The Case For A Progressive Democrat In A Red-Leaning Florida District-- Adam Christensen (FL-03)

 

Florida's 3rd congressional district is an unlikely place for one of the iconic races of the 2020 cycle. Obama lost the R+9 both times he ran-- with 44.2% in 2008 and 41.9% in 2012. Then Clinton did even worse-- 40.2%-- against Trump. Although Alachua County is solidly blue, it is the only one of FL-03's six counties that is. Alachua has the most voters but Clay County has nearly as many and it is far redder than Alachua is blue. And with Marion and Putnam counties this has made the district unfriendly territory for Democrats. In 2018, the blue wave never reached the district and radical right tea-bagger Ted Yoho beat Yvonne Hinson 176,616 (57.6%) to 129,880 (42.4%), with strong wins in 5 counties and a thrashing in Alachua.

And then three things came along to change the complexion of the congressional race: 4 years of Donald Trump, whose unique behavior has offended Republicans in Clay County Jacksonville suburbs in and around Middleburg, Green Cove Springs and Orange Park; the mishandled COVID pandemic which has brought Marion County 10,706 cases and 347 deaths, Alachua County 10,114 cases and 74 deaths, Clay County 5,966 cases and 117 deaths, Putnam County 2,335 cases and 50 deaths; and Adam Christensen, a political outsider and an energetic and dedicated smart young progressive, a very different kind if candidate than what FL-03 has seen before.

Christensen, who turned 27 last weekend, won his 3-way primary by concentrating his efforts not in bright blue Alachua County but by taking his populist message to the rural precincts of the district. Now he's working to persuade voters in those areas to back him in replacing Ted Yoho, who has decided to retire from Congress. Christensen has made more headway with independent voters in the rural counties than he has with Blue Dog Cheri Bustos and her DCCC, who have refused to take FL-03 seriously. Florida progressive icon and former congressman, Alan Grayson, looked at the race and endorsed Christensen, noting that "Adam chose a [campaign] URL-- ForTheManyNotJustMe.com-- that conveys why he is running for Congress: for the many, not just him. And, as it turns out, that is the most important thing in a candidate, because if you don’t start out with that in your heart, you’re sure not going to pick it up on the way. Good luck in FL-03, Adam. There’s only one right reason to run for Congress, and you’ve found it."

In his closing message to north-central Florida voters, Christensen wrote that those who have followed his race know his opponent has based her entire campaign on following an insulting GOP cookie cutter playbook unrelated to the real issues facing the district's families-- "attacking AOC and fear-mongering about progressive women of color in Congress. Why? Because just like her boss Ted Yoho, my opponent has no vision for our district. She’s not interested in helping people and knows she can’t win on the issues, so she resorts to constantly throwing out rightwing red meat to try to rally her base. Our campaign is the exact opposite. I'm running BECAUSE for too long our district has been neglected by Washington politicians like Yoho and my opponent while they use their office to pursue their personal ambitions." 

We believe the job of a Representative is to help their constituents secure a better life. That’s why we just released the most ambitious and innovative jobs plan our district has ever seen.

Our plan would create 32,715 jobs over the next 5 years just in Florida’s 3rd district alone, with widespread effects for job creation across the region. It’s a blueprint for a sustainable future with shared prosperity for all.

Our plan will:

• Invest in high speed rail
• Provide high speed broadband internet for all
• Recommit to supporting small businesses and farms
• Protect our towns and rural communities from destructive big corporations
• Bring tourism and talents back into our district

This is about a movement of all of us to create the change we seek in this world, to say enough is enough and stand up to fight back against corporate greed and a corrupt political establishment that have decimated our communities.

We believe that a better world is possible. And with your help, we can replace Ted Yoho and accomplish so much here in FL-3 and throughout the country.

Thank you for supporting our campaign, and standing up for progressive values that put people over profits.

A few days earlier, Christensen's campaign listed 10 reasons why voters should support him and not his GOP opponent. Please take a look and if you like what you see, consider sending him a last-minute contribution for his Get Out the Vote program by clicking on the Trump District Dems thermometer on the right.

1. He would be the youngest person in Congress. At age 27, Adam is the youngest Dem congressional nominee in the country. And if elected, would be the youngest sitting Congressperson. Let’s invest in the next generation of progressive changemakers.

