Federalist Party NPC Elections HQ

[At-Large Senator LouisvilleThunder]

Welcome to our headquarters for Federalist Party to coordinate our campaign efforts in the NPC elections simulated by the GM.

July will have elections in these following states.
South: Virginia, Maryland, Alabama
Fremont: Colorado, Washington, Arizona
Lincoln: Rhode Island, Illinois, New Hampshire and the mayor of New York City

Here is a link to the rules and results thread.
https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=381650.0

Any party member interested in running a campaign for a specific state can claim it by posting in this thread.

[West_Midlander]

I would like to run the Maryland and Virginia campaigns.

I will host virtual fundraisers for the party and virtual campaign events with candidates in the above two states and Alabama.

In my approach, I will highlight moderation and moderate conservatism (as Secretary of our party's Moderate caucus) in suburban districts and particularly when campaigning with moderate candidates. In rural districts, I will aggressively defend the second amendment, which I strongly support.

Streaming with candidates across our great region, I will say what I very much believe, that the Confederate flag is a symbol of regional pride and of ancestors lost. I will stand up for law and order during this time of unrest. Obviously, I will tone down this rhetoric in wealthier, more suburban districts, though I believe in it still. With my party's candidates, I will reiterate my support for appropriate, needed reforms (like Trump's EO and Sen. Scott's bill IOTL) that don't go too far and that aren't anti-police.

[Joseph Cao]

I will be running the Illinois campaign and am planning to oversee campaigning across the region of Lincoln.

If Brother Jonathan or other active Lincoln Feds are willing, I may also host a joint event or two in places such as New England and NYC.

[Joseph Cao]

[Transcript of the Representative's opening speech at an outdoor event in Aurora, Illinois, for the Federalist gubernatorial candidate and local state House and state Senate candidates. Social distancing and other public health guidelines were strictly enforced.]

Thank you, Illinois! It's wonderful to be back in my great state with some of the best Atlasians I know. And I'd like to begin by thanking you all for taking part in the lobbying efforts and referendum on the You Should Not be Penalized for Missing Votes that Everyone Else did amendment on the Lincoln ballot this past weekend, which was defeated with your help. Never forget, my fellow Atlasians, that your voice matters! There should be no place in Lincoln for elected officials who attempt to justify inactivity of any kind.

On that note, I'm glad that the Illinois Federalist Party has done a great job at recruiting active candidates; we are contesting all state Senate districts and all but one state House district. The groundswell of enthusiasm from our fellow citizens has been remarkable, and I am very proud of the fact that all our candidates are credible, competent, and ready to begin the tough job of serving as your state legislators on day one. Of course we have a diversity of opinion among our slate – what works to improve the lives of Illinoisans in Wicker Park will differ from the measures needed to lift up struggling Illinoisans in Carbondale, and our candidates have done a great job of reflecting their local communities' needs and priorities. So I hope you'll consider taking a look at the substantive plans our candidates have put forward to help Illinois get through the coronavirus crisis, grow our state economy, and make the standard of living across our state affordable and reachable for all citizens. Enough of the boring ideological conformity we've seen in Illinois and in Lincoln in recent years; it's time for real debate in Springfield on how best to improve the lives of our wonderful citizens and drive them to succeed!

And as for the top job: the Federalist Party has the great honor of being able to throw our full support behind a qualified candidate, a wonderful woman, an experienced state legislator, a great example of how every Illinoisan can rise above their circumstances with help from their communities and institutions… but of course she has her own story to tell. My fellow citizens, it is my great pleasure to welcome your next governor of Illinois!

[Joseph Cao]

[Mr. Cao was invited yesterday to deliver the opening speech at an outdoor event by the Rhode Island Federalist Party in Providence, RI in support of a promising State Senate candidate. A transcript of his remarks may be found below for public release.]

Good to see you, Rhode Island! I'm glad to see all of you turn out today, and especially heartened that you're all wearing masks and maintaining proper social distancing. Small measures, to be sure, but the actions we make as individuals often have huge effects. And I'm pleased to be able to announce that the Federalist Party's candidates for local office have been great leaders in this regard. None of that reflexive reactionary refusal to wear masks or keep six feet away from people in the store because of nebulous appeals to "freedom" and "human rights", if you please! The Rhode Island Federalist Party understands that proper civic duty demands a regard for the safety and wellbeing of one's fellows – that the right to "freedom" we all enjoy here in Rhode Island, in Lincoln, and in Atlasia comes with the responsibility of knowing that your individual actions have societal consequences.

I'm sure you are all familiar with the Man Atop the Statehouse across town: the statue of an "Independent Man". The independence that he stands for is part and parcel of Rhode Island's history, from the Constitutional Convention right down to the present day. Like Roger Williams, and like the Rhode Islanders who made their home here in this parcel of land by the ocean, we Lincoln Federalists can take care of ourselves and those within our big tent. And it is a big tent, ladies and gentlemen; it has to be for us to survive in the most inhospitably inelastic political landscape to be found anywhere in Atlasia. We have fiscal liberals and deficit hawks; we have social conservatives and hardened libertarians; but what unites us all is the common understanding that good government is brought about not only by responsible hands in the halls of power, but also by a citizenry that does its civic duty. Nowhere is there a better example of such a citizenry than here in this unprepossessing New England state – and nowhere is there a better example of a party independent from national expectations, a party that rejects radicalism and creeping civic apathy in any form whatsoever, and a party that stands for Constitutional rights and equality under the law for each and every citizen of this great nation, than the Federalist Party of Rhode Island, of Lincoln, and of Atlasia!

That is the message I hope you take away from this, my fellow Atlasians. Only you know where we Federalists stand in your estimation; we know we are not owed your vote. So continue to be good citizens; go to other political parties and inquire of them where they stand; find out their plans for your economic stability, their support of public health, and all the other issues that you deem important in making up your mind. And at the end of the day, we hope you'll find us Federalists – we independent men and women – the best choice to sit in the statehouse and to deliver a better future on your behalf in the legislature.

And to begin that process, let me hand this over to a young man some of you may already know, who has already accomplished much in the civic sphere as a spokesperson and spearheader of numerous public health and safety initiatives… please welcome your next state senator!

[Joseph Cao]

PRESS RELEASE: CAO, DALTON HEADLINE JOINT FUNDRAISER IN NEW YORK CITY

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. — Representative Cao today attended a Federalist Party fundraising event in Brooklyn with prospective statewide candidate John Dalton and the Federalist mayoral candidate, where they engaged in an elbow-bumping meet-and-greet organized by local party chairs and volunteers. Mr. Dalton was unfortunately forced to leave midway through the event by an urgent health-related family matter and was therefore unable to accompany the others to Times Square, where the mayoral candidate delivered a rousing stump speech calling ordinary citizens to civic action in the face of the coronavirus crisis, taking aim at the relative inaction of left-leaning city leaders in general and the incumbent mayor in particular and urging New Yorkers to get out and vote.

The Representative's speech was shorter and largely focused on the Federalist Party's efforts to support Atlasians through legislation sponsored in Nyman and in the regions, including actions taken by fellow Representative Encke and former Representatives cinyc and OSR over the past several sessions of Congress. A section of the speech was devoted to cinyc, a New York native, and the retired representative's achievements in making lives easier for the workers of Atlasia in various offices over a long career in public office.

