Cao for Great Lakes Senate – Ain't No Mountain (We'll Be Back)

[Politics Fan]

Endorsed!

[terkeypie]

Goodluck!

[marcuszodiak]

Endorsed!!!

[Bidenworth2020]

Endorsed!

[Joseph Cao]

As you started after I left the game, I never really got the chance to get to know you. But looking back through your speeches, I've seen that you've put an immense amount of effort into this game -- something we are in dire need of right now. Endorsed!

Super Enthusiastically Mega Endorsed!!!

Endorsed!

Goodluck!

Endorsed!!!

Endorsed!

Thank you all – polls are open now, so remember to go vote and make sure you vote in the correct subregional races! Feel free to shoot me a PM or consult this spreadsheet if you're unsure about which regional elections to vote in.

I delivered a rather long speech in Chicago today, part of which is an appropriate message to all of us as polls open, so here's the relevant snippet:

You all know that polls will open for federal and regional elections this evening… I trust that everyone has been paying attention to what has generally been going on, enough to make a decision on which candidates are best placed to fight for the people and demonstrate it in both their words and their actions. Naturally I have tried to stick to that standard and kept you all informed and in the loop about what I’ve done in the Capitol – you know quite well who I fight for. Hopefully that will be the case at the ballot box as well.

[Joseph Cao]

Bloomington–Normal, Illinois

Well, we’ve made it once again. I couldn’t be more proud of everyone – my supporters, the folks who ran this campaign, and everyone who supported and voted for me through all this, and once again gave us the most votes out of any of the at-large Senate candidates on the ballot. I’m glad to have your support, it means a great deal, and I promise that will be reflected in my actions in the coming months. This new Congress is not going to be one where I stay silent on any of the issues most pressing to you all, and among my first priorities will be the establishment of a new set of Senate rules to ensure that this session is a successful one.

With the certification of the results must come other acknowledgements. SevenEleven is the next president of these united states. And although I don’t suppose this will satisfy more than a few people, the fact remains that this election very nearly ended in a tie and those of us who wanted to proceed with caution are now obligated to make sure Atlasia remains stable enough for the game to stay playable. This game is not real life, it never has been, I do not want to see this become another USGD, and if anyone here of any party whatsoever is getting the urge to import their feelings about real life into this game I am sincerely begging you to leave that option at the door.

It was back last May, I believe, when I first addressed some of you and urged my fellow Federalists to continue to press on, to strengthen the party, and to build the positive case for what we can do for the people of Atlasia. Obviously that is far more relevant today, and I won’t dwell too much on what it means to put the effort in and come up short – only that coming up short is no excuse to give up. We are a proud party with a long history; those who insist on trashing it should be aware, if they aren’t already, that broad-brush painting is impossible to achieve in a game of less than sixty active players. We celebrate our idiosyncrasies rather than flattening them.

That is a game and a party worth preserving, and worth going back to the start for. Let’s keep it alive and healthy – and if the machinations between players continue, as they likely will, who cares? The people are a bigger priority.

[Joseph Cao]

Bloomington–Normal, Illinois

Evening, everyone. You’re all busy folks so I will, as a wise man once said, keep this brief.

The new Senator label has taken some getting used to, which makes it that much odder to now give up serving in the at-large Senate where I’ve had the privilege of listening to voters from all over the country for the past fourteen months. But to paraphrase the words of another wise man, my home is here in the lowlands of the Midwest and always will be. The Great Lakes are a proud region of people who have seen the best and worst that life has to offer and will elect public servants who can capture the range of those possibilities in their politics. So it is with a nod to all that’s happened over the past couple of months, the RL circumstances and the nevertheless-consistent contributions I have made in the Senate during that time, that I come before my fellow subregional voters to ask for your support this coming weekend.

I think the smaller strokes of the case can be filled in: for the past two months I’ve been one of the most consistently active Senators, written a fair bit of legislation and amended many others, and haven’t missed a vote in the current Senate to date. But it gets back to the overall picture in the end. In the words of one of our fellow Great Lakes citizens, a reclusive man in Cleveland, it’s more fun to blame things than to fix them. And indeed it is! It’s more fun, and more easy, to do many, many things apart from fixing them. Yet another wise man, one of my fellow Senators, is correct that it may be beyond us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try – on my part, to make sure the Senate continues to do the nation proud; on your part, if the suggestion might be made, to get out and vote and take the time to keep the game going however you can and support candidates who will do the same.

I will continue to fulfil my end of the bargain if elected, however much life throws at me, and in the words of the final wise man I will quote this evening, we’re all in this together – so let’s act like it.

[Fmr. Representative Encke]

Endorsed.

[Politics Fan]

Endorsed!

[AGA]

Endorsed

[marcuszodiak]

Endorsed

[Joseph Cao]

Endorsed.

Endorsed!

Endorsed

Endorsed

Thanks, folks!

