One of the things I do each morning is read the news. The first thing I read is 90for90’s twitter page. Last week I noticed tweet after tweet about folks in Florida endorsing Kathy Lewis. I was thrilled and a little surprised because I had just recently written a piece about how Lewis was not getting endorsements.
I had talked to a current FL state Democratic Senator who hadn’t decided if he was endorsing Kathy Lewis yet. Now, that really surprised me as I wrote in the piece. There was a Republican running and the Democratic candidate, Kathy Lewis. What did he need to know to decide?
Kathy Lewis is a progressive Democrat and a well known disability rights activist. She’s running for Florida’s state senate seat in District 20. She ran before and got 46.5% of the vote with no help from the Party and was outspent 12-1 by her Republican opponent.
The other surprising thing about all the 90for90 tweets was, well, why were there all these tweets about this one candidate? I don’t know much about how twitter works but jeez, 90for90 was really hammering this home.
Then I realized that, oh, duh, if the Democrats win 3 seats in the FL Senate they have a tie. They can’t be overrun by the Republicans after this 2020 election and census when the redistricting happens and the hunger games gerrymandering begins.
To be fair to me, this was first thing in the morning so it did take a couple minutes for me to get why it was so important to focus on this seat. I don’t know what the Democratic Party in Florida’s excuse is for not backing Kathy Lewis. They don’ think it’s a “winnable” seat, like they do Senate Districts 9 and 39.
Joan Walsh in the Nation wrote about Kathy Lewis recently.
Pointing out her lack of party support is, confoundingly, making it harder for her to raise money, Lewis told me. At least two major donors told the Senate District 20 candidate directly that party leaders warned them away from her campaign, because she has talked to local and national news outlets, including The Nation, about her struggles to get state Democrats to take her campaign seriously. More than one Florida Democrat has suggested she stop talking to the press about her travails, if she wants to gain support.
“Nobody’s gonna tell me what to say,” Lewis told me. “I can’t be bought.”
Down With Tyranny! wrote here, The Country's Political Future Runs Through State Legislative Elections and here, Is Gary Farmer's Abject Fear Of Winning Going To Cost Biden The State Of Florida? about the situation with the Florida Democratic party.
Democrats may lose because of Farmer, whose ambition is to be Senate Minority leader. The Florida state Senate consists of 40 members. Right now, 23 are Republicans and 17 are Democrats. If the Republicans lose 4 seats (net), the Democrats get a say in state government. Farmer is so panicked about the idea of a Democratic majority that he has worked-- not something he is known to do much-- to sabotage Democratic candidates running for the Senate!
A Florida political expert told me that the map drawing "will go like last time. The Senate GOP will try to gerrymander, the House GOP may or may not go along with it, and the Florida Supreme Court will end up deciding it, as it has the right to do."
Now I don’t know how Bloomberg is going to use the money he pledged to Florida. I hope he doesn’t listen to the state party leaders who seems to be working against candidates. I hope he doesn’t give to only “winnable” races.
We here at Daily Kos don’t pay attention to winnable races. They will win when we help them win! We did that for Cheryl Turpin and we did it for Margaret Good. We tipped, recc’d, shared, spread the word and donated. Let’s do the same for Kathy Lewis now!