Representative Cao also issued a public call for greater efficiency in the local government with regard to wasteful spending and inefficiency in getting funds to public health facilities, pledging Federalist support for better management of New York City's public health and for a more hands-off approach to onerous regulations on restaurants and bars that had contributed to the spike in closures over the past several months. "While regulations that advance the cause of public health and ensure clean eateries for New Yorkers are to be commended, there's no excuse for the sort of pointless bureaucratic red-tape that business owners and workers have had to deal with on top of the coronavirus crisis, and it is the position of the Federalist Party of New York that these ought to be repealed," the Representative said.

Polls for the New York city mayoral race are currently open and will close on Friday.

###

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao and Lincoln Council candidate Brother Jonathan held a rally together in Concord, New Hampshire, in support of both Brother Jonathan’s Council run and the campaigns of several prospective Federalist NPC state representatives and state senators. The text of their speeches may be found below for public release.]

Speech in Support of Local Federalist Candidates
—Concord, New Hampshire—

The values that we, as Federalist, espouse and hold dear have never been more vital to the proper governance of our nation than they are now. At all levels, we must call upon our fellow citizens to vote to protect their liberties and rights in these times of political turmoil across the globe. The events of recent years in our ever turbulent world must stand to warn us of the great dangers that liberty today faces from all sides, and it will must be the duty of Federalist office holders at all levels to defend those liberties we so cherish.

Though it can be said, and not wrongly so, that it is at the federal level that liberty faces its greatest challenge, we would be misguided to forget that it is our states and localities that serve as the vital ‘laboratories of democracy’, working ever diligently to refine the practices and procedures of those republican institutions that serve as the true, practical bedrock of our liberties. We, as Federalist, bring to all levels of government a commitment to the regulated and balanced improvement of our governing institution, balanced by the knowledge that haphazard and hasty modification in the name of freedom more often does harm to liberty and safety than it does a service.

As Federalist, we are committed to federalism, to a notion that our localities, states, regions, and our federal government share in the duties and responsibility of governing. We recognize the value and the necessity in the constant balancing act of government, and we see in our patchwork system not disunion but strength through diversity. We see, and rightly so, that our institutions best defend our liberties when they are balanced against one another. Federalists at the state level must stand up for the rights of their states, and must work to ensure that liberty of not only the people, but of their respective states, are defended against intrusion by higher levels of government.

The building block of all government is community, and as such it is at the local level that government must truly begin. We must be able to diagnose local problems, and from those problems build solutions that work for communities. We must be ever diligent in ensuring that government remembers that communities are at the heart of every solution, and that human connection and human nature cannot be bent by the will of the state alone. Government governs best when it governs with the grain of community, not against it, and I urge you all to be first and foremost voices for your communities. It is imperative that, in these ever more interconnected and discordant times, that we ground ourselves in our communities and in the shared values and aspirations of those we have long lived with.

Communities are diverse, and far from uniform in nature. As a result, we cannot have “one size fits all” solutions to the problems our communities face. It is the job, then, of the Federalists to ensure that our government does not ignore our communities when seeking solutions. We know that man is a social animal, that he is by his nature drawn to community, and we cannot seek to address his problems and ameliorate his troubles by cutting him off from the communities that give him meaning and connection.

These values, the protection of liberty, the promotion of the rights of states and of localities, and the central role of community in addressing the ills of society that we as Federalists must promote at all levels of government. But it falls to our laboratories of democracy to truly give these values life. I stand proudly on this platform, and feel that is needed now more than ever in our turbulent world.

 

My thanks to Brother Jonathan for that excellent speech, a beautifully succinct summation of the values that all Federalists hold dear. And I have the utmost confidence that the state representatives and senators you see with us onstage here in the lovely city of Concord hold firmly within them these same ideals and are prepared to apply them to the best of their ability.

And I’d like to talk a little more about these ideals. Because those are what lie at the bedrock of our society and our entire mode of thought, upon which Atlasia finds its highest aspirations and from which it is hoped that its citizens and elected officials can draw plans to improve their fellows’ lives and continue pushing the nation onward and upward. Take liberty, for example. Liberty and justice for all – that is the promise enshrined in our Pledge of Allegiance, and therein lies the potential that Atlasia's government at all levels must live up to. What use is a government to its Atlasian citizens if it does not guarantee the self-evident truths that all are created equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities and liberties and due process?

“For all.” But how, exactly? We may all be humans and Atlasian citizens, but every man, woman, and child in this great nation has vastly different needs; and likewise the communities made up of and sustained by these vastly different people’s aspirations each have a diversity of opinions and aims. On the federal level this is pretty well demonstrated by the states and regions, which (while somewhat arbitrary at the best of times) nevertheless show us that communities are rarely homogeneous and that compromise and cooperation are always at the core of good governance. This is more obviously true at a local level, another reason to commend the value of preserving the importance of localities and communities in any system of government. At this closest of all levels of government to the constituents it serves, there is a common understanding – the purest distillation of Federalist principles – of what the people need and expect from a government; and, in particular, an expectation on the part of both parties that the government will step in when it is most needed, and ideally not more than it needs to. This is by no means an ideology or an inflexible checklist; this is a temperament, one that the Federalist Party’s candidates intimately understand, appreciate, and live by.

Good government is supposed to be composed first and foremost of representatives of the people. And New Hampshire is great in that regard! Where else in Atlasia can you find a state that chooses to elect four hundred representatives to a single governing body? It goes without saying that such a system keeps your elected officeholders in touch with you, the people who have placed your trust in them through your vote. But it also says something about the norms of governing in this nation when such a large legislature is seen as an outlier. Because the government, it must be stressed over and over, is not a bogeyman upon which the disaffected may blame their arbitrary ills; neither is it a serviceman or a valet that exists to give the people whatever they desire. It is the people.

And ultimately therefore it must fall to you, the people of Atlasia, to take upon yourselves the responsibilities into which the upstanding citizen must grow with time: to stand up for what you believe in; to be prepared to participate in the public square; and to strive always to defend the ideals, enshrined in our Constitution and upon which our political system finds its philosophical grounding, that gives every one of us the ability to do so. That is the hope with which I ran for and was elected to Congress, and that is the hope I leave you with as polls open in a couple more days and you meet Brother Jonathan and the rest of these wonderful people once more, this time as names on a ballot – fine upstanding citizens who fully deserve your vote.

My thanks to you once again, New Hampshire, for your time. Thank you all; Dave bless you all, and Dave bless Atlasia.

[Joseph Cao]

[To conclude the NPC campaign season in his capacity as Lincoln party chair, Representative Cao attended a party meeting and question-and-answer session open to members of the public in Napierville, then traveled to Peoria for a livestreamed evening rally attended (both in-person and virtually) by several dozen Federalist state House and state Senate candidates, where he gave the closing speech reprinted below.]

Well, here we are back in Illinois: the best state in the best region, the original Land of Lincoln, and to be perfectly frank I wouldn't wish to spend the final twenty-four hours of this election anywhere else. It's getting late in the evening and in the election, so I'll keep you folks up for just a few more minutes.

