There are 3 Democrats running for the nomination in western Wisconsin’s 3rd district to take on freshman Republican— and violent drunkard— Derrick Van Orden. The primary is two weeks from today. Two of the Dems, Rebecca Cooke and Katrina Shankland, are loaded up with sewer money and are using it to attack each other, pissing off Democratic voters in the district. The third, Eric Wilson, is the progressive in the race and was just endorsed by Ro Khanna. Take a look at why Ro endorsed him:
Cooke admits she’s nothing but a Blue Dog (literally; they endorsed her as one of their prime candidates) and tries to pretend Blue Dogs are normal Democrats instead of Republican-lite corporate shills who vote with the GOP on things like— oh, let’s see… last week to condemn Kamala Harris for creating the border mess that Trump left Biden. Cooke has raised the most money because of her Blue Dog support. In fact, her campaign has been bolstered by around $150,000 worth of independent spending by an operation— the Welcome PAC— funded by the Murdock family and scumbag Reid Hoffman— meant to elect conservative Democrats who will vote with the GOP on economic issues. Aside from Cooke, their big investments this cycle are John Avlon and Blue Dog co-chair Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
On paper— or at least old paper— Shankland looks better than Cooke. When she first ran for the blue state Assembly seat from Stevens Point in 2012, she ran as a progressive., winning the crowded primary with 27% of the vote (a 44 vote margin). Once in the Assembly she became a colossal disappointment to Wisconsin progressives by quickly pivoting into a corporate-friendly centrist lane. Not one progressive I know in Wisconsin thinks she’s any good. But one seems to think Cooke is so much worse that he’s had to back her— and back her hard. And that would be Mark Pocan.
Pocan seems to have convinced himself that Shankland can beat the odious Cooke— and he may be right— and then beat Van Orden, a dangerous miscalculation. The huge student and progressive base in WI-03 is not going turn out for Shankland. Many see her as part of the problem, just another disappointing career politician who isn't connected with the people. In her own Stevens Point base, Wilson has more endorsements from local officials than she does. Voters are sick of the political games and attacks coming from her now that her back is up against the wall and she sees that she's losing.
Meanwhile, though, Pocan has cockblocked Wilson, the only actual progressive in the race, at every turn, scaring off natural allies from helping him, one after the other. Our Revolution Wisconsin isn’t afraid of Pocan and they’ve enthusiastically endorsed Wilson’s campaign. Pocan, who invited New Dems into the Progressive Caucus when he was running it should try to get it through his head that when Democrats run progressives in western Wisconsin they win and when they run GOP-lite candidates, they lose. Tammy Baldwin won with a healthy 55% of the vote and in 2016 Bernie won the district with 62% of the vote.
Yesterday, Hakeem Jeffries’ House Majority PAC announced it is spending a massive $4 million in WI-03, regardless of who wins the primary. If Wilson wins this primary, that means another strong progressive in Congress, not another vote to help MAGA Mike pass condemnations against Kamala Harris.
Eric Wilson: “I’m the only one supporting the issues we care about and the only one talking about them. I'm the only one for Medicare for All, a ceasefire, the Green New Deal, a wealth tax, and student loan forgiveness. My background in healthcare, housing, and technology makes me uniquely suited to tackle not only the problems of today, but also tomorrow. I'm the best contrast to Congressman Van Orden. I am the only candidate that will be able to get college kids out in November, there are 6 universities across the district and almost 55,000 students. We can't ignore them if we are going to win, that means talking to their issues; a ceasefire, responsible gun ownership, student loans, and affordable housing.”
Again… two weeks from today. Can you contribute to Wilson’s campaign? Does a contribution this late in the game make a difference? The answer is yes. Contributions that come in this week will allow his surging campaign to get more door knockers, make more phone calls and get the word out that there is a progressive voice in this fight, not just two centrists attacking each other. Ads like this on Facebook and Instagram are making all the difference in the world right now and for just a few dollars they can reach a lot of efficiently targeted voters. It costs just two cents to reach a voter with this ad! And Wilson's campaign is close to its target of reaching every voter in the district a dozen times!
I sent Eric Wilson a small contribution. I listened to an interview on Mike Crute's The Devil's Advocate Radio Show with Katrina Shankland and all I heard was how hard she works to win the support of rural conservative voters. It was about all she was interested in talking about was her bi-partisan appeal and efforts. She is a good talker, if you are interested only in appealing to rural conservative Republicans voters. Not enough to get my support.
Link to The Devils Advocate Radio Program:
https://darnwi.com/