fueled Trump, how about the fact that voters have consistently said-- by huge margins-- that they will be much less likely to vote for their own members of Congress if they back TrumpCare?

Who Wants More Republican-Lite Candidates? The DCCC Has One For Minnesota

There are six counties that make up MN-02 but the vast majority of voters are in the suburbs and small towns just south of Minneapolis and St Paul in Dakota County. Obama took Dakota County both times he ran and won MN-02 both times as well. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken won those suburbs as well-- and the congressional district. But in 2003 a right-wing crackpot and ideologue, Kohn Kline, won the district and represented the area in Congress until last year, when he finally retired. The Democrats picked a wealthy self-funder Angie Craig as their candidate. She has a somewhat compelling biography and, working with a cadre of loser consultants from DCCC/EMILY's List world, ran an issues-light campaign, depending on Hillary's coattails to sweep her into office-- and a weak campaign about herself but not about the constituents. She had nothing to offer them and their families other than stories about herself and her family. Just what the DCCC and EMILY's List wants from their candidates. She put nearly a million dollars of her own money into it and outspent Republican Jason Lewis $4,012,823 to $1,020,649. But everything went wrong. First of all, Hillary had no coattails in the Twin Cities suburbs. Unlike Obama she lost. She lost to Trump! By over a point-- 46.5% to 45.3%. And Angie did even worse. She lost 173,970 (47%) to 167,315 (45.2%), despite having out-spent him 4 to 1. The DCCC spent $2,174,366 trying to help and Pelosi's PAC threw in another $759,429... all wasted.

So... guess who the DCCC wants to run again next year. Yep, Angie Craig. She sent out another anodyne letter announcing her intention to start campaigning in a few months. The letter, once again, is all about her, not about issues, not about the Minnesotans she wants to represent:

With the strong support of my wife and our four sons, I’m excited to announce that I will seek the Democratic-Farmer-Labor endorsement in Minnesota’s Second Congressional District in 2018.

We deserve a representative who is committed to listening to everyone-- even those we might disagree with-- and then work to create a level playing field for every family. That’s why I’ll spend the upcoming weeks on a listening tour of the district. Following this, I will formally kick off my campaign in the Fall.

As Democrats, we must understand better why we have lost these past elections. As I talk with voters, already it has become clearer that we must talk more about how we are going to bring back jobs to the United States and create economic opportunity for more hard-working Americans. We have to be clearer about how we will fix healthcare and acknowledge the problems with out of control costs for many families. I grew up without healthcare. There is no one who knows better if you can’t afford insurance, healthcare doesn’t exist.

I would not be making this announcement today if not for the strong support from my wife, Cheryl Greene, a former Minnesota teacher who now works with elementary schools around the country on bully prevention efforts. Our four sons, Josh, Jonas, Jacob and Isaac also have been incredibly encouraging. Our oldest three return to college in August and Isaac will be a freshman at Rosemount High School this year. I also have heard from many of you – encouraging me to make a second run. Thank you for your confidence in me. I will need your help to win.

I have been incredibly blessed in this life. I never imagined as a young girl that I would leave the trailer park I grew up in to become first a journalist, and then a healthcare leader-- much less run for the U.S. Congress. I am ready to use my experience to fight to lower health care costs and ensure families have more economic opportunities.

I humbly ask for your support to be the MN-2 DFL candidate for Congress in 2018 to ensure that Jason Lewis and Washington no longer ignore our neighbors. We must be heard. I will fight Washington to make sure this district gets what it deserves.

I would be honored to have your support. Please, follow me on Facebook to stay up to date on the listening tour and the latest news as I prepare to challenge Jason Lewis.

Yours,
Angie

She was a lobbyist for a medical devise corporation and her inspiring story didn't inspire Democrats or independents in 2016. But she's trying again. But this time she may have a problem. High school American Government Teacher and head football coach Jeff Erdmann is running for the DFL endorsement to challenge Jason Lewis. Erdmann grew up in Lewiston, in southeast Minnesota and has lived in this congressional district for the past 17 years. In radio interviews he often says he "believes in people." On his website it says, he was named the Minnesota Vikings High School Football Coach of the year in 2010, and the Marines Semper Fi Coach of the Year in 2015. Though he attributes his success to the culture of respect and valuing of each person that participates, his campaign-- as demonstrated on that website-- is as policy oriented as you'd expect from a former Berniecrat. It's probably worth mentioning that Bernie didn't just win MN-02 in the primaries-- beating Hillary 10,722 (66.3%) to 5,451 (33.7%), but that Bernie got over 3 times more votes that Señor Trumpanzee in the primaries. (Trump came in third with 3,333 votes, behind weak showings by Rubio and Cruz.)

Angie Craig likes to tell people she grew up in Arkansas, in a trailer park. Last cycle, in every chance she got, she claimed that she is an American Dream story. Climbing the corporate ladder was what she did, very successfully. I’m pretty sure the American Dream is owning a house and getting your kids though college. Lobbying for the medical device industry and reaping huge profits, maybe not as much. Craig moved to Minnesota in 2005, then moved into the district just before her run in 2013.

Jeff’s platform is transparent and extremely progressive. A "working voice for working people" is Erdmann’s tag line, as he strives for Medicare for All, Wall Street reform, political reform to get money out of politics, strengthening social security, and lifting wages for hard working Americans. Jeff is working full time during the campaign because he, "needs to put food on the table." The Erdmann campaign tweets that to change the political landscape, real working people need to run for office. Millionaires haven't been and still aren’t the answer to our problems.

Craig… well, she ran last cycle and took down her website with her stances. Now there is a Crowd Pac page where it says, "Remember, more than 53 percent of the district voted for me or the third-party candidate in 2016." Her announcement press release says she is going on a "listening tour." Which seems odd, as she was just campaigning around the district 9 months ago, yet still seems to have no idea what people are going through or need to make their lives better. A listening tour means that the candidate doesn’t have any ideas of their own, and are so removed from what people are going through, they don’t know what issues effect people on a daily basis. Which makes sense, since she admitted to lobbying to get the medical device tax removed from the Affordable Care Act, a tax that is hated by certain corporations and by Wall Street but is critical to offsetting the cost of insurance plans on the individual market.

In a 2016 debate with Jason Lewis, Angie said she supported the repeal of the Medical Device Tax, because she "saw firsthand in Minnesota that it cost Minnesota jobs." That statement about losing jobs-- a Republican Party talking point-- got a 2 Pinocchios rating in the Washington Post, and was proven inaccurate by 3 other studies. But, the DCCC, as always, is most comforttable with a Republican-lite candidate. They should stay out of the primary and let Democrats in MN-02 decide who their nominee should be.