Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website.
NORTHEAST: Political Note #363 Tom Malinowski NJ 07, Political Note #394 Susan Wild PA 07
SOUTHEAST: Political Note #385 Carolyn Bordeaux, Political Note #388 Elaine Luria VA 02
MIDWEST: Political Note #376 Lauren Underwood IL 14, Political Note #378 Elissa Slotkin MI 08, Political Note #357 Haley Stevens MI 11, Political Note #355 Angie Craig MN 02
SOUTHWEST: Political Note #389 Tom O’Halleran AZ 01, Political Note #375 Steven Horsford NV 04, Political Note #356 Susie Lee NV 03, Political Note #377 Lizzie Fletcher TX 07, Political Note #362 Vicente Gonzalez TX 15
WEST: Political Note #383 Harley Rouda CA 48, Political Note #384 Peter DeFazio OR 04.
SPECIAL ELECTIONS: Political Note #364 Jana Lynne Sanchez TX 06, Political Note #382 Melanie Stansbury NM 01, Political Note #393 Allison Russo OH 15
June 26, 2021 Political Note #394 Susan Wild PA 07
2022 General Election
Susan Wild
PA 07 is in the Lehigh Valley north of Philadelphia, north of Berks County and Bucks County. It would be a rectangle, almost, if the irregular New Jersey border did not make up one of its long sides. The rectangle stands on a point – the short side on the Berks County border, the long side beginning along Bucks County border The southern part of the district includes Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton (Consider this Joe Biden country.) PA 07 includes some of the Main Line suburbs as well as universities as varied as Quaker Haverford, Roman Catholic Villanova, and Historically Black Cheyney.
Daughter of an Air Force officer, Susan Wild settled in the Lehigh Valley. When she campaigns, she alludes to her peripatetic childhood and says the area covered by PA 07 is the only home she has ever known. In 2018, when Susan Wild was first elected, Lehigh Valley politics had been particularly chaotic. A Republican Member of Congress resigned after a sex scandal. Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon (now representing the 5thCongressional District) was elected to take his place. Absent scandal, Charlie Dent, another Republican, resigned from his seat in what was PA 15. Susan Wild was elected in the Special Election to replace him. She was elected in November of 2018 to represent the newly formed PA 07 – created by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as part of its ruling against gerrymandering.
She makes her case for reelection recalling her parents’ and grandparents’ experience with poverty. Her father’s father and her mother’s father died when each child was eight years old. Her father and his brother lived temporarily in an orphanage. Her mother’s circumstances were not quite as dire. Susan Wild grew up with parents whose experiences left them different politically – her father was a conservative Republican, her mother a liberal Democrat.
Susan Wild’s current reelection effort is grounded in her capacity to work on both sides of the aisle – her success in helping brokering the trade treaty that replaced NAFTA is her example. The context for her initial election was an experience that demonstrated her integrity. Susan Wild became a promising Congressional candidate after her three-year stint as City Solicitor for Allentown during which she distinguished herself for her integrity. A successful attorney, six months after she became City Solicitor, the role become complicated.
A search warrant was issued for city records. Susan Wild was responsible for collecting the required documents and turning them over to the FBI. The prosecutors credited her cooperation, her ability to maintain her independence and produce the necessary evidence as crucial for destroying the city’s culture of corruption. The prosecutors described Allentown’s corrupt cultures a having been characterized by “perjury, destruction of evidence, and lies to the FBI.”
Unusually, the prosecutors endorsed Susan Wild’s run for Congress – describing her as someone who “exudes honesty, integrity and independence.” Consistent with her experience in Allentown, Susan Wild was appointed to the House Ethics committee. She has also served on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Her commitment to democracy and Latin America was demonstrated when she and 29 other Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Pompeo expressing alarm at the erosion of democracy in Brazil. She has been serving on the Education and Labor Committee as well.
Her tenure in Congress has been difficult personally. Not long after a divorce in 2003, she married her old boyfriend from law school. In 2019, Susan Wild spoke to Congress. In an extraordinarily difficult speech she told the Members her husband had committed suicide. The intersection between the personal and the political is rarely so clear. Her husband’s death changed her emphasis in Congress. Already an advocate for health care, she organized an effort to address suicide prevention and mental health care.
Help Susan Wild https://wildforcongress.com get reelected. We need her in Congress – for her advocacy and her integrity. There’s one more reason we need her. We need a Democratic majority in Congress. Right now, Democrats have a five-seat majority in the House. We need to win the House in November, 2022 and add to our majority,
A Republican majority would be terrible for the country, terrible for the Democrats and Joe Biden’s agenda. A Republican majority could have a worse consequence. The Speaker of the House does not need to be a member of Congress. There are Republicans who have proposed that Donald Trump be Speaker if the Republicans gain a majority in the House. There’s a nightmare to contemplate. There’s a reason to support Susan Wild and the other vulnerable Democratic members of the House as well as a reason to support Democrats who are trying to flip Republican seats,
So far, I have focused on protecting Democratic incumbents. I am reluctant to urge you to donate money to a Democratic candidate when there is a likelihood of a competitive Democratic primary. Here are a couple of Democratic challengers who I have urged readers to support now.
Candidates to flip Republican Seats
California 48 Harley Rouda https://harleyforcongress.com
Ohio 15 Allison Russo https://allisonrusso.co (Special election November, 2021.)
Below there are vulnerable incumbent Democratic Members of Congress. Choose a few to support. You can learn more about them at their websites on at www.lenspoliticalnotes.com
Members of Congress who won with less than 52% of the vote
Georgia 07 Carolyn Bordeaux https://www.carolyn4congress.com Received 51.39% of the vote in 2020
Iowa 03 Cynthia Axne https://cindyaxneforcongress.com Received 48.9% of the vote in 2020
Illinois 14 Lauren Underwood https://underwoodforcongress.com Received 50.67% of the vote in 2020
Michigan 08 Elissa Slotkin https://elissaforcongress.com Received 50.88% of the vote in 2020
Michigan 11 Haley Stevens https://haleystevensforcongress.com Received 50.2% of the vote in 2020
Minnesota 02 Angie Craig https://angiecraig.com Received 48.21% of the vote in 2020
Nevada 03 Susie Lee https://www.susieleeforcongress.com Received 48.75% of the vote in 2020
Nevada 04 Steve Horsford https://www.stevenhorsford.com Received 50.67% of the vote in 2020
New Mexico 01 Tom O’Halloran https://www.tomohalleran.com Received 51.61% of the vote in 2020
New Jersey 07 Tom Malinowski https://malinowskifornj.com Received 50.61% of the vote in 2020
Oregon 04 Peter DeFazio https://www.defazioforcongress.org Received 51.26% of the vote in 2020
Pennsylvania 07 Susan Wild https://wildforcongress.com Received 51.87% of the vote in 2020
Texas 07 Lizzie Fletcher https://www.lizziefletcher.com Received 50.79% of the vote in 2020
Texas 15 Vicente Gonzalez http://www.vicentegonzalez.com Received 50.5% of the vote in 2020
Virginia 02 Elaine Luria https://elaineforcongress.com Received 51.6% of the vote in 2020
Washington 08 Kim Schrier https://www.drkimschrier.com Received 51.79% of the vote in 2020
Organizations to support
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) https://dccc.org
The Democratic National Committee (DNC). https://democrats.org The official organization of the Democratic Party.
Fair Fight https://fairfight.com Promotes fair elections around the country
Three Cautions while donating through Act Blue (most Democratic candidates use Act Blue for online donations)
- Take care to hit the donate button only once. If you hit it a second time, you could be charged for two donations instead of one.
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