2020: The Two Year Long Election

[fraurosena]

I watched the ad in the link. Then I read the comments, and saw this. Because of course there has to be disinformation in there too.

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Swalwell drops out of presidential race, will seek reelection to House"

Spoiler

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) on Monday became the first major Democratic presidential candidate to exit the race, as he announced he would suspend his campaign and focus instead on trying to win reelection to Congress next year.

Swalwell, who made last month’s debate stage but risked not qualifying to participate in the second debate this month, has not registered over 1 percent in national polling. He will face a primary challenge in his bid to return to his House seat for a fifth term.

At a news conference in Dublin, Calif., Swalwell said he is “fired up” to return to Capitol Hill and continue the work he has been doing in Congress.

“Today ends our presidential campaign, but it is the beginning of an opportunity in Congress with a new perspective shaped by the lives that have touched mine and our campaign throughout these last three months to bring that promise of America to all Americans,” Swalwell said.

As a presidential candidate, Swalwell, 38, offered himself as a fresh face from a younger generation to lead his party in its bid to unseat President Trump and emphasized his commitment to reducing gun violence.

The most memorable moment of his short-lived campaign came during the first debate in Miami when he quoted former vice president Joe Biden from three decades ago saying it was time to “pass the torch” to a new generation of leadership.

Swalwell stoked speculation about his future in the race after canceling a planned two-day trip to New Hampshire over the holiday weekend, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Swalwell began considering a presidential bid after the 2016 election, making multiple trips to early primary states to campaign for down-ballot candidates and meet local Democrats. He traveled to Iowa, where he was born, more than a dozen times, and welcomed the speculation that he might seek the White House. If he ran, he said, he’d offer the sort of generational change that candidates like Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) could not.

“I don’t think the same old leaders can be counted on to solve the same old problems,” Swalwell said in an interview with The Post last year, before speaking to the liberal group Progress Iowa. “If Republicans can just frame the election as, ‘Democrats want to go back to the third term of Obama,’ I don’t think we can win.”

But as a candidate, Swalwell struggled to break through. As part of his focus on gun safety, he proposed a national program to ban assault weapons, then buy back and destroy them, but otherwise aligned himself with the other liberals in the race.

As he put together a presidential bid, Swalwell told reporters that he was leaving the House.

“I don’t have a life insurance policy,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle in February.

That inspired several Democrats to look at running in the safe Bay Area district, led by local city councilor Aisha Wahab, who would be the first Afghan-American elected to Congress. In an interview last month, Wahab said she would “reassess” her race if Swalwell returned.

Before launching his presidential bid, Swalwell had been a frequent guest on cable news programs because of his perch on the House Intelligence Committee, which provided an opportunity to opine on the investigation of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

In Congress, Swalwell is known for launching the Future Forum, a group of young Democratic House members focused on issues important to millennials like reducing student debt. The organization, which he chaired from when it started in 2015 until this year, gave him the chance to visit more than 50 cities around the country.

The group nearly doubled in size to 50 members after the 2018 midterm elections ushered in a younger crop of new lawmakers.

Though he has made efforts to ally himself with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Swalwell has frequently shown a willingness to go against the prevailing winds in his party.

He was one of the few Democratic House members to endorse a presidential candidate other than Hillary Clinton during the last election, instead backing former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley.

More significant, he successfully challenged Rep. Pete Stark in 2012, taking on a 40-year Democratic incumbent against the wishes of the party.

 

[AmericanRose]

Good. I have to say he didn't impress me (though his insistence that Biden pass the torch was amusing). But never fear! Tony Steyer (who???) is entering the race. Because you know, 24 candidates isn't enough.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/eric-swalwell-quits-presidential-race-tom-steyer-set-to-enter/ar-AAE1ZFy?ocid=spartanntp

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm planning to donate to her campaign. There are few people I want out of office more than McTurtle. This is an excellent video:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Robert Foster, GOP governor candidate, denies woman reporter access because of her gender"

Spoiler

In recent weeks, in an attempt to better inform readers about candidates in the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary, Mississippi Today has asked to shadow each contender seeking the GOP nomination.

