Red District? Yep But Bernie Is A Political Leader People Respect
There’s a special election on April 1 to fill the FL-06 congressional seat given up by Michael Waltz, who took a job with Trump. It’s a pretty red district— R+14 PVI, generally not one Democrats have much of a chance winning. BUT… Blue America is taking a chance on this one for several reasons: the rapidly evolving political climate in the country, the quality of the two candidates and the way the race has been shaping up. The district stretches from the suburbs south of Jacksonville, along the Palm Coast past Daytona Beach. Most of the voters live in Volusia, Marion, Flagler and Lake counties.
The Republican who won the primary is Randy Fine, a carpetbagger, careerist and MAGA extremist, who has made a name for himself by threatening women in politics who he disagrees with. He’s a real piece of work. The Democrat on the other hand, Josh Weil, is about as good as you get, a stalwart progressive who won a primary against an establishment conservative—and in all 6 counties and by 22 points! But can he win? An internal poll shows that Fine is currently up by 12 points... Among Republicans! 44% of Republicans in this district currently support Josh Weil for Congress over the Republican nominee, Randy Fine. 89% of Independents support Weil and so do 97% of Democrats. Please consider chipping in to Weil’s campaign here.
Josh Weil is a 13 year public educator, having dedicated his career to serving students and families in Central Florida. He’s a Stony Brook graduate (like me), and earned advanced degrees from Northwood University, the University of Central Florida, and Stetson University. He sits on the 15 person Executive Board of Progressives for Democracy in America's Florida chapter, an organization dedicated to supporting progressive candidates up and down the ballot across the state of Florida, and championing Medicare for All.
Usually in districts like FL-06, Democratic candidates are “Republican-lite,” a sure-fire way to demotivate the base and to lose. Josh isn’t anything like that. This is what he told me when I asked him which Democrat’s endorsement would help him most in the district.
“One of my favorite experiences from speaking with Republican voters across the district is how many of them have a strong respect for Bernie Sanders. Over and over I hear them telling me that he is ‘the only Democrat’ they respect, or ‘the only one who isn't full of it.’ They truly believe that he represents something different from what the establishment Democratic Party as a whole is offering, and that he is genuine in his efforts to actually make things better for people. When we talk about Medicare for All, they are always surprised to learn that it is not a European style system where the government runs the hospitals, but an improvement to our current system where the government replaces the insurance companies, because nobody likes health insurance companies, not even Republicans.”
I asked him what voters see when they compare him to Fine. “When it comes to character and values,” he told me, “one of us is a public school teacher and the other is a casino executive. What we dedicated our lives to before seeking public office says everything you need to know about the difference between the two of us.”
He’s very adamant about universal healthcare. “I believe that healthcare is a human right,” he wrote. “No one should be denied medical treatment because they cannot afford it. Healthcare in the United States costs nearly twice as much as it does in most developed countries. That increased cost is a function of the insurance industry managing the system and generating profits for themselves and their investors. So instead of having a ‘true actuarial pool’ that covers everyone, the insurance companies cherry pick and design polices to make money instead of treating patients. The insurance companies also tell doctors what to do to save even more money, instead of trusting the medical experts’ best advice regarding treatment for you— the patient. The Affordable Care Act went a long way to improving our healthcare system. But we need to include everyone in a system, much like Medicare does. Creating a universal system that includes all of us will ultimately cost less because hospitals end up covering many indigent patients anyway— and then pass those increased costs along to us through higher insurance rates. National polls about healthcare have consistently showed a significant majority of Americans, across party lines, support Medicare for All. In addition, we need to lower the prices of prescription drugs and free up doctors to use their best medical judgment when prescribing treatment options, instead of allowing insurance formularies to dictate the choices and the costs.”
Unlike Fine’s, Weil’s whole policy platform is about resetting the economy for working people. “Inflation,” he wrote, “is making it hard for families, seniors, and small businesses to afford basic things. In addition, working people should have the opportunity to achieve home ownership. Lastly, every time a hurricane or other natural disaster blows through the Florida peninsula, people need help rebuilding and starting over.”
Among the proposals he’s campaigning on include extending $50,000 down payment assistance for first time home buyers; increasing child tax credits by $5,000 per dependent; offering $20,000 business loan assistance for development; making cost of living adjustments for seniors more frequent—quarterly COLAs; and providing an additional insurance payment to families and businesses in geographic locations where a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, has occurred, and/or the State Governor or the President has declared an emergency, the amount to be determined by loss, etc.”
He added that “For those who wonder how we will pay for all of this, I have two things to say: First, we have to save the drowning victim before we can teach them to swim. So we don’t worry about the cost of the life preserver ring when we are saving them. This drowning analogy applies to working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and small businesses struggling to pay for necessities. Second, if we can afford billions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy, then surely we can find a few nickels and dimes in the couch cushions of our nation’s treasury to pay for the small gig worker, new home buyer, or victim of a natural disaster.”
Josh Weil winning this race would be a political earthquake inside the Democratic Party, where expectations for progressives is minimal, and nationally, where a rejection of Randy Fine and his extremism will send a bolt of electricity through the spine of the whole congressional GOP. Please, if you can spare a contribution, Josh Weil’s campaign is a worthwhile investment.