Fred Upton wants to be seen as a moderate rather than the Trump enabler he isRepublican senators are afraid to do it because they worry Trump will notice and tweet something horrible about them, but some House Republicans are quietly trying to edge away from Trump to save their own skins.
Remember when I told you that Change Research is this cycle's polling outfit to pay attention to? I was in heaven seeing their latest-- surveys in 3 battleground congressional districts, Michigan's 6th (Fred Upton), New York's 24th (John Katko) and Illinois' 13th (Rodney Davis). All the incumbents are Republicans and all the districts are swingy and flippable.
Joe Biden by Nancy OhanianMatt Longjohn was a good solid progressive candidate last year in MI-06, the southwest Michigan district that is centered on Kalamazoo and includes all or part of 6 counties: Kalamazoo (the biggest and overwhelmingly blue), Berrien, Allegan, Van Buren, St. Joseph and Cass.
Michigan's 6th district is a swing district that Obama won against McCain (53-45%) and that Trump won against Hillary (51-43%). The PVI is R+4. And the incumbent is Republican hereditary multimillionaire and Trump stooge Fred Upton. In the 2016 primary Bernie beat Hillary in the district (and got more votes in the primary than Trump did).
Blue America helped persuade Paul Clements to run for the southwest Michigan congressional seat held by Fred Upton again this cycle. This week one of Upton's top financial contributors, a multimillionaire corporate lobbyist who has written Upton over two dozen checks, decided to run-- as a Democrat!-- against Paul in the Democratic primary. We asked Paul to introduce himself to Blue America members who might not remember him from last year.Make MI-06 Part of the Progressive Wave-by Paul ClementsWill you make 2018 a turning point?
On Thursday, Kalamazoo professor, Berniecrat and environmental activist, Paul Clements, announced that he's going to seek the Democratic nomination for the southwest Michigan congressional seat that's been occupied by hereditary plutocrat Fred Upton since... wait for it-- 1986! This is a swing district Obama won (53-45%) in 2008 and lost narrowly (50-49%) to home-stater Mitt Romney in 2012 but which the DCCC never contests. Last cycle Clements managed to raise $1,151,980 to go up against the $2,497,208 Upton raised.
Over the weekend, NY Times reporters Coral Davenport and Eric Lipton traced a metamorphosis inside the upper echelons of the Republican Party. They looked at how GOP dogma went from dealing rationally with Climate Change to obstinate science denialism formerly only embraced by complete crackpots like House Science Committee chairman Lamar Smith of Texas. The are good reasons why the crazy far right fringe was the first part of the GOP to embrace Trump and Trumpism.
Morning Consult's new poll brings more bad news for Señor Trumpanzee after his disastrous trip abroad. More voters want Congress to impeach him. Last week, their poll showed only 38% want him impeached. In just one week, that's risen to 43%.
