2018 General Election Elected 55 – 43
Still playing some defense
There were just a few districts in the country where a Democratic Congressman was reelected while Donald Trump carried the district. We should bottle what these Congressmen have. We should also support them.
David Loebsackhttps://www.loebsackforcongress.org/is one of the incumbents reelected in a district that Trump carried. He is a distinctive Iowa Democrat. Representing Iowa City and Davenport and the surrounding area, he is the only remaining Democratic Congressman in Iowa. He is a student of the political process. He is a teacher of the political process. A professor emeritus at Cornell College, he obtained a PhD from the University of California, Davis before returning home to Iowa. He knows his politics. He defeated a 15 term incumbent in 2006, hung on to win with 51% of the vote in the 2010 Republican wave, and moved to Iowa City in 2012 when his home town was redistricted out of IA 02.
David Loebsackstresses that, as a child of a mother who raised him alone, he understands what it means to be poor. He remembers his mother struggling over the kitchen table to figure out how to pay bills. He is still not a big spender. In his last campaign, he spent less than $700,000, substantially less than he raised and substantially less than the average congressional campaign.
Politically, David Loebsack is a Democrat who supports Democratic issues. He refers to his childhood poverty when he focuses on the importance of the availability of jobs. He refers to his childhood poverty when he stresses the importance of keeping taxes for middle class people low. He credits a good deal of his success to his education in Iowa public schools and in public universities. He looks at strengthening education through partnerships between employers and community colleges. He is a champion of renewable energy — particularly (though not only, after all he represents Iowa) the wind energy which has become such an important part of the energy supply in Iowa.
He does not need to refer to his childhood poverty again when he stresses issues of public fiscal discipline. He says there should be consequences for congressmen when fiscal discipline is not exercised. Congressmen should lose their health care if they cut health care for the people. Congressmen shouldn’t get paid if they can’t complete a budget. He knows that people are angry at politicians and he is willing to focus that anger.
In November, 2018 Donald Trump will probably not be as popular as he was in 2016. But so far, Trump’s supporters have not deserted him. Let’s help David Loebsack https://www.loebsackforcongress.org/ keep his Democratic supporters and his share of Trump supporters and more. He’ll need every bit of help we can give him.
Trump supporters may be deserting local Republican candidates. On Tuesday, July 25, in a special election for New Hampshire SD 16, the Democrat, Kevin Cavanaugh won 55-44. This, in a district, the Daily Kos described as “one of the most marginal seats … in the country: in 2016, it voted for Hillary Clinton by 100 votes, or a 0.3 percent margin, In 2014, [Democratic Senator] Jeanne Shaheen topped Scott Brown by 22 votes, or a 0.1 percent margin. Mitt Romney’s 50-49 win here in 2012 seems like an absolute landslide in comparison.
While we are watching the Health Care Debate, think about what one more Democratic Senator would have meant; what three more would have meant. Here are Senate candidates to support now: Members of Congress Jacky Rosen in Nevada and Beto O’Rourke in Texas for 2018 and former US Attorney and Klansmen prosecutor Doug Jones in a special election in Alabama scheduled for December 12, 2017.
