Kara Eastman has been CEO of the Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance (OHKA). Focused on combating lead poisoning, the organization expands its work by addressing the context in which lead poisoning happens. She was a surprise winner in the Democratic Primary taking on the incumbent Congressman.
Alessandra Biaggi is taking on the Democratic establishment, running in a primary against the head of the IDC. This role is unexpected. She interned for the King's County District Attorney's office, for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. and for Congressman Joseph Crowley of Queens, the Chair of the US House Democratic Caucus and of the Queens County Democratic Party. Look at Alessandra Biaggi’s jobs. She worked for Hillary Clinton, for Andrew Cuomo on women's policy issues. She worked for the Governor on the Executive Clemency team and on health and human service initiatives. She was a young member of the establishment before deciding to challenge it.
After college graduation, Abby Finkenauer spent nearly two years running for the state legislature. She cherishes the conversations she had with people as she went door to door campaigning for herself. The campaign itself, she thinks, was a right of passage, a process of becoming a genuine grown up taking on adult work. As a legislator in her twenties, Abby Finkenauer did the work. She sought relief for people with college loans, urged that people be able to testify about legislative proposals via the internet, and fought to protect women's right to control their bodies.
Zelmore Myrie's mother was an immigrant from Costa Rica. She raised him mostly alone, focusing on ensuring that he get the best possible education -- Brooklyn Tech. Fordham, Cornell Law School. He got a job is a large, New York firm, but his interest was politics.
Robert Jackson ran for and was elected to City Council, but later lost campaigns for Borough President and twice for the State Senate. The 2016 State Senate loss was close. Three top candidates in the Democratic primary were within 1,000 votes of each other. Jackson is running again for Senate District 31 which covers the west side of Manhattan. He is running in the primary against an incumbent Democrat who is a member of the Independent Democratic Caucus, a group of eight state Senators who organized with the Republicans, allowing the Republicans to control the Senate.
Marie Newman is a marketer, she became a partner at age 31 in a national ad agency. When one of her children was bullied in school, she dealt with the personal issue, but also founded a national nonprofit - Team Up to Stop Bullying. She has been a national advocate for cancer research and gun safety. She is running in a primary against an incumbent Congressman because the district is a safe Democratic district and he is so conservative on issues important to women and to progressives.
Joseph Kopser volunteered to serve in Iraq. Convinced the Bush administration did not have a plan to succeed there, he hoped to be part of a plan that would succeed. He helped organize elections to replace the old regime. Those elections were not a solution. Genuine elections turned out to be impossible. So he sought combat. He joined the First Cavalry Division, fought, and lost friends in Iraq and Afghanistan. He carried on, dismayed with America's leadership in the war. When he returned home and to civilian life, he co-founded a technology company (for commuter navigation), served as CEO, sold it to Daimler Benz. Not long after that, he turned to politics.
Josh Harder has returned home -- to California's Central Valley. his great, great grandfather came to the Central Valley to farm. Josh Harder, himself, grew up in Turlock and Modesto. After graduating from Stanford, he worked as a venture capitalist at Boston. He left to work in Africa with the Gates Foundation and others. He organized small farmers in Kenya and Uganda. Harder returned to the States for a joint MBA and public policy degree at the Harvard Business School and the Kennedy school. From there he became vice president of San Francisco-based Bessemer Venture Partners - creating a close link for himself with Silicon Valley.
Brad Ashford wants his seat back. A former Republican who found the party moving away from him, he became a state legislator as a Democrat. He ran for mayor of Omaha as a Democrat. He ran for Congress as a Democrat in 2014 and won. In 2016, he lost to a Republican by a point.
AJ Balucoff is a Boise businessman. He started an accounting firm and sold it. He bought and sold a chain of athletic clubs and bought a hotel. He owned the Boise athletic arena and its minor league hockey team. He is a fixture in the community and a member of nearly every important community organization. His major community project was the Boise School Board of which he was a member for about two decades. He was a Bernie delegate at the 2016 national Democratic convention. Nevertheless, Balucoff is not a socialist.