2020 General Election
At the end of the rainbow
A pot of gold.
Jaime Harrison https://jaimeharrison.com is a prize. An improbable prize. Too good to be true. Too good to ignore. Worth searching for a path to victory. Worth searching for the resources to fund that path.
Child of a single teenage mother. Raised by grandparents. In Orangeburg, South Caronlina. Not far from the state capitol. 13,000 people. 75% African American. Two Historically Black Colleges – South Carolina State and Claflin University give it an academic tone.
Jaime Harrison went to the local high school. The first in his family to go to college, he went to Yale. Came home to teach at the high school. For a year. Went to Georgetown Law School. While at law school, he was COO of College Summit, a non-profit that connected low income youth with colleges.
After law school, he worked for South Carolina State graduate Congressman Jim Clyburn. Clyburn was Chair of the Democratic Caucus. Jaime Harrison was Executive Director of the Caucus. When Clyburn became Majority Whip, which he still is, Jaime Harrison went with him as Floor Director.
When Jaime Harrison decided he needed to earn enough money to pay back his college loans and then some, he worked as a lobbyist for the Podesta Group – representing banks, pharmaceutical companies, casinos, car companies, tech companies, and airplane manufacturers. He also represented the United Way Worldwide and the Association of Public Land-grant Universities.
With money in the bank, Jaime Harrison went back to South Carolina . In 2013, he became the first African-American Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party.
Now he is running for the US Senate from South Carolina. There are two prongs to his campaign. One is non-partisan. The other is partisan. Criticism of the incumbent – Lindsay Graham.
Non-partisan. He co-taught a course at the University of South Carolina with the Chair of the South Carolina Republican Party. His campaign theme. “Character Counts.” He’ll work with anyone, he says, to help South Carolina. His race is “not about Democrat or Republican…..not about left or right, but…about right or wrong/”
Is his time as a lobbyist a problem? Not in South Carolina. Combine his recollections of growing up in poverty (cold cereal with water instead of milk, which they could not afford) with his understanding of big business. This is the kind of race a Democrat can win, he says.
He is an African American. He is a Democrat. Those are problems in South Carolina. He plans to win by focusing on Lindsay Graham.
“Character Counts” is alao an attack on Lindsay Graham. Graham is popular in South Carolina, but not impervious to attack. Not so long ago, Graham was not so popular. He had earned a reputation for bi-partisanship. He reached out to Democrats. He was critical of Trump. To a national audience, he seemed a reasonable man
He runs for office in South Carolina, which is not a national audience. To some in South Carolina he seemed a disloyal Republican. He feared a primary opponent – for good reason. His primary opponent would be more loyal to Trump.
The Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearing may have been a turning point for Graham. Kavanaugh met with Trump during the hearings and found his way out of danger by returning to the hearing with belligerence toward those who questioned him. Republicans fell in line.
Lindsay Graham stopped sounding reasonable to a national audience. He stopped reaching out to Democrats. He has gone full Trumpian belligerence. He defends Trump every time. Even when other Republicans don’t. Weaponized tariffs against Mexico? Sure. Great idea.
The national media doesn’t like it. The Washington Post watches Graham defend Trump, recalls his attacks on Clinton during impeachment, and declares him a hypocrite. “Graham is far from the first hypocritical politician. But the South Carolina senator particularly prides himself on being no-nonsense and on his legal experience. That he has opted for such an obvious double standard is especially shameless.”
One area of attack Jaime Harrison won’t follow are claims that Graham is acquiescing to Trump’s secret evidence he is a homosexual. Even if the story were true, which it is probably not, it would do Graham no harm. He does not support same sex marriage. He is comfortable with discrimination against gays and Lesbians. If he were a homosexual, he would be in the closet – just where opponents of homosexuality want homosexuals to be.
If he has resources, Jaime Harrison will run an effective campaign. He will get out the African American vote in record numbers. They could be 25%, even 30% of the electorate. He will target middle class suburbanites. South Carolina has suburbs. Under some circumstances, even in the South, they have abandoned Republicans. They did in Alabama.
If Jaime Harrison runs a great campaign. If he runs a great campaign and if outside forces conspire on his behalf. He will be good enough to win.
If Trump alienates his base. If Trump follows through on tariffs against Mexico. If the economy goes down hill. If Trump is turned into Richard Nixon. Lindsay Graham will not escape his embrace of Donald Trump.
If. If. If. Then Jaime Harrison could be elected, making South Carolina the first state to have two African American senators at the same time – a Democrat plus conservative Republican African American Tim Scott.
Help Jaime Harrison https://jaimeharrison.com now. Make a donation. Make it monthly. He needs resources now to show how serious a challenger he is. He will need resources continuously because he will have to challenge continuously. If the stars align, Jaime Harrison will win the election. Help him be ready to take advantage of the alignment of the stars.
Southern Democrats running for office in 2019:
John Bel Edwards Reelection as Governor of Louisiana
Jim Hood Current AG, running for Governor of Mississippi
Jennifer Riley Collins Head of Mississippi CLU for Mississippi Attorney General
Southern Democrat running statewide in 2020
Doug Jones Reelection as Senator from Alabama
Jaime Harrison Party Leader running for Senator from South Carolina
Southern Democrats running for Congress
Joe Cunningham Reelection to SC 01
Elaine Luria Reelection to VA 02
Lucy McBath Reelection to GA 06
Dan McCready Special Election for NC 09 (2019)
Debbie Mucarcel-Powell Reelection to FL 26
Allen Thomas Special Election for NC 03 (2019)
THE SOUTH IS CHANGING. BE PART OF THAT CHANGE. HELP IT HAPPEN.
