Cory Gardner. Joni Ernst. Thom Tillis. Lindsey Graham. What do they all have in common?
They are all, of course, vulnerable Republican senators who are in for the fight of their lives this fall. But they share something else: They’re former state legislators, too.
In fact, almost half of current senators began their political careers in our state capitols. For Republicans, the nation’s statehouses have been the ideal breeding ground for succeeding generations of ever-more-conservative members of Congress. The GOP has spent decades devoting almost limitless resources to develop this farm system, giving it ready-made candidates tailored to exacting Koch brothers specifications who will, once they get to Washington, uphold every plank of the party’s authoritarian agenda.
And that’s why Republicans are poised to sabotage our democracy by ramming through a deeply unpopular Supreme Court appointment with scarcely a whisper of dissent from their own ranks.
It’s long past time we smash up this malign pipeline and focus on building up our own talent pool in the states. The best part, though, is that it’s a two-for-one proposition: For every budding Republican state legislator whose rise we can thwart, we’ll also be giving a huge opportunity to a rising progressive. After all, some of the Democratic Party’s greatest stalwarts got their start as state lawmakers, senators like Tammy Baldwin and Sherrod Brown and Chris Murphy and Mazie Hirono.
Daily Kos has identified 47 critical legislative races this fall where Democrats are seeking to unseat Republican legislators in order to flip eight GOP-held chambers in six states. With your support, you can help prevent the next Lindsey Graham from winning office and set the next Tammy Baldwin on a path that will lead to Congress. If we unite in this effort, we can make sure that the abominable desecration Republicans have wrought on the Senate won’t happen again.
Please help bust up the GOP’s farm system by donating $1 to each of these Daily Kos-endorsed candidates for state legislature. Can’t give to them all? Pick three and give them $3 apiece!