So, this is obviously a reply to another diary on the rec list. I left the comment below in that one, but this issue is important enough for higher visibility.
The other diary posts an article about candidate Shawn Harris, and reads a bit like a campaign post.
Shawn Harris is one of 4 Dems running in the May 2024 Democratic primary for the US House of Reps race in GA’s 14 congressional district. The other three candidates are Clarence Blalock, Joseph Leigh and Deric Houston. The winner will have the pleasure of trying to unseat Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG) in November. And no, I will not be linking to Shawn’s website. (Update: I unlinked Joseph as well due to comments he made about women’s healthcare and support of President Biden.)
I’m 100% on board with running a Dem in every race in every election, but you should not be giving a single dollar to Shawn. He’s a horrible candidate running a grifter’s playbook.
Shawn will not generate a single Dem vote for President Biden, and is actively running away from him.
Why this race matters
The value in this race is not the chance to unseat MTG (virtually mathematically impossible) — the value is in turning out every Democratic vote in GA to get Biden across the finish line.
If Biden wins GA, Trump has no reasonable path to electoral college victory. THAT is the value of this particular race.
But Shawn Harris is not the candidate to donate to. If you want to see a Biden victory in GA, give your money to Clarence Blalock or Joseph Leigh. They’re actually on the ground, and are focused on turning out every Democratic voter in the district. (Note: I unlinked Joseph for comments he made.)
Here’s my other comment that gives a few facts about Shawn and his buddy Marcus Flowers:
Let’s begin with Marcus Flowers:
- He’s a grifter who turned $16 Million of Dem donations into 88,000 votes (34%) against MTG and left ZERO infrastructure in the district to go after her this cycle. 30% is about the floor for this district, so he effectively didn’t really turn out anyone.
- He took $620,000 of donations to his 2022 campaign and is currently using it to challenge incumbent Dem Rep David Scott in GA-13. That money was donated to him to challenge MTG, not to go seat shopping and challenge a sitting Dem house member. Marcus lives in Bremen, GA near the Alabama line. GA-13 is northeast Atlanta. He should have given this money to the nominee challenging MTG, or to the Dem county parties in GA-14.
- Marcus Flowers told his green-card holding wife that they were going to Walmart, and instead dropped her off at a homeless shelter, stranding her.
Articles:
Congressional Candidate Dropped Ex-Wife off at Homeless Shelter and The Murky Past of Marcus Flowers.
- Marcus Flowers hasn’t been seen anywhere in GA-13, except when filming his updated video.
As for Shawn “General” Harris:
- Everyone calls him Marcus II for running the same losing playbook. He’s a complete product of DC political consultants.
- He sought out, and is proud of getting, Marcus Flower’s endorsement.
- He raised $302,212 and spent $230,926 leaving only $66k on hand. HOW DID HE SPEND $230,000 WAY BEFORE EARLY VOTING HAS EVEN STARTED IN THE PRIMARY? Oh, I can tell you — he spent it all on hotels and travel for himself and his campaign people to raise money to spend money raising money. Zero dollars are going into voter turnout.
- He’s not a farmer. He bought a $1.2 million dollar house two years ago which has 5 bathrooms, a tiki bar next to the pool and a 10 acre front lawn that he’s calling his “farm.” The tractor featured prominently on his website doesn’t have a scratch on it. He’s also said in a forum that he’s proud of how many republicans come visit him at the house.
- He illegally has his name listed on the ballot as “Shawn ‘General’ Harris” and he’s going around claiming that everyone, rep or dem, calls him (nickname) “General.” First of all, that’s BS — he doesn’t even refer to himself as (nickname) “General” on his website, social media or anything. Second, GA election law clearly states that military titles can not be listed on the ballot, either in front of the name or as a nickname. If he wins the nomination, MTG will drag him and all Dems across the coals for cheating and election fraud. And she’ll have actual facts to back up her argument because Shawn is violating election law.
- In a recent forum, Shawn told everyone that if Biden came to the district, he wouldn’t meet with him.
