With the passing of a quarterly FEC financial report at the end of January, we were hoping to see a few new candidacies emerge in currently uncontested GOP-held House districts. Only a handful of such candidates publicly declared, which is somewhat disappointing. But they declared where they count!
As you might recall from my last update, I warned that three uncontested GOP-held House seats have upcoming candidate filing deadlines: KY-05 in Kentucky, AL-01 in Alabama, and OH-06 in Ohio.
Thankfully, however, in the last few weeks, we’ve landed candidates in two of these three seats! Shawna Roberts (pictured above) has declared her intent to run in Ohio's 6th congressional district, where she will challenge Bill Johnson. This area includes the Southeast stretch of Ohio along the West Virginia border. She has hit the ground running, immediately putting up a website explaining her views and beginning outreach all across the district. If you are interested in learning more, check out her website: www.shawnarobertsforcongress2018.org
Meanwhile, Kenneth Stepp has filed to challenge Hal Rogers in Kentucky's 5th congressional district. Stepp previously challenged Rogers in 2012 and 2014, but then pursued and lost a judicial seat in 2016. Now, he seems back in the game for Congress. He has yet to put up a website, but regardless, his name will appear on the ballot.
Other seats with new Democratic challengers:
1. Katy Geppert has surfaced as a candidate for MO-03. A facebook page exists, which describes her as a "wife, mother, and scientist who believes the people have a right to expect more from their elected officials."
2. Per the Michigan 10th Congressional Districts Democrats Facebook page, Kimberly Bizon plans to run in MI-10. She appears on Politics1's list of candidates, although she doesn't have a functioning website yet.
3. A challenger for the flippable Wisconsin's 7th congressional district finally emerged—two of them, actually: David Beeksma, a NATO Official/Military Advisor; and Allen Campos, a perennial candidate for offices in Wisconsin. It's still possible someone more prolific will end up running here, but regardless, a Democratic name will be on the ballot!
However, as I referenced earlier in this diary, there remains one district with a looming filing deadline and no Democratic challenger: Alabama's 1st congressional district. The filing deadline for Alabama is February 9th, leaving two and a half weeks for activists to recruit a candidate to run. This Mobile-area district almost voted for Doug Jones, so if the Trump administration continues to crash and burn, a Democrat plausibly could win here. Maybe.
Unfortunately, there's another Alabama district to worry about, too: Alabama's 3rd. The candidate in 2014 and 2016, Jesse Smith, was running again, but he’s decided to drop out as his wife accepted a job in California. He announced this on Twitter on New Year's Eve, five weeks before the filing deadline. This Auburn-area district probably has Democrats scrambling. Although it's a long shot, Doug Jones made some serious inroads here during his Senate race. Hopefully, a candidate will emerge soon enough.
If you happen to live in or around Auburn, Alabama/Oxford, Alabama or Mobile, Alabama, I encourage you to consider recruiting someone you know to run—or, better yet, file to run yourself!
Overall, we're now down to 14 districts and 9 states.
- Alabama: AL-01, AL-03 - Deadline of February 9, 2018.
- Kansas: KS-01 - Deadline of June 1, 2018.
- Louisiana: LA-01, LA-04, LA-05 - Deadline of July 20, 2018.
- Mississippi: MS-03 - Deadline of March 1, 2018.
- North Carolina: NC-03 - Deadline of February 28, 2018.
- Oklahoma: OK-01, OK-03 - Deadline of April 13, 2018.
- Tennessee: TN-06 - Deadline of April 5, 2018.
- Utah: UT-01, UT-03 - Deadline of March 15, 2018; nominating convention in May.
- Wyoming: WY-AL - Deadline of June 1, 2018.
States removed: Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin
I should note, however, that these numbers are already better than the recent past. We had twice as many (28) House Republicans go unchallenged on election day in 2016, and even more in 2014.
However, we absolutely should aim for challenging every district—even blood red districts we seem to have no chance in. As I’ve noted in the past, doing so has a psychological effect on both incumbents and voters. It means more voters end up hearing Democratic perspectives nationally. It also can cause incumbents to use more of their resources on their own campaign efforts, rather than transfer money to vulnerable Republicans in swing seats. And also, nobody ever knows for sure what district is “safe” and what district is flippable; Doug Jones proved that. Lastly, we’re so close to contesting all the Republican-held seats! It would be the first time in modern political history that a political party challenged all the seats in Congress, and would send a serious signal to the GOP.