WI-01

WI-01, Paul Ryan’s district was never a solid red district. Obama even won it the first time he ran. It was always a swing district that Pelosi and the DCCC allowed-- aggressively allowed-- Ryan to retain… and retain unchallenged. It’s been driving me nut for a decade and Blue America had been looking for candidates to runnfor many years.

Progressive candidates are starting to rollout impressive environmental platforms. Two of the greatest hopes for a stronger progressive future in Congress are Kaniela Ing in Hawaii and Rand Bryce in Wisconsin. Both have impressive plans that will make up for Trumpanzee's decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords-- and then some. Let's start with Kaniela's 7-point plan, which he calls the most aggressive/progressive plan for climate action in the nation:

Randy Bryce by Nancy OhanianL.A. and New York are towns with lots of celebrities. It's an unspoken rule-- you leave them alone. You don't bother celebrities at a club or shop or restaurant or on the street in either city.

The DCCC is busy pushing their wretched Blue Dogs and New Dems as congressional candidates. And the DCCC has been busy introducing them to the worst and most corrupt, sleazy lobbyists in Washington to trade cash for votes even before they're elected! But even with that, Randy Bryce has out-raised every single one of them-- with no help from the DCCC. That's not to say #IronStache gets no help.

-by Valley GirlI have watched the ad (above) that Randy Bryce ran during the SOTU address many times. And suddenly, something about it rang a strange bell with me.I wrote to Howie:

I'm looking at internal polling and results of focus groups and there just is no way Ryan can run in WI-01 in 2018. This district is about 30% Republican and 30% Democrat and 40% independent. In the last few elections the independents have come down-- slightly-- on the GOP side. That isn't how they feel now. They don't like Trump and they see Ryan as an enabler. Huge numbers of them are closed to even listening to his message. If Ryan wants to run for president some day-- and he does-- he can't be beaten in his home district by a union iron worker.

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.

In his GOP primary against Paul Ryan last year, neo-Nazi multimillionaire Paul Nehlen got wiped out, 57,364 (84.1%) to 10,864 (15.9%), after spending $1,451,041 on the race, just $62,766 out of his own pocket. Ryan crushed him, effortlessly. But this year Nehlen is back and he's already raised $121,850 and has altered his approach slightly-- to appeal to an even smaller but more energized fascist fringe.

Every Beltway insider who read the DWT predictions for the last couple of months-- once I started seeing the WI-01 internal polling numbers-- that Ryan would retire, rolled their eyes.

Enjoy Randy Bryce on I Love America with Sarah Silverman above. I don't know how many people in southeast Wisconsin watch that show. Or Chelsea Handler's show. Or Pod Save America with former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor. All those appearances seemed like a big deal for Randy Bryce after he released his well-received introductory video that caused such excitement among national progressives.