On Tuesday, voters in Wichita -- voters who include, presumably, Charles and David Koch -- go to the polls for a special election to replace Mike Pompeo, who's now director of the CIA. Pompeo won his seat by some 30 points, and in several counties in the district, Hillary Clinton pulled less than 15% of the vote. And yet Republicans have thrown in a ton of last-minute money and brought in Mike Pence, Ted Cruz and Paul Ryan to try to stop the bleeding.
Everybody watching the race from the outside says that the district is just far too red to flip it, and that Republicans are panicking for no reason. I interviewed the Democrat running, James Thompson, and he's convinced he has a real shot. While national Democrats are staying away, more than $200,000 has poured in in just the past few days from people around the country. Even if he loses, he said, the race shows that Democrats can be competitive without pretending to be slighting less conservative Republicans, but can run on a populist, working class agenda and it will resonate. If he comes within 15 points, it'll rattle both parties in Washington.
Daily Kos alone has raised nearly $200,000 for him. And they've raised almost $100k for Rob Quist, and more than a million for Jon Ossoff. They're practically replacing the DCCC.
In Montana, Republicans are standing in the way of a mail-in ballot, demanding the state spend $750,000 instead for a walk-in election. Their specific argument is that if they do a mail in ballot, they're more likely to lose. Seriously, that's their actual argument.
I interviewed Bernie Sanders Friday, and he said he's happy to go to Montana on his upcoming national tour. The question now is whether the Democrat in the race, Rob Quist, wants him to come.
More importantly, here's Quist's rendition of Shady Grove. The guy can play the banjo.
And a massive bribery scandal implicating Shell broke tonight that ought to be front page news. We'll see if it catches on. Story from Global Witness is here.
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