Georgia's whole coastline, from Savannah on the South Carolina border down to St. Mary's on St. Mary's River that separates Georgia and Florida, is part of the 1st congressional district, basically bright blue Chatham (Savannah) and 17 smaller mostly, rural counties-- all red except for Liberty County near Savannah. Last cycle progressive Democrat Lisa Ring challenged conservative Trumpist Earl "Buddy" Carter. The final vote was 144,741 (57.7% to 105,942 (42.3%). Carter outspent Ring $1,181,229 to $205,896, the DCCC refusing to recognize the race as legitimate. Lisa is trying again this cycle, again with no DCCC backing.First she has to win a primary against Barbara Seidman, a crackpot anti-Choice nut who admitted (here on this local TV show) that Republicans recruited her to run... and then God gave her the go-ahead. Ring is the chair of the first district Democratic Party and was a Bernie delegate to the DNC. Her platform includes Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, tuition-free public colleges and the other populist, sensible positions you can expect from Blue America-backed candidates. And, indeed, this morning, she was endorsed by Blue America. She wrote the guest post below for us. Please take a look and if you like what you read, consider contributing to her campaign by clicking on the thermometer on the right. The primary should be pretty easy for her but the general election is going to be close and she needs all the help she can get for it. What a shame that the DCCC sees her as "too progressive"!Leading With Integrity, Strength And Vision To Empower Voters And To Create A Government That Reflects OUR Values While Leaving No One Behind -by Lisa RingI’ve always been an activist but I had never seriously considered running for office until I witnessed first-hand a lack of leadership in Coastal Georgia. Not only were we forgotten by party leadership whose focus was Atlanta, we didn’t have choices on election day. 85% of all seats in Georgia before 2018, were incumbents with no challengers. This was the case with Buddy Carter in 2016. With the exception of one write in candidate, he had no opposition. Because Carter didn’t have to cater to voters, he started to tell his constituents that he didn’t care what they wanted and that he would do what he thought was best.Unfortunately, what Carter thinks is best is whatever he and his supporters can profit from without regard for the wellbeing of all of his constituents. The contrasts are stark between Carter and myself. I believe it is time for everyone to have the same healthcare every developed country in the world provides its citizens. We’ve been fighting for a universal healthcare system for over 100 years and every year we do nothing, thousands of people die due to lack of healthcare. Carter has been campaigning against “Obamacare” since he came a congressman in 2014 and has gone so far as to tell the people begging him to protect their healthcare that he doesn’t care what they want. This is coming from the self-proclaimed “only pharmacist” in Congress who fancies himself part of the healthcare community.We are opposites in every regard. Carter is anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, anti workers’ rights and living wage, against equal pay, against common sense gun reforms, and wouldn’t even vote for the most recent Violence Against Women Act because it limited gun possession for abusers. He is for the privatization of everything...prisons and detention facilities(in which he owns stock), our educational system, and our military and veterans services. As a former military spouse, a military mom, and running for office in a district with six military installations(2 Coast Guard) and over 75,000 veterans, I find Carter’s lack of understanding about what veterans and military families need quite troubling. Our veterans and military families are barely surviving on less than standard wages and inadequate housing and healthcare. Food banks near bases can’t keep up with the number of people serving who rely on their help.While the inequities, lack of understanding, and lack of compassion are staggering, there is no difference quite as glaring between Carter and myself as our environmental policies. Rep. Carter, despite facing increasing pressure from 1st district voters, was the only legislator from both political parties in Georgia who believed it was a good idea to open up the Georgia coast to offshore oil drilling. All of our coastal communities and state legislators, as well as the GOP governor and other coastal congressmen, signed resolutions to not allow offshore drilling in Georgia. Not Buddy Carter. He continued to espouse the same tired argument that we should pursue “energy independence” for the good of our district and the nation.The opposite is true. The small pie shaped area that could be drilled is believed by scientists to have very little oil. The oil would be exported to other countries(because we don’t need it) for profit only by the companies who are drilling. We have nothing to gain and everything to lose if there is a spill and as we contribute to the severity of climate change. It makes one wonder if Carter is making decisions because he has personal connections to the fossil fuel industry since he refuses to listen to the DOD telling him this would be a threat to national security, or his constituents who not only worry about the economic impact but are very concerned about the environmental impact. Clearly he has no concern over the impact of climate change on our coast and to inhabitants. While he now admits climate change is real( a small victory), he does not believe it is man-made.I believe we can have energy independence in a way that benefits all of us. Before the Green New Deal, I had a plan for the 1st Congressional District of Georgia that I hoped would be a national model. My plan was to make Coastal Georgia the “Silicon Valley” of clean, safe, renewable energy sources. I believe we can be a hub of research in new energies such as wave and tidal energy and improve existing technologies like solar and wind. We can bring decent paying jobs to rural areas where there is no opportunity by bringing the solar and wind energy industries here. By offering tuition free training in the renewable energy sector through universities, technical schools, and internships we can provide opportunity to all while caring for our veterans and those displaced from the fossil fuel industry. We can guarantee that all who wish to work, will, by providing a federal/state job guarantee. And we can build a green infrastructure that solves several problems: a crumbling infrastructure, a lack of public transportation(especially in rural Georgia), and mitigation of rising sea levels which causes property damage and failing systems (such as sewage) that are not suited to deal with the crisis of climate change.We can become global leaders as we research and implement technologies suited to move us to a healthy, fossil free, economically booming future. There is simply no way to fail in a plan that considers the needs and wellbeing of all and simply makes sense economically and environmentally. Living in a district that has 100 miles of pristine coastline and a unique ecosystem created by tides that reach ten miles inland, I find it hard to accept we have a congressional representative that cannot see beyond his own pockets.
Source