-by Rachel VenturaI am sure that it was a gut punch for Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg to get the call from the corner office of the DNC encouraging them to drop out before Super Tuesday. I am sure that both still think that they are the strongest candidate for the general election, but they sucked it up and did it anyway.
Back in 2009, when union activist and author Jonathan Tasini was running for Senate against Kirsten Gillibrand, I wrote that sometimes I have to pump some political courage into our candidates and incumbents and coax them to support difficult or controversial items on the progressive agenda. Not Tasini, whose politico-spiritual mentor is Paul Wellstone. I wrote that he's the kind of figure who I fully expected to call me and ask me why I'm not working harder to round up more votes for the most difficult progressive positions in Congress.
Rachel Ventura is the progressive Democrat challenging New Dem, Bill Foster in Illinois’ 11th congressional district. Ventura currently serves on the Will County Board, representing swing district #9. To win her 2018 campaign, she challenged the local Democratic establishment, was outspent 3:1 and still dominated the 5-candidate primary field by running a well-organized grassroots campaign.
Rachel Ventura plants a Green New Deal sign in East Aurora-by Rachel VenturaCandidateIL-11I have worn many hats in my life. As a 38-year old single mother of two beautiful and gifted twin girls, I have traveled America and the world when I was a military spouse. I have worked as an actuary for both a health and a life insurance company and then changed jobs purposely because the industry didn’t mesh with my moral compass.
