What Does The GOP Have To Do To Ever Let The Democrats Win In Florida Again?

 

If ever there should be a state party that is dead in the water, it should be the Florida Republican Party which has just presided over a horrific and on-going pandemic catastrophe from a pro-COVID Republican governor and a pro-COVID Republican state legislature. DeSantis and his pet legislature invited COVID to settle in in Florida. And it has. Yesterday the state reported 5,838 more cases of COVID, bringing the state total to 858,012. Tomorrow, Florida will surpass on ominous mark: 40,000 cases per million inhabitants. Over 17,300 Floridians have died, needlessly. And yet, Republicans did quite well in Florida, winning the state's 29 electoral votes for Trump and holding onto all their state legislative seats. Now they have to get ready to defend DeSantis and Marco Rubio in 2022.

Conventional wisdom is that Rubio will have a big, fat target on his back in 2022 when he runs for reelection. But to think about that more seriously take into account that

• Florida Democrats have a defective party that can't win races
• Florida Democrats have lost ground to Republicans among Hispanic voters
• The Democratic bench is so weak and enfeebled that they don't have even one viable candidate waiting in the wings.

Obama won Florida both times he ran. But in 2016, Trump beat the Democratic Party establishment candidate there, 4,617,886 (48.60%) to 4,504,975 (47.41%). Although votes are still being counted, with 99% reported, Trump beat Biden 5,667,474 (51.2%) to 5,294, 767 (47.8%). Both party bases were highly motivated and turned out in force, exceeding their 2016 turn-outs significantly. Trump had 1,049,588 more voters this year than in 2016 and Biden had 789,792 more voters than Hillary did.

Rubio is already working on positioning himself. Alayna Treene, writing for Axios yesterday, reported that Rubio, who is also looking towards a 2024 presidential run, told her that Republicans need to rebrand their party as the champions of working-class voters and steer away from its traditional embrace of big business. He's attempting to navigate how the to acknowledge Trump's successes while not allowing himself to be painted as a Trumpist. "The future of the party," he told her, "is based on a multiethnic, multiracial working class coalition."

Rubio said Republicans have long believed in and supported the free market, "but the free market exists to serve our people. Our people don't exist to serve the free market."

He added that working class Americans are now largely against big businesses “that only care about how their shares are performing, even if it's based on moving production overseas for cheaper labor. "They're very suspicious, quite frankly, dismissive of elites at every level. And obviously that's a powerful sentiment."

..."We still have a very strong base in the party of donors and think tanks and intelligentsia from the right who are market fundamentalists, who accuse anyone who's not a market fundamentalist of being a socialist to some degree," Rubio said.

"If the takeaway from all of them is now is the time to go back to sort of the traditional party of of unfettered free trade, I think we're gonna lose the [Trump] base as quickly as we got it... We can't just go back to being that," he added.

She also reported that when Andrew Yang was interviewed on CNN last week, he had a similar perspective, noting that when he introduced himself as a Democrat to working class voters, they would flinch. "There is something deeply wrong when working class Americans have that response to a major party that theoretically is supposed to be fighting for them. In their minds, the Democratic Party unfortunately has taken on this role of the coastal urban elites who are more concerned about policing various cultural issues than improving their way of life... This to me is a fundamental problem for the party."

Damn kids! They want a party that stands for something!

The Culture Of Compromise... And Looking Ahead To 2022

On Monday morning, the Washington Post published an increasingly rare solo-piece-- rather than team effort-- this one by Annie Linskey: Biden's Flexibility Could Mean Bloody Fights. So! Someone has noticed! "He remains vague on policy." You think? Linskey started her piece by going right to the heart of why there is so much mistrust of the Biden campaign on the left and why even some of the most fervent Trump detractors are reluctant to commit to the hold-you-nose electoral strategy. "When Joe Biden released economic recommendations two months ago," she wrote, "they included a few ideas that worried some powerful bankers: allowing banking at the post office, for example, and having the Federal Reserve guarantee all Americans a bank account. But in private calls with Wall Street leaders, the Biden campaign made it clear those proposals would not be central to Biden’s agenda. 'They basically said, Listen, this is just an exercise to keep the Warren people happy, and don’t read too much into it,' said one investment banker, referring to liberal supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). The banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks, said that message was conveyed on multiple calls... The Biden campaign said the economic recommendations were produced jointly by supporters of Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and were never intended as official policy."

This reluctance to be pinned down on policy details is central to Biden’s campaign, which has focused on a pledge to “restore the soul of the nation” rather than any particular legislative holy grail. While Biden has issued a raft of proposals, he’s often taken an all-things-to-all-people approach, sometimes making strong public declarations while relying on aides to soothe critics behind the scenes.

That strategy, reflecting a decades-long career in which Biden has seen himself more as mediator than ideologue, has helped him unify the party’s liberal and moderate wings behind the shared goal of defeating President Trump. But it also is laying the groundwork for bitter internal battles, should Biden win the presidency, on topics from race to climate to trade, while Wall Street leaders plan to have their way with a president many expect to be unusually susceptible to outside pressure.

...“We knew we weren’t going to get Medicare-for-all,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). “The question then for me was: How do we get some foundational pieces of Medicare-for-all, even if the words ‘Medicare-for-all’ aren’t there?”

Biden’s team agreed, for example, that low-income Americans would be automatically enrolled in Biden’s public option and that Medicare, not a private company, would run it-- significant concessions that nonetheless fell under Biden’s original framing.

“A good tell about how Biden would operate is there’s room for him to run as long as he doesn’t feel like he’s overturning his brand of moderation,” said one liberal who negotiated with Biden’s team.

Sounds like a bloody 4 years are coming up-- with a 2022 catastrophe in the making, when voters-- furious that the Biden administration, along with a Democratic-controlled Senate and House, are unable to deliver on anything of importance to working families. The 2010 midterm disaster will look like paradise compared to the Republican resurgence in 2022. The Biden campaign is about two things: a wrecked old man who wants it to say he was president on his tombstone and a coalition of conservatives and wary normal people who want to get rid of Trump. Policy-wise, there is no there there and 2021 is not going to be pretty as disparate groups fight for a piece of the pie.

