Help Progressives Win is a WEEKLY column,
posting at 9 am Pacific Standard Time each Saturday.
There are thousands of Progressive candidates running for office across America in 2016, and they need your help to win.
Please don’t forget those running for office in your city and county this coming year — those down-ballot races make a big difference in your daily life, from deciding which Traffic Engineer to hire this spring which translates into which potholes get fixed on your daily commute to work; to which Port Commissioner gets elected and has a massive amount of influence determining if a foreign corporation wins a bid to build and maintain a new Oil Terminal at the port in your town, putting the safety and health of your family and those of all your fellow residents at risk, just to line the pockets of investors on another continent!
So please step up and make some time in your busy schedule to help local candidates, who often have no resources or staff. You can find a local candidate by contacting your Local County Democratic Party. If you don’t know how to find yours, start at at the website of the DNC and their link to State Parties.
Click on your state and look for a Get Local link, like this:
It begins right at home in our towns and cities and with our own family, friends and circle of acquaintances. Far too many of our fellow citizens refuse or forget to vote regularly. They tell themselves “it just doesn’t matter if I vote, no one listens to me anyway. Besides, I HATE politics. None of those politicians know what my life is like and they don’t really care about my family or our problems.”
The following candidates for office in 2016 DO CARE and they are espousing the policies and ideas which will help those dejected non-voters. But they need your help to be successful, to reach out to the millions who just can’t be bothered to be participants in their own democracy. So please, consider helping these candidates in any of the following ways…
VOLUNTEER
DONATE
SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
All three of these actions are helpful to a candidate trying to reach a larger audience or promote an event or action. Candidates need money to put on events and to pay salaries for staff and to buy the signs and ads which help to spread the messages they are putting out to the prospective voters in their city, county or state.
We need to start banging the drum for next year’s Progressive candidates today in order to have enough victories next November to stave off or even undo the advancement of the conservative lunatics who inhabit the current version of what’s left of the Republican Party.
Here are this week’s PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES
They need your help TODAY, to win next November
Jesse T Smith
Candidate for US House
State of Alabama
3rd Congressional District
Campaign website: www.JT4CongressAL03.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/JesseSmithforCongress
Twitter: @jt4congress2016
Full Scale US Census Map of the District/State
Veterans advocate
"Washington has ignored you for decades. I pledged to run a campaign that focuses on the needs of the people, not the corporations. For too long have our politicians been at the beck and call of the rich. I'm going to change that."
-Jesse Smith
Jesse, determined and ambitious, enlisted in the United States Army in March 1995. Upon completion of basic training he quickly deployed into action serving two tours in Bosnia supporting both Operations’ Joint Endeavor & Joint Guard. After successful completion of those assignments, he served back-to-back tours in Germany in conjunction with two combat tours in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom I and III, where he was among one of the first convoys to enter Tikrit Iraq prior to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
He displayed exemplary leadership skills, which did not go unnoticed, and in March 2003 he was inducted into the Sergeant Audie Leon Murphy Leadership Club. This highly regarded achievement is only bestowed upon the top 2% of Enlisted Army leaders. Additionally, a nomination by his superiors resulted in his selection to attend the prestigious U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy where he graduated from the Battle Staff Non-Commissioned Officers Course with superior ratings. On December 1, 2008, after serving nearly 14 years on active duty, he was honorably discharged from the military.
He then chose a career path in which he continued to serve his nation as a federal civil service employee at the Department of the Army Combat Readiness/Safety Center. He served as an Accident Investigator (Fatality Division) & Tactical Occupational Safety & Health Manager for the Army Brigade Combat Teams.
The tradition of service to the country is very evident in his family life as he is married to U.S. Army Captain Carla Smith and they are proud parents of 5 children: Darius, Jesse II, Latiffany Mykia (Specialist, U.S. Army), Jermonte (Petty Officer, U.S. Navy).
While skillfully serving our nation in many capacities, his leadership traits have served him well and positions him to lead a Charge For Change in Washington D.C., representing Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District.
If you live in Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District I strongly urge you to contact Jesse T Smith’s campaign and find out how you can help him win this seat!
Volunteer | Donate
Tom Guild
Candidate for US House
State of Oklahoma
5th Congressional District
Campaign website: www.GuildforCongress.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/GuildforCongress
Campaign Twitter: @guild4congress
Where is the District?
Full Scale US Census Map of the District/State
Accomplished Professor Emeritus & Progressive, Good-GoverNment Democrat
Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District deserves a member of Congress who will represent everyone. Tom Guild is asking for your help to make him that Member of Congress.
Stop incumbent (R-Tea Party) Clyde Russell from recklessly voting to shut down the Government and destroying the U.S. economy.
Russell and his irresponsible Tea Party Colleagues in the U.S. House constantly threaten to burn the house down, by shutting down the national government and refusing to raise the debt ceiling so that our country can pay the bills racked up by Congress. That would leave Social Security recipients, visitors to national parks, and other hard working Americans who depend on government services, out in the cold. If Russell won’t even vote to keep the government open or forces the United States to default on our bills, he is highly unlikely to accomplish anything useful for those of us who pay his salary.
If elected, I promise to never vote to shut the government down or refuse to raise the debt ceiling so that America can pay her debts!
Tom Guild has been an Attorney in a State District Attorney’s office, a Professor of Legal Studies where he achieved Professor Emeritus status in 2006. Tom has been active in a variety of educational related and other service organizations including receiving the Distinguished Service Award, University of Central Oklahoma Chapter of the American Association of University Professors 1994 & 2001. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in Public Service.
If you live in Central Oklahoma, please consider contacting Tom Guild’s campaign and asking how you can help him win this seat!
Volunteer | Donate
Melissa Gilbert
Candidate for US House
State of Michigan
8th Congressional District
Campaign website: www.GilbertforMichigan.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/GilbertForMichigan
Campaign Twitter: @GilbertforMI
Where is the District?
Full Scale US Census Map of the District/State
So that Michigan families will have someone fighting for them every single day in Washington
Tonight, more than 300,000 veterans will sleep without a roof over their head. And in the last year alone, nearly 1900 veterans, and even more active-duty service members, committed suicide.
I’m running for Congress to help make a change for the 39,000 veterans that live in Michigan’s 8th district and the millions more across our nation. Because in each of these courageous men and women, I see a piece of my father. And they deserve more – they deserve so much more.
Here in Michigan, I know people are doing their best to make a good life for themselves and their families. When it comes down to it, I think that’s what we all really want.
I’m running for Congress to make life a little easier for all the families who feel they have fallen through the cracks in today’s economy. I believe building a new economy is a team effort, and we need to bring fresh voices to the table to get the job done.
Please join my campaign, and together we can build that new economy for Michigan.
Melissa Gilbert is a resident of Brighton, where she lives with her husband. Gilbert was twice elected and served for four years as the President of the Screen Actors Guild, a labor union that represented over 100,000 performers worldwide.
If you live in Southern Michigan, please consider contacting the Melissa Gilbert campaign and asking how you can help her grass-roots campaign succeed with a Win for Working Families in Michigan’s 8th Congressional District!
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Finally, your host, who is also running for office. You can see my full entry at this link
Angela Marx
Candidate for US House
Washington State
3rd Congressional District
Campaign website: www.Angie4Congress.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/Angie4Congress
Twitter: @AngieinWAState
TOGETHER, WE CAN DO GREAT THINGS!
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If you have a favorite progressive candidate who should be featured here, please leave me a name and a race (State/County/City) in a comment, so that I can feature them in a future edition of Help Progressives Win.