There Are Important Lessons To Learn From Marie Newman's Second Try Win And Mark Gamba's First Try Loss

Technically, you can't call Marie Newman "Congresswoman Newman" until January when the Speaker swears her in. But in IL-03-- a district where Trump didn't get to 40% of the vote-- it is the Democratic primary that determines who goes to Congress. It took her two cycles and incredible focus. organizing and effort, but Marie vanquished the DCCC-Blue Dog, Dan Lipinski, and won a truly glorious grassroots victory, running on a powerful progressive agenda built around representing the interests of working families.

"When I  ran in 2018," said Marie in a statement last week, "Blue America was the first organization to endorse me and I was incredibly appreciative. When I decided to run in 2020 to finally unseat Dan Lipinski, one of my very first calls was to Blue America. We were aligned in 2018 on every issue and nothing had changed the second time. Given that I do not accept corporate money, I knew it would be important to work closely with Blue America to drive support for key issues like Medicare For All, The Green New Deal and worker’s rights. Blue America has been with me every step of the way, unconditionally. And, guess what, we all stood together and won! I cannot express how important this unwavering support was to me and is to me now."

Yes, we all stood together-- behind Marie and her team-- and won. She led the way; we followed. Groups like Blue America don't create candidates. And we can't go to Walmart and find them on a shelf. And a list of Bernie/Elizabeth platform positions do not make an electoral victory. The kind of hard, smart campaign Marie Newman-- and Kara Eastman, to name another candidate who just won big-- was able to organize and direct... that's what produces the kinds of wins we need.

"Now, more than ever in the midst of a pandemic," said Marie, "we need to stand in solidarity to have an economy that works for everyone, make certain everyone has healthcare and we build a green economy. I will always be there for Blue America, just as Blue America has been there for me. Now, let's go get this work done!"

Marie was also endorsed by House members AOC (D-NY), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI), all of whom did something out-of-the-ordinary and courageous: endorsed a reform candidate against the entrenched incumbent of their own party. But Marie and a handful of progressives are not going to be able to steer the campaign donor-controlled House leadership and a White House dedicated to the status quo and a conservative Senate-- whether a conservative Senate led by McConnell or, more likely, a conservative Senate led by Schumer-- in a more progressive direction. Only numbers will do that... more members like Marie. And that means electing men and women like Julie Oliver and Mike Siegel in Texas, Lisa Ring, Michael Owens and Nabilah Islam in Georgia. Audrey Denney and Liam O'Mara in California, Jim Harper and Jennifer Christie in Indiana, Robin Wilt, Shan Chowdhury, Tomas Ramos and Lauren Ashcroft in New York... and other focused progressives. Want to play a part? One way is to contribute, which is why I've included the 2020 Blue America congressional thermometer on the right. Please click on it and contribute what you can.

When Marie lost in 2018, I had what I think of as my Donna Edwards conversation with her-- about how it often takes 2 cycles to displace an entrenched incumbent, the way Alan Grayson, Jerry McNerney and Ro Khanna did. Now we're on the verge of wins for candidates who came close in 2018 and are ready to go all the way this year-- J.D. Scholten, Mike Siegel, Julie Oliver, Audrey Denny, Kara Eastman...

I'm feeling great about all of their chances to close the deal in November.

But you know what else I feel great about? A fantastic candidate who didn't win-- Mark Gamba-- and who is already working towards 2022! "Tuesday night didn't turn out the way we hoped it would," he wrote to his supporters on Wednesday, "but there's more to this movement than one election. As Bernie said, 'This is not about me, this is a movement. Not me, us.' Part of the reason I ran for Congress was prompted by Bernie’s truth that when we stand together, we can accomplish extraordinary things." He'll be in it again and he'll prevail. Like I said, it takes more than one cycle to displace and entrenched incumbent. Mark:

Just look at what we have achieved over the course of this year. We have reached 10s of thousands of voters, rallied thousands of volunteers, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and given a corporatist incumbent a real run for his money... and we know he has a lot of it.

We knew we were the underdogs coming into this race. We knew we would be running on the power of the people while our opponent would be leveraging the power of profit to fund his campaign.

But here’s the thing I want you to know and remember. If we took the corporate money out of this race, Kurt Schrader would be hard pressed to win.

Now it’s not fair and it’s not right that the best candidate to represent the people of the 5th district should lose because he DIDN’T take money from Corporate America. But there’s a lot about the way this country is run that isn’t fair and that’s why I’m not giving up.

I’m in this for the long haul and I’ve got my sights set on the next milestone. 2022 isn’t that far away and with momentum we’ve built so far, I KNOW that we’ll be more prepared than ever to take back our country, our democracy, and our planet from those who seek to profit off of the suffering and hard work of millions of folks like us.

So today, though we feel the disappointment of a momentary loss, I am undeterred from our course of action. We will continue to build our movement, one conversation, one donation, and one community at a time until Kurt Schrader has no place left to spread his profiteering propaganda that has left so many of us behind. Your unflagging support, generosity, and care are the wings that will carry us closer to the world we are actively campaigning to bring about. My gratitude for your investment in our vision of better world is boundless.

From the bottom of my heart to all of you, THANK YOU.

Our work will continue, our passion will fuel action, and my commitment to you to take no corporate money and to represent working people and our planet will only grow stronger.

We will have work to do over the next year before another campaign starts. We need our movement and those like it across the country to force the people in Congress to recognize that now is the perfect time to pass medicare for all and make sure that we handle this ongoing pandemic better than anywhere else in the world,  rather than worse than anywhere else in the world like they have so far.  We also need to make them wake up to the reality of climate change and the opportunity in this moment to put the millions of people who are becoming jobless, back to work solving the greatest threat to human kind that has ever existed.

This is not the end of anything, this is just the beginning.

Be good to yourselves, rest up, and I’ll see you back out there--ready to strategize and take back our Democracy so we can heal our planet and thrive.

I love you all!