Last week, reviewing John Nichols' book, The Fight For The Soul Of The Democratic Party, for Jacobin, Paul Heideman, asserted that this predicament is nothing new since The Soul of the Democratic Party Has Always Belonged to Capital. When did the Democratic Party go bad. Many say it was "with Bill Clinton and the Third Way in the 1990s" while other say it was "with Carter’s embrace of austerity" while other "more conspiratorially inclined parts of the left have argued, when JFK was assassinated? Or has the party never been anything more than 'history’s second-most enthusiastic capitalist party?' Where you draw the line says a good deal about your politics." Nichols, he wrote, "draws the line very early indeed, with the removal of Vice President Henry Wallace from the ticket in 1944. The book is written explicitly as an intervention into current debates over the future of the party, and its argument that for most of the twentieth century, the Democratic Party was degenerating, is reflective of the radicalism of one pole of that debate. For Nichols, Wallace represents the real soul of the New Deal Democratic Party. A proud progressive, dedicated anti-racist, and passionate anti-fascist, Wallace attempted to continue Franklin D. Roosevelt’s legacy, only to be stymied by more conservative forces inside the party. This narrative occupies the book’s first half, while the second half covers the history of the party in the seven decades following Wallace’s defeat in 1944. The result is a readable introduction to both Henry Wallace, one of the most interesting American politicians, and the Democratic Party’s long history of betraying progressive ideals."

Did someone mention "the Democratic Party’s long history of betraying progressive ideals?" There is no better emblematic case of that than Joe Biden, you know... the guy all your progressive friends are telling you have to vote for in November (as part of the existential fight against fascism). In the same issue of Jacobin, Luke Savage is as pessimistic about a Biden presidency as I am. Does no one else see the disaster on the horizon. I explained it to one of my favorite Members of Congress the other day. She didn't say she disagreed with my prediction of a 2010 midterm-redux in 2022, only "Let's get there first," meaning electing Biden and a huge load of conservative Democrats to Congress first. Thanks, but no thanks. She wanted me to help her raise money for Blue Dogs and New Dems running for the House. I love her but... give me a break. Blue America works to defeat conservatives, whether Republicans or fake Dems from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. Savage takes issue with the idea that Biden, like Ed Markey, is a flawed liberal who could-- again, like Markey-- embrace the Sunrise Movement and everything would be hunky-dory. Markey-- who hold the #1 lifetime position at Progressive Punch-- may be a flawed liberal, but Biden isn't and never was a liberal. He's a conservative-- a really, really bad conservative-- as bad as his hair plugs and fake teeth. As imperfect as the results show ProgressivePunch's system is, it's the best measurement Ive found and, as you see, Markey's record is significantly better than either Elizabeth Warren's or Bernie's.

The 10 best Dems in the Senate

No, I don't believe for one second that Markey's more progressive than either, just that he's at #1-- which says something-- where as the senators more ideologically aligned with Biden-- both now and when he was amnestying atrocious senator himself-- are in a whole different category of Democrats:

The 10 worst Dems in the Senate

Chuck Schumer plucked Kyrsten Sinema-- then head of the Blue Dogs and sporting the single worst voting record of any House Dem-- out of the House and gave her the Democratic Senate nomination in a year when a Democrat was going to win in Arizona. He just did the same thing with another Arizonan likely to prove as far right as Sinema, Mark Kelly. And it doesn't stop there. Schumer has guaranteed the most conservative Democratic-controlled Senate in anyone's lifetime: Hickenlooper (CO), Cunningham (NC), Harrison (SC), Bollier (KS), Ossoff (GA), Heger (TX), McGrath (KY), Gideon (ME), Gross (AK), Greenfield (IA)... And Cheri Bustos is doing a similarly horrible job in the House. The Red-to-Blue program is nearly identical with the list of New Dem and Blue Dog endorsements. It will be a Biden Congress.

Markey did, after all, vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq and support NAFTA. He even backed the USA PATRIOT Act back in 2001 (though voted against its reauthorization in 2005, 2010, and 2011). That he nonetheless won the respect of so many young left-wing voters therefore does yield an important lesson for other Democratic candidates and elected officials.

As former Sanders organizer Claire Sandberg put it earlier this week: “Corporate Democrats want to make the Left out to be purity-obsessed and unwilling to compromise, but the Left rallied around a longtime politician with a mixed record because he actively courted their support and became a champion of one of their major legislative priorities.”

Where I differ from [Michelle] Goldberg is in thinking that this is the kind of lesson a politician like Joe Biden either wants to or could conceivably learn. Near the end of her piece, Goldberg writes: “I hope Joe Biden listens. Young voters favor him over Trump by large margins, but their lack of enthusiasm could dampen turnout.” She quotes Sunrise’s Executive Director Varshini Prakash: “The best thing that Joe Biden could do would be to speak in clear, exciting visionary terms about exactly what he plans to do to tackle the climate crisis, racial inequality, and economic inequality.”

It’s a capital suggestion-- and one Biden is certain to ignore. That’s because, whatever officially appears in the Democratic platform (Goldberg, for example, cites the recommendations of the Sanders/Biden joint task force) is entirely secondary to the political coalition Biden is trying to build, and the one he built to win the Democratic nomination.

Much like Hillary Clinton did in 2016, Biden is aiming to win the presidency by motivating conservative-leaning suburban voters and some Republicans-- with more traditional (and liberal- and progressive-minded) Democratic constituencies turning out in sufficient numbers where it counts. The former group was largely the target audience for this year’s DNC, which  pandered endlessly to the sensibilities of anti-Trump Republicans and rich suburbanites. The latter, meanwhile, gets lectures about how they need to be more enthusiastic while young voters get virtual Biden/Harris lawn signs in Animal Crossing instead of Medicare For All.

Centrist Democrats do want the support of young and left wing voters, of course. But they uniformly want it on their own centrist terms.

All this may be a strategic choice on Biden’s part, but it’s also a feature endemic to the faction that controls the Democratic Party as a whole. Biden’s nomination, which party power brokers ultimately did everything they could to ensure, represented a very conscious repudiation of the alternative course offered by Bernie Sanders-- one which was decidedly less interested in the votes of suburban conservatives and, perhaps more importantly, which pledged to reject the dictates of the donor class that Democratic elites have long embraced.

As such, there is simply no incentive structure in place to shift Biden from his current course.

In Massachusetts, a hitherto quite conventional liberal politician recognized that it would be in his interest to harness the energy and power of young activists. He embraced their agenda and saved his career in the process. Whether Markey’s shift represented a sincere change of heart or pure political self-interest is a secondary matter: he faced an existential challenge and pivoted towards the only constituency he believed could save him from defeat. The young left, which Biden’s candidacy has always been about marginalizing and repudiating, enjoys no such leverage with Biden.