I've talked about our party before, but it does bear repeating that the Federalist Party of Illinois is and always has been a big tent. We set up shop in the old stomping grounds of the Railsplitter, now some of the most politically hostile territory in this nation, which has required us to embrace compromise and sustained pitching to a population that at times hasn't been favourable to us. That has only been possible because of our ideals and pragmatism, and above all of our structure: one able to accommodate figures ranging from the late lamented Councillor Grassr00ts, a politically haywire populist; to our state House candidate here all the way from Hamilton County down south, who's a strong supporter of implementing a state UBI; to our state Senator from Peoria here, an ordained pastor and pillar of his community. That big tent has made us all intimately acquainted with the internal debate and discussion that engenders, such that getting along with the other side and working with them to improve the lives of Illinoisans is second nature to us. It's made us a political organ capable of functioning in the full range of our state's communities. And it's powered by citizens like yourself who understand what we're doing and why we're doing it.

Those of you still here with us and those of you watching along at home know well – know in your bones – the price of being a citizen and an informed voice in the body politic. Politics is tiring work. It isn't always as inspiring as we want it to be. It isn't just waving a magic wand and solving the problems of affordable housing, or climate change, or the huge income disparities that still exist in our region. Of course we'd like it to be, but everything in life takes work: family, relationships, work itself. Why should politics be any different? Change is always the result of lots of people deciding to make something better and then working at it and keeping at it. Rosa Parks wasn't the first Black woman to be thrown off a bus for the crime of sitting in the wrong seat, but she was the culmination of decades of efforts by the NAACP and by African Americans to draw attention to the longstanding injustice of racial segregation. No part of those decades of work was at all glamorous or uplifting. But they did it all the same.

And so do we – so must we – because we know what it means for us to live in the longest-running democracy on the planet, with a voting ethic that the rest of the world looks up to. Our history of voter participation and on upholding the principle of "one person, one vote" is patchy, of course. But apologizing for the injustices done is only one part of growing as a citizenry; the other part is to work to make sure those don't happen again. And that requires activity. That requires a clear understanding of the important policy issues that affect your future and the futures of your family, your friends, your community, even of people you've never met and likely never will meet. That requires you to find out which of your candidates has a plan to do something about these issues – as all of our Federalist candidates here in Illinois do. That requires you, above all, to vote.

You vote because change for the better always requires the application of blood, sweat, and elbow grease. You vote because politics is the art of stretching the big tent and of compromise for the common good. You vote because you are aware of what your government is and should be – not a group of Santa Clauses or badly caricatured political bogeymen, but a collection of representatives and senators, state and county executives who are in those positions because you the people put them there and can remove them if they don't listen to your concerns and your needs. And it is my hope that, in this most sacred of democratic actions, you will make careful choices like the good and concerned citizens you are. If that choice is the Federalist Party, as I hope and believe it will be, we will be ready to hit the ground running. If you have made another choice, I can still rest easy in the knowledge that you have done your duty as citizens and as Atlasians. So go vote – because while change doesn't happen overnight, this election weekend can be the first three nights it begins for Illinois, for Lincoln, and for Atlasia.

Thank you all for coming and for listening in, folks. Dave bless you all, and good night.

[West_Midlander]

This evening, I will make some fundraising calls and hold a mask-mandatory socially-distanced rally in an auditorium in Richmond, VA.

I will also have the following radio advertisements run this evening and throughout the weekend.

To run in Alabama, Virginia (except NoVA and other urban areas), and rural Maryland:

Keep Kansas Southern. One major party is the home of regional imperialism. The Labor Party. Vote for your local Federalist candidate for region, pride, and for freedom. This message paid for by Dixie Strong PAC.

To run in Alabama, Virginia, and Maryland:

If you believe in fiscal responsibility, regionalism, and limited government, the Federalist Party is for you. Our party believes that regional and below that, local government does things better than one-size-fits-all Nyman-built solutions. Paid for by Dixie Strong PAC.

We believe the person should be in charge of his or her own destiny. Money and choice in your hands instead of the federal government's. Vote Federalist if you agree with us. This message paid for by Dixie Strong PAC.

The DSP is a people-funded PAC associated with the Federalist party.

[Joseph Cao]

The following states will have elections in August:
Frémont: California, Alaska, and South Dakota
Lincoln: Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana
South: Oklahoma, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia Nyman, and the mayor of Miami

Once again, party members are encouraged to campaign in whatever states they choose and to affirm so by posting in this thread.

I will once again be campaigning in the region of Lincoln, in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I will campaign in the Southern contests. Though I am up for campaigning with others in this effort.

There used to be something called "joint campaign events" in Atlasia.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Remarks Made in Speech in Charleston, SC.

A few days ago I spoke about matters of arbitrary law and equality before the law, so today I want to talk about this issue more directly and how it is affecting people day to day. We have a problem in this country when it comes disengagement, when it comes the gulf that separates people going about their daily lives and the people whose job it is to protect the average citizen. To successfully fulfill our principles, the police and all manner of our enforcement agencies should exist with the primary purpose of protecting not only people's security, but people's freedom and liberty as well. That means that while balancing these charges is necessary, we should never condone the sacrifice of liberty to such an extent beyond the most minimal amounts necessary to enforce peace and domestic tranquility.

Thomas Jefferson was famed for opposing standing armies. We ourselves are perfectly fine with ensuring that police have the support, the resources and the help they need not just in terms of supplies and equipment, but also in terms of compensation, medical care and yes mental health. Police have a very difficult job and that puts a lot of strain on them and their family and thus we need to make sure all such needs are met. However, there is a difference between supplying our police, supporting our police and helping our police, a big difference between those three pillars of law and order, and arming our police to the point where they became a standing army in but name.

Just as Jefferson warned against standing armies, we must even as we strongly support our first responders, take steps to ensure that we are not militarizing our police. The end result can only be tension, discontent and the widening of that gulf of misunderstanding and alienation that serves as the root from which many of our current problems spring.

Police as both guardians of both safety and liberty must also be held to higher standards, understanding the tough job and the difficulties placed upon them already. We have to ensure that when we train police and when they are already on the job, that they understand their dual mission of protecting not just safety, but also liberty and that they understand the fundamental principle I laid out a few days ago, that in order for any stable democracy to exist, it must constantly work to avoid arbitrary law and seek to ensure that all people are treated equally in its eyes.

We also must inspire younger generations from diverse communities to want to become police officers. If our objective is to reduce the massive problem of alienation between communities and law enforcement, then the only way to successfully do that is if the police forces are not seen as a hostile invading force but a member of the community working to protect those communities.

A more generalized move towards greater community policing, and moving towards a model of police as being members within communities working towards and together with the members of those communities is not just good for those communities or a hand out for some minority group. It is the exact opposite of special treatment, in fact what it says is that all communities are of value and that we are all invested in protecting those communities from crime and the dangers that it presents. Community engagement helps to build trust and make law enforcement easier within those community, because then people are willing to cooperate, to come forward and assist in resolving incidents.

In no situation thus, is a fear of police beneficial to the police, what it inevitably leads to is the police officers being placed in more precarious and dangerous situations, situations where they may not be able to return home afterwards.

If we truly want to end the lawlessness and build a society of a stable and crime free communities, then the only ways to do that is to have community engagement, to derive law enforcement officers from those communities to build trust, to ensure that we supply but not militarize and to ensure that police officers are ingrained with the importance of protecting not just the safety of the community, but the values, freedoms and liberties that make that community worth preserving in the first place.

I think this model can be achieved, and I think it is a model that most all can get behind, but especially conservatives who generally seek to hold government accountable, and keep it as close to the people as possible. There can be no greater application of these principles, then the model I have just laid out for you today.

I ask thus for your vote for myself and for Federalist candidates in your local and state elections.