Bill Waller, a former state supreme court chief justice, and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves agreed to ride alongs with Mississippi Today reporter Adam Ganucheau.

The other candidate — state Rep. Robert Foster, R-Hernando — declined, however, because I am a woman.

In two phone calls this week, Colton Robison, Foster’s campaign director, said a male colleague would need to accompany this reporter on an upcoming 15-hour campaign trip because they believed the optics of the candidate with a woman, even a working reporter, could be used in a smear campaign to insinuate an extramarital affair.

“The only reason you think that people will think I’m having a (improper) relationship with your candidate is because I am a woman,” this reporter said.

Robison said the campaign simply “can’t risk it.”

“Perception is everything. We are so close to the primary. If (trackers) were to get a picture and they put a mailer out, we wouldn’t have time to dispute it. And that’s why we have to be careful,” Robinson said Tuesday afternoon by phone.

Rival candidates or supporters hire trackers to follow campaigns and record candidates, hoping to catch them in compromising situations. In November, a tracker recorded a video of Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith making a remark about attending a public hanging; the incident, which she later called a joke made national headlines.

The Foster campaign’s sudden uneasiness with this reporter covering his campaign comes despite the fact I broke the story of his becoming the the first Republican to announce a bid for governor in December. Later that month, this reporter also broke a story about Republican Party operative offering him money to run for a different office. Since his announcement, this reporter has also interviewed Foster on numerous occasions in the halls of the Capitol, over the phone and at events.

Foster, considered an underdog for the Republican nomination, is running to the right of his opponents to appeal to tea-party conservatives. He is known for his incendiary social media commentary, including outspoken support of the state flag, which features a Confederate battle emblem.

“Anyone who votes (Democratic) in 18 is either ignorant or evil. There is no excuse for supporting killing babies or open borders. If that offends U, I’ll pray for U but I won’t apologize,” he wrote on Twitter last December.

Mississippi Today requested a ride-along with the Foster in late June. On July 7, Robison, the campaign manager, called about joining the candidate on an upcoming trip to the Gulf Coast and Laurel. At the end of the conversation, in what he acknowledged was a “weird request,” Robison said I would need a male colleague to accompany me on the trip.

My editor and I agreed the request was sexist and an unnecessary use of resources given this reporter’s experience covering Mississippi politics; Tuesday, Robinson was informed that this reporter would participate in the ride-along story alone.

He reiterated that the campaign couldn’t agree unless a male colleague was present — this despite my offering to wear a Mississippi Today press badge in plain view at all times.

But Robison insisted that trackers are trying to get any footage that would make the candidate look bad.

“They stand there with a phone in our face,” Robison said.

“I wish it weren’t the way it is. Unfortunately, this is the game we’re playing right now.”

 

[fraurosena]

Sigh. Where is the Democrat sense of urgency?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I guess he feels that with a predator in the WH, he's free to try and get back into congress:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[fraurosena]

"The estimated annual cost ... is less than what we have already spent on Trump's golf trips."

Puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"‘Win where we won’: As Trump’s campaign boasts of going on offense, its efforts appear squarely aimed at defending his 2016 map"

Spoiler

President Trump’s campaign has boasted about efforts to expand the 2020 electoral map and compete in far-flung Democratic territory from Oregon to New Mexico while along the way winning over some of the voters who have been turned off by aspects of his presidency.

But the president has held all of his campaign rallies this year in states he won in 2016 — including Florida and Pennsylvania, with another set for North Carolina on Wednesday night. And he has shown no interest in toning down the incendiary rhetoric that has made him unpopular among black, Hispanic and female voters. Just this week he plunged the nation into another divisive battle over race after saying four minority congresswomen “hate our country” and urging them to leave.

