Sometimes you find the best Democrats in the least likely places. When Taylor Jackson e-mailed me to ask me about the Blue America endorsement procedure, we started a chat. She is working for a candidate, Kathy Ellis, is southeast Missouri's sprawling rural 8th district, currently represented by right-wing nut Jason Smith. The PVI is an eye-popping R+24. Obama lost both times-- with about a third of the vote-- and in 2016 Trump beat Hillary 75.4% to 21%. In 2018, Claire McCaskill, in her doomed Senate reelection bid, lost every single one of the 30 counties in the district. Why would a Democrat even waste her time in an area like this, I asked Taylor. She asked me to speak with Kathy about it.Of the 30 counties, only 5 have most of the voters. In 2016 they led the district's Democrats into a great showing for Bernie Sanders:
• Cape Girardeau--Bernie- 52.4%, Hillary 46.6%• Jefferson-- Bernie- 54.3%, Hillary- 44.2%• St Francois-- Bernie- 53.0%, Hillary- 45.3%• Phelps-- Bernie- 58.9%, Hillary- 38.4%• Howell-- Bernie- 58.4%, Hillary- 40.2%
That's where establishment Democrats make their big mistake about Democrats in parts of the country like MO-08. These people are as Democratic, especially when it comes to economic populism, as are the Democrats in the AOC's Bronx district or Jimmy Gomez's East L.A. district. MO-08 is the 11th poorest congressional district in the country. How could be voting so Republican? [Tangent: Saturday night I had dinner at a cool hole-in-the-wall ramen restaurant in Highland Park in Gomez's district and walking from car to the restaurant and then back again, literally everyone smiled, gave me a thumbs up or said something nice. Eventually I realized it was because I was wearing my Feel The Bern hoodie and that I had wandered into Planet Bernie.] Cape Girardeau may have spawned Limbaugh, but Cape Girardeau Democrats are not a bunch of Hillary-Biden-Claire McCaskill conservatives; most of them are Democrats because of where FDR brought the party, not because Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton dragged it in the other direction.I was impressed with Ellis' website even before I talked with Kathy herself. Aside from being a progressive Democrat and a candidate for Congress, Kathy's a clinical social worker and an addictions counselor. The district is in the midst of a severe opioid and methamphetamine crisis, lacking in basic medical care, high paying jobs, quality education, and a variety of other serious issues that we see in many "red districts" that Trump carried in 2016. Following that election, Kathy travelled to Washington to take part in the 2017 Women’s March, an event, she told me that became life-changing for her. That's when she decided to get into politics by running in the 2018 election for the 8th District. She lost. She picked herself up off the floor, talked with her team about what they had experienced and what they had learned and how they could go forward and... she's back, stronger and more determined than the first time. I asked her how it's even possible to run a campaign in a district that "red" and I asked her to share that with a guest post. If you like what she has to say, please consider contributing what you can by clicking on the Blue America 2020 congressional thermometer above.I Am Running For The People In My District-by Kathy EllisCandidate for Congress, MO-08Why would I run in such a conservative area? My belief is that if someone does not show-up in these areas by running for office, we will never make any inroads to progressive change. Some things that you might want to know about the district: In 2018, Missouri voted by a margin of 64% to defeat the “Right to Work” initiative that was being pushed by the Republicans. The 8th was the district that made the defeat of this occur. The 8th supported the change in the Missouri Constitution to have a “Clean Missouri” amendment to deal with the corruption in government, an initiative for medical marijuana, and a raise to the minimum wage. Nicole Galloway, our Democratic State Auditor, was greatly assisted by the 8th District to become the only Democrat to win a major state office in Missouri.When I began my congressional campaign in 2017, the first place that I went to was Mountain View, Missouri, near the larger town of West Plains. I was surprised to find 75-80 people gathered in the town’s small community center. I listened to their views, frustrations, and suggestions, and found an extremely progressive group. These folks had been involved in Bernie’s campaign, in Stand and Resist, Indivisible, Moms Demand, and various environmental groups. Their network allowed me to have contact with a network of progressives throughout the southwestern edge of the district and beyond. I continued my travels throughout the district and was pleased to find that many progressives were activated by our campaign. We decided to place our main office in Cape Girardeau, the largest city in the district, but decidedly conservative. This is true of most of Southeast Missouri (Cape is Rush Limbaugh’s hometown-- I’m sure that you get the picture with that!). Despite that impediment, we were pleased to see that more Democrats voted in Cape County than in previous years.I worked with a lot of state candidates in the 8th and got to know them very well. The majority were progressive and even though there were few victories, we helped to support one another. Many candidates, including myself, felt isolated and ignored by the Democratic party in the state, and we did not receive the help that the more “establishment” candidates had received. We conducted our campaign by raising individual donations, along with a couple of union contributions. We did the best we could, traveling over 65,000 miles and visiting each county multiple times.So, you might ask, why is this woman running again? The answer is that we “moved the needle.” After losing in 2018, I was unsure of whether I would run again in the 2020 cycle. One of my biggest struggles was the question of how to raise the money needed to run a competitive campaign. And then the calls started… I had people who called to tell me how much they admired our campaign, how excited they were about how the District was activated for the first time in a long time, asking questions about how to deal with various issues in the district, and top-notch professional who wanted to work with me. Since I am a social worker, I know how to organize and network, and I think this helped pull the district together. I was pleased to see that the alliances that were formed throughout the District had held together and that they were ready to fight again. I met with my compliance person, and we identified a sum of money that we needed to raise during April of this year in order to consider a run. We surpassed that… from the 11th poorest District in the country.I am running for the people in my District. I grew up here, and I live here today. I know they consistently vote against their best economic interests, but the conventional wisdom in Missouri is that the “pendulum always swings back.” I know there is a strong pro-gun, anti-abortion, and anti-gay consitutuency in the 8th. The current state legislature recently passed an extremely harsh anti-abortion law, but there is pushback throughout the state. There is a progressive streak in this red state that thrives on the ideas of helping your neighbor and fixing the ills of democracy in chaos. We desperately need Universal Healthcare, Universal Pre-K and a quality education for every child followed by an opportunity for debt-free college or technical school education, a job and infrastructure plan for rural areas that includes new technology and clean energy developments, legislation necessary to deal with the corruption in our government, and policies and laws that truly protect all people of our country. By running a bold progressive campaign in a red state, we can continue to move the needle and lay the groundwork for future Democratic candidates. As a progressive, I know this is a marathon and not a sprint. I also know that we need leaders to get us to that finish line.