[Joseph Cao]

[Representative Cao kicked off the Federalist Party campaign in Wisconsin yesterday with an event in Milwaukee, where, after delivering the remarks reprinted below, he was invited to join a town hall with a number of candidates for state House and state Senate who were also in physical and virtual attendance at the livestreamed event.]

Hello, Milwaukee! Hello, Wisconsin! It's great to be out here on the ground again, and thanks to everyone here for coming and for wearing masks and staying socially distanced. That's a great indicator of the mutual respect and care for each others' safety that will bring Wisconsin and the nation through this crisis, and I commend you all for it.

One of the many commendable things I've encountered time and again out on the campaign trail these past few months (and especially here in Milwaukee) has been the community spirit that powers you good folks. It really is a welcome strength in these unprecedented times – I know, people! I know you're all tired of hearing that phrase, but it bears repeating – as our nation fights back against one of the most severe and pervasive public health and economic crises in recent memory. It's a struggle in which every Atlasian has their own duty to do. But I don't want to drag the military metaphor too far: we are a nation whose population numbers in the hundreds of millions and it's quite frankly impossible for any one leader to know which marching orders are best suited for each of us. So the real fight – and the real defence – lies at a much lower level, and it's why we're gathered here today with these upstanding public servants; the mobilization for this fight and so many others begins at the local level, and it is only through the understanding between a citizen and their surroundings that each citizen can find a way to stand up for their community. Everyone has their own strengths, and our nation has always thrived on the realization of those strengths in the public sphere. Your prospective state representatives and state senator here, with their years of service to their community and to their nation, can attest to that.

And one of the questions I've gotten recently ties into that same lesson. Someone asked me: what does it benefit me to run around the country in support of our candidates, when I'm up against so many political giants from other parties running around in support of their candidates? And to answer that: nothing obvious. I don't have years or decades of service under my belt, and I haven't sponsored or signed into law any sweeping bills that would lend any of my efforts any extra credibility. But I do know that if I had all those things, but lost my understanding of where the change actually starts and is implemented, I would be worse off. The experiences I and these public servants have had in our communities – the meth labs of democracy, minus the meth – were absolutely formative for us as people and as members of the Party whose banner we now stand under. It animates the visions we have of our nation as a nation dedicated to the proposition of a government for our communities, helping each such community do their best in lifting Atlasians up; because, after all, the citizens of each community are the ones who know themselves best.

That is why, if you are a Federalist or operate on Federalist principles, it will be obvious that the narrative that we somehow don't care about or don't fight for Atlasians doesn't hold water. Because we recognize that change is best implemented on the ground, in our local regions and communities – and that is where we will fight. That is where every good citizen, even if you choose not to run for state representative or city council member or even for the school board, will stand firm and stand up for their fellow citizens, on behalf of the struggling and the downtrodden, and in keeping with the true meaning of this nation's creed: all men and women created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, my friends, is how the Federalist Party of Wisconsin fights. That is where the change happens. That is where your fellow-citizens here aim to make their own change in the state legislature, based in their own experiences and their past efforts at the local level. And here to make her own case for this, Milwaukee, please welcome your next state senator!

[Joseph Cao]

[The Federalist Party of Michigan yesterday held a general campaign event in Dearborn headlined by the gubernatorial candidate as well as (both physically and virtually present) candidates for state legislative districts across urban and suburban Detroit. Representative Cao was among the regional Federalist leaders invited to the event, where he gave the speech shown below; this speech and others at the rally were livestreamed online and masks were worn by all in physical attendance.]

An honor to be here, people! I just want to thank your state representative here for that excellent speech on her time in office, and let me make it clear that the Federalist Party of Michigan stands fully behind her endorsed successor in one of the most pivotal races for state House taking place right here in Dearborn. Which is why it's so important for you folks to get out and vote! Or, if you're part of the at-risk population, get to your mailbox and vote! We want you all to stay safe and healthy, people, and that includes following the sound good common-sense advice of our scientists and leaders whose job it is to protect the wellbeing of Atlasians.

Of course, that's also been reflected in the outstanding work your state representatives and state senators here have done this past term. They've done their best to stay true to the communities and the people who sent them to Lansing and proposed staunchly pragmatic applications of the Federalist principles that drive us. With Federalist leadership, Michiganders will no longer have to join in cries of "fix the damn roads" – we've made infrastructure renewal a top priority of ours and our state legislators have gotten bipartisan support on bills to update building codes, propose better housing, and yes, fix the roads. Your public servants here have thus proven that political sausagemaking is absolutely worthwhile when it's employed to fix problems that you, the people and the communities of Michigan, brought to the state government's attention. And there's the value of community! It grounds the political system in a common understanding that political players are, first and foremost, players for human lives and livelihoods, and its influence leads to a better, gentler, more active and effective government for the people and by the people.

We're not just here to talk about what we've previously done, though. Fixing what we have matters less if we can't make and plan towards what we aspire to be. You know, we had an iconic industry here in Dearborn, in Detroit, in the surrounding communities; the pride of our nation and of the last century. I for one think it's a travesty that we no longer see Atlasian-made cars and vehicles out there, and the Federalist Party believes we can bring the industry forward – back to the forefront and the cutting edge of the world stage, as it fully deserves to be – by investing in electric vehicles. It's a wide-open 21st-century market; it's environmentally responsible; it'll provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for the hard workers of Dearborn and of Michigan. It's exactly the sort of innovative and creative Atlasian solution that will make our nation stronger and more effective than ever – a nation of people who embrace their differences and idiosyncrasies and press them toward the common goal of liberty and justice for all our citizens and communities; a land where Jews and Samaritans of all stripes look out for each other and help each other up. That's the hope and the future the Federalist Party of Michigan sees, and that each and every one of our candidates has a plan to work toward. Let's not stop at fixing the damn roads; let's make our own roads and our own faster, better vehicles, and let's proceed with full speed towards a brighter Atlasia.

But hey, I've talked long enough and I haven't even gotten through the plans our party has for this great state. To be fair, there's someone here who can do a much better job than me at that – am effective leader of the legislature who can claim credit for improving your infrastructure perhaps more than anyone else, a caring person to her family and friends, one of the best leaders the Federalist Party of Michigan has to offer and one who we're proud to give our wholehearted support to: it's my pleasure to now welcome the next Governor of Michigan!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Miami, Florida

I have talked about arbitrary government, equality before the law and police reform in my previous speeches. Tonight, I want to talk you about what this enables and that is of course opportunity. Opportunity comes in many fashions, it could be in the form of starting a business or it could be in terms of seeking a better education. It all stems from a desire to seek and have a better life for you and your children then previous generations had.

Atlasia has always been built on the idea of self-improvement and beyond that it should be stated that the Federalist Party has long championed access to the game and opposing those voices of exclusion. When it comes to the game mechanics there are many principles that are just as much as applicable here as they are elsewhere and it is important to emphasize that from time to time. For example, exclusionary behavior in game discourages people from participating just as much as discriminatory or arbitrary government would in a different setting.

When people don't have a level playing field in terms of legality, it has a dampening effect on upward mobility and the ability to improve over time and across generations. On the other hand, when we ensure that we respect these principles, and ensure that everyone's liberties are protected from such excesses of government be they inconsistent or otherwise, we create the environment when people can best succeed.

