It May Come Down To Missouri
Right now, Kamala’s chances of beating Trump look better than even. She’s
leading nationally and has all the momentum and a great narrative— looking forward vs looking backward. And she’s leading in enough battleground states to clinch the electoral college:
Meanwhile Nevada and Georgia are tied and North Carolina, NE-02 and ME-02 are in play... and, hard as it may be to believe, Florida may be heading in that direction as well.
It also looks like the Democrats, despite an exceptionally— and shockingly— weak array of candidates, will take back the House. Yesterday, a trio of Politico reporters wrote about the new DCCC strategy to take advantage of the Kamala momentum.“Battleground Democrats are suddenly jumping at the chance to campaign with the top of the ticket,” they noted. “Outside groups are pushing resources toward offense. And swing House seats that President Joe Biden was losing by large margins are now tied… Republicans are openly sounding the alarm. While he touted strong recruits and grassroots energy fueled by Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson this week warned in a private call with members this week that some of the ‘numbers are ominous,’ according to a person on the call. And Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chair of the NRCC, said on that call that he’s seen significant polling shifts toward Democrats, who are ‘peaking really at the right time,’ while warning about a jarring financial gap with Democrats. One of the clearest signs yet that the party’s fortunes have improved: Vulnerable Democrats who were trying to distance themselves from Biden are now eager to run with Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Even Democratic candidates in the toughest battleground turf are begging the Harris-Walz campaign to get them on the trail.”
The big problem is the Senate, which could well slip back into Republican hands— and which would be catastrophic for President Harris. West Virginia Democrats foolishly opted for a GOP-lite establishment candidate for the open seat and there is ZERO chance he can win against Jim Justice. Although it looks like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Ohio and Nevada are heading towards Democratic victories, Jon Tester is on very shaky ground in Montana. If he loses that seat, the Democrats lose the Senate… unless a Republican incumbent, somewhere, loses their reelection bid. While most attention has been paid to Ted Cruz in Texas and Rick Scott in Florida, neither looks plausible, just like massive DSCC money drains. There’s an independent, Dan Osborn, running in Nebraska with a chance to win… but he’s not a Democrat and could well defect on some key votes if he’s elected and the “if” there is pretty massive. [Note: Blue America endorsed him.] But the best chance to flip a red-state Senate seat may well be in… Missouri, where the Democrats have their best candidate (Lucas Kunce) and the Republican incumbent, Josh Hawley, is widely very disliked.
On Friday night Kunce was on MSNBC with Chris Hayes. I highly recommend you watch the clip:
There’s an abortion voter initiative on the Missouri ballot and Hawley is as anti-Choice as you can be short of burning down Planned Parenthood buildings. Kunce is campaigning for Choice and for personal freedom in general. He’s done well with fundraising— over $10 million and has $4.2 million in his war chest now, compared to Hawley’s $5.7 million. In his statement explaining why he’s running, Kunce wrote that “Everyday people should be calling the shots in our country — not giant corporations or the cowards and phonies they bought off in Washington. That’s why I’m running for U.S. Senate: To take power back for working families in Missouri and across America. And make no mistake about it— Missouri is on the frontline of this fight.”
While our state has been getting stripped for parts, corrupt politicians like Josh Hawley have been attacking workers with schemes like “Right-to-Work” and fighting to block wage increases for Missouri families— all to enrich multinational corporations and mega-donors who bankroll their campaigns.
They helped Wall Street financiers sell off our farmland to billionaires in China and Brazil— devastating rural communities and contributing to the closure of 90% of Missouri hog producers in a single generation. One of Missouri’s oldest and largest employers, Anheuser-Busch, was sold to a Belgian conglomerate— costing Missouri more than a thousand jobs. Missouri-based Monsanto, one of the world’s most important agrochemical and biotechnology companies, was sold to Germany— eliminating even more jobs.
And as dozens more headquarters have been taken out of state, politicians in power like Josh Hawley were happy to sit back and watch it happen.
Manufacturing, agriculture, production— they’re shipping it all away to foreign oligarchs who don’t care about working people in our state. And while Missouri was getting gutted, these same politicians voted time and time again to spend trillions of dollars and thousands of lives on overseas wars that got their Big Oil friends rich.
They even let our adversaries become dominant in renewable energy production— putting the jobs, security, and independence that come with a clean energy future at risk.
Our politicians have spent decades sparking phony culture wars to distract and divide our families. They’ve become so obsessed with controlling our lives, they made Missouri the first state in the nation to ban abortion— without exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
Our state deserves a Senator who will stand up and fight for it, not run for the exit like Josh Hawley.
I’m running for U.S. Senate to be the warrior for working people that Missouri deserves. To fight for our state. And we aren’t fighting the corporate status quo just to make a point. This is a race we can win.
If you’d like to help him do that, you can contribute to his campaign here. It could make the difference between Kamala having a Senate that will oppose everything she wants to do and every nomination she makes and a Senate playing a positive role in governing the country.
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