2020  General Election

Question:  How thick is a hair?

Answer:  862 votes is a win by a hair.

TJ Cox https://tjcoxforcongress.com/was born in Walnut Creek, CA. His father was an immigrant from China and a professor of chemical engineering. His mother was a Filipina-American and one of the first equal opportunity officers for the state of Nevada.

He made his learning and his work mesh. He majored in Chemical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Mackey School of Mines and got an MBA from Southern Methodist. While he was in school, he worked as a mining pipe fitter and started a business installing home energy savings devices.

In California, TJ Cox has had political aspirations. He ran for Congress unsuccessfully in 2006. Since then, he has focused on combinations of business and good works. He founded the Central Valley NMTC Fund. This is a certified community development organization which uses the federal New Markets Tax Credit program for disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods. The organizations have been awarded over $120 million in tax credit since 2011. Recent investments include a sports complex in Fresno, health centers.

TJ Cox touts the importance of job training and job creation. He suggests that more than 1,500 jobs have been created. He notes projects including a campus for at-risk women and children, West Hills Community College’s Farm of the Future – a place to train students for careers in agriculture, and the North Fork Bioenergy Plant – an industrial effort to turn dead trees from the Sierras into clean-energy.

TJ Cox has also operated his own businesses – almond processing . He constructed an organic nut pasteurizing plant that processes 100 million pounds of nuts per year.

TJ Cox’s victory in 2018 was an adventure in and of itself. He originally planned on a candidacy for CA 10 – a district that had attracted nearly a dozen Democratic candidates. He was unlikely to be one of the top two in the non-partisan primary. He switched to CA 21 – persuading the 2016 losing Democrat to leave the race. The 2016 candidate was raising very little money and was unlikely to succeed. TJ Cox was campaigning in a district that Hillary Clinton had carried. He was running against a Republican who had initially been elected in 2012 in a district reshaped by redistricting. He was popular and enduring despite being a Republican in a Democratic district.

TJ Cox is a successful businessman and a politician willing to make difficult choices. He is identified as among the 20 Members of Congress with Asian and Pacific Island ancestry He has a family history of combatting discrimination against Asians.

I don’t know much about the international project managing. That work created his wealth and educated him in business and industry.

He has traveled to Israel, but his projects were not there. He attended a dinner for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)early in December after the election. Hetold the audience he is committed to fighting for justice. He referred to his grandmother– tellinga story about her in the Philippines opening a social club during World War II for African-American soldiers, after seeing them suffer from discrimination.

He praised CAIR for standing up to discrimination, injustice, and promised to work with them to make a difference.

Now TJ Cox is a Member of Congress. Democrats in Congress are a new bunch. More women. More people of color. Enough Members of Congress with Asian and Pacific Island ancestry to make a caucus.

Asked about the Women’s March, he ducked questions about the national disputes, spoke about the number of women who were inspired to run for office because of the 2017 March, and praised the women who are a large portion of the freshman class to which he belongs.

TJ Cox has one of his a committee assignments. He is on the Agriculture Committee. A good place for someone in California’s Central Valley. Addressing the government shut down, he voted, with other Democrats in the House, to reopen the Agriculture Department. In his press release on the topic he noted he USDA controls funding for Food Stamps – the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provides loans to family farms and employs thousands of federal employees. Would the Republican who he replaced have voted for this?

As for the people who are not getting their paychecks, along with colleagues, he introduced a bill to allow government employees not getting their paychecks, to borrow up to $6,000 from the government. Would the Republican who he replaced have joined in introducing this bill?

He has taken a personal step in connection with the shut down. In his first floor speech to Congress, he spoke about the hardship of one of his constituents and announced that he had asked that his own pay be withheld until the shut down was over. Would the Republican who he replaced have declined his paycheck?

TJ Cox is giving every indication of knowing what he is doing. His first month as a Member of Congress should give him and us and his constituents confidence.

It doesn’t take a lot to erode 962 votes. He will need to focus on his reelection every day in 2019 and every day through election day in November 2020. Consider a monthly donation. TJ Cox https://tjcoxforcongress.com/gives every indication of being a candidate worth supporting. Help him expand 862 votes to ten thousand or more.

People who need our help now for 2020.

Doug Jones      AL Senator   won by 21,924 of 1,348,720 votes

Ben McAdams   UT 04          won by 694 votes of 269,271 votes

Lucy McBath       GA 06          won by 3,264 votes of 317, 032 votes

TJ Cox                CA 21         won by 862 votes of 113,616 votes

A special election.Minnesota SD 11. February 5 in Minnesota. Republican hold a 34-32 majority in the Minnesota State Senate. If Democrats are going to gain a MN Senate majority in 2020, they can’t fall further behind. Stu Lourey, previously an aide to US Senator Tina Smith, won the Democratic Primary. If Lourey wins, he would extend a family tradition. His grandmother, Becky Lourey, held this seat. She was succeeded by her son, who was appointed by the new Democratic Governor as Human Services Commissioner. If he wins, Stu Lourey will succeed his dad. Do you want to help maintain national Democratic momentum? Help Stu Lourey https://www.stulourey.com/ win a local election.