Senate 2016

Montana organic wheat farmer and State Senator Jon Tester had an unexpected advantage against his big money, city slicker primary opponent, John Morrison, when he ran for the U.S. Senate.

Iowa's senior U.S. senator, Chuck Grassley, has been in Congress since 1975. Before that he was a state rep for 15 years. He won his U.S. Senate seat in 1980, and if he wins in 2016 and serves out his full term he will be 88. He's had an honorable political career, and although no one likes to talk about it above a whisper, he slips into senility more and more frequently, often very publicly.

Fake Democrat and Real Democrat-- There's a BIG differenceAmong the best senators in the history of our country were Daniel Webster (Whig-MA), Robert LaFollette (R-WI), Robert Wagner (D-NY), LBJ (D-TX), Everett Dirksen (R-IL), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Claude Pepper (D-FL), Teddy Kennedy (D-MA), Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Eugene McCarthy (D-MN), Huey Long (D-LA), Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME), Thomas Hart Benton (D-MO), and Hubert Humphrey (D-MN).

Blue America started a Draft Alan Grayson ActBlue page to encourage Florida's most progressive elected official to run for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio is abandoning to run for president or vice-president. Over 440 people contributed. Today, with Grayson's official announcement that he is indeed running for the seat, Blue America launched a new Grayson page, Alan Grayson For U.S. Senate.

Most Americans want more regulation of an out-of-control culture of gun violence in America. Gun manufacturers and arms merchants and their lobbyist group, the NRA, are not among that vast majority of Americans. Their bottom lines and political power are at stake. Progressive Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) has been a longtime rock-solid champion of reasonable gun control.

The DSCC is so sure their candidate in Ohio, Ted Strickland, is going to win the primary to challenge Republican incumbent Rob Portman that they don't even bother attacking Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld-- a departure from the way Tester and Schumer are viciously sabotaging other independent-minded candidates, in Florida (Alan Grayson) and Pennsylvania (Joe Sestak), who will likely beat weak DSCC picks, respectively Patrick Murphy and Ed Pawlowski.

Voters in Wisconsin want to hear what Bernie has to sayNot even the dual Republican clown shows of Chris Christie and Donald Trump are drawing anywhere near the crowds Bernie Sanders is bringing in.

Van Hollen doesn't like having his feet held to the fireYesterday, Congressman Chris Van Hollen broke with his New Dem allies and his own legislative record by joining with the vast majority of Democrats to oppose Fast Track authority for the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP).

In 1968 Phillip Morris launched a brand and marketing campaign targeting women... for death-- Virginia Slims: "You've come a long way, baby," which later morphed into "It's a woman thing." Women HAVE come a long way since then, a very, very long way. And women have more real economic and political power now than ever in recorded history. When a clown like Jeb Bush comes out and declares, in public, that unwed mothers should be publicly shamed, women count that against him.

When Florida Republican Bill Posey introduces legislation, it's usually bad news for everyone concerned. After all, Posey is a very conservative Republican. His ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote score is 9.55 and he was extremely conservative in the Florida state House and when he was a member of the Florida state Senate. The bill he's best known for having authored is H.R.