2. Adam will stand up for working families. Growing up in post-Recession Indiana, Adam saw firsthand how corporate greed destroyed working and middle class communities. That’s why in Congress, he’ll always stand up to special interests and fight for working people.

3. He will fight for middle-class tax cuts-- including cost-saving, common sense health and education solutions like Medicare for All and Universal Pre-K.

4. This campaign is helping flip Florida blue. Our race is in a dead heat right now, and so is the state of Florida. If we can flip this district, our victory will help ensure Donald Trump is defeated in Florida and becomes a one-term president.

5. He will protect the environment and ensure no one gets left behind. Adam supports the Green New Deal to make sure that our community and environment survive for future generations.

6. He has a plan to create over 30,000 good-paying green jobs in FL-3. Adam believes everyone deserves a good union job with a living wage.

7. Adam will fight for dignity and justice for all. From comprehensive immigration and criminal justice reforms, to caring for our veterans and people with disabilities, Adam will fight to ensure that in the wealthiest country on earth, everyone is treated fairly and gets a dignified life they deserve.

8. He will fight to end predatory business practices. Adam’s day job is catching corporate fraud. From cash bail to Big Pharma price-gouging, Adam will stand up to greedy corporations that cheat and rip off working people everyday.

9. He will fight for small business. Adam successfully started two companies on his own, and knows the struggle of small business owners trying to provide good benefits for their employees while growing their businesses. That’s why he’ll fight to make Medicare for All a reality, and will make sure the federal government provides direct investment and assistance to help small businesses thrive.

10. He has the cutest dog! Look at his pomsky puppy Pummel! 

Are Ted Yoho Associates And The Yoho Family Sabotaging Kat Cammack's Campaign To Replace Him Next Month? The Scandal Is Real

 

Courtesy of Republicans Against Kat Cammack

I follow-- pretty closely-- the FL-03 congressional race, so I can't say that the report that came across my desk yesterday is as shocking for me as it might be for regular Florida voters. Now that the election is barrelling towards its tumultuous end, the report promises to bring a lot more drama into the mix and will heat up this north central Florida race in a way that sets it apart from any other House election in the country.

An ethics complaint was filed by local attorney, Robert Rush, against outgoing Representative Ted Yoho by with the Office of Congressional Ethics. I haven't been able to speak with Rush but keep in the back of your mind that he donated $100,000 to Florida GOP boss Joe Gruters through his PAC, Florida Conservatives United. Rush's ethics complaint states, "Representative Ted Yoho began sexual relations in 2014 with his then 24-year-old Chief of Staff, Kat Cammack. When she left Washington D.C., she returned to Florida where she continued to work and be paid by Rep. Yoho with public funds."

The report goes on to explain Cammack’s consulting firm-- with only Yoho as the only client for most of its existence-- was paid $141,000 and continues being paid. The ethics complaint also names witnesses of the sexual misconduct including Cammack, an inveterate and serial liar, Tyler Yoho-- Rep. Yoho’s son-- Yoho's wife Carolyn Yoho, former Yoho congressional aide Clay Martin, and possibly most importantly, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

After the sexual relationship became public-- at least in DC-- it was quickly swept under the rug. Cammack was demoted and sent home to Florida where she remained on the payroll of Yoho’s office while also being paid off through her shady new "consulting" firm, Grit Strategies, LLC.

While Chief of Staff, Cammack received a salary of roughly $107,000. After being demoted from her role of Chief of Staff-- being sent back to Florida and now running for office to replace Yoho-- her salary is roughly $50,000 higher, bringing in $65,000 from her part-time position in Yoho’s office while bringing in another $76,000 from Yoho’s campaign through, Grit Strategies.

Between 2017 and 2019, Grit Strategies made $126,000 from Yoho’s office. And yes, that’s money, possibly blackmail, much of which that comes straight from the taxpayers and the rest if it from campaign contributions that are supposed to be strictly regulated by the FEC.

Let’s break this down, as Chief of Staff, Cammack made $107,000. As a part-time employee of Yoho’s office, while also owning a consulting firm with the only client being Yoho, Cammack raked in $141,000.

Also, according to the FEC, there were contributions from Yoho’s office to Cammack’s husband’s lawn care company between 2014 and 2018 totaling $20,435.