Goldberg is absolutely right to argue that the Markey campaign yielded real lessons for centrist Democrats. The problem is assuming those are lessons that centrist Democrats are under any real pressure to learn.

Biden's Cabinet Will Suck-- But, As In All Things, Not As Badly As Trump's... And Looking Ahead To The 2022 Midterms

In 2008, John McCain's first choice for a running mate was Joe Lieberman, one of the only Democrats who could make a credible argument that he was the more conservative Joe among Dems, not Biden. They were both detestable senators and Lieberman was eventually kicked out of the party by the grassroots, even with the Democratic establishment sticking with him through his trials and tribulations. But McCain was talked out of selecting him by one of today's top #NeverTrumps, Steven Schmidt, who thought-- incorrectly, as he would tell you himself now-- that Sarah Palin would be the best choice.

The only time-- as far as I know-- that a presidential candidate chose someone from the other party as his running mate was in 1864, when Abe Lincoln dumped vice president Hannibal Hamlin (R-ME) for Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, in the name of national unity. When Lincoln was assassinated, Johnson became president, a disaster for the country and especially for the recently freed slaves, with whom he had no sympathy at all and against whose interests he worked tirelessly. He was impeached in 1868 but avoided being tossed out of office by one Senate vote. That same year, he lost the Democratic Party nomination for president and is remembered in history as one of America's worst presidents, some even say worse than Trump, although, obviously that's impossible.

It's much easier-- and more traditional-- for presidents to put members of the other party in their cabinets. Even Trump did as much-- if you want to count Michael Flynn and Peter Navarro as Democrats (they technically were). Obama appointed a ton of Republicans to his cabinet: Robert Gates (Secretary of Defense), Ray LaHood (Secretary of Transportation), Chuck Hagel (Secretary of Defense), Robert McDonald (Secretary of Veterans Affairs) and appointed Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed and Jerome Powell as a member. George W. Bush's token Democrat was Norm Minetta (Secretary of Transportation). Bill Clinton gave Alan Greenspan the FED chair, made William Cohen secretary of defense and appointed Republicans Michael Chertoff, William Sessions, Sheila Bair, David Gergen, Lois Freeh, and John Negroponte to important sub-cabinet positions. Reagan had a fake-Dem, William Bennett, as Secretary of Education and another fake-Dem, Keane Kirkpatrick as UN ambassador. Jimmy Carter appointed Republican James Schlesinger as Secretary of Energy. Nixon had fake-Dem John Connally as Treasury Secretary. And JFK appointed Robert McNamara Secretary of Defense, Douglas Dillon Secretary of the Treasury, John McCone director of the CIA, McGeorge Bundy National Security Advisor and Christian Herter U.S. Trade Rep.

I predict that Biden's administration will be the most bipartisan in living memory. All these Republicans for Biden groups know what they're doing and many of the principals are top political players. If Jaime Harrison defeats Lindsey Graham in November-- not likely, but not impossible-- I wouldn't be surprised to see Graham get a top job, maybe even Secretary of Defense! Rahm Emanuel is so happy he's peeing in his tutu. Yesterday BuzzFeed reporter Henry Gomez looked into the motivations behind Kasich's DNC speech last night. Basically, after spending decades trying and failing to "shape and reshape" the Republican Party, Kasich would now like to help shape and reshape the Democratic Party. Most Democrats say "Screw you!" Gomez quoted a veteran Democratic operative who has experience in Ohio: "Maybe we shouldn’t have guys who tried to break unions and put gag orders on rape crisis counselors speak at our convention?"

Kasich’s welcome endorsement and the overall programming of the convention say a lot about Biden’s vision for the Democratic Party he now leads. Viewers may get a minute of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young New York lawmaker who excites progressives, but they’ll also hear from John Kerry, an elder of the establishment. And Kasich is sharing a night with Sen. Bernie Sanders-- a democratic socialist and the runner-up for this year’s nomination-- in a scheduling move intended to demonstrate Biden’s ideology-spanning support.

“I think both parties have to have new ideas, and I think this country is moderate,” said Kasich, winding up to a gentle criticism of Ocasio-Cortez. “People on the extreme, whether they're on the left or on the right, they get outsized publicity that tends to define their party. You know, I listen to people all the time make these statements, and because AOC gets outsized publicity doesn't mean she represents the Democratic Party. She's just a part, just some member of it. And it's on both sides, whether it's the Republicans or whether it's the Democrats.”

...Kasich describes his alliance with Biden and the Democrats as a “team of rivals”-- a phrase borrowed from the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and her book on Abraham Lincoln’s Cabinet. Kasich acknowledged that his convention speech, which he prerecorded from Westerville, Ohio, will raise speculation that he might be in line for a post in Biden’s Cabinet.

“People say, ‘Well, he must have been promised something or he must have received something.’ I haven't been promised anything, nor have I received anything,” he said.

“I'd be more than glad to advise, but I'm not going back to Washington,” Kasich added. “Could you imagine my being Secretary of Commerce? I mean, I wouldn't survive. I'll try to keep my voice out there. And look, you know, we'll just see how it goes. Let's just see how it goes.”

When convention delegates-- the majority of whom are Biden delegates of course were asked to react to the statement, "We should support a comprehensive single-payer, government-run insurance system that eliminates all copays and deductibles, is not tied to employment, and does not require payment at the point of service," 75.3% agreed. And when asked to react to the statement "We should support expanding the current healthcare system to Medicare for All that is comprehensive in its coverage," 75.2% agreed. Remember, Biden threatened, during the primaries, that if Congress passes Medicare-for-All, he'd veto it. (But not as meanly as Trump?)

Yesterday, at Too Much Information, Andrew Perez and David Sirota wrote that Biden's team-- i.e., the Democratic Party-- is signaling a post-election cave to the GOP and the sickness industrial complex on health care.

On the eve of a Democratic National Convention taking place as millions lose health care coverage, the health care industry is launching a new ad campaign pressing Democrats to back off the party’s already compromised health care promises. That pressure seems to be having its intended effect on Capitol Hill as congressional aides say the party will not push the initiative if Biden wins. The signs of retreat come as health care industry profits are skyrocketing and the industry’s campaign cash has flooded into Democratic coffers.