In a city like Miami, there is no end to the legacy of self-improvement, a city that has such a rich cultural heritage built in a large parts by the diverse members of its community from very different backgrounds and origins. This is especially so for the Cuban community who have seen the ability succeed championed here in Atlasia and it stands in stark contrast to the situation in Cuba today. What this should demonstrate is that there is no racial or ethnic determinant to economic achievement and success, it is first and foremost helped or hindered by the government and that starts first with whether or not basic liberty and natural rights are being respected and respected equal for all the people.

There are many other issues at play though and there are lot of difficulties facing any community that have to be addressed. These include the education of their children, this includes the health care situation and this also includes often difficult and overlooked but nonetheless important issues such as mental health and working to achieve improvements in all of these areas. While our principles of liberty and equality before the law create the necessary starting foundation, it is critical for us to build upon that foundation and work to improve our communities and solve the many problems that afflict them.

None of these is more pressing right now than this pandemic and it is important for us to work together, to demonstrate the kind of resilience and patience that has allowed us as people to tackle steep challenges and come out the other side on top. It requires hard choices and it required sacrifice and discomfort but history has shown us that there is no amount of denial and no amount of running from any problem, but especially from a problem such as this that will yield anything close to a desirable result. '

As Senator I have supported a number of bills that will address the Covid Pandemic and more work will be needed in this regards and therefore I am fully willing to support and working with my colleagues regardless of party in order to ensure that we have the necessary tools to get through this difficult time. That will include the tools and resources that help right here in Miami, Florida.

It takes hard work and it takes endurance but I am confident that we can emerge on the other side of this situation stronger and more confident in our own ability to get through such challenges just as we have been thus able to do in the past.

I humbly thus ask for your vote and for you to vote Federalist in your local elections.

Thank You! and have a blessed evening.

[Joseph Cao]

[As part of his own reelection bid and in support of the gubernatorial candidate and various local state House and state Senate candidates, Representative Cao helped to organize a daylong series of campaign events and fundraisers in Fort Wayne and its surrounding areas, which ended with an event in Noble County where he gave the livestreamed speech reprinted below.]

Hey, Indiana! Great to see you all out here. It's a really hot August evening and I can barely hear myself over the cicadas. Could we get a sound check from the IT guys in the back, please? Maybe pump up the mic volume a little? Ah, there we go. Testing. Thanks very much.

I'd like to begin by thanking our future Governor here for that lovely speech on the struggles he and other citizens of Indiana are going through in this time of crisis, and to reiterate part of his point: he's a fellow Hoosier; he draws his paycheck from his farm and his business like the rest of you here; and as a leader in the state legislature he's always put the interests and priorities of Hoosiers ahead of politicking. And while I'm fully confident that his proven record of speaking up and fighting for Indiana will put him over the top in next week's race, I want to make it clear that he is also, at the same time, not at all an outlier in that regard. The Federalist Party of Indiana has and has always had exceptionally worthy candidates for the state legislature, for row offices, for the governor's mansion – and that's not a coincidence! We are a party that prioritizes the common man and woman and their needs; we've always fought for the underprivileged, the downtrodden, and the voiceless through our policies and through our rhetoric, as the policy pages of all our candidates this cycle can attest. We may have the letter F next to all our names, but I can promise you that if elected, we will do our best – from our Governor on down – to put partisanship for partisanship's sake behind us and to fight for every single Hoosier as we have always done.

That's something we need even more acutely now in the midst of an economic collapse and a pandemic and an unprecedented flight from industries and farms and cities here in Indiana and all over Atlasia. We Atlasians might disagree with each other over how to solve these issues, but there's no excuse to hate or wish ill upon your fellow-citizens because of them. And there's even less of an excuse for those of us in public office to play partisan games with people's lives and livelihoods in service of some nebulous goal. In Congress, I've put my head down and worked on bills and voted and reached out to constituents for their thoughts – as it all should be. The proper response to a crisis, let alone several simultaneous ones, should be to ask: "Do we have the test kits, do we have the PPE, do we have enough hospital beds, do we have enough doctors and nurses and healthcare personnel?" In the midst of two of the largest short-term crises in Atlasian history hitting us at the same time as the creeping menaces of industrial blight and climate change, this state and this region and this nation need disaster relief more than ever. What we do not need is a manufactured partisan crisis on top of the ones we're already reeling from. We don't and shouldn't welcome attempts from party apparatchiks to use our states and our great region as a glorified chessboard.

It would be easy, at this point, to pivot this to saying we need proper leadership and that you all should therefore vote for the Federalist Party up and down the ballot. But that isn't good for Atlasia, it isn't good for its citizens, and it isn't good for the guiding principles and creeds that we Federalists hold dear. Good leaders and good workers are not our exclusive province. Labor's Chancellor n1240, as would be expected of a true Hoosier, has so far done an admirable job of leading the Council in its efforts to better Lincoln's citizens. And there are unquestionably Labor officeholders and candidates here in your own state that have their own substantive, effective policies and plans to improve the state and its citizens. So what I'd like you to do instead is to go out and make your own decision: vote for the candidate you believe, from your own research and experience and heart and gut, will fight for you and for Indiana. Go out and be active citizens: speak up and be a servant for your community; get involved in initiatives for the issues that affect you; run for local or regional office. And in doing so, you will make that much progress towards fixing the problems that ail this state and this nation, because leadership doesn't happen in a vacuum and even the most capable leaders aren't action heroes who can solve your problems single-handedly. As the Federalist Party and its candidates believe: solving a crisis that affects you requires your help.

And one of the people who did just that – who saw a crisis in her community, who ran for local office, the current mayor of Albion and a candidate for the state legislature – is here this evening to tell you how and why she did it. Folks, please join me in welcoming your next state representative!

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma,

I have come before you today to talk about a very important institution in our society and one that is very near and dear to my heart, that would of course be the family. We cherish our parents, children and extended family members and we should strive to strengthen the bonds of love that whole our families together. We know that there are many things that families can achieve together that alone makes things not impossible but more difficult. We see the statistics, we know what happens when people don't have the support and help that a family can provide and often times it deprives people of the opportunity, like the opportunity that I mentioned in Miami.

We can never ensure that every family will stay together, or that no evil will ever befall a loved one snatching them away from us. These are just the realities of life, but there are actions, and specifically there are policies that can determine whether we give families the resources and tools to succeed or rather we let them be gnashed about the rocks. If there is one thing we know that is very damaging to familial integrity it is economic hardships, as hardship leads to desperation and desperation can lead to addiction, to crime and in some cases to mental and emotional issues. In some cases this can then lead to abuse. Not every family and not every person in this situation will react to the same pressures and what I have tried to explain time and again every person reacts to different circumstances, differently.

It therefore goes without saying that if we want the family to succeed, we need to create an economic backdrop of growth, wealth and stability that helps families succeed and get ahead. It is hard to pin this down on any one policy, and I have talked about many policies that are important in the past. For one thing we need to ensure that when we discuss topics of taxes that we have the right incentives and we most assuredly do not penalize family units. Beyond that, we need to ensure that our education system works to advantage people, and we need to encourage entrepreneurship. It is my hope to make more speeches focused directly on these or on the economic in general.

We also need to combat addiction and avoid mass incarceration. For too long the government has resorted to locking people up and breaking up families creating the very environment that leads to cyclical problems and even cyclical crime as a result of the struggles and difficulties that this produces for the children and the spouses in this situation. Instead we need to combat addiction and focus on rehabilitation for the user and reserve incarceration for those who traffic in hard drugs. We have passed several bills in the Senate to address the Opioid crisis, and I have worked with Laborite Senators such as Devout Centrist to pass these and other bills. It is one of many issues that is plaguing rural areas throughout the Southern states especially, and I will not hesitate to work with my colleagues regardless of party affiliation to address this problem.