It’s unusual, at best. It’s illegal, at worst.

The timeline is also extremely... thought-provoking. After the scandal was exposed, which according to the ethics report was in either late 2013 or early 2014, Cammack was demoted and immediately started her political consulting firm which Yoho-- and only Yoho-- immediately contracted.

It’s beginning to look a lot like a cover-up, right? It’s beginning to look like hush money. In the film All The President’s Men, Hal Holbrook-- aka Deep Throat-- said during the investigation, "Follow the money."

In this case, the money seems to point to an affair, a cover-up and a violation of the Congressional ethical guidelines. The complaint connects these suspicious, payments into a string of conspicuous instances that warrant deeper investigation.

To top everything off, Yoho has yet to endorse Cammack and when asked, said, "In 2013 Kat Cammack was demoted from Chief of Staff in my Washington, DC office to Deputy Chief of staff and reassigned to the district in Florida for reasons not to be disclosed."

What the hell does "for reasons not to be disclosed" refer to?

If the ethics complaint and ethics investigation finds Yoho and Cammack guilty, they both must face consequences. Yoho will have broken, and continue to be breaking ethical guidelines under House Resolution 724, Section 6, which prohibits sexual relations between a House Member and staff, and H.R. 4494, which prohibits the use of public funds to pay settlements related to sexual misconduct.

"Follow the money" because it will probably lead you down a rat hole of the biggest congressional scandal of 2020.

Adam Christensen Won His Primary Tuesday-- Can He Flip Ted Yoho's Seat Blue?

On Tuesday we had some significant victories in the Florida primaries, especially for Florida legislature candidate Angie Nixon and for FL-03 congressional candidate Adam Christensen. Angie's district is so blue that she doesn't even have a Republican opponent in November. Adam's district... well, it's pretty red and gave Trump a 16 point margin in 2016. The current crackpot, Ted Yoho, is stepping down and we think Adam has a good shot to flip it from red to blue. The DCCC isn't interested in the district or in Adam, a staunch progressive. Please consider helping him mount a substantial campaign and putting his ideas into action-- both for the election and in Congress. "Last Tuesday we shocked the world," he told me. "We did something that no one thought was possible. We ran an entirely youth-led progressive campaign in Ted Yoho’s district and won the Democratic nomination for Congress."

Former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson is a big supporter and said she found it "so refreshing to talk to someone who represents everything you think America should be. Adam Christiansen is someone whose presence in Congress would contribute to the much-needed process of transforming the institution."

"Experts" told Adam that "to win we would have run as a 'moderate' and 'water down' our policies. We were told that the only path to the nomination was to win Alachua. We were told that we were too young, too idealistic, and that it 'wasn’t our time.' We were told that we didn’t have the money or the name recognition to be able to beat our better-funded opponents. In the end, we proved them all wrong." He did something no Democrat had ever done; he won the red-leaning rural counties-- and he won them by talking about a progressive policy agenda for working class Americans. Adam:

We proved that Medicare For All and a Green New Deal are winning issues in deep red states. We formed coalitions and organized Florida state House candidates in our congressional district in a way that had never been done before. We galvanized young voters because we gave them a candidate who listens and fights for the issues they care about most. We convinced people in a district that everyone had written off that it was possible to win, and we did. We made history by nominating the youngest Democratic candidate in the country at the age of 26 years old.

We are not done. This was just the warm-up for the real battle ahead. Now, it is time to flip Ted Yoho’s district and flex the muscle of the progressive left in North Central Florida.

Here’s how we’re going to do it.

Just like we did in the primary, we are going to focus on and win the rural vote. We are going to organize and turn out the Latinx population that has been overlooked by candidates for decades. We are going to unify Independent and Democratic women. We are going to give a way back to the middle class for farmers, workers, and families by focusing on them instead of the companies that have destroyed their way of life for 40 years. We are going to organize from the Florida state House districts up, flip the Florida House, flip Florida Congressional District 3, and defeat Donald Trump in November.

Our congressional district is the pivot point in Florida to defeating Donald Trump. Defeating Donald Trump is not enough. We have to break up corporate cartels and monopolies. We have to build an entire caucus of progressives that is able to push and pass the solutions we need in order to make our lives better: Medicare For All, Universal Childcare, a Green New Deal, Universal Broadband Internet, and Emergency Universal Basic Income.

