Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website.
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 #417 Abby Broyles OK 05, Political Note #377 Lizzie Fletcher TX 07, Political Note #362 Vicente Gonzalez TX 15, Political Note #399 Colin Allred TX 32
WEST: Political Note #383 Harley Rouda CA 48, Political Note #384 Peter DeFazio OR 04.
SOUTHEAST: Political Note #385 Carolyn Bordeaux GA 07, Political Note #410 Charles Evans NC 08, Political Note #416 Stewart Navarre VA 01, Political Note #388 Elaine Luria VA 02
NORTHEAST: Political Note #363 Tom Malinowski NJ 07, Political Note #394 Susan Wild PA 07, Political Note #397 Eugene DePasquale PA 10
MIDWEST: Political Note # 398 David Palmer IL 13, Political Note #376 Lauren Underwood IL 14, Political Note #398 David Palmer IL 13, Political Note #378 Elissa Slotkin MI 08, Political Note #357 Haley Stevens MI 11, Political Note #355 Angie Craig MN 02
SPECIAL ELECTIONS: Political Note #393 Allison Russo OH 15 (Election is in November, 2021), Political Note #364 Jana Lynne Sanchez TX 06 (lost), Political Note #382 Melanie Stansbury NM 01 (won),
October 8th, 2021 Political Note #417 Abby Broyles OK 05
2022 General Election
Abby Broyles https://www.abbybroyles.com ran for the Senate in 2020 against Jim Inhofe and got walloped 62-32. The difference is marginal, but Joe Biden lost the state by 33 points. Democrat Kendra Horn was elected in 2018 to represent Oklahoma City-based OK 05 in 2018. She lost in 2020 52-48. Joe Biden lost in OK 05, too, in 2020. By 51-46. If redistricting doesn’t change OK 05 much, there’s hope here.
Abby Broyles is running against the one-term incumbent Stephanie Bice. What has Abby Broyles been doing since her Senate run? In Los Angeles, she has been Director of Community Affairs for Jesse James films. Jesse Murphy is the producer in this partnership. He has produced a half-dozen films and won a daytime Emmy. James Bryant is the lawyer. He has produced one documentary related to grit – “What the hell happened to blood, sweat, and tears.?” In Oklahoma, Abby Broyles has been President and CEO of the non-profit Grit for Democracy, intended to promote voting and political involvement by the next generation.
Abby Broyles is the next generation. She is a 32-year-old former local television personality and successful investigative reporter. In her 20s, she uncovered political corruption and more. As a result of one investigation, state senator Kyle Loveless was charged with a felony for embezzling campaign funds. A story about hush-money payments to cover up a sexual harassment scandal at the state Capitol led to the expulsion of a State Representative from the legislature. She outed another legislator/sexual predator for continuing to receive his state-funded retirement and a bunch of state legislators for unconstitutionally appropriating public money. She was a sensation as an investigative reporter.
She comes to Oklahoma politics with the bona fides of a religious background. While her father runs a credit union, her mother is a professor at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma where Abby Broyles grew up. Abby Broyles went away to a religious-oriented college — California Baptist University in Riverside where she was something of a sensation as a student. She graduated in 2 ½ years and started her television career.
While at California Baptist, Abby Broyles began her practice of dividing work among states. Still a college student, she began as a producer but moved in front of the camera as an Anchor and Reporter for KYTX, a CBS affiliate in Tyler, Texas. After that, for six years, she was an Anchor and Reporter for KFOR, an NBC affiliate, in Oklahoma City. That didn’t keep her busy enough. While working at KFOR, she earned a law degree at the Oklahoma City University Law School. She has clients in Los Angeles and Oklahoma.
Abby Broyles is effective in dealing with campaign issues. Asked about a Democrat winning in a red state, she responds that “The campaign is less about red v. blue and more about right v. wrong.” What’s wrong, she says, is a lack of leadership and a disregard for the future. She points to Stephanie Bice, the incumbent she is running against, as an example of that lack of leadership. Abby Broyles decided to run for Congress after listening to Bice at her town hall in Bethany. She was “disgusted listening to Bice [be] more passionate about looking out for the January 6th mob that attacked our Capitol than looking out for the people of this district …. I walked into that town hall as a constituent and walked out a candidate.” In her own defense, Representative Bice claimed that, like Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, she was concerned that some of the prisoners had been held in solitary confinement.