The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF)-- a front group created by health insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital lobbying groups to oppose “Medicare for All”--  announced on Friday that it is launching a new national ad campaign to persuade Democrats to abandon their plans to create a public health insurance plan. The group said it will run ads during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) this week. PAHCF is led by a former Hillary Clinton aide and run out of the offices of a D.C. lobbying firm led by former top Democratic congressional aides.

A substantial “public option” plan-- which polls show is wildly popular-- was the centerpiece of recent policy negotiations between supporters of former Vice President Joe Biden and progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who had been pushing for a more expansive Medicare for All program. A draft of the party platform, approved by DNC members late last month, includes a pledge to pass a public option, or a government-run health insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.

Within 24 hours of the launch of the industry’s new ads, however, anonymous Democratic congressional sources were telling The Hill that Democrats likely won’t bother with the public option fight next year if Biden wins the election. Instead, they said the party will instead work to tweak the party’s 2010 health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which has done little to limit insurance or hospital costs and has failed to ensure universal coverage.

A DWT prediction: Biden won't be as bad a president as Trump but within a year, people will be hoping he dies and Kamala takes over. The Democratic-controlled Senate will be barely better than the Republican-controlled Senate in terms of getting anything done for working families. Pelosi's larger but impotent House majority-- where the Republican wing of the party will be dominant-- will also accomplish absolutely nothing the voters want. The result: massive Democratic losses in the 2022 midterms, massive enough to dwarf 2010.

This is a good ad and worth watching again. I'm just wondering if California GOP congressmembers Kevin McCarthy, Devin Nunes, Doug LaMalfa, Crooked Ken Calvert, Tom McClintock, Mike Garcia and former Reps Darrell Issa and David Valadao (nothing trying for come-backs) have had the guts to comment on Señor Trumpanzee's statement about cutting off FEMA funds to California yet. What would happen after an earthquake if that asshole wins again? Miles Taylor, the fellow in this video told ABC News that he's "not going to mention any other names yet, but the president can expect that in the coming weeks and months he is going to hear from more people that served in his administration," calling this video an "opening salvo" and making it clear there are other Republicans who will be saying similar things about Trump's corruption, dysfunction, incompetence and unsuitability for public office.

Last Decision Days of DED-Heads-- A Guest Post By Emorej

Choices of "DED-Heads" (Dem.Estab.Donor.Heads)

after Senate Primary Dominance survived 2020:

(ii) leave some $ on table, or

(i) suicidally double down


Status update:

Now that big money staved off Progressive Senate nominations in Kentucky (Booker) and Colorado (Romanoff), the 2020 primary cycle has failed to mark the official death of Democratic Senate nominations’ dominance by Democratic Establishment big Donors and their loyal servant Democratic Party heads ("DED-Heads").

Meanwhile, Trump’s electoral college math is in free-fall as Florida, which has long been the hill where Republican Presidential nominees must do-or-die, is racing toward every type of “die” as the Trump-turbocharged Pandemic passes the point of no return towards a major culling of the elderly retirees who disproportionately vote in Florida’s elections.

Thus, 2021 policy will be made by a non-Trump (probably Democratic) President facing a Senate containing zero or few new Progressives.

DED-Heads’ Options


How will DEDheads use the above reprieve (during the short interim before the Senate seats of Schumer, Warren, Harris and others are besieged by Progressive challengers)?


Option (i), which would be psychologically consistent with their track record, would be to double down on worshipping big donors’ cheap purchasing of economic and ecological domination, while using a few Black and/or Brown female faces and identity politics rhetoric in order to ‘rainbow-wash’ a continued lemming-like rush over economic, political and ecological cliffs towards mass genocide and suicide. The most prominent and transparent symbol of this option would be a Biden-Harris Presidential ticket, likely to win (with zero coat-tails) mainly because of Trump’s Pandemic cherry on top of broader self-marginalization.

Option (ii) would follow the tradition of “today’s winners leaving some money on table for today’s losers in order to keep the game alive.” For this option, too, the most prominent and transparent symbol would be the Democratic Presidential ticket, as discussed below.

Biden + Black Woman Dem


A Biden-Harris ticket (even more than a Biden-Demings ticket) would confirm many of the worst suspicions of swing and variable turnout voters about the DED-Heads. For example:

1. DED-Heads’ comfort with (a) Biden’s cognitive decline, soft (at least) corruption and coddling (at least) of racists, and (b) Harris’s three-fer identity profile outweighing her laughable unpreparedness (thanks to CA’s 1-party echo chamber) for the barely warming up spotlights of her first Presidential primary. Even Harris’s recent marriage is a negative, because her White husband (whose day job coincidentally enjoyed a leapfrog up into a mega-lobbying Big Law firm) highlights suspicions that ‘cultural Blackness’ has been mainly a career strategy for Harris, whose (East) Indian mother raised her mainly in Montreal after divorce from her (partially) Black Jamaican father, who has publicly denounced Harris’s joke about Ganja-smoking stereotypes.





2. Even Demings would be a modest upgrade over Harris, because (a) Demings’ anti-Progressivism can be attributed to need to please the Orlando electorate (and the Presidential ticket’s goal of pleasing swingy Florida), and (b) Demings’career as a policewoman suggests a potential cultural bridge between police and the victims of over- and overly-brutal policing (unlike Harris’s career as a prosecutor who had to overcome her lack of cultural connections to police by pandering to them at the expense of their victims).

Better Options

What alternative Democratic Presidential tickets would embody more politically effective symbolism and/or substance?


1. For Vice-President, Barbara Lee would be a slam-dunk, because Barbara, along with the traditional experience of 2+ decades in Congress, (a) has a Black woman identity to pre-empt complaints from box-checkers (and is too old to clog the lines of succession for very long), and (b) is widely admired (notably for her 2001 casting of the sole vote in the House against the Cheney-Rove-W. administration’s first endless war bill) by many Progressives including Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders, but (c) has ‘matured’ (along with her rapidly gentrifying district, where Black voter percentage has declined even more rapidly) into avoiding fights with the Dem establishment.

2. For President, Al Gore would be an intelligent choice, offering many advantages over Biden, especially in order to minimize Dems’ loss of voters to the Green Party Presidential ticket. Examples include: (a) early identification with climate change awareness, and 2003 public opposition to invading Iraq, (b) recent proximity to Silicon Valley (which is great for raising money and is necessary for understanding options relating to the looming surveillance apocalypse), (c) arguably being owed a ‘gift-wrapped’ nomination as compensation for loss-by-theft of the 2001 Presidency, and (d) also old enough to not clog the lines of succession.