Facing stubbornly low poll numbers, an energized Democratic opposition and the prospect of record-high voter turnout, the campaign is mounting an all-out defensive effort to protect the states Trump won in 2016, while also trying to expand the map, according to campaign officials, Republican advisers and strategists.

The plan includes solidifying and maximizing the support of Trump’s base in a handful of key states while making marginal inroads with some of the constituencies wary of the president, officials said.

As public and private polls show a narrowing path to reelection, campaign officials acknowledge that their immediate goal is to shore up support for the president in places such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Florida — states where Democrats have made gains since Trump’s victory almost three years ago.

“Certainly, first we want to win where we won in 2016,” said campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh, adding that a record fundraising pace allows the campaign to consider investing in additional states, including New Hampshire, Nevada and Minnesota.

The campaign plans to roll out a new mobile application in the coming weeks aimed at engaging its most loyal supporters. Known internally as the “Trump app” and set to be released as early as within the next month, the app is part of an effort by campaign manager Brad Parscale to juice enthusiasm among Trump supporters and capitalize on the energy at Trump’s rallies.

Trump loyalists who download the app will be able to use it to get registered to vote, recruit additional supporters and stay up to date on what Trump is doing, said one campaign official familiar with the development who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. It will include incentives for supporters who actively volunteer to help the campaign, and facilitate neighborhood watch parties and other volunteer work, the official said. For instance, supporters waiting in line to attend a rally who get a dozen friends to download the app might earn VIP seats once inside.

The campaign is also seeking to improve Trump’s losing margins among suburban women, Hispanics and black voters, officials said.

But that challenge was laid bare in recent days after Trump posted a racist tweet aimed at four minority congresswomen who he said should go back to their home countries and “fix” them instead of “telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.” The four lawmakers in question are all American citizens, and three of them were born in the United States.

Rather than seek to quell the controversy, Trump has only escalated his attacks on Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) since he tweeted Sunday.

“If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!” he tweeted Tuesday morning.

Trump allies are seeking to harness the power of the president’s base ahead of what campaign officials and outside observers predict will be a high turnout election.

“The president can turn out his base like no other president ever seen before in my lifetime,” said Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman at America First Action, a pro-Trump super PAC. “He has a way of exciting people to get them to the polls.”

The group has initial plans to invest in only six states during this election: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, officials said.

“The pool of states that will decide the 2020 election is narrower than ever, and Trump is delusional if he thinks he has a chance at winning Oregon or New Mexico,” said David Wasserman, a political analyst with the Cook Political Report. “But he does have a narrow path to reelection — through the same states that he won in 2016.”

But with polls showing Trump currently behind Democrats in key states — and underwater among several critical voting groups — Wasserman said the president’s play-to-the-base strategy appears increasingly questionable, even in those states.

While Trump continues to focus on undocumented immigration and fire off incendiary tweets, campaign officials are working to improve his standing with the kind of voters who have been repelled by aspects of the presidency that most please the base.

Campaign aides contend they aren’t worried the controversy over the president’s attacks on the four minority congresswomen will complicate that plan.

“The President’s record of accomplishments strongly appeals to all voters, including women, blacks, Latinos, and everyone else,” Murtaugh said in a statement. “He is focused on keeping America great, which is why it frustrates him when elected officials consistently say disparaging things about this country.”

On Tuesday, the Trump campaign hosted a “Women for Trump” kickoff event in King of Prussia, Pa. — targeting a group that has trended away from Republicans during Trump’s presidency. It comes three weeks after Vice President Pence traveled to Florida to launch “Latinos for Trump,” an effort to improve the president’s margins with key voters in the nation’s largest swing state.

Over the next two weeks, Trump will hold a pair of rallies in cities with sizable black populations, traveling to Greenville, N.C., on Wednesday and Cincinnati on Aug. 1, to tout his record on the economy and criminal justice. The campaign also plans to soon launch a coalition group of African American supporters.

Taken together, the moves amount to a tacit admission that appealing only to Trump’s political base probably won’t be enough to propel the president to reelection.

