We had some great news a few days ago. Finally— 8 days after the polls closed, Maine's Secretary of State verified that Jared Golden, a full-blown progressive champion, beat his opponents in the first instance of ranked-choice voting for a federal election in the country. That means Jared will be taking on Trump enabler and Wall Street puppet Bruce Poliquin in November. The final score--after all the votes for Craig Olson were eliminated-- between the top two were:
Jared 23,516 (54%)
Lucas St. Clair 19,741 (46%)
Jared is the majority whip in the state House and said his message of economic fairness and political reform resonated in the sprawling, rural and poor 2nd District which Trump won 51-41% in 2016. The pathetic one-note NRCC immediately dubbed him "the Nancy Pelosi of Maine." The DCCC immediately added him to their Red to Blue list, something they are still refusing to do for another progressive primary winner, Kara Eastman in Omaha.
Both Jared and Kara will need some serious support to overcome Republican incumbents in November. Please step up and give what you can. We promise if elected, our country will be much better off with these 2 progressives are in Congress!
Tuesday there are 7 Blue America-endorsed congressional candidates in primaries, they are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Michael DeVito and DuWayne Gregory in New York; Levi Tillemann and Saira Rao in Colorado; and Tom Guild in Oklahoma, as well as gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous in Maryland.
After that, a break. There are no primaries in July. The next big date for progressives comes on August 7 when Ellen Lipton and Rashida Tlaib have primaries in Michigan; Lisa Brown has hers in Washington and James Thompson is up to bat in Kansas. A few days later-- Hawaii is progressive enough to hold elections on weekends to make it convenient for voters-- Kaniela Ing faces off with a gaggle of awful fake Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
All of these candidates can use some help, but I want to especially urge you to help out the candidates who have already won their primaries and are facing off against Republicans-- Kara Eastman (NE), Jared Golden (ME), Katie Porter (CA), and Jess King (PA). Just tap the ActBlue Thermometer or this link to give whatever you can spare. It really does add up!
Thanks for always doing what you can to help make a better world,
Howie, for the entire Blue America team