3- For either President or Vice-President, a master-stroke would be Condoleeza Rice, who would (a) formalize the merger of establishment Democrats with anti-Trump (non-Libertarian) Republicans, and (b) enable the Presidential popular vote to better reflect voters’ ideological alignments, such as:

• Condi ticket 50%;
• Trump ticket 30%;

• Libertarian ticket 4%;
• Green ticket 16%-- creating a base camp for a stronger 50-state (expanded GreenEntry) ticket in 2024.

Obviously the DED-Head-whipped Dem establishment is unlikely to follow the above advice, because they are too bubble-brained to catch up with the new reality that (riffing on Chuck Schumer’s infamous failed 2016 prediction):

"For every vote the Dems lose to a Green or other Lefty Presidential ticket, the Condi-led Dems could win both a vote and a donation from another Republican suburban woman."

Instead, they’re more likely to waste this last chance decision by re-running their old playbook, and then try to enjoy their golden caskets while the rest of us sleep easier in mass graves.

Trump Says He "Loves" Alaska But Everyone Knows He Only Loves Trump

In the 2000 election, 167,398 Alaskans (58.62%) voted for George W Bush against Al Gore. Four years later 190,889 Alaskans (61.07%) voted for Bush against John Kerry. Bush was popular among Alaskan voters-- who also backed John McCain (59.42%) and Mitt Romney (54.80%). But Trump isn't well liked by most Alaskans. He barely eked out a majority against Hillary-- 51.28%, pretty sad compared to Bush. And today it was widely reported that Bush had decided he will neither endorse nor even vote for Trump in November. Colin Powell, Bush's Secretary of State, told Jake Tapper on State of the Union that he "certainly can not in any way support" Trump this year and that Trump has "drifted away" from the Constitution, has been an ineffective president, and "lies all the time." Trump's response was to tweet that Powell is "a real stiff." He hasn't savaged Bush yet. None of this is going to make Alaskan independents more likely to back Trump. Independent voters decide who wins elections in Alaska.

Right now, Alaska has two Republican U.S. senators-- Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, the former an independent-minded conservative and the latter a knee-jerk boot-licker for Trump. Sullivan, who is rumored to be considering dropping out of his reelection bid and allowing Gov. Dunleavey to take the GOP nomination so that he (Sullivan) can run for Governor in 2022, is in a toss up race against independent Dr. Al Gross, who has been endorsed by the Democratic Party. Murkowski isn't up for reelection until 2022. But she already has an opponent: Señor Trumpanzee.

As we saw yesterday, she praised Jim Mattis' criticism of Trump and told a journalist she is "struggling" with the idea of backing his reelection. The most thin-skinned sociopath in American politics immediately flipped his wig and let loose with these two nasty, adolescent tweets:

After embarrassing himself by attacking and threatening a senior Republican senator-- despite having promised McConnell he wouldn't do that in return for McConnell's unwavering obeisance-- Trump lavished praise on all the GOP senators most likely to lose in November because of his reverse coattails: David Perdue (R-GA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Steve Daines (R-MT) and, of course, Dan Sullivan. Sullivan is such a nonentity in DC that Trump couldn't even think of a single thing to say about him... so just retweeted 5 random Sullivan tweets from May 22, 23 and June 2.

The Anchorage Daily News reminded its readers that "During the 2016 presidential campaign, both Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) called on Trump to drop out of the race after the release of a video in which the GOP nominee boasted in vulgar language about forcing himself sexually on women. Both said they weren’t voting for him at the time."

This morning, Gross told me that "Alaskans appreciate when their elected officials take a stand and have a backbone. We can all respectfully disagree with one another, but at the end of the day, Alaskans want to be represented by independents-- people who aren't beholden to an orthodoxy, a party, or an ideology-- because here in Alaska if  you can't think for  yourself, you just won't survive. Dan Sullivan doesn't understand this because he doesn't understand Alaska. He's not from here, and has been solely focused on climbing the National Republican political ladder. I have zero interest in climbing any political ladder. My focus is on making Alaskans' lives better. That's my focus and always will be. I'm Always Alaska."

Texas Is Turning In A More Purple Direction-- Is 2020 The Year A Democrat Will Win Statewide?

The Texas AFL-CIO is meeting in Austin's Omni Hotel this weekend, the only union hotel in the city. On the umbrella organization's agenda is endorsing 2020 election candidates. Many locals already have done so but these endorsements are for the state organization. And there was a problem right from the start. Many for the conservative building trades unions and unions in the fossil fuels industries are vehemently opposing progressive canddiates backing the Green New Deal. It's got to be incredibly frustrating for the union activists who are strongly campaigning on the Green New Deal.

As we mentioned when we first endorsed her, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is a Latina labor organizer and the line you hear about her is that she represents the future of Texas. Reporting for In These Times on Friday, Steven Greenhouse wrote about meeting Ramirez 7 years ago when she was running the Workers Defense Project and how he found her "whip smart, a born organizer and an inspiring speaker... The WDP brought national attention to the fact that Texas construction workers have the highest on-the-job death rate in the nation, and then in Austin won Texas’ first municipal ordinance requiring rest and water breaks for construction workers. It got Apple and other companies to guarantee workers on their Austin construction projects receive raises, safety training and workers’ comp, not required in Texas. Tzintzún Ramirez proved adept at working with undocumented workers, union leaders, construction industry execs and lawmakers." You can use the Take Back Texas thermometer below to contribute to federal campaigns of Texas progressives. Take a look at who Blue America is recommending in the Lone Star State.

Greenhouse interviewed her about... well, about how a labor organizer with a progressive agenda is going to defeat Republican Party heavyweight John Cornyn. She started by expelling that she's "spent a decade and a half thinking about how to make policy solutions for real-life problems that politicians often didn’t even know existed. I learned how to build coalitions. I learned how to raise resources for campaigns. I learned how to work around the clock to win-- because the only thing I have that those in power don’t have is time, and the knowledge that you can defeat powerful people by building movements of ordinary people."

Steven: At WDP and Jolt, you developed a reputation as a fighter for Latinos. How would you assure all Texans you will fight for them?

Cristina: I don’t think that disqualifies me to be Texas’ next senator-- I think it makes me uniquely qualified. The things that Latino families want are the exact things that every other family wants: Making sure the education system is affordable and accessible. Making sure people have good, living-wage and safe jobs. Making sure families can be together. Making sure our democracy works for everyone.