Trump won the electoral college in 2016 by eking out narrow victories over Hillary Clinton in traditionally Democratic states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Democrats made gains in all three of those states and several others during the 2018 midterms, and the party’s voters remain energized by the prospect of ending Trump’s presidency.

One campaign adviser said those three states are the ones Trump allies are most worried about. Like others, the adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Trump can lose two of those states and still narrowly win reelection, if he holds all of the other states he won in 2016.

Trump’s narrow victories in the Midwest in 2016 came in part because of lackluster turnout among voters in traditionally Democratic bastions such as Detroit and Milwaukee. Both parties predict that kind of voter apathy will not be the case next year, with the president’s allies and opponents expecting record turnout in 2020.

“Wisconsin is balanced on a knife’s edge,” said Ben Wikler, the Democratic Party chairman in the state, which has 10 electoral college votes. “Trump is a profoundly polarizing figure, and he has his die-hard supporters. But he also has die-hard opponents.”

Internal polling that leaked to the media last month showed Trump far behind some of his Democratic rivals in several swing states, and a potentially competitive race in Texas. Campaign officials said the numbers were outdated and an inaccurate reflection of where things stand.

Still, the leaked data mirrored public polling that highlights how precarious the president’s position is 16 months before he faces voters again, despite a strong economy.

The president’s campaign has expressed confidence that he will be able to run and win on his record and the strong economy once his Democratic opponent is fully defined.

Some of the campaign’s confidence comes from its assessment of the Democratic field vying to replace Trump. Campaign officials have said Trump is benefiting from the contentious Democratic primary, as Democrats fight one another and shift leftward on issues such as immigration and health care. “Each debate is going to be a treasure trove of content we’re going to be able to bank,” one campaign adviser said.

The campaign is also flush with cash and expects to be fully funded to take on whichever Democrat emerges from the crowded field, Murtaugh said.

On Monday, Trump and the affiliated committees raising money for his reelection said that they raised a record-breaking $108 million in the second quarter of 2019. The campaign’s previous record for a three-month period was $39 million.

Campaign officials said that funding gives the campaign the flexibility to invest in states like Minnesota, where Trump lost by 1.5 percentage points in 2016.

“There is an honest view inside Trumpworld that had he done one or two more rallies in Minnesota, he could have won,” one campaign adviser said.

Oregon, which hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984, is seen as more of a stretch, and some Trump allies described it as a misdirection play rather than a serious effort.

“Throw some stuff and money and give the Democrats some heartburn,” one adviser said, calling states like Oregon a “head fake.”

Murtaugh, who said the campaign hasn’t hired any staff in Oregon yet, said any efforts there would be aimed at winning.

America First, the pro-Trump super PAC, is squarely focused on defending states Trump won in 2016, Sadler said. It plans to raise $300 million for the 2020 effort and will focus on six states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.

It plans to begin polling next month in these six target states, Sadler said, and the results could give the group a better sense of how to tailor its messaging going into next year.

Black voters, for example, could play a determinative role in 2020, after turnout in some key Midwestern cities fell in 2016 from Obama-era levels, hurting Clinton.

Trump and his campaign allies have been trying to improve the president’s standing with black voters, pointing to the criminal justice bill he signed last year and the growing economy. Boosting Trump’s numbers with black voters by just a few points could have a major impact on Trump’s prospects, said one campaign adviser. The president and his allies have also been intensifying their attacks on potential rivals over criminal justice, hoping to turn black voters against some Democrats.

“Are we going to win African Americans? Probably not; they’re a historical Democratic vote bloc,” Sadler said in an interview last week. “It’s all about margins; it’s all about closing the margins.”

But the effort to win over some black voters will now compete with the backlash to the president’s comments about the four congresswoman, which have put him on the defensive and led him to tweet Tuesday morning: “Those tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!”

The campaign is also attempting to improve its margins among Hispanic voters, and officials privately say this effort is more realistic than the attempt to sway black voters.

