I haven't crafted a post to the DailyKos community in over 3,000 days. Like many others, after Obama's election, I moved to a big city, got married, had some kids, and lived in a very secure, progressive bubble. I wasn't apathetic, but I felt safe, and that kept me an arm’s length too far from movement-building. That time is over.
All politics is no longer local. To win, it can't be anymore. Gerrymandering has created a situation where Democrats can get more votes for the House, but significantly less representation. We live in a time where the political boundaries of a district are based not on geographic, historic, or cultural similarity, but on an intentional division to steal votes from one party. There are many potential effective long-term strategies to combat this, but only one short-term way to deal with it: turn every race national.
It took national attention and money, as well as a groundswell of grassroots progressive support for all of us to know Jon Ossoff's name. And that new, powerful paradigm is what I propose we do today in all 435 districts: this community can make nearly every congressional district in the country capable of winning fair representation and subsequent progressive policy. A group of my friends -- a lawyer, a doctor, and a fundraiser -- have moved from across the country to do just that: we are running a campaign for Aaron Anthony to flip an ignored district in Western Pennsylvania (www.flipthe12th.com). It's a place with more registered Democrats than Republicans, a place where down-ballot Democrats have won recent races, and a place where Congress remains deeply unpopular. And yet, it does not show up as a potential swing district anywhere. When progressives write off Western PA, the place that helped build the modern-day labor movement, we're in serious trouble. Those of us who live in the region know that it's very winnable if -- and only if -- we have a 435 district strategy. And that is why our campaign to #flipthe12th believes it is essential to raise donations in each of the nation's 435 districts.
Great websites like SwingLeft understand that today all politics are national but (1) don't take the map far enough and (2) will only release money after the primary is over. The concern from our team is that the best-case scenario is that we'll have a repeat of 2006: a potential nice Democratic swing, but full of Blue Dogs and hand-picked establishment Dems (those who get through the primary). The only way to prevent this situation is to make every race national and invest early in specific progressive, electable candidates, like my friend Aaron Anthony.
PA-12 is one of the more gerrymandered districts in the country. It's a place where state parks, ski-slopes, and golf-courses are split in half. We can flip it -- and help move PA back from red to blue -- but not without national support and attention. The current Tea Party Representative, Keith Rothfus, raised several times the amount of his previous opponent. Like Kansas and Georgia and Montana, the earlier we take this national, the more likely we are to #flipthe12th. No doubt, if we win PA-12, Democrats will take back the House and be better positioned to hold Trump accountable.
Republicans may have gerrymandered the country, but they do not own the voters' will. Together, we will overcome this outlandish structural challenge, and #flipthecongress.