It is time to get off the sidelines and believe that a better future is possible. We must make it a reality that if you work eight hours a day, you are able to afford a home, a family, and a decent life. The only way we achieve that is to organize and force those currently in power to do what we want.

If there was ever a period in American history that this victory was possible, it is now. It is time that we take our lives back. It is time that we fight for our families and our future. It is time that we tear down the structures that have held us back for too long. It is time that we flip Florida’s Third Congressional District. It is time for us to send unrelenting, unapologetic, fearless progressives to Washington.

It is OUR time.

Our time? Not just his time-- OUR time. And you know, he can't do it alone; none of us can. Please give him a hand by clicking on the thermometer above and contributing what you feel comfortable giving. He won his primary with all small donations from individuals-- and a campaign team where the only person over 24 was the candidate!

On The Front Line In Florida: Who's Judson Sapp, Aside From Being The Only Congressional Candidate Endorsed By Roger Stone This Year?

"Kilroy" has known Sapp for years. He brought DWT his story at least in part because we are supporting Adam Christensen, the progressive Democrat opposing Sapp in the race to fill the north central Florida seat being abandoned by tea bagger Ted Yoho. He was also aware we were investigating a shady PAC, Citizens for Common Sense USA, that Sapp and his father have been financing to funnel large sums of money-- so far around $100,000-- to surreptitiously attack Judson's political opponents in both parties. [Learn more about Christensen here.]

-by Ronnie Kilroy

Judson Sapp is completely unqualified to be in Congress.  He has lived a life of privilege. Whatever he has wanted in life, his dad has bought for him.  Now he wants a seat in Congress and is trying to have his dad buy that too.

I went to Florida State University with Republican candidate for Congress Judson Sapp. I would not say I was friends with him but enough of my friends were his friends that I got to know him. I have been to his parents’ house and to his sister’s wedding (although there were close to 400 people at it).

When I saw that Judson was running for Congress, I thought to myself I guess his dad is going to buy him a seat. I knew that Judson's father had been a large Republican donor and was told that he hosted fundraisers at his waterfront house. Only after doing some research did I discover that he paid enough to host then Speaker of the House John Boehner at his house and had been previously accused of attempting to bribe a candidate to drop out of a race.

Otherwise, I didn’t pay too much attention because I don’t live in the district. When I saw that Judson decided to make white grievance and the banning by the University of Florida of a song a focal issue, I could no longer stay silent.

First of all, Judson could not care less about the University of Florida. Not only did Judson go to the rival school, but according to a Wall Street Journal article from 2002, his father has given over $10,000 to Florida State and drove a half-million dollar RV to Florida State football games.

Judson Sapp represents himself as this businessman who worked from the ground up in his dad’s railroad engineering business. Nothing could be further from the truth. At FSU, Judson was a philosophy major because it was one of the easiest majors in the school. I overheard Judson more than once brag about having a doctor’s note so that he did not have to take hard math classes. More importantly, the Judson Sapp that I met has had everything handed to him and doesn’t think the rules apply to him.

Judson had always wanted to be involved in films. His initial partner in film writing was Rob Pyers. After college, Judson did not go work for his family business. Rather in 2003, he, Rob Pyers and his future first wife, Juliet Banaszewski, moved from Jacksonville to the Los Angeles area. They settled in Santa Monica about 7 blocks from the ocean, which Judson admitted on his marriage license to Banaszewski. Judson wasn't working so his dad must have been paying most of the expenses.

When Judson and Banaszewski’s marriage ended up having issues, Judson filed a Declaration of Domicile with the county recorder’s office. On this form, he claimed that he no longer lived in Los Angeles and had moved back to his parents’ house. I do not know if Judson actually moved but by doing so he was able to file for divorce in Clay County most likely in front of a friendly judge.

After six years in L.A. and not having a single movie writing credits, Judson started to act in small short films. In 2009 (while claiming living at his parent’s house in Florida for divorce proceedings), two short films he had parts in were shown at film festivals. Neither of these movies had more than two showings. In 2012, he also had a part in a short film Beautiful that was never released. I reached out to the director of this film who confirmed that the movie was filmed in Los Angeles and he hired Judson most likely having gotten him through an L.A. casting agency. Judson also had a part in another unreleased film which was filmed in Los Angeles during 2014.