Murtaugh said Trump’s stance on China and his support for border security are boosting the president’s numbers among Hispanic voters. He said Trump’s harsh rhetoric about undocumented immigration is not offensive to legal immigrants.

Campaign officials say Trump is seeking to capitalize on growing Hispanic support to make a play for electoral votes in Nevada and New Mexico. The campaign is looking at venues in New Mexico to host an event with Trump surrogates in September as part of its Hispanic outreach, one official said.

Democrats have highlighted the Trump administration’s harsh treatment of migrants at the Southern border as the party has sought to make Hispanic voters a growing part of its diverse coalition. Several Democrats have slammed Trump for his plans to begin immigration raids targeting undocumented immigrants in several cities this month.

The president’s low poll numbers with suburban women stands as a major impediment to his reelection, Wasserman said.

With that in mind, Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, hosted an event in Pennsylvania to launch the “Women for Trump” coalition on Tuesday.

Trump’s role as president will prevent him from doing as many rallies in 2020 as he did in 2016, so these kinds of surrogate events will play a key role in the campaign’s strategy, one campaign official said. High-profile family members, such as Donald Trump Jr., and high-ranking officials, such as Pence, are likely to host smaller events in lieu of presidential rallies, the official said.

Tuesday’s event was held in a location that will be pivotal to the 2020 race, said Wasserman, adding that the suburban area sits “in the heart of the territory Republicans lost in 2018” in a key swing state.

“King of Prussia is exactly the type of place that has moved away from the Republican Party,” he said. “By showing the flag there, the Trump campaign hopes that it can stop that slide.”

 

[AmazonGrace]

It makes sense because his voters are suckers

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[front hugs > duggs]

I think my top 3 at this point (in no real order honestly) would be Warren, Harris, and Buttigieg. I am thinking because every Democrat (and their mothers) are running for President, we will see a Dem ticket that involves two people currently running. While in theory I may like a Warren-Harris ticket, I'm not sure that this country, even the Dems, would go for a female Pres/VP ticket. I love Warren's ideas and think she is just so freaking smart (not to say the others aren't). I love Harris' chutzpah, compassion, and strength. I think Buttigieg represents the future we want for ourselves (without having seen too much policy from him yet). I know it's super early, but I try to be excited about these strong candidates to offset the depression and lack of hope I feel that keeps getting worse and worse as this current presidency continues. 

[formergothardite]

IMO Waren/Buttigieg might be the ticket we get. I have a strong feeling Warren will win the nomination. Having a first gay VP along with the first woman president would be pretty amazing. But at this point I will accept anyone who isn't Trump/Pence. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Embattled GOP congressman ordered to stop using Marine Corps emblem after Islamophobic campaign ad"

Spoiler

Embattled Republican Rep. Duncan D. Hunter was issued a cease-and-desist letter from the Marine Corps for using its official emblem and slogan in a campaign mailer that targeted three Muslim officials.

The Marine Corps demanded that Hunter (R-Calif.) stop using its Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblem and the motto “No better friend, no worse enemy” in campaign advertisements after criticism of the Islamophobic mailer peaked this week, according to NBC News.

The ad’s envelope included photographs of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has become the focus of xenophobic outcry on the right, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Democrat of Palestinian and Mexican descent who is challenging Hunter for his seat — calling them “radical Democrats” and accusing them of anti-Semitism and “family-terrorist ties.” The mailer also misspelled Israel.

Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim women to serve in Congress.

Capt. Joseph Butterfield, a Marine Corps spokesman, declined to provide a copy of the letter that the military sent to Hunter but said it was addressing the issue.

“The Eagle, Globe, and Anchor and No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy phrase are trademarks of the Marine Corps protected by Federal law,” Butterfield said in a statement, noting the portion of federal law that states that the symbols should not be used for political activities.

Hunter staffer Michael Harrison said that the campaign was taking immediate steps to ensure the Marine Corps demands were met.

