Tag Archives: u.s. senate

If current results hold…

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If current results hold…

  1. Now that Warnock and Ossoff have won, will the GOP majority get rid of runoffs?
  2. Daniel Blackman, you did your absolute best to elevate the PSC to Democrats’ attention, and I really need you to stay in this fight as the DPG’s go-to organizer for future PSC races. You did an amazing job, and you’ve set the template for the PSC District 2 race next year. But please ask for a recount.
  3. We now live in the era of mixed statewide results, but we’ve shown that Democrats can win a majority statewide, and not just a plurality like Biden won in November. No looking back.
  4. I want Doug Jones for Attorney-General. Confirmation hearings for Biden’s cabinet this year should be fun to watch.
  5. I’m wondering if the VP-elect plans to have an office in the Senate because she’ll be tiebreaking a LOT
  6. Schumer becomes majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish American in history, but Joe Manchin succeeds Robert Byrd to become the most powerful person in the Senate and secure West Virginia’s role in American politics once again.
  7. Warnock becomes the second Black Senator from the ex-Confederate South, 11th nationally, and one of three in the new Senate alongside Tim Scott of SC and Cory Booker of New Jersey (not including VP Harris). Ossoff becomes one of the youngest Senators and Han Solo cosplayers in U.S. history. He also becomes the fourth Jewish senator from the South, the first Southern Jewish Senator since Benjamin Jonas of Louisiana (served 1879-1885), and the first Jewish member of Congress from the non-Florida Deep South since Ben Erdreich of Alabama (served 1983-1993).
  8. Get used to this: Chairman Sanders (Budget Committee).
  9. The dam on those 500 bills will now break.
  10. $2000 checks y’all!
  11. I pay great tribute to the work of Laura Ratcliff Walker and Tonza Sheree Thomas for leading our Muscogee County Democratic Committee to overperforming in Muscogee County, and to Linda Parker for fighting for us on the Muscogee County Board of Elections against Alton Russell’s attempt to screw newly-registered voters. You are the MVPs here in Columbus.
  12. EDIT: Thanks to the county committees and candidates who commissioned me for websites this past year. Thanks to Cliff Albright and Black Voters Matter for hiring me earlier last year, and thanks to Jeremiah Chapman and Woke Vote for hiring me for the runoff. I began and ended this election season working for Black voter turnout, and that’s huge for me.

Script Idea for Ossoff/Warnock

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Please make this a script idea for a joint #OssoffWarnock ad:

Ossoff and Warnock walk along forked paths in a park which converges to a point.
Ossoff: “We believe the American people deserve more money from federal COVID relief.”
Warnock: “But Senate Republicans think that only $600 are good enough for you, even when Donald Trump and Joe Biden say it ain’t!”
Ossoff knocks over standee of Perdue: “David Perdue says no to $2000”
Warnock knocks over standee of Loeffler: “Kelly Loeffler ALSO says no to $2000”
Ossoff and Warnock stop at the fork.
Ossoff: “You know who will say yes to $2000?”
Ossoff/Warnock fist bump each other, saying together: “We will!”
Warnock: “We will vote for it”
Harris: “I will break the tie”
Schumer and Pelosi together: “We will pass it”
Biden: “And I will sign it”
Ossoff: “But none of this happens unless you vote to send us to the Senate by January 5th”
Warnock: “Vote for Ossoff and Warnock in the runoff so we can-“
Biden: “Run”
Harris: “You”
Schumer/Pelosi: “Your”
Ossoff/Warnock: “Money!”
Ossoff: “I’m Jon Ossoff”
Warnock: “I’m Raphael Warnock”
Ossoff/Warnock: “And we approve this message”

Winning the Senate is More Important than Anything

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I have voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and for Democrats down the ballot.

But when I did so, my enthusiasm was not focused on the top of the ticket. I’m learning to not fall in love with the top of the ticket, or to hold high expectations for what the president will do upon taking office.

Instead, I have high expectation from a Democratic majority Senate and House, and for President Biden to cooperate with this majority.