We also need to address mental health and for a long time we have short changed mental health because it is a difficult issue to address, because of the stigma that is involved and because of the deservedly bad reputation that facilities received for some rather harsh and inhumane procedures that were based on faulty and pseudo science. We need to ensure that there is accountability and that the patients are protected, but at the same time we need facilities that have the resources to treat in patient mental health situations better.

At the same time while we talk about the importance of the family, we must remember that for some whether it be drug related, mental health related, generic abuse related, or a tragedy like an accident or disease, there are many situations where a single parent family has resulted beyond the often prejudicial stereotype and while we should help and support the core family, we have to remember the single parent families as well. They go through a lot and while it might seem an easy and a quick solution to glue an unhealthy family unit back together, in situations where abuse is present that could be the worst possible situation and also lead to bad outcomes. Rather then jump to the simple solutions in these cases, we need to understanding and supportive as well because in those situations where the cards are already dealt you cannot go back in time and we want to make sure those kids have just as much opportunity to find success and avoid trouble.

As Federalists we understand the importance of the family and we understand all the ways in which we can help the family and also all the ways that it has been harmed, be it by government enforcement polices, misguided tax policy, or economic policies that don't provide the opportunity that all Atlasian's deserve. We also understand how we can move forward and strengthen Atlasian families as well.

I encourage you to get out to vote this weekend and I humbly ask for your support for my own Senate campaign and for Federalist candidates for House and local offices.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Nyman, DC


I have come to Nyman to address several issues of important today, including of course education but I hope to touch on more than just that.

I have talked about opportunity and I have talked about the family, but one thing that ties in with both and especially is on people's minds even more than normal is the education of the children. We have several areas of concern in education today and while the Federalist Party prefers education be handled as close to the people as possible, we are also committed to the success of the education system at the local level.

One thing that must be said of course is that we need schools that work to prepare children to be successful once they graduate and while college bound is important, we also have to understand that not everyone is college bound. This is not because these people are secondary as is often implied and thus often end up being of secondary concern to the politicians, it means that they have aspirations in other areas. We need to ensure that we give them the hands on experience, technical skills and general knowledge that will help them succeed.

While it is ambitious, I think we need to move towards a paradigm that is less focused on memorization and less focused on teaching people "what they should know" and instead teaching them a method for how to learn, grow and process new information over time. This will better equip kids in the internet age to discern fact from fiction and scams from legitimate opportunities. In this era we are seeing a wave of conspiracy theories taking advantage of the internet and using it to spread distortion to gain membership from people who aren't possessing the tools they need to respond to such. This is partially because our schools don't do a good job of teaching people how to learn as much as it is focused on what they should learn. We cannot shield people from nonsense in a free society with free speech, but we can give them the tools to be able to identify when someone is feeding them a load of malarkey.

I think we also need innovation and perhaps one upside of this tragedy that has been covid is that we will have developed and explored new ways to integrate online learning and digital tools into the education environment. There is a danger here and that is the risk that moves towards such will come with wealth skew as those with better internet get better education and those with worse internet and older computers will struggle to compete (I highly doubt this computer would run Zoom, just call it a hunch).

Lastly, I want to touch on higher education because that is very important as well. I know there are a lot of people that say we should make college tuition free and I understand why even if I disagree with that. For one thing we have to remember that we have created the equivalent of a higher education bubble in this country, pouring mountains of bad debt to send people to college for degrees that either over saturated or will never produce the returns to be able to fund that debt. Worse still, you some times have students who would have been better served going a different route being induced by the cultural stigma to load up on debt and go to college only to not succeed and end up laden with debt and have no degree to show for it. We need a different model, one that matches people's interests to the tools that will best help them succeed in that field regardless of whether or not that involves four year year college education, and then we need to provide aid to those who financially do need the help.

I don't think we should ask middle class and working class families to pay higher taxes, high interest rates (deficit spending) or higher inflation (money printer go brrrrrrrrrrr) to send Bill Gates' grandchildren to college only to have them flunk out. We should support people who need the assistance, we should end this stigmatization of non-four year education paths and we should work to encourage students to follow their dreams and provide them the tools to help them succeed at those aspirations. That includes four year for some, two year for others, technical skills for another group. For many it should include hands on practical experience and for a large number, skills like computers and the internet, perhaps second language depending on location and many schools are equipped already or offer these courses already. We just have a system that seeks to steer as many towards four year school as possible, promises as a pot of gold at the end and just leaves everyone else to sink or swim. It might make for good politics to do that ten years ago, but it is horrendous for our future, our economy and our children.

I encourage you to come out this weekend and cast your ballots for Federalists, including myself for Senate, our candidates for house and also our candidates for state and local office.

[Joseph Cao]

Airing online and in the Detroit, Grand Rapids–Kalamazoo–Battle Creek, Flint–Saginaw–Bay City, Lansing, Traverse City–Cadillac, Marquette, and Alpena media markets.

NARRATOR (voiceover): Michiganders wake up each day to a nation beset by crisis.

[over a montage of alarm clocks ringing, coffee being drunk, breaking news reports online]

NARRATOR (V/O): They worry about their jobs. Their health and safety. Their economic security. Their kids’ education.

[close-up of newspaper front page, paper rustling as its reader turns the pages]

NARRATOR (V/O): Too many of our national leaders are too busy making the news to care about Michigan and its people.

[media clip of Federalist gubernatorial candidate at rally]

GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You don’t see me on the news too often, and that’s okay!

[media clip of interview with [UNNAMED 1]]

UNNAMED 1: It’s easier to work that way, you know. Out of the spotlight.

[voice-over of [UNNAMED 2] reading his editorial in the Lake Shore Guardian]

UNNAMED 2: There’s so much that gets done in local politics, improving the everyday lives of Michiganders, that doesn’t make it into the news.

[clip of [UNNAMED 3] at press conference]

UNNAMED 3: Away from the public pressure to be partisan, it’s so much easier to get bills passed and to work things out with folks across the aisle.

GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE [at rally]: Because fundamentally we’re not Laborites or Federalists or DAers or Liberals or Greens. We are Michiganders!

[voice-over of [UNNAMED 4] over silent footage of committee hearing]

UNNAMED 4: We grew up here and we’ve worked to solve the problems we face in our communities.

NARRATOR [V/O, over silent clip of [UNNAMED 4] at committee hearing]: Whether it’s been lobbying the state Senate for education planning that doesn’t leave behind the underprivileged…

NARRATOR [V/O, over silent clip of [UNNAMED 1] in interview]: …or restoring our cities’ finances to proper order and make sure taxpayer money is used to its full potential in benefiting Michigan…

NARRATOR [V/O, over silent clip of [UNNAMED 3] at press conference]: …or bringing women’s health to the forefront of our state’s healthcare planning with policy proposals that give women a better say…

NARRATOR [V/O, over silent clip of [UNNAMED 2] on the street]: …or making sure every voter in Michigan, regardless of party affiliation, gets their voice heard through their vote.

UNNAMED 1 [in interview]: I think the party has a proven record of getting things done and improving life for all Michiganders.

GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE [at rally]: And that’s why I’m running for Governor!

UNNAMED 2 [V/O]: Which is why I’m running for the state Assembly this weekend.

