Many of you received an email from me this morning announcing that I'm withdrawing from the race for Congress in Minnesota's Sixth District. (My statement is on my website.) This was not an easy decision. I am proud of the campaign we ran in 2008, when few gave us a chance to win but we ended up within three points of Michele Bachmann, in a district won solidly by John McCain and where Norm Coleman won by about twenty points. I believe that I can defeat Michele Bachmann, and that I would provide much better representation for the Sixth District than we've gotten from Michele Bachmann.
Unfortunately, things haven't worked out the way I wanted, and because there is now a contest for the nomination, I realize it would be much more difficult to defeat Michele Bachmann. In Minnesota, we have a DFL convention where the party endorses a candidate for every office. Candidates are asked to honor the endorsement, and voluntarily chose to not run in the primary, which is not until September. I recognized that the even if I got the DFL endorsement, I would have a primary. And a primary meant thirteen months of campaigning against Democrats and talking only to the 35% or so of the district who are consistent Democratic voters. Then, we would have only eight weeks to campaign against Bachmann, and we would be starting out with no money, as we would probably have depleted our reserves to win the primary.
This is not the way to prepare to defeat Michele Bachmann. And that's why I decided to not continue on in the campaign.
I came close in 2008 in large part because of the support I had from the netroots, especially Daily Kos. I am grateful to all of you who contributed to my campaign, who volunteered, or who even just recommended any of the diaries I've posted at Daily Kos. Please accept my heartfelt thanks.
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[UPDATE: to everyone who contributed this cycle, the campaign will be sending you a refund. We thank you for your support, and encourage you to turn that money around and contribute it to another candidate or campaign that can use the help]