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031319          Political Note #202   Elaine Luria VA CD 02

2020               General Election

Prejudice. Prejudge. Have expectations about someone based on gender or ethnicity or religion or race or age. Where they are from. We all have prejudices. Acting on our prejudices can get us into trouble. Sometimes, when people don’t confirm to our prejudices, it is just a surprise. Those surprises erode our prejudices.

Elaine Luria https://elaineforcongress.com/ surprises us. She is a woman from the South. We are not surprised that someone from the South makes a career in the military. We may be surprised when a woman makes a career in the military. We might be particularly surprised if the career is the Navy. Women were once prohibited on ships. No more. According to Wikipedia, there have been twice as many women Navy admirals (94) as the total of generals and admirals in the Air Force (23), Army (8), Marine Corps (5), and Coast Guard (9) put together (45).

Elaine Luria made a career of the Navy. Not an Admiral. She was a Commander.

Elaine Luria surprises us. She is a Democrat. She is a white woman from the Deep South (Birmingham, Alabama) who had a career in the military. An officer. We might expect a white Southerner to be a Republican. We might expect someone from the military to be a Republican. Evidence supports that expectation. In 2013, a survey found that 44% of those in the military were Republican (just under 10% were Democrats). Even after some surprise victories in 2018, the overwhelming majority of white Members of Congress from the former Confederate states are Republicans.

Elaine Luria was elected in 2018 to Congress as a Democrat, part of the Blue Wave that put Democrats in charge of the House of Representatives and changed the character of the Virginia Congressional delegation.

Elaine Luria surprises us. She is Jewish. We don’t expect Jews to be from the South. There is a reason for that. Only .18% of American Jews are in Alabama, where Elaine Luria was born and grew up. She lives in and represents a Congressional District in Virginia which has slightly more than 1% of American Jews. We don’t expect American Jews to be in the military. In 2009, the Connecticut Jewish Ledger found that Jews made up 1/3 of one percent of the US military, substantially fewer than the roughly 2% of the total US population that is Jewish.

Elaine Luria does not always surprise us. We expect Jews to be Democrats. There is evidence for that. Seventy percent of American Jews or more identify as Democrats. In that respect she is typical of American Jews.

Elaine Luria is not exactly typical. She is a very good politician. She flipped a Republican District. This coastal district has some demographic diversity. It is 20% African American. It has some economic diversity. Tourists come to Virginia Beach and to Williamsburg. The core of the district, though, is the Navy. The District houses the largest naval base in the world.

Elaine Luria is making the Navy a focus of her work in Congress. She is on the Armed Services Committee. She is on the Subcommittee for Military Personnel and is Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces. The District houses many who, like her and her husband, are retired from the Navy. She is also on the Committee on Veteran’s Affairs. She is on the Subcommittee for Economic Opportunity and Chairs the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs. She sought those committee and subcommittees and will be able to serve her constituency.

Elaine Luria has also charted how she will serve that district. In a Congress that is as partisan as any in recent history, she joined the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. Democratic members of the Problem Solvers Caucus wrested concessions from Nancy Pelosi as part of the final deal to support her and elect her Speaker. The changes included making it easier for a bill that has bipartisan support to be heard in a committee despite a chairman’s opposition. The deal made it easier for amendments that have bipartisan support to be considered by the entire House or Representatives.

Progressive Democrats have criticized the Problem Solvers Caucus’s ties to corporations. Corporate leaders make regular presentations to the group. The Democratic majority in the House of Represents rests, to some large degree, on Members of Congress who are from districts that are as likely to elect a Republican as a Democrat. We need to support these Democrats.

We need to support Elaine Luria https://elaineforcongress.com/. Without her and others like her, Congressional Democrats are an impotent minority. Surprise her. Provide her some help.

Those who need our help now for 2020  Find Notes about them the archives of the website.

The most vulnerable Democrat in the US Senate is Doug Jones of Alabama. Political Note #189

Two Members of Congress won by less than 1,000 votes in 2018:

  • TJ Cox CA 21                 Political Note #192
  • Ben McAdams UT 04   Political Note #190

Eight Members of Congress won by less than 5,000 votes in 2018

  • Anthony Brindisi NY 22                   Political Note #200
  • Joe Cunningham SC 01                    Political Note #199
  • Jared Golden ME 02                        Political Note #196
  • Kendra Horn OK 05                         Political Note #193
  • Andy Kim NJ 03                                Political Note #194
  • Lucy McBath GA 06                          Political Note #191
  • Debbie Mucarsel-Powell FL26        Political Note #201
  • Xochitl Torres Small NM03             Political Note #195

Three more won be a margin of more than 5,000 but less than 10,000.

  • Cynthia Axne IA 03             Political Note #204
  • Cil Cisneros CA 39               Political Note #203
  • Elaine Luria VA 02              Political Note #202