UNNAMED 3 [at press conference]: And so I am here to announce that I will seek reelection to the state Senate.

UNNAMED 1 [in interview]: That’s why I am running for the state House.

UNNAMED 4 [V/O]: I will run for the state Senate as a first-time candidate.

[over clip of [UNNAMED 2] getting on motorcycle]

UNNAMED 2 [V/O]: Because I see – and I’m sure my fellow Michiganders all see – a brighter future for Michigan and its communities with Federalist leadership.

[[UNNAMED 2], on motorcycle, revs up and zooms away.]

This message paid for by Michigan for the People.

Note: Michigan for the People is a PAC affiliated with the Michigan Federalist Party.

[Joseph Cao]

[In the final days before the midterm elections, Representative Cao was observed making a largely-off-the-record four-day tour of Lincoln to speak with his constituents. This included his attendance of a Federalist GOTV effort in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he spent several hours mingling (in a socially distanced manner) with voters and gave the speech below to close the event before attending a public fundraiser in the city with local party leaders and candidates.]

A big round of applause, please, for your state senator, and may he and other Federalist candidates all over Wisconsin and Atlasia enjoy smashing elections this week and next! Now, before I begin – do I hear someone groaning? Don't worry, folks, I'll try to keep this brief.

Before I begin in earnest, I just want to say it was a pleasure bumping into Poirot yesterday in Fond du Lac and listening to his plans for the Liberals in Wisconsin. I'm sure you've all heard of the Lake Michigan bike trail by now. And I gotta say, as an Illinoisan, I'm not the right person to comment on whether Wisconsin will take him up on the offer, but I hope my fellow Feds across the border can get behind the idea as part of the Lincoln Federalists' multi-year plan to improve and augment our regional infrastructure, and I hope you'll give the idea some consideration as well. It's funny that Poirot brought that up to me first, in fact, because I happen to love cycling. I cycled a lot around my home town of Bloomington–Normal and along the roads of central Illinois prior to my election to Congress; it's been a great way to stay fit and continues to be even during this pandemic, because it's an outdoor exercise that make everyone get the heck out of your way if they don't want to be sent flying. Flippancy aside, I think there's an analogy to be made between bikes and Atlasia.

In my time participating in politics, I've seen lots of my fellow Federalists and others to my right speaking up about the concept of liberty and its central role in our system of government. At the same time, there's been much talk from people to my left about justice for the ordinary man – social justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and the like. And there've been people on the fringes, hopefully excluding the vast majority of my fellow participants in politics, insisting that either of these is the be-all end-all of our political system, that we must prize this or that above all else, or that Atlasia will go down the drain without prioritizing one or the other. I suppose you good folks know me well enough by now to guess that my opinion on this is fairly different, and you'd be right, because guess what it says in that Pledge of Allegiance we recite all the time, including at the flag-raising that kicked the proceedings off this morning? We shouldn't pursue liberty at the expense of justice, or justice at the expense of liberty; after all, the phrase is "liberty and justice" – and, more crucially, for all. Liberty and justice go hand in hand, and who prizes one must also cherish the other. Good government is based on a firm understanding of this principle: it appreciates the role of checks and balances in the system we designed to combat threats to either of these foundational values – or, to circle back to the analogy, either of the wheels that keep the bicycle of Atlasia moving forward, without either of which it would most assuredly fall.

And what makes this good governance visible in the lives of the citizens whose liberty and justice it is meant to preserve? If I could be permitted to further butcher my metaphor, I took some liberties with that bit about the wheels earlier. It isn't just the wheels that keep the bicycle of Atlasia moving forward, because if we had just the wheels we wouldn't have a functional bicycle. All those gears and pedals and chains – not to mention the frame, handlebars, and seat – make sure all the energy of everyday Atlasians is channeled into lifting this nation ever upward. And, crucially, all of this stuff is out in the open for the cyclist to see. Does that make it much more exposed to the rain and mud and other elements than if it was covered up? Of course, and the state of my bicycle is a testament to that. But that also makes it much easier to fix if anything in the bicycle's workings goes wrong, or becomes stuck, or gets out of alignment. Which is why I and other Federalist candidates all across Wisconsin and the nation have and will always continue calling for greater government transparency. The government and its workings and impacts need to be a visible, observable presence to the people it serves.

You know one way to do that? Get involved. Go run for something, as so many of you here are doing this election; how local the office is doesn't matter as long as you're driven to make change and to stand up for your community. Inform yourself and those around you about how government works at all levels, rather than swallowing Deep State conspiracy theories. Even if you do run – and especially if you don't run – support those around you who are, particularly the new and first-time candidates on the local and federal levels! They are absolutely to be commended. And, of course, if you're looking to support candidates who will always keep true to their communities and constituents; who have a clear and principled vision for the nation; who will put their head down and work towards that moment when all of Atlasia will be able to sing with new meaning "My country, 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing"— …well, you've got no shortage of Federalist candidates here in Wisconsin and for the federal House and Senate who fully deserve your support.

Thank you all for your kind words and support these past few days, folks; I will be facing you all again very soon, in about thirty hours, as a name on your ballot for House, and I do hope you'll make an honest evaluation of my hopes for a second term. Good luck with your decision, citizens. Be well.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

San Juan, Puerto Rico

There is perhaps few issues as important to those areas close to or in your case in the Caribbean, than climate change and its impact on the severe weather that has afflicted the region in the last few years. Certainly few places have been as devastated by Hurricanes, something I have had a few run ins with myself recently and that is why I am here today to talk about solutions that realistic and responsible to this problem.

This is an issue that many conservatives don't want to touch because it is difficult to address while remaining true to a small government philosophy. However, wishful thinking isn't going to solve the problem and if we are to be realists, we have to solve the problems as they are, not how we would like them to be.

Acknowledging the problem is one thing, but there is a stark difference between the view of most conservative realists, especially those in the Federalist Party and those on the other side. For a long time, it seems to me that the priority approach for some is to first and foremost restrict the supply of oil and therefore drive its price up and make alternatives more competitive at higher prices. This has several problems that hit the poor and working people the hardest since they will have to foot the bill for these high fuel prices, and high food prices since it will cost more to transport and likewise at the same time it must be noted that people with lower incomes will be the last ones to embrace the latest technology in high dollar items like cars simply because they cannot afford to go out and buy a car brand new.

Then there is the foreign policy ramifications of increasing the price of oil on the global market as that creates a financial windfall for some of the worst actors on the geopolitical scene, including Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. There is also a long history of them using the money from such windfalls to finance terror of various kinds around the globe and thus it is imperative that rather than drop dump trucks full of money on the world's worst actors, we need to squeeze off the resources that flow in this direction.

In my view that starts with a responsible climate policy that lowers the price of alternatives to expand accessibility to them. We also must continue to invest in technology since it is this new research that will make further progress in accessibility and affordability. Lastly, we must recognize that for better or for worse we already have several polices, including the Carbon Tax, that will incentivize the adoption of efficiency technology over time. This policy relying on increasing supply of alternatives, and thereby reducing demand for fossil fuels will help both the environment and the geopolitical landscape/national security concern and do so without strangling those who struggle every week to put food on the table.

If we are to be realistic in terms of identifying and being willing to solve problems, then we must likewise be so with regards to how we proceed with addressing these problems and make sure that we do not make a bad situation worse by a myopic focus on one consideration. Climate policy is important, that is why I am here talking about it and if we want to get to a new paradigm, it has to be sustainable politically as well as environmentally and thus why an approach focused on boosting supply of alternatives as opposed to crimping supply of traditional resources is in my view the best way to bring about the results we need.

