Blue wave. Blue train. Blue tsunami. Whatever imagery appeals to you, it’s coming.
I watched with absolute joy as Patty Schachtner won her district Tuesday night, leading her state senate district with integrity and vision into the future.
This followed a series of evening rituals of watching reason and compassion win in Alabama, in Virginia, in New Jersey, and in Oklahoma.
I am running blue in a red state in a special election here in Tennessee. My brothers’ and sisters’ victories have fueled my efforts and inspired me beyond description. We are less than 7 weeks away from our election date (March 13).
Our scenario here looks daunting. As the many yard banners proclaimed throughout our district in 2016: THIS IS TRUMP COUNTRY. And they were correct. Trump won this district in 2016 by 50 points. I know those numbers well — I ran for this state senate seat and tasted that bitter defeat. We knew then it was a very steep hill to climb, and we know it will be again this time.
But….
In December, in a district that shares a county border with our own, our outstanding Democratic candidate, Mary Alice Carfi, closed that “Trump gap” to within 2 points. In an 11,000 vote race, Mary Alice came within 300 votes of flipping a deep red district.
With that result, our team is on fire.
In the 7 weeks leading up to our campaign, we are watching and supporting the following incredibly important races:
Austin Davis, running for Pennsylvania House of Representatives, District 35, whose special election is January 23.
Margaret Good, running for the Florida State House, District 72, whose special election is February 13.
All of these special elections in Missouri, Minnesota, Florida, Oklahoma, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky — there are results to watch almost every week!
Every morning my team starts at it hard again, phonebanking, canvassing, emailing, postcarding, texting, reaching out to voters in our district, letting them know for the first time since the November 2016 election, they get to put voting action to their anger and frustration!
It has been humbling to receive the support and encouragement from outside of our district, to know that there are those who care about the same things we care about: losing our rural hospitals, watching the private grab by way of vouchers and charter schools from our precious public school system, seeing the opioid addiction crisis worsen, partly because of archaic notions about cannabis legalization.
Thank you so much for your help. It means volumes.
For those who have asked about donating, here is our Act Blue link. Every dollar means another Democratic voter reached with our message of inclusion and progress.
For those who have time to give, we are registered with Postcards To Voters (postcard writing), and Open Progress (texting).
If you are local, and want to join our phonebanking or canvassing efforts, here’s our link to volunteer.
As always, a Facebook re-post or Twitter re-tweet is deeply appreciated.
Blue crush. Blue roll. Blue flip.
Thank you from the bottom of my deep blue heart.
Tennessee 2018 - Gayle Jordan