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After eating my weight in turkey, pie, and ginger cookies, sneaking off to watch the new Star Wars movie with Laurie, and putting together a mountain of jigsaw puzzles with Henry, I’m headed back out on the campaign trail this week.
And, as the new year approaches, I find myself feeling extraordinarily grateful for the experience of the last nine months.
When we started this campaign, no one was talking about a “blue wave.” All we knew was that Trump was in the White House, Lamar Smith was in ExxonMobil’s pocket, and we had to stop them.
We took a leap of faith and determination together. Now, we have a real shot at victory--thanks to the people who supported this movement early on.
Do you remember those early days of the fight? I remember my first stop on the campaign trail at the Comal County Democrats’ April meeting. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I pulled up to the local Democratic headquarters. Comal County had a deep red reputation. I was shocked to find a standing-room-only meeting and a fiery atmosphere--these folks were ready for resistance!
It was the same everywhere we went, from Austin to Fredericksburg, Kerrville to New Braunfels, San Marcos to San Antonio. People weren’t waiting for permission from Washington, and we weren’t waiting for some pollster or consultant to tell us the fight was winnable.
The fight just needed fighting. So we fought.
Republican attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Net Neutrality. The GOP tax scam. The Mueller investigation. DACA. It’s been an endless string of crises and rear-guard actions to frustrate, stop, or slow the Republican agenda. We’ve fought side-by-side with organized labor and groups like Our Revolution, Indivisible, and countless local, regional, and national groups, and though we’ve won some victories, it’s never been more clear that we must take Congress to truly stop the Trump agenda.
Now, the numbers show that our leap of faith was justified. CNN’s latest poll shows that voters favor Democrats over Republicans by 18 percent, and Democratic voters who say they are “extremely or very enthusiastic about voting for Congress next year” outnumber Republican voters by 17 percent.
When you compare those numbers to the trends in TX-21, account for Smith’s retirement, and consider the on-the-ground energy we’ve been seeing here for months, it’s clear that we have a tough but winnable fight on our hands.
If you were one of the early believers in this effort, your early support made this happen. You saw the vision, you laid the groundwork. You volunteered. You donated. Now we’re quickly picking up group endorsements heading into the home stretch for the Democratic primary, and our momentum is growing by the day. Thanks to you.
The next year promises to be the fight of our lives, but I’d rather be fighting beside you and the other folks who took the leap with us than anyone else in the world.
Let’s go get ‘em.
Derrick Crowe is a long-time DailyKos member, progressive organizer, former senior staffer for top Democrats in Congress, and a former small business owner. His platform includes fighting corporate power and Wall Street influence through policies like College for All, Medicare for All, a $15/hour minimum wage, and urgent climate change action. Learn more about Crowe’s candidacy: https://electcrowe.com.