I look forward to continuing to fight for this alternative vision on how to address climate and energy policy. I also would ask thus for your vote this weekend and likewise ask you to vote for Federalists for House and for your state and local elections.

[Joseph Cao]

— STATEMENT FROM THE FEDERALIST PARTY OF ALASKA —

"It has come to our attention that a PAC calling itself the Stevens Project has been running ads attempting to target non-Labor candidates from a purportedly conservative viewpoint, the most recent of which asserted that the Greens were 'communist, unproven clowns'. We wish to note that all Alaskans are already familiar with the Federalist Party of Alaska's tactics, that we prefer to debate our fellow parties on the issues rather than engage in name-calling, and that any ad laced with such gratuitous ad hominems could not possibly have originated from us or any other right-leaning organization despite this PAC's name. The Federalist Party's candidates, far from 'giving up', have been assiduous in reaching out to Alaskans and their communities, as they have done for years. We trust that Alaskan voters will see this Labor-planted ad for what it really is and vote according to their own consciences next weekend."

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Four days left, let's do a big final push.

[Joseph Cao]

Radio and TV ad airing in Gary, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Kokomo, Marion, Muncie, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Evansville, Bloomington, and Peru.

VOTER 1*: I just lost my job.

NEWS ANCHOR: …Labor Party accused of invalidating voters' ballots…

VOTER 2*: My family is worried sick about COVID-19.

NEWS ANCHOR: …Mutual barbs traded between Labor, Green, and Democratic Alliance officials…

VOTER 1: The President just engaged in a back-and-forth on social media with a Green Party official and called him a hypocrite.

NEWS ANCHOR: …Greens facing renewed challenge in oil-friendly Alaska as ecosocialist message struggles to gain traction…

VOTER 1: That's not what voters need.

VOTER 2: We don't need vague platitudes from our leaders without following up on them. We don't need insults and mudslinging from our elected officials.

VOTER 1: What we need is leaders who understand what we're going through. Who are active on the ground.

VOTER 2: Who stand for something and have concrete principles. Who are able to propose solutions that actually work for us and our situations.

VOTER 1: My state representative has always showed up for us.

VOTER 2: My state senator just got a bill passed that will help out steelworkers like myself.

VOTER 2: Our gubernatorial candidate doesn't get into fights over petty issues like his Labor opponent does.

VOTER 1: The Federalist Party and its candidates understand that such squabbling doesn't matter. It accomplishes nothing. What matters is how our politicians can serve our communities.

VOTER 2: The Federalist Party has a proven record in Indiana.

VOTER 1: Federalist candidates have always made we the people their main priority. Their state legislators have improved the lives of all Hoosiers, and they continue to look out for us.

VOTER 1: Let's keep Indiana free from the partisan slapfest that other parties have participated in.

VOTER 2: Let's continue to give the Federalists the support they've always given us.

VOTERS: And we encourage you to do so, too.

Paid for by A Better Indiana, a PAC affiliated with the Indiana Federalist Party.

[*OOC Note: Special thanks to Indiana voters Cokeland Saxton and libertpaulian for kindly offering input on this ad.]

[Joseph Cao]

[Shortly after visiting a healthcare facility in Grand Rapids yesterday and talking to workers there, Mr. Cao was invited to give the opening speech at a livestreamed and socially distanced general rally for Federalist state House and state Senate candidates across western Michigan, reprinted below for public release.]

Evening, Grand Rapids! Thank you all for showing up, even if most of you are here virtually, and thank you especially for turning out last weekend and making your voices heard in an historic federal election! Labor hasn't felt the electoral heat in far too long and we're very much aware of what it means for our party to be back on the congressional stage. Rest assured that the Federalists will do our level best to continue looking out for you all during the next session of Congress.

Of course, that is all secondary to what we're all gathered here for this fine breezy evening – though also more relevant than you might initially think. We wouldn't be at the present state of affairs without the very evident influence of the Democratic Alliance in regional and federal elections over the past couple of months. Enough influence, it seems, that Labor and DA leaders have been the mutual targets of pretty strong language over the past few weeks. Now, this really is a rather concerning development for all of us Atlasians; I've said before that while I may be a member of a political party, I do the best I can and I've encouraged people I meet to do the best they can to take off their partisan blinders as much as possible and engage with people across the aisle as human beings and as fellow-countrymen and -countrywomen rather than as Soulless Party Member #1729. I have my policy disagreements – as do most of you here, I'm sure – but there needs to be a point where we all acknowledge that no political party is going to turn the entire nation into a graveyard if elected, no political party is responsible for every single COVID-19 death resulting from school reopenings, and no one political party has a monopoly on bad policies. For that matter, no single party has a monopoly on good policies, either! Elected officials are never elected in a vacuum; they always have to work with others, often of different political stripes, and to work with and alongside such fellow elected officials in a manner that truly benefits the people whose needs and voices they were all elected to represent is to acknowledge that each side has something to offer. That's how politics is supposed to work. That's how it works at its best! It's not "my way or the highway" and it never should be. I recognize this. My party leadership recognizes this. Our local candidates for Governor and for the state legislature recognize this, which is why your Federalist state legislators have been so effective in office. I suppose one question you all could go out and ask others you know, people who support Labor or the DA or the Liberals, is whether or not they recognize this – what it means to participate in politics, and what all these arguments are for in the first place.

Which brings me to my next point. There was a speech by Councillor Ninja recently where he pointed at the Michigan State Capitol and talked about the importance of state and local legislatures and their impact on Michiganders' everyday lives. Now I can't claim to know how his audience reacted, but it's a little odd that DA's leaders seem to think this needs pointing out – it's a fact of life for us in the Federalist Party and for those to whom we've reached out that local stuff matters and that this is where the lasting change actually happens, the change that actually affects the overwhelming majority of citizens and their daily activities. Later on you'll hear from state representatives and state senators who will tell you what they did in this regard and how they did it – writing and passing bills to support small businesses smarting from the financial blow of COVID-19, to lift up underprivileged kids and give them a fair shake in society, to make sure the next generation of leaders has access to quality K-12 and college education – all of that, as the Councillor correctly said, happens in that room.

So to all you undecided voters watching this, to all of Michigan, I ask a question. The Federalist Party has said exactly this for years. We've stressed over and over the importance of your vote and your voice as it pertains to state and local politics, we've delivered again and again for this state, and all of this has remained unchanged on our end. Now the Democratic Alliance is saying exactly the same thing, without the experience and the time spent working for Michiganders. So why vote for the DA – or Labor or the Liberals or the Greens, for that matter – when you can vote for the party that's had this message all along and the results to show for it? Other parties have talked about roads still not being fixed and blamed each other. Meanwhile, Federalist members of the state House and state Senate have worked behind the scenes to actually get funding and planning for this endeavor into state budget after state budget. Which side has actually done more for you, and which side therefore deserves your vote?

Quite frankly, I think the choice is extremely clear – all our candidates here tonight are qualified and ready to continue the good work our current Federalist state legislators have begun and get to work for Michiganders on day one. But don't take my word for it. Here this evening, and coming up next, is the state representative who actually wrote the d*mn infrastructure bill I just referred to, who's now running for state Senate and is locked in a close race, who needs every vote we can get. Please give her a warm welcome, Grand Rapids!