The two where in Kansas to lend their support to a Democrat running for US House….
Democrat DO need ALL the help the can get to get leadership of the US House back….
Two luminaries in the democratic socialist movement — one its national leader, the other its new star — descended on solidly Republican Kansas on Friday, taking their emboldened liberal message to an unlikely testing ground before next month’s congressional primaries.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who rose to fame following her surprise win in last month’s New York congressional primary, see an opportunity to influence Democratic voters in Kansas ahead of the state’s Aug. 7 primary. They’re especially focused on a crowded congressional primary in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City.
In an election year defined by energized Democratic voters seeking to send President Donald Trump a message, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are betting they can stoke the liberal march in places where the left rarely competes.
Looking out into a packed auditorium in Wichita, Sanders said, “people told me Kansas was a Republican state. It sure doesn’t look that way.”
“Whether you live in Vermont or the Bronx or Kansas, you are outraged by a situation in which three people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of America,” he continued.
Ocasio-Cortez recalled how, in 1861, Kansas chose to be a free state, rather than a slave state.
“That is the crucible and soul of this state,” she said. “Back then, the people of Kansas were the tipping point for the future of this nation and today they are again.”
The trip is unusual on several fronts. For one, Trump won Kansas in 2016 by 20 percentage points, making it seemingly inhospitable for Democrats, much less democratic socialists. Moreover, Sanders is a 76-year-old Jewish senator from Vermont, while Ocasio-Cortez is a 28-year-old Latina from the Bronx who is poised to become the youngest member of Congress.
This political odd couple began their trip in Wichita campaigning for Democrat James Thompson, a civil rights lawyer running in Kansas’ 4th District. He was an activist for Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign…..
Image….Kansas House candidate James Thompson, left, U.S Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democratic congressional candidate from New York, stand together on stage after a rally, Friday, July 20, 2018, in Wichita, Kan. (Jaime Green/The Wichita Eagle via AP)
Hard for me to imagine that Cortez will be helpful in Kansas. I would think she would be a liability there.
This is about a primary…..
The left part of the Democratic party IS energized….
We’ll see about the November election…
But this IS good for their party as it stretches the playing field that Democrats have a money advantage in….
Hey?
Democrats won in Alabama!….
I wasn’t aware it was the primary.
If Cortez helps register a lot of new voters, then she probably is helpful. And as Bruce Springsteen might say “You csn’t start a flame without a spark”.
If James Thompson, the candidate favoured by the progressives wins, then (unfortunately) the G.O.P. will hang these two left-wing natives of New York City around his neck. (And I say this as left-wing native of London.)
In a special election to fill Cong. Mike Pompeo’s seat after he became Sec. of State, Thompson lost to Republican Ron Estes by over 56,000 to over 64,000. If the Kansas 4th behaves like an average C.D., then one would expect the Democratic percentage of the regular general election vote to be higher than it was in the special election.
Cortez will also be campaigning in St. Louis today for Cori Bush–an activist seeking to upset 8 term incumbent Lacy Clay. MO-1 is a D+23 district so whoever wins the pro art is safe in November.
This is my district and I am undecided–I have no issues with Clay , but it may be time for him to move on. His father served in Congress 32 yrs before basically handing the seat to him.
If Cortez rallies voters for Bush for the Aug. 7th MO primary (where Right to Work is also on the ballot) I think it’s great as long as we are all on the same page in November and Democrats energized by Bush’s insurgent campaign show up to vote McCaskill even if Bush loses the primary.
My view also Scott….
It is good that the base is being whipped up….
But these two are lefties and their appeal could be NOT as big as the national media plays it to be…..
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) plans to hold two rallies for Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday.
The scheduled campaign events provide additional momentum for El-Sayed, a former Detroit health director, following Sanders’ endorsement on Thursday. The two rallies will be at Cobo Center in Detroit and a location to be determined in Ypsilanti, according to the candidate’s campaign. Sanders will be joined by Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, a group that grew out of Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, and Muslim American activist Linda Sarsour.
El-Sayed, a physician proposing state-level single-payer health care and tuition-free college for the vast majority of Michiganders, has consistently trailed former state Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer and businessman Shri Thanedar in public polling of the Democratic field….
More…