Failed film mogul Judson Sapp on Hollywood Blvd: note the time stamp

During this time, Judson Sapp was not working his way up through his dad’s business. Rather his Twitter activity shows that he spent his time playing video games and watching movies. (Judson tried unsuccessfully to lock all the tweets about him during this time, apparently to cover up that he is not the businessman he claims.) He started a movie review podcast with his second wife-- who was working in L.A. at MGM Studios-- and her brother who was working in Santa Monica. The podcast, like his film writing and acting career was a failure. Less than a year after starting, the podcast ended.

Judson’s second wife became pregnant with their child in 2014. In February 2015, she ended her employment with MGM, where she had worked for over 8 years. Judson was finally listed as an officer of his dad’s company in its 2016-- after spending close to 13 years trying but failing to make it in movies. At this point, his father claimed that he retired and that Judson, with no business or engineering background, was the CEO of the company. Most likely, the sole reason this was done was to puff up Judson’s resume for his failed run for Congress in 2018.

The most disturbing thing that I discovered was that at a time when he is draping himself in MAGA cloth and president Trump is pressuring states to restrict voting by mail, Judson Sapp appears to have fraudulently absentee voted in multiple elections. Despite admitting in public records that he was no longer a resident of Florida, Judson has kept an active voter’s registration in Clay County, Florida since August 1998 which Judson appears to have used to vote in multiple elections Florida through absentee ballot while living in California. To claim that Judson was living in Florida during these years would require the suspension of belief.

In 2012, Judson voted in Florida’s presidential primary election, Florida’s primary election, and Florida’s general election by absentee ballot. If he lived in Florida during this time, why would he be actively working with a Los Angeles talent agency? Moreover, if he was busy working his way up through his dad's railroad contracting business, how could he take time to fly to L.A. to film parts in short films that were never released?

In 2014, Judson voted in Florida’s general election by absentee ballot. Tweets from his podcast show that in 2014 he was spending his days going to the movies in L.A. and filming an unreleased movie. In order for any claim of living in Florida to be true, Judson would have had to leave his pregnant wife who was still working and living on the other side of the country.

Judson Sapp has had everything in life handed to him. Now he is running a campaign focused on dividing our country. I hope the people of his district can see through his lies.

What a fool!

Florida: How Adam Christensen Will Make History By Beating Judson Sapp In November

Adam Christensen is a 26 year old progressive Democrat running for north central Florida’s 3rd congressional district-- safely blue Alachua County (Gainesville) plus 5 blood red ones-- Clay, Marion, Putnam, Bradford and Union. The district's PVI is R+9 and Trump beat Hillary there 56.2% to 40.2%. The 2018 anti-red wave help Democrat Yvonne Hinson win 42.9% of the vote, but however you slice it FL-03 is a tough district for a Democrat. That isn't stopping Christensen, who grew up in a conservative household in Indiana and was a three-sport athlete in college, graduating from Hampden-Sydney College in 2016. After graduating from college, he started his first company with $3,000 in his pocket that he had saved from summer jobs and moved to Gainesville. The company focused on catching fraud in the essential oil industry. In 2018, he started a second company focused on catching fraud in the Hemp and CBD industries and doing safety testing like pesticide testing. When the pandemic hit, he was forced to sell this company because of the lockdowns. Christensen also coaches college and high school soccer in his free time and won a state championship coaching the Rock High School in 2019.

Christensen is running on popular progressive ideas such as Medicare-For-All, a Green New Deal and Universal Childcare, which he refers to as Middle Class and Small Business Tax Cuts (take a look at his campaign video below to see how he frames these issues). He also believes that the internet should be a public utility and that a federal jobs guarantee would help to revitalize North Central Florida. The current representative is Ted Yoho, a Tea Partier about to retire, who believes that the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional and that lynching should not be a federal crime. Christensen doesn't care what the Cook PVI is and he explained why in a guest post for us below. If you like what he has to say and would like to help him make a dent in Florida's unwarranted Republican majority, please consider tapping on the 2020 ActBlue congressional thermometer on the right and contributing what you can.


