Randy Bryce

Yesterday Mark Pocan (D-WI), arguably the most progressive member of Congress, introduced iron worker and union activist Randy Bryce at his "Where's Paul Ryan" town hall in Racine, one of the cities in Ryan's district.

According to his latest FEC filing at the end of March, Paul Ryan has already spent $2,586,047 this cycle and has a campaign archest of $9,399,416. Last cycle he spent $13,393,345-- against a vanity candidate the Democratic Party ignored and who spent a grand total of $16,890-- far less than the crackpot Trumpist, Paul Nehlen, who primaried Ryan from the right and spent $1,402,877.

Yesterday we talked about why Beto O'Rouke spent two July 4th weekend days campaigning in deep red Lubbock and why that should serve as a model for Democrats everywhere. The Lubbock 4th of July parade is a big west Texas tradition.

So there's the anti-Dean Heller ad that the shady dark money SuperPAC, America First Policies, run by Pence operatives and financed through Pence's efforts, finally started running.

One of the biggest shocks of the 2016 election was Trump winning Wisconsin. He was the first Republican to win the state since 1984 when Reagan was reelected, defeating Walter Mondale 54.19% to 45.02%. Since then, Michael Dukakis beat George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton won both times he ran, Al Gore beat George W. Bush, John Kerry beat George W.

Shockingly, the DCCC doesn't recruit union activists to run for Congress any longer; quite the contrary. They have demonstrated for over a decade that they would rather recruit an "ex"-Republican or a wealthy self-funding careerist than someone who understands the concept of worker solidarity.

Have you been enjoying DWT the last few weeks? I’ve been writing it from Paris. I just got home. It’s tough to write 5 posts a day while you’re on vacation... in Paris! But I rented a beautiful old townhouse in Montmartre from a French writer and the house is filled with books and art and writer vibes and my office was right off a huge, second story veranda with a fantastic hanging garden where birds were frolicking like they owned the place. Anyway, I just got home and I want to continue the momentum we’ve helping to build for Randy Bryce.

Last night Bernie spoke about TrumpCare at the Pittsburgh Convention Center and this morning he’ll be doing the same at Express Live in Columbus, Ohio and again this evening at the West Virginia Civic Center in Charleston. You can get to the essence of his message by watching the short clip he released (above). Do you doubt anything that he says in his response to the Republican “healthcare” bill? All those assertions about what Americans want, for example?

That’s an old Blue America radio spot we ran against Paul Ryan at some point in the distant past. As you may know, Randy Bryce isn’t the first Democrat to go up against Ryan. In 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Ryan's Democratic challenger was Jeffrey Thomas, a retired orthopedic surgeon from Ryan's hometown of Janesville. The Ryan-friendly Thomas' only issue for his first three runs was healthcare and he never quite cracked a third of the vote, but in 2006 he ran against Ryan's shady relationship with Republican corruptionists Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay and went all the way to 37%.

Hard to imagine, but even today 42% of Americans still prefer to see Republicans control Congress. A new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal shows that just 50% of Americans would prefer Democrats take over Congress in 2018.