- In the same forum, he told everyone that he’s ok with people voting for Trump and himself, and is actively encouraging people to do so.
This is a loser seat with a loser candidate. NO candidate has flipped such a strongly gerrymandered district, and he sure as hell isn’t going to do it spending all of his money on nonsense instead of direct voter turnout.
The only value this race has is to turn out every Democratic voter so that we can run up the numbers for Biden in GA. He only won it by 11,000 votes last time, and if Biden wins GA this time Trump can’t win. Yet we have Shawn “The General” Harris telling people he doesn’t support the president, they should split their ticket, and he’s not spending any money on actual voter turnout.
We should be giving money to people actually doing the work of voter turnout. Not 2nd rate grifters recycling 1st rate grifter playbooks.
UPDATE: I guess I didn’t post enough receipts initially.
Here’s a screenshot of the sample ballot for GA-14:
Screenshot of Sample Democratic Primary Ballot for GA-14
Here’s the law regarding how names are allowed to be listed on a ballot in GA:
GA 183-1-11-.02 Appearance of Candidate’s Name on Ballot
A candidate's name may include a nickname by which the candidate is commonly known in the community but shall not contain any spurious phrases, title or degree designating the business, fraternal, religious, or professional affiliation of the candidate, or political slogan or message. A title or degree includes, but is not limited to, military or professional title or rank, or references such as "Dr.","Rev.","Judge", "Mr.","Ms.","Mrs.", or "Miss".
He snuck it in, and by the time people noticed what he did (when the sample ballots were released) it was too late to challenge the way his name is listed.
I have audio of Shawn speaking at the candidate forum. Not sure how to post it. There have been multiple candidate forums hosted by local Democratic parties and I’ve been keeping tabs on them.
Marcus Flowers 100% pulled out $620,000 of Democratic donations made in good faith towards defeating MTG and using it to challenge a Dem incumbent, which is NOT why people donated:
AJC: Marcus Flowers to Challenge Rep. David Scott in Democratic Primary
Here’s the results of Harris’ latest publicly available filing from March 31, 2024:
www.opensecrets.org/…
He loves saying (at forums) that he raised $300k and has a bazillion twitter followers. He already spent $230k on nothing, and twitter followers can’t vote in GA-14. Only registered voters in the district can.
And to clarify, there are 4 people challenging MTG, but they have to get through the May 21st Dem Primary first. Shawn is your candidate if you want someone to take money and spend it on anything other than actually turning out votes. Blalock and Leigh are both people on the ground actually trying to drive up Dem turnout. Houston is a good guy, but seems a little overwhelmed speaking in front of audiences. That’s my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
Update 2 — More Notes and Please make 2 Donations:
The article in the other diary is from the Washington Blade, noted on Wikipedia as being referred to as “America’s gay newspaper of record.”
I do think it’s notable that it’s a DC paper and not a GA one. It’s also focused on LGBT issues and one of the candidates challenging MTG is openly gay, yet wasn’t profiled in the paper or even mentioned in the article. And that candidate ISN’T Shawn, but is one of the two candidates I mentioned was focused on turning out voters.
I highly recommend that if you were going to make a donation, you double up and make it directly to candidates Clarence Blalock and Joseph Leigh. (Note: I unlinked Joseph for comments made regarding President Biden and women’s healthcare rights.)
Actually building infrastructure on the ground is important, and a robust vote during next month’s primary is critical to helping Biden’s chances in GA in the fall. Blalock and Leigh are working to turn out votes, and the Biden campaign will be focusing like a laser on any Democrat who votes in the primary. Those two will help the Biden campaign identify exactly who to target for turnout efforts in November.
Update 3 — Unlinked one of the challengers
Some commenters have pointed out concerning statements from Joseph regarding supporting President Biden and women’s healthcare rights. So I’ve unlinked his site from the diary.
Also, Shawn apparently bought a handful of cows in January. He’s been running as a “farmer” since last August. Draw your own conclusions about truthiness. I also went through his filings and essentially all of his money is going towards consultants, digital fundraising and food/lodging for campaign fundraisers in other states.