Less than 24 hours remain to vote. Let's bring this home for the region, remember to go vote, and make sure to vote in the correct subregional race – that's the GREAT LAKES. Best of luck!

[Joseph Cao]

Bloomington–Normal, Illinois, by way of Peoria, Illinois

Good evening, folks! I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving and you’re ready for the endless onslaught of Christmas songs. I’m thankful, among many other things, that here in my little corner of downstate we believe in not breaking out “Little Drummer Boy” or that overplayed Paul McCartney song until after Thanksgiving is over. Small mercies!

Another thing I’ve been thankful for is the chance over this weekend, in between overtime shifts at the Capitol, to come home and meet my constituents as I’ve done for the past year and a half. I did it as a representative and now as a senator because those jobs are served at your behest; if I didn’t find out what people needed there wouldn’t be a point in continuing to draw a salary on Capitol Hill. And I’ve met many wonderful people that way. One of them is a Peoria farmer named Paul, a good and decent man who tells me and everyone else that he works with “organic matter.” It is a fantastic operation, to be sure, turning out in bulk the kind of high-quality compost that makes farming country proud, but we kind of know the unspoken substance involved there.

Small businesses like Paul’s are a critical part of our economy and our lives here in the Great Lakes subregion. Which is why, as one of our elected officials, I have a vested interest in stopping our government from putting people like Paul out of business. Yes, Nyman’s been trying its hardest to corner the market on “organic matter”—and believe me there is a lot of it being turned out in the Capitol. I work well with the President and Vice President when our common goal is helping the ordinary people of Lincoln, and even the rest of the Senate when that is the case, but otherwise Nyman has been drowning in a sewer of vendettas, crazy talk, outright unconstitutional proposals, and an unenthusiastic president pro-tempore on top of that.

My time in the Senate has stood against all that. In this sea of muck I’ve been proposing improvements to our educational technology, working with a Peace senator for more humane conditions in prisons, and backing up affirmations of our fundamental rights as citizens, and there’s more policy being written as we speak. My record is as pro-life—from the womb to the tomb—as any you’ll see in our great nation. We have a responsibility to keep our natural resources and wonders thriving and find a path toward more environmentally conscious policies at all levels, just like what Paul's been doing with his business. And above all I believe in a Senate that runs well, works smoothly with the regions, and is focused rigidly on the people who depend upon those critical workings.

I am running for reelection as the subregional Senator for the Great Lakes because our region and our government deserves someone who will focus on those goals. It deserves leadership on the issues facing us in a post-COVID tech-dominated country with a tricky international outlook, not the “organic matter” that defines so much of Nyman’s workings these days. You won’t get any of that from me—leave it to Paul and our other industrious ag workers to do what they do best.

I’ll do what I do best in turn, and I hope you’ll join me. There’s plenty to shovel.

[Utah Neolib]

Endorsed for Great Lakes Senate!

[GregTheGreat657]

Endorsed!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Endorsed

[RC]

Endorsed

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Endorsed for reelection!

[West_Midlander]

Endorsed!

[Archon]

Endorsed

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Endorsed.

[Vladimir Leninov]

you've always been very kind to me Cao, enthusiastic endorsement

[Joseph Cao]

Endorsed for Great Lakes Senate!

Endorsed!

Endorsed

Endorsed

Endorsed for reelection!

Endorsed!

Endorsed

Endorsed.

you've always been very kind to me Cao, enthusiastic endorsement

Great to see the outpouring of support here — thank you all, you're too kind!

Polls are open until 11:59 p.m. Eastern on Sunday night. Let's bring this groundswell out of the Great Lakes to the voting booth and back to the Senate!

[Coastal Elitist]

Endorsed!

[Joseph Cao]

[Bloomington–Normal, Illinois]

We did it, everyone. We did it! And I can’t thank you all enough for coming out to deliver a resounding voice for the kind of sober governance we value here in the land of several thousand lakes, some of them really quite large. Thanks to all the good folks who made this victory possible, the many of you – Labor, DA, Peace, Patriot, and of course the good old Federalists – who showed your support, and thank you, Great Lakes!

I hear people are drawing sweeping conclusions about the results. That’s fine for them – I don’t mind hearing what they have to say – but all I can promise you, all of you from Cairo to Cleveland and from La Crosse to Levittown and even to the little farm in South Peoria, is a continued focus on what the Great Lakes needs. We need to get the Senate working again for the coming session, we need a shift away from the majoritarian claptrap of punishing people we don’t like, and above all we need a renewed focus on what seats like mine are supposed to accomplish: giving the regions their rightful voice and rightful place in our federal government. I will not flinch from defending the voice of the people here in our Great Lakes, and I welcome working with anyone from any part of the aisle toward this common goal. A new year deserves a new Senate; a better Senate. And I will work toward that goal as I always have.

A very Merry Christmas and a very, very happy holiday season to you all. Thank you once again! Good night.