Bice is not an entirely easy target. She was one of the few Republicans to support the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6th insurrection, not that Bice would call it an insurrection. Despite that vote and her concern about those arrested for their behavior on January 6th being held in solitary confinement, Bice had not previously expressed concern about the well-being of prisoners. As for the Commission, which Republicans found a way to stop, Bice advocated that it should look at Nancy Pelosi’s responsibility for what happened on January 6 and avoid any investigation of Donald Trump’s role. Bice asked how it could be that a female protester and Air Force veteran could have been shot and killed just steps from the floor of the House of Representatives. Someone could explain to Bice that the veteran was in the process of breaking the final barrier to the House floor that Members of Congress were still evacuating to escape from the mob that the Air Force veteran was part of. When Congress was able to get back to work on January 6, Bice voted against accepting the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election as President.
Representative Bice is a member of the Freedom Force, members of the Republican class of 2020 who say they are “fighting against socialism in America.” Toward that end she voted against the American Rescue Plan, President Biden’s stimulus package that has kept the economy afloat during the pandemic. Bice won her run off in 2020 saying she would address immigration and health care. Her official congressional website (she does not have a 2022 campaign website up yet) describes her views on six issues. Immigration is not one of the six. Health care is. There is no statement on health care, just a picture of a stethoscope. Elsewhere, she is outspokenly anti-abortion.
Abby Broyles is visible about health care. She supported Medicaid expansion in Oklahoma, which passed in 2020. Her advice on Covid-19 is to listen to the doctors., Her advice to the public about women’s health is that women should be trusted to make complex decisions about health care without the interference of lawmakers. Abby Broyles expresses alarm that Oklahoma has the second highest incarceration rate in the country. Among her solutions to this problem is to lift the ban on Pell grants for the formerly incarcerated. She is an advocate for public schools including public charter schools. She is also an advocate for the decriminalization of marijuana.
Abby Broyles https://www.abbybroyles.com is an effective advocate for herself. Young as she is, she is an experienced media figure with as much name recognition as the incumbent Member of Congress she is running against. She says the most important thing she can do toward getting elected is to get the vote out. She’ll need resources for that. Help her with the resources she needs to get the vote out. Help the Democrats flip this seat.
Democrats to flip Republican seats (I will keep adding to this list)
California 48 Harley Rouda https://harleyforcongress.com Help him get his seat back from a far rightist supporter of Trump and Elder
Illinois 13 David Palmer. https://palmerforillinois.com Help this financial planner and former basketball player and defeat a perpetually vulnerable Republican
Iowa 02 Christina Bohanan https://bohannanforcongress.com Help this popular U of Iowa law school professor and state rep
North Carolina 08 Charles Evans https://www.charlesevansforcongress2022.com/ Help this formerly incarcerated guy who created a non-profit to help others like him
Ohio 15 Allison Russo https://allisonrusso.com (Special election November, 2021.) Help his health care researcher win an open Republican seat.
Oklahoma 05 Abby Broyles https://www.abbybroyles.com Help this young, former television celebrity and investigative reporter defeat a vulnerable Republican
Pennsylvania 10 Eugene DePasquale https://eugeneforcongress.com Help PA’s former Auditor General defeat a Republican accused of shady dealing
Virginia 01 Stewart Navarre https://stewartnavarre.com Help this former Marine Colonel and medical exec defeat an extreme Republican in a district hinting at purple
Vulnerable incumbent Democrats to support. Democratic Members of Congress who won with less than 52% of the vote or are otherwise vulnerable
Southwest
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
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
Texas 32 Colin Allred https://www.colinallred.com Received 51.95% of the vote in 2020
Elsewhere in the US
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
Kansas 03 Sharice Davids https://shariceforcongress.com/ A ten point victor, but facing redistricting for 2022
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
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
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
REDISTRICTING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS. – in order of map adoption
Oregon Currently 5 seats – 4 Democrats and 1 Republican in two seats that are safely Democratic, one seat that is safely Republican, and two seats that are competitive. The new map has 6 seats – two seats that are safely Democratic, two seats that lean Democratic, one seat that is safely Republican, and one seat that is competitive. No promises here, but there is a decent chance that Oregon will elect 5 Democrats and 1 Republican – a gain of one Democratic seat.
Maine Currently 2 seats – 2 Democrats in one seat that is safely Democratic and one seat that leans Republican. The new map has two seats – one seat that is safely Democratic and one seat that leans Republican (though the lean is slightly diminished). No promises here, but there is a decent chance that Maine will again elect 2 Democrats – no change.
Nebraska Currently 3 seats – 2 Republicans in seats that are safely Republican, 1 Republican in a seat that is competitive. The new map has 3 seats — 2 which are safely Republican, one seat that is competitive. No promises here. There is a possibility that Democrats could win the competitive seat. We should try, but the likely result is – no change.
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
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Support Democrats. Sadly, Republicans have become enemies of democracy.