“It is personally disappointing to Congressman Hunter that he is now being told that he cannot use this motto or image that thousands of Marines like Congressman Hunter, who went to war under this banner, have used for tattoos, coins, t-shirts, hats, books, posters and multiple other items of personal sentiment,” he said in a statement.

Harrison earlier this week denied that the ad was Islamophobic. He said Hunter has supported Muslim Americans for political office, met with Muslim leaders and served with Muslims while in the military.

Hunter has long used smears about terrorism and other misleading attacks against Campa-Najjar, who ran against him in 2018 for the seat in the district outside San Diego.

The congressman, an early ally of President Trump, has faced other political wildfires over the past year as well. In August, he was indicted on federal corruption-related charges that alleged that he and his wife used $250,000 in campaign funds to pay for family vacations and other personal expenses.

In June, Hunter’s wife, Margaret, pleaded guilty to one charge in the indictment in an agreement with prosecutors that included a promise to “tell everything.” Weeks later, federal prosecutors said in a court filing that Hunter had used campaign funds to facilitate extramarital affairs.

The trial is scheduled to begin later this year.

In recent months, Hunter, a Marine Corps veteran, turned heads after he said that he took pictures with a corpse while serving overseas, a potential violation of the Defense Department’s rules around warfare. He seemed to double down weeks later, saying that his artillery unit killed “probably hundreds of civilians,” including women and children, during the siege on the Iraqi city of Fallujah.

 

[Ali]

9 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

It makes sense because his voters are suckers

$15 for 10 straws is absolutely ridiculous. His cult followers truly are fools.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

36 minutes ago, Ali said:

$15 for 10 straws is absolutely ridiculous. His cult followers truly are fools.

And they cannot see it.

someone I love recently went no contact with people in their family due to being called a “bully” and “toxic” for sharing anti-Trump posts on FB.

yeah, the person opposed to a racist president and concentration camps is the toxic bully.  

To clarify she wasn’t tagging these people in those posts - just the fact that she considers Trump a racist and said it publicly was enough.

Edited July 19, 2019 by HerNameIsBuffy

[fraurosena]

This should be the incentive to get out and vote in such droves that a veritable blue tsunami wipes out any possibility of an Electoral College win. And once there is a Democratic president, with a Democratic House and Senate on the Hill, then one of the first things they should do is abolish this archaic institution. It has no place in a true democracy.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

3 hours ago, fraurosena said:

This should be the incentive to get out and vote in such droves that a veritable blue tsunami wipes out any possibility of an Electoral College win. And once there is a Democratic president, with a Democratic House and Senate on the Hill, then one of the first things they should do is abolish this archaic institution. It has no place in a true democracy.

I agree about the tsunami, but the EC can't be abolished by congress and/or the president, it would require an amendment to the US Constitution, which needs to be passed by 34 states. Unfortunately, too many states are ruby red. I've read of a couple of workarounds to the EC, but I can't imagine the repugs would take that lying down. They'd run to court, which they've been steadily packing with young far right nutjobs.

[GreyhoundFan]

"She famously flipped off the president. Now Juli Briskman is running for office."

Spoiler

“Oh! You’re THAT woman!” the voters exclaim, and show her their middle finger.

Then, realizing what they just did, they quickly open their hand and wave it in apology.

“Yes,” says Juli Briskman, after that awkward moment on the doorstep has passed. “But I’m here to talk about full funding for our schools, supporting women in the workforce, an interconnected system of trails and parks in our county.”

Yup. THAT woman, the cyclist who went viral after being photographed giving the bird to President Trump’s motorcade — then got fired for it — is on her neighbors’ doorsteps in Loudoun County, where she is running for the Board of Supervisors.

She is one of the most recognizable of the hacked off, fed up and fired up wave of female candidates sweeping local and state elections ever since America put a braggadocious man accused by at least 16 women of sexual misconduct into the White House.