Steven: What are some ways you would work to help white and African-American communities?

Cristina: We have a senator, John Cornyn, who only wants to represent the interests of one ethnic group, one income bracket and one gender: the interests of white wealthy men.

I want to be the senator for everyone. I stand up for Medicare for All because I believe it is the best way to have the highest quality healthcare and to make sure every single American can go to the doctor. I want to tackle the student debt crisis and make sure every single Texas family can send their children to college or trade school. I want to make sure that Texas becomes a leader in transitioning our economy to green energy in a way that creates millions of great jobs for Texans.

I was really proud of my work at the Workers Defense Project. I brought union and non-union workers together, immigrants and American-born together, black, brown and white together to pursue their common interests.

I understand the way Republicans use racism and xenophobia and sexism to distract us. That’s how they get away with not giving us healthcare. That’s how they get away with divestment from our education system. That’s how they get away with an economy that doesn’t work for everyone.

Steven: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has endorsed one of your 11 opponents, M.J. Hegar, presumably thinking a centrist Air Force veteran has the best chance. Why would a progressive like yourself fare better?

Cristina: There are two strategies to change Texas. One of them has been tried for 20 years and failed every single time-- which is to run a moderate Democrat to try and swing white Republican voters.

The other strategy is to embrace the state’s diversity. We are a state that is majority people of color, a state with a long populist tradition, where progressives are hungry for change. Beto O’Rourke was the most progressive statewide candidate I can remember, and he got closer than anybody. In our Senate campaign, we try to speak to everyone-- the Black Lives Matter movement, Latino and immigrant communities, the LGBTQ community.

Everybody knows that you don’t win in Texas unless you drive up voter turnout among Latino voters. No Democrat wins without us. Yet there are Democrats running who don’t want to speak to us, who don’t want to fight for us.

There are some people in Washington who think that they know Texas better than Texans. We will prove them wrong on Election Day.

Steven: Cornyn will no doubt have a huge campaign chest. How will you defeat him?

Cristina: Republicans know if they lose Texas in 2020, it’s game over for them nationally. So I think every single dirty trick will be played in this race.

Unseating the second-most powerful Republican in the Senate doesn’t come without hard work or substantial resources. It’s my intention to raise those resources from small-dollar donors across the country who understand what’s at stake in Texas. Texans have the ability to change the course of not just our state’s history, but our entire country’s history, when we flip Texas.

Steven: What do you hope to achieve in the Senate?

Cristina: A state as large as Texas can dream big because we are big. I want to position Texas to be a leader in our nation’s transition to renewable energy. We are already the largest wind energy producer. I want to make us the largest solar energy producer and create nearly two million green jobs in Texas-- good jobs-- over the next decade. I want to tackle income inequality. In Texas, we work more hours than most people in other states. Yet most Texans struggle to get by.

The other big issue is Medicare for All. In Texas, we have the highest uninsured rate in the country: one in six. Even Americans with health insurance struggle to pay their co-pays, deductibles, premiums. This past week my son was in the hospital twice, and we had a $500 co-pay.

Steven: Texas’ economy has been built in large part by fossil fuels. How do you persuade Texans that the Green New Deal is good for them?

Cristina: As Texans, we don’t run away from big problems. We take them head on. I see climate change as a big problem, but I also see it as a real opportunity, especially for Texas. John Cornyn opposes the Green New Deal because he says it’s too expensive, but he doesn’t calculate the catastrophic cost of doing nothing-- the cost for our economy and our environment, and the human cost and suffering, which is incalculable.

No state has more to gain or lose than Texas. Texas has 250,000 workers in the oil, gas and mining industries and 233,000 workers in advanced energy, which will outpace the oil and gas industry in the next few years. So it’s just basic common sense for Texas to support the Green New Deal.

Steven: I deliberately haven’t asked whether it’s hard running with a 3-year-old son-- I imagine male candidates don’t get that question.

Cristina: I don’t mind you asking, because it’s the truth. Deciding whether to run was hard. I know that, when men run, they get thanked for their sacrifice of being away, but when women like me run, we get villainized as bad mothers But I think I could be a great senator and a great mother. I’m running with my little guy, Santi. I taught him how to hand out flyers and say “Vota Mama.” He likes to do that at all the events.

When I’m going out and fighting for the policies and solutions I believe are in the best interest of Texans and Americans-- doing that with my son next to me, I know I’m fighting for his future as well.

Who's Behind The Move To Wipe AOC's Congressional District Off The Map?

It came as no surprise that New York would be losing a congressional seat after the census. Speculation in Albany over a year ago was that NY-27, a large rural district in the western part of the state-- then held by crooked Trumpist Chris Collins--  would be divided up between NY-26 (Buffalo- D+11), NY-25 (Rochester- D+8) and NY-23 (Southern Tier- R+6). The move would make NY-26 and NY-25 slightly more competitive but still safely blue and make NY-23 much redder and much safer for a Republican. And it would get rid of Collins and a district with a shrinking population.

But Collins resigned and is going to prison and the New York Democratic Party bosses have switched their focus on another congress member they hate-- and fear-- even more than Collins: AOC. The scuttlebutt in Albany is that the dominant Republican-wing of the party, in a move to protect Schumer’s Senate reelection in 2022, wants to dismember NY-14. That'll teach 'em! And that will, the thinking goes, keep AOC, now old enough to run for the Senate (30), in her place! So wrong on so many levels!

There was a buried mention in Politico on Tuesday morning:

With New York likely to lose at least one congressional seat, the district held by Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be broken up, forcing her to find a new winning coalition. There’s little love for the disruptive young upstart in Albany, and many state lawmakers would like nothing more than to redraw her out of office. Ocasio-Cortez seems aware of the threat, as she’s been promoting Census sign-ups in her district to ensure that her constituents are fully counted.

I decided to run a quick Twitter poll to see if there is any kind of consensus around the importance of AOC’s political career. There is. The polling started strong for her:

And admiration for Ocasio-Cortez ended strong as well. 89 people participated in the poll-- one for each freshman!-- and 92% indicated they think AOC is the most consequential and most important new addition to Congress. Go Twitter! The New York (and DC) political establishments would be on the losing end of this battle, of that I'm certain.

