Someone contributes $7 and Austin hits our 2017 goal for himI really want to say thank you to all the DWT readers who helped end the Blue America efforts this year to help raise campaign funds for our House candidates on high note. We reached or surpassed almost every goal we set for ourselves for 2017.
The west Houston congressional district (TX-07) is one of the most likely in the Lone Star State to flip from red to blue. The district, which stretches from West University Place and Belaire up through Spring Valley, Hunters Crook and Bunker Hill villages and west to Barker Reservoir and up to the Houston National Gold Club, Satsuma and Jersey Village. Traditionally red-- with a PVI of R+7-- Hillary beat Trump 48.5% to 47.1%.
Congressman Don McEachin, DCCC Regional Vice ChairI don’t know Don McEachin. I talked with him one time on the phone and he seemed like a very nice guy. I called him when he was elected-- with no opposition-- to the newly created post of DCCC Regional Vice Chair for the Southeast. He came across as very open-minded and, in fact, very open in all ways.
Frank Schaeffer’s last roadtrip for 2017 took him from Agua Dulce in California’s Santa Clarita Valley to Lewiston, Maine to talk with progressive Democrat Jared Golden. Frank bonded with Jared over the service Jared and Frank’s son both experienced as marines in Afghanistan. If you’re not from a military family, you may find what Frank and Jared had two say about that in the video enlightening.
West Virginia’s first Congressional District-- the northern third of the state that includes Wheeling, Parkersburg and Morgantown is pretty damn red lately. Trump beat Hillary 68.0% to 26.4%. The PVI went from R+14 in 2015 to R+19 this year! On the other hand-- and this is the hopeful news-- Bernie beat Hillary in every single one of WV-01's 20 counties and in the biggest county in the district, Mon (short for Monongalia), Bernie's 8,096 vote win over Hillary's 4,963 votes was also a substantial win over Trump's 5,971 votes that day in the GOP primary.
You may have read Sean McElwee’s stuff at The Nation or at Rolling Stone. He’s a sharp policy analyst at Demos and he gets stuff right.
Neither Frank Schaeffer nor Katie Hill is a Trump fan— though Katie’s opponent, Steve Knight, is as Trumped-up as possible. He's one of Trump's most devoted partisans in Washington. Katie takes care to explain why her campaign is more than just an anti-Trump endeavor. I urge you to watch the clip above. But I want to offer you a little background as context. CA-25, which spans the Antelope Valley, the Santa Clarita Valley and Simi Valley, has a Democratic voter registration advantage— and a very weak Republican incumbent. Why? Hillary won CA-25 pretty substantially— 50.3% to 43.6%.
Ask Randy Bryce how he thinks he can overcome the odds and beat the Speaker of the House and all the corporate donors who have poured millions and millions of dollars into his campaign war chest to make sure he keeps delivering for them. He’ll tell you it’s “by coming together. It’s by looking out for each other when it;’s needed. This is why we’re gonna win. This is what separates us from the other side. We care… about everybody. And they don’t.” Randy, a union guy, understands at the core of his being what solidarity means. Very few people do.
“With the passage of the GOP’s disaster tax plan, Mimi Walters again made clear what she thinks about us, the people of her district— absolutely nothing. People in California’s 45th district will truly be hurt by this bill and Mimi could care less. She could be found celebrating with Trump on the White House while thousands of her constituents were left to figure out what they’d do without their SALT deduction next year.