How We Win In North Central Florida
-by Adam Christensen

Two years ago, Yvonne Hayes-Hinson ran against an incumbent in Florida’s 3rd congressional district, raised roughly $25,000, had minimal campaign staff, and received 43% of the vote. In the last two years, Ted Yoho announced he was retiring, Amendment 4 was passed to end felony disenfranchisement (23.3% of black voters in Florida were previously unable to vote), and a global pandemic occurred in which Florida’s unemployment rate skyrocketed while Florida was shown to be the worst in the country for the unemployed to receive benefits. In fact, no race-wide polling has been done in this area since 2018.

So, how do we win? Simple. We revolutionize the game and we run against an extremely unpopular opponent who has a lot of baggage.

1.   Run against an unpopular opponent with severe baggage. Having an open race with no incumbent is around a 2.5% swing. Currently, there are 11 Republicans running in this race in their primary. The leading contender is a man named Judson Sapp. Sapp was famously endorsed and paid for help from his good friend Roger Stone, the convicted felon who threatened a federal judge. He has also racked up the endorsements of Dana Loesch and Charlie Kirk as well as other far-right personalities. Scrolling through his Facebook there are plenty of pictures of him spending weekends down at Mar-a-Lago. He is mostly self-funding using family money being funneled from his daddy’s company. He will probably get around 15-20% of the vote from the extreme right of the primary and in this crowded primary, it will probably put him over the edge. In 2018, Sapp ran against Ted Yoho and only received 30% of the vote while burning bridges with everyone left and right, including organized labor. Current internal polls show Judson Sapp leading the field of Republicans. His unpopularity and extremist views should help sway around 2% of independents to vote for us instead of him.

2.   We change the game and increase the Democratic turnout.

a.       Before this year, the Florida Democratic Party had never run candidates in every state House and Senate district in Florida. This means plenty of Republicans were re-elected to their seats without having to spend any money or spend any effort campaigning or competing. It also allowed them to double or triple team resources and organizing on contested seats. We decided to help change that. Multiple groups including 90 For 90 and the DECF got involved to try and contest every acre of land here in Florida, by putting up candidates for every race. In our congressional district, only three out of five state house districts had contenders which meant that democratic votes would be depressed. Our campaign announced we would be helping and partnering with all of the state House district candidates in our congressional district because we understood that if we can share organizing power, data, and volunteer bases we can effectively get out the vote in places that had never turned out before. We also realized that if the house races got more Democrats and independents to vote, that we could benefit from a 1-2% point swing from each location for our congressional race. We currently have four out of five house district candidates on board. Florida is up for redistricting this year, so it is more important than ever that we do this now. We hope this will provide a 1% boost in each house district as we are able to turn out more Democratic voters with a potential increase of 4-5% total to our overall race.

b.       We are building a digital infrastructure-- Because of the Pandemic and lockdown, all campaigns had to transition to completely digital platforms. Our campaign is built and run by 33 people all under the age of 26. We were able to quickly overtake all other candidates on social media platforms, build a recording studio for digital content, create a digital town hall series and Livestream platform. This allows us to effectively share our message until the time comes that we are able to door knock and canvas in person. We know this organization coupled with efficient canvassing will provide a 1-2% boost to our efforts.

c.       Promote efforts to register formally disenfranchised voters. There are multiple organizations focused on registering former felons who will be able to vote in the upcoming election. Our positions on prison reform and policing are extremely popular, especially with those who have gone through the system and know that things need a drastic change. We are hoping that this will provide a 1-2% boost.

d.       Phonebank and text bank with Latinx voters. Our district has about a 10% Hispanic population. We are planning phone banking efforts with dual English and Spanish speaking volunteers. We are hoping this will boost our efforts by .5% points.

Most of these efforts have never been implemented in this area of Florida. We think they could be game-changers that will result in us winning this election.

If our math is correct, these factors have allowed us to be able to pull even with our Republican opponents despite their advantage when it comes to fundraising. Judson Sapp will most likely spend the majority of his war chest trying to get out of the primary. Which puts us in a perfect position to outraise him in the final quarter.

To do this, we need EVERYONE. We need every single donor, volunteer, intern, you name it. If there was ever a year to flip North Central Florida, this is the year.