Look at the recent Daily Bits on the website. Better debates, Killed by cops in New York City
2020 General Election
Preparing for the 2018 Congressional election, I looked for the most vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress first. Democratic Members of Congress who needed defending. There were ten or twelve. Close races in 2016 won by 17,000 or 18,000 votes.
Preparing for the 2020 Congressional election, I looked for the most vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress first. They need to be defended. With a Democratic majority now, there are a lot more of them. If a 20,000 vote win is the cut off, there are twenty-six vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress. Let’s win every one of them.
We are more than half way there in looking at Members of Congress to defend. Lizzie Fletcher https://www.lizziefletcher.com won her Houston seat TX 07 by 12,317 votes. Have Texas politics changed much? George H. W. Bush once represented TX 07. Lizzie Fletcher is no Bush. Texas is not what it once was. But it is not California either.
Lizzie Fletcher prepped at St. John’s School in Houston. Despite the name, despite its proximity to the St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, despite St. John the Divine’s head being on the board, St. John’s had no religious affiliation. Lizzie Fletcher left Texas for College and for Law School. She was Phi Beta Kappa at Kenyon College in Ohio – a great small college. She came home for four years of regional theatre. Then left for the Law School of William and Mary where she was editor-in-chief of the law review. She returned to Houston again, to be a standout young attorney and the first female partner of the Houston corporate law firm – Ahmad, Zavitzanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing.
Has Texas changed much? Has it become like California. People moving from the rest of the country. Making Texas liberal. The first two named partners are a clue to the Houston generations that preceded Lizzie Fletcher. Joseph Ahmad is a founding partner, with the firm since its founding in 1963. He is from Maryville, a small town in the northwest corner of Missouri, named after the postmaster’s wife. He graduated from Maryville HS, Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and the University of Michigan Law School. John Zavitzanos is another founding partner. Also a JD from the University of Michigan. In his case, a BA from Loyola of Chicago. Were they new to Texas? Sure. Were they making Texas more liberal? Maybe not.
Lizzie Fletcher is a young woman. – 44. She is part of Texas’ next generation, a Democrat. She is part of the House majority. She is a post-2016 Democrat. Had Hillary Clinton been elected president, Lizzie Fletcher might still be practicing law. She is a moderate Texas Democrat. Asked about her decision to run for office, she recalls conversations with Republican colleagues after the 2016 election. They agreed on 80% of the issues. Or thought they did. Or said they did.
Lizzie Fletcher is a member of the New Democratic Coalition – the fiscally conservative Democratic caucus. She lists a bunch of specialized caucuses, a few perfect for Houston’s business interests: the Natural Gas caucus, the oil and gas caucus, the national corrosion caucus, the congressional sportsmen’s foundation. Some of her specialized caucuses show how liberal Texas is becoming and what it means now to be a moderate Texas Democrat: the gun violence protection caucus, the congressional LGBT caucus, the Pro-Choice caucus. Finally, some of her specialized caucuses tell us who her constituency is and how she and TX 07 are different from the days when GHW Bush was its Member of Congress: the anti-semitism caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific caucus, the US-Japan caucus, the Black Maternal Health caucus.
No pro-labor caucus. Lizzie Fletcher earned her chance to defeat the incumbent Republican Member of Congress by winning a primary against six opponents. She got 29% of the vote. The candidate who came in second was strongly liberal. She got 24% of the vote. Lizzie Fletcher was opposed by unions in the primary and got little help from them in the general election. Her law firm was viewed as a union opponent.
Lizzie Fletcher is making her way through Congress. She is a Nancy Pelosi Democrat. She voted for Pelosi as Speaker. She has not advocated for Trump’s impeachment. She has great committee assignments. On Transportation and Infrastructure, she is Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Development and is on two subcommittees crucial to Houston: Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials as well as Water Resources and the Environment. On Science, Space, and Technology, she is on the energy subcommittee and chairs the environment subcommittee. She is in a position to be a voice for Houston.
Of the fifteen narrowest Democratic winners in 2018, ten have already raised over one million dollars for the 2020 campaign. Lizzie Fletcher is among the ten. You would not expect anything less from a Member of Congress from Houston. She will need to raise a lot more and will need every dime. Running for Congress in Houston is expensive. Add to her total. Give her some money. Look at the list below. Can you give money to someone else as well?
Vulnerable Democrats in the order of their margin of victory – narrowest first. With the money they have raised date to date and their cash on hand at the end of the 2nd quarter of 2019. $1,000 = One Million Dollars.
- Ben McAdams UT 04 Elected by 694 votes $783/$484
- J. Cox CA 21 Elected by 862 votes $894/$644
- Kendra Horn OK 05 Elected by 3,338 votes $1,075/$795
- Jared Golden ME 02 Elected by 3,509 votes $623/$495
- Lucy McBath GA 06 Elected by 3,634 votes $1,294/$929
- Xochitil Torres Small NM 03 Elected by 3,722 votes $1,099/$1,012
- Andy Kim NJ 03 Elected by 3,973 votes $1,165/$970
- Joe Cunningham SC 01 Elected by 4,082 votes $1,353/$970
- Debbie Mucarsel-Powell FL 26 Elected by 4,119 votes $1,134/$934
- Anthony Brindisi NY 22 Elected by 4,373 votes $908/$771
- Gil Cisneros CA 39 Elected by 6,711 votes $593/$390
- Abigail Spanberger VA 07 Elected by 6,784 votes $1,153/$1,025
- Cynthia Axne IA 03 Elected by 7,709 votes $1,037/$841
- Josh Harder CA 10 Elected by 9,980 votes $1,702/$1,406
- Lizzie Fletcher TX 07 Elected by 12,317 votes $1,112/$945
Three from the Northeast.
Four from the Southeast.
One from the Midwest.
Seven from the West.