Briskman wasn’t totally sure she should run for public office. But after a lot of thinking and some time door-knocking for other candidates, she realized she had to do it. She wanted to turn that infamous gesture into something. Anything. To resist. To persist.

“I had to think: ‘Do I really want to expose my family to this?’ ” said Briskman, who is hard to keep up with, in her purple running shoes on a steamy Wednesday night.

She was lionized by many for capturing their feelings about the Trump presidency. What followed, after I wrote about who she was and how she’d been fired by her employer, was #Briskman2020, memes galore and lots of prime time.

It resonated because she wasn’t an activist, a protester, a radical or a meddler. She was just a mom going to swim meets, racing to meetings for her contracting job, getting her workout in and tiring of the hatred and division swirling around her.

She got love for it, but also a lot of hate.

I know it. I got my share of it every time I wrote about her.

She never backed down.

Even when Internet trolls commented on her body in cycling pants — the body that gave birth to two children and completes ultramarathons. Even after the Trump supporters called her rude, and much worse. Even after she was threatened. Even after her company, Akima, did little when an older, male supervisor posted vulgar and partisan comments on his social media page but fired Briskman for exercising her First Amendment right to flip off a motorcade on her day off.

She sued the company and didn’t get her job back — not that she wanted it — but she did get the severance pay it tried to skip out on. She got job offers aplenty and was quickly hired by another company.

Now what?

As the poster woman for the resistance, what could a 52-year-old, single, suburban mom of two teenagers do to fight a presidency with which she wholeheartedly disagrees?

“It’s not like I can run against him,” she said. “But I can run.”

The current occupant of that seat on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors is Suzanne M. Volpe (R-Algonkian), who campaigned for Trump at a 2016 rally.

There it is — her reason.

But should she run as middle-finger woman?

“Yeah, we had to think about how to deal with that,” her campaign manager, Mike Mullins, told me as we tried to keep up with the candidate.

She wasn’t going to run on one gesture. For folks who may agree with her politics but not her action, she didn’t want it to distract from the local issues.

So they came up with a solution. Among the buttons she has pinned to her shirt (“When we vote, we win!” etc.) is an orange bicycle. If people ask about it, she tells them she’s a cyclist. Usually, that’s enough to jog their memories and open the conversation, if they want to talk about it.

Otherwise, it’s all about schools, traffic, infrastructure and first responders.

Her Northern Virginia neighborhood looks like quintessential, cookie-cutter suburbia. Perfect hedges. Colored mulch. Power-washed facades. Petunia baskets. American flags.

On a night of knocking on at least a dozen doors, the faces behind them were anything but cookie cutter.

Julio, Viktor, Saira, Wamiq, Hari.

“They keep telling me, ‘Go back where you came from.’ I’m Asian,” said one woman, who was nervous about giving her name, but gave Briskman an earful about the way she feels in today’s America. “But my son? He was born here. He’s 20. And they also tell him: ‘Go back where you came from.’ ”

Is it too soon for Democrats to co-opt “Make America Great Again”? On blue hats?

This is the wealthiest county in America. It’s also a place where nearly a quarter of all residents were born outside of the United States. And where, in the past 20 years, the population has shifted from 85 percent white to 62 percent white.

“Oh, yes. I will vote for you,” said Hari Moosani, 46, who has lived in Loudoun County for 22 years. “Change is good, and we need a change here.”

“I’m with you,” said Saira Sufi, 40, who opened her cherry-red door when Briskman knocked. “I know who she is,” she told me, as I stood behind Briskman.

We met the cashier she knows from Food Lion, her kids’ former babysitter and folks who never saw the picture, didn’t care about the middle finger, but liked what she had to say about change.

It’s time for that.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[fraurosena]

How the Electoral College ensures that the minority rules. Democracy? I don't think so...

 

[fraurosena]

This is so very true. I hope the Dems come to this realization soon and act upon it. The future of the country depends on it.

[Thread]

Here's the unrolled version:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1152930670093787141.html

[GreyhoundFan]