Nancy Pelosi, as Speaker, has set up some extremely high expectations in this 116th Congress for what the congressional agenda will be under the next Democratic trifecta. All of those bills that were passed by the Democratic House and blocked by the Republican Senate need to be passed again with a Democratic trifecta. And the Senate, under Schumer or whoever, absolutely needs to ditch the filibuster to make all of this happen.

Then I need this trifecta to try passing at least one (1) progressive constitutional amendment. There’s one that’s been waiting for over 40 years to become the 28th.

All I want from our 46th president is to sign all of those bills, take the credit and step out of the way. Don’t obstruct, don’t try to get in the way of the House.

That’s the only way I can get some sleep. The joke may be that we’re voting for “Sleepy Joe” so we can get some sleep, but I’m not resting (much) until the backlog of bills on McConnell’s desk is cleared into law in the 117th. I’m not resting until substantial federal COVID relief is passed. Not until a new VRA is passed, not until DC statehood is passed, not until the For the People Act, Equality Act, George Floyd Act, HR 40, Paycheck Fairness Act, SAFE Banking Act, Climate Action Now Act, and every other act passed by the 116th House gets sent to Joe Biden’s desk in the 117th. I look forward to the MORE Act, the Ending Qualified Immunity Act, and other bills which didn’t get consideration by this Congress moving forward in the next.

That’s what I’m voting for, no matter what happens at/with the increasingly-deligitimized SCOTUS, no matter the rage of right-wing governors, attorneys-general and secretaries of state.

I’m glad that Biden will be going into office without the high expectations which were accorded to Obama from his election, and without the high drama which dogged Clinton throughout her campaign. He will be boring, and maybe opaque, and that’s good. Hopefully, he won’t have too many Executive Orders to issue.

The main focus must be paid to the Democratic Congress, and to whether they will fulfill their promises to the people.

Stacey Abrams is Right to Stay Away from the Senate Race

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Pundits on Twitter are still pissed that Stacey Abrams abstained from a Senate run.

It’s not her fault that all our candidates for Senate suck at fundraising, or that idiot Democrat donors from out of state are burning their money on the twin pyres of McGrath (KY) and Harrison (SC).

Her eyes have been set on the governorship and nothing else. If she ran for Senate (or even House) in 2020, she would be trashed as an also-ran chasing any office like Beto was.

I also don’t think she should be a VP pick. What would be the benefit? She would be distracted from her political plans, and whoever wins the nomination would be attacked for picking a state legislator without federal experience.

The candidates who qualified for Perdue’s Senate last week just need to step their game up and/or clear the field ASAP. It’s getting a bit late in the day, and state’s out west and in NC are deciding their Senate nominees real soon. Similarly, these Dems running for Loeffler’s seat in the jungle primary need to get their shit together to avoid a lockout from a likely runoff.

Also, as an aside, I don’t care much for Maya Dillard Smith because she’s transphobic AF. Accomplished, but not on my shortlist.

VIDEO: Doug Jones (D-AL) and Tina Smith (D-MN) Sworn Into Office as U.S. Senators

Talking Points Memo reports:

Former Vice President Joe Biden will escort Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) to his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday morning, according to CNN and local reports from Alabama. While the state colleague typically accompanies a new senator to the swearing-in ceremony, Jones did not ask Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) to attend, AL.com and WAAY TV reported Tuesday evening. Jones’ ceremony is scheduled for noon on Wednesday and he plans to do his swearing-in on a personal family Bible, according to AL.com.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:

Tina Smith, who served three years as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and worked behind the scenes as an influential DFLer for years before that, will join the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. Smith’s rapid elevation to the Senate follows the resignation of former Sen. Al Franken, who stepped down a day earlier following sexual harassment allegations. Smith, 59, will become Minnesota’s junior senator alongside Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also a DFLer. That will make Minnesota just the fourth state to currently have two women as U.S. senators.

Smith is now the 22nd currently-sitting female senator, a record. Jones’ election nubs the Republican majority even more to 1 seat, so expect more tie-breaker votes from Pence. Smith intends to run for her new seat in November 2018, and Jones will be up for re-election to a full term in 2020.