As you know, AOC doesn’t take campaign contributions from any of the crooks who make the wheels turn in DC-- and Albany-- but she has still managed to raise $3,381,334.59 as of September 30, significantly more than any of the notorious New York whores who sit on the phone all day begging special interests for money:

• Max Rose - $2,139,582.51
• Antonio Delgado (D)- $2,063,246.39
• Hakeem Jeffries- $2,048,723.08
• Lee Zeldin (R)- $1,867,986.14
• Anthony Brindisi- $1,417,403.05
• Elise Stefanik (R)- $1,330,918.47
• Tom Reed (R)- $1,264,624.41
• John Katko (R)- $1,182,074.69
• Carolyn Maloney- $1,016,483.16
• Sean Patrick Maloney- $841,739.78
• Greg Meeks- $643,895.51
• Eliot Engel- $566,230.84
• Brian Higgins- $514,347.20
• Kathleen Rice- $334,379.20

Someone in Schumer’s operation denied that his boss-- who has raised $1,526,081.84 so far for his 2022 reelection campaign-- was behind the anti-AOC move and told me the impetus was from the Queens party machine. That is run by one of the most corrupt members of Congress, Gregory Meeks, a Wall Street-owned and operated slime ball New Dem (and Schumer ally). I spoke with Shan Chowdhury, the progressive Democrat challenging Meeks on his him turf and a former AOC campaign worker, what he though about this. "Would any of us be surprised if my opponent, the corrupt Gregory Meeks, is behind the anti-AOC movement? I sure am not! Meeks is only about himself and his special interest donors that keeps him in office. He’s anti-labor, anti-movement, and anti-people. As the Queens Democratic County Chair, he is doing everything in his power to keep the movement outside of the county democratic process. If he’s unwilling to make a system that’s fairer and just for all, is he a real Democrat at all? Working families deserve better. Our country deserves better. The movement deserves better. I will be his most competitive challenger he’s ever had. Let’s vote him out and vote me in because I will work for and with the people. We will make New York bluer. Happy New Year!

#MuellerTimeWithMaggie

Maggie Toulouse Oliver is the first 2020 Senate candidate Blue America is endorsing-- other than the reelection effort for our old pal, Jeff Merkley (D-OR). First and foremost, Maggie, New Mexico's Secretary of State, is a progressive trailblazer-- something with good positions, good ideas and the courage and ability to move positions and ideas into policy and reality. Bonus: if she wins she will be the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from New Mexico. Her opponent is Nancy Pelosi puppet Ben Ray Luján, from a political family, a professional politician with neither a set of operative values nor any real point of view.

Maggie, like Jeff Merkley, would be another rare self-made member of the working class in the Senate, something a Senate-ful of multimillionaires desperately needs. As Bernalillo County Clerk and then Secretary of State, she’s helped clean up New Mexico's state government, hold dark-money special interests accountable, and oversee fair elections.

Luján has been running himself ragged trying to keep up with her as she campaigned on issues way too progressive for where he has been for his whole career in the House. On day one of her campaign she began talking about how deeply she backs the Green New Deal and Medicare-for-All. Poor Luján had no choice but to go along with the two popular programs, neither of which he had previously backed. She is also advocating opening an impeachment investigation of Trump, something Luján still can't quite bring himself to breaking with Pelosi over.

Today-- starting at 12:30PM (MT)-- and tomorrow, Maggie is live-streaming herself reading the entire Mueller Report on Facebook and Instagram (#MuellerTimeWithMaggie) in preparation for Mueller's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. "I’ve read the Mueller Report, and the facts are clear," she told New Mexico voters: "There is more than enough evidence for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings." (While Mueller is testifying, Trump plans to have the White House on shutdown so everyone can help him with his tweets.) I asked Maggie to introduce herself to DWT voters with a guest post explaining what she's hoping to accomplish today and tomorrow. If you like what you read, please consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the 2020 Blue America Senate thermometer on the right.

There Is More Than Enough Evidence For Congress To Begin Impeachment Proceeding
by Maggie Toulouse Oliver

Haven’t read the Mueller Report? Well, you’re in good company. Neither have most of the folks in Washington, D.C.

As a result, Congress continues to ignore the preponderance of evidence presented by Special Robert Mueller that President Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice.

And Congress continues to abdicate its authority-- and responsibility-- to hold this president accountable.

I’m not willing to let the president off the hook. I have called for and continue to call for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings. Indeed, all across my home state of New Mexico and the United States, voters are demanding that Congress do its job.

But House leadership is not taking action. My opponent in the New Mexico U.S. Senate race, Congressman Ben Ray Luján, is a member of Democratic House Leadership, which, in keeping with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s position, has refused to move forward with impeachment. Congressman Luján even voted last week to end debate and effectively kill the articles of impeachment introduced by Rep. Al Green. That’s not the leadership we need.

I’m proud to be the only candidate in this race for U.S. Senate to be calling for impeachment. It’s past time for action.

Having read the Mueller Report, I am convinced that there is more than enough evidence to begin impeachment proceedings. If more people-- especially those in Washington-- had read the Mueller Report, I am convinced that everyone would be demanding impeachment proceedings.

To help those who may not have read the report hear the overwhelming evidence of obstruction of justice, today I will start reading the Mueller Report live on Facebook and Instagram. I encourage everyone to tune in to get the facts.

And the facts are clear: President fired FBI Director James Comey, instructed people to shut down investigations into the President’s associates, and so many other obstructive actions that-- to my mind-- are exactly what the founders were talking about when they wrote “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

In light of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s upcoming testimony before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, I’m clearing my scheduling and dedicating my time to reading Volume 2 of the Mueller Report because anyone who has read the Mueller Report knows that there’s more than enough evidence in it to warrant starting impeachment proceedings.

The bottom line is that if more members of Congress-- and people all across America-- had read what I’m reading live today and tomorrow, there would be no question that it is time to start impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. I’m the only candidate in the U.S. Senate race in New Mexico calling for impeachment proceedings. I won’t stop talking about this until the people in Washington finally hold this President accountable.

#MuellerTimewithMaggie

America's Sweetheart... vs Schumer?

How many Twitter followers does AOC have today. Let me look... oh... 4.37 million. That's a lot. Like let's compare that to the whole Democratic and Republican House leadership teams combined. On Team Red:

• Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader)- 288K
• Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise)- 304K)
• Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney)- 93.8K
• Tom Emmer (@RepTomEmmer)- 12.6K
total reach- 698.4K

And Team Blue?

• Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi)- 2.59 million
• Steny Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer)- 116K
• Jim Clyburn (@WhipClyburn)- 68.8K
• Ben Ray Lujan (RepBenRayLujan)- 21.7K
• Hakeem Jeffries (RepJeffries)- 130K
• Cheri Bustos (RepCheri)- 32.3K
total reach- 2,958.8 million

So... the entire House leadership-- both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party has 3,657.2 million. That's a lot of reach, though they have some catching up to do if they ever want to have the reach AOC has. What was that again> Oh, yeah... 4.37 million-- and that's without her posse/back-up support team:

• Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN)- 1.08 million
• Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib)- 542K
• Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley)- 289K

All those followers... that's a big incentive for the media to cover the 29 year old freshman from the Bronx-- far more than they cover almost any other member of Congress. During a typical week, Fox News and the Republican Party echo chamber mentions her name more than every single Democratic House member-- not counting Speaker Pelosi-- combined. Eliot Engel has represented parts of the Bronx in Congress since 1989-- a year before AOC was born. Currently he's the Chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee. Other than political junkies and Likud-sympathizers, how many people have even heard of him? Anther Bronx member of Congress, José Serrano, one of Congress' most far left members and the longest-serving Hispanic-American in the House, has been in office-- first in the Assembly and then, the year AOC was born, in Congress-- since 1983 and how many people outside of political circles have ever heard of him?

This week the media has been abuzz about how AOC "could" run against Chuck Schumer or Kirsten Gillibrand for Senate-- when she's old enough to be a senator.

[T]he possibility of Ocasio-Cortez taking on Schumer or Gillibrand raises the question: How would she fare in a statewide race? The Democratic representative handily defeated Crowley in 2018, which was the most difficult part. The Republican  she faced in the general election, economics professor Anthony Pappas, ran a very flawed campaign-- and she received 78 percent of the vote, while Pappas received only 13 percent.

So far, Ocasio-Cortez has only run for office in her district, where she’s quite popular. The question now is: How would she fare in a statewide race against Schumer or Gillibrand that requires competing not only in Queens and the Bronx, but also, everywhere from Buffalo to Syracuse to Albany? And if she did manage to defeat Schumer or Gillibrand in a Democratic primary, how would she fare against a Republican statewide in the general election?

Most New York voters vote for a "D" or for an "R," regardless of who the candidate is. No one gives a crap about Kirsten Gillibrand-- if they did she wouldn't be polling so horribly in New York-- but "she" still managed to beat generic Republican Chele Farley last year 4,056,931 (67%) to 1,998,220 (33%). Evan a hated, positively loathed Democratic crook like Andrew Cuomo managed to win convincingly against generic Republican Marc Molinaro-- 3,635,340 (59.6%) to 2,207,602 (36.2%).

Schumer is up for reelection in 2022. AOC will be old enough to run. Last time he ran, he didn't have a primary opponent. In the general he faced a random Republican sacrificial lamb and beat him 70.4% to 27.4%, taking 55 of New York's 62 counties. Schumer's job approval among New York voters is just 47% and his disapproval is 34%. 19% of New York voters say they either don't know who he is or have no opinion one way or the other. Compare that with Bernie Sanders, of whom 64% of Vermont voters say they approve (as opposed to just 28% who don't).

I got off on a bit of a tangent there. I wanted to mention how the media covers AOC, even when there's no real news story. Yesterday at sunrise, the L.A. Times ran with a story by Janet Hook, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dangles 2020 Endorsement: Bernie Sanders Or Elizabeth Warren? It's a silly story but... click bait, that even manages to include something about Warren and Ocasio-Cortez making a passing reference to the finale of Game of Thrones. "Warren fans," wrote Hooks, "wonder whether-- and hope that-- Ocasio-Cortez may eventually endorse the Massachusetts senator in her bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. But the freshman House member, a superstar of the progressive movement, has more history with Warren’s leading rival for progressive votes in the 2020 Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. They too have teamed up on many legislative and political matters. Many Democrats find it hard to imagine Ocasio-Cortez will not eventually back Sanders, as she did in 2016. The fact that a 29-year-old freshman House member is being sought out by two presidential candidates with years of congressional seniority who are more than twice her age speaks volumes about the state of the the Democratic Party and the dynamics of its primary process."

That's news? Does this make it newsier? "I would argue that she is one of the most important endorsements in the Democratic Party right now," said Rebecca Katz, a strategist who used to work for former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). "She has a huge reach beyond any other member of Congress. She knows how to use her voice." How about this? "One candidate she almost surely will not endorse in the early primaries is Biden. He 'does not particularly animate me,' she said in an interview earlier this spring with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery... She called for former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland to end his long-shot presidential bid after he was booed at the California Democratic Party convention for saying Medicare for all was bad politics and policy."

A UK magazine, Stylist covered AOC yesterday in their "People" section with an essay by Hannah-Rose Yee, From Trump Takedowns To Epic Clapbacks: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Best Twitter Moments. Talk about click-bait! Even in Europe! "How do we love thee, AOC," starts Yee. "Let us count the ways." She's "one of the most exciting, inspiring figures in politics today. She’s a fearless warrior for equality, sustainability and progress. She refuses to be boxed in by the institutionalised misogyny of certain circles of American politics. And she continues to use her voice to speak up for those who can’t. She’s also using social media in a way rarely seen before in politics. For a digital native, Twitter and Instagram come easily to AOC, who is as at home delivering a blistering speech on the Congress floor as she is hosting an Instagram live about her skincare routine or a recipe for one-pot noodles."

Here are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s best Twitter moments:

When she perfectly clapped back to the person who called her the "Donald Trump" of the Democratic Party

When she hit back at men who like to question her intelligence (and savagely burned Trump)

When she perfectly summed up why it’s important to elect a diverse range of politicians

When she kept the receipts of the man who tried to fashion-shame her

When she corrected critics who tried to call her a diversity hire

When she called out Republicans for spending their time fact-checking her instead of engaging in open debate

When she reminded everyone how hard it is to be a person of colour and a woman in politics

When she encapsulated the ridiculousness of people being afraid of her political platform

When she equated trolling to catcalling

When she reminded everyone that anything is possible

When she called out the very system that she is a part of

When she wouldn’t let her critics attack her just because she likes to dance

When she called out people who continue to mispronounce her name

When she summed up why she’s so good at clapbacks