Special Election megathread (5/21: CA-20)

[jdk]

Yikes, looks like that Free Beacon poll may be true if they’re bringing in the big guns like this!
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1415731970672365579?s=21

Great news for the Shontel Brown campaign- Having someone as toxic as AOC go and campaign for Turner will only increase Shontel's chances of winning.

[Utah Neolib]

The good people of OH-11s congressional district won’t elect a radical socialist like Nina Turner to congress

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Yeah, it's pretty obvious that Turner's internal polls aren't as rosy as they were a few months ago.

I still think she’s gonna win, though.

[Morning in Atlas]

Very funny to see the Centrists trumpet a very clear Republican push poll.

Maybe I wasn't so far off when I called these people Blue MAGA.

[Lief 🗽]

Come on, the “Blue MAGA” folks are not the ones who oppose the candidate who actively campaigned against Trump’s general election opponents in 2016 and 2020…

IMO both candidates are pretty bad here but Turner losing would be some nice karma.

[DrScholl]

I don't think AOC is negative or a positive in this particular district. It's not the sort of places where being progressive really means much but it's not an area where most of the people think about AOC 24/7 like they do in more Republican districts.

[jdk]

Very funny to see the Centrists trumpet a very clear Republican push poll.

Maybe I wasn't so far off when I called these people Blue MAGA.

Blue MAGA would be refusing to accept that your candidate lost and pushing deranged, unhinged conspiracy theories about the election being rigged.  You know, how Nina and the rest of the Cult of Bernie did when she pushed the original Big Lie in 2016 about the Democratic primaries, normalizing and paving the way for Trump people do the same exact thing in 2020 .

Blue MAGA would be supporting Nina Turner who claims to be a Democrat but actively campaigned against Hillary in 2016 during the general election in 2016 and against Biden and the entire Democratic party throughout the general election in 2020, working her hardest to help Trump and the GOP win.

[Morning in Atlas]

Very funny to see the Centrists trumpet a very clear Republican push poll.

Maybe I wasn't so far off when I called these people Blue MAGA.

Blue MAGA would be refusing to accept that your candidate lost and pushing deranged, unhinged conspiracy theories about the election being rigged.  You know, how Nina and the rest of the Cult of Bernie did when she pushed the original Big Lie in 2016 about the Democratic primaries, normalizing and paving the way for Trump people do the same exact thing in 2020 .

Blue MAGA would be supporting Nina Turner who claims to be a Democrat but actively campaigned against Hillary in 2016 during the general election in 2016 and against Biden and the entire Democratic party throughout the general election in 2020, working her hardest to help Trump and the GOP win.

Blue MAGA would be people who gladly welcome literal MAGA throwing their support behind your candidate against a lifelong Democrat who expressed her reservations about voting for Biden.

Blue MAGA would be the same entitled children throwing a tantrum over not being an enthusiastic supporter, while gladly excusing and platforming those who promised never to back Bernie if he won the nomination. Or, worse, gladly welcoming Republicans who failed to "vote blue no matter who" into the party. Or failing to condemn other people conditionalizing their vote. I wouldn't have an issue with this if you kept that same energy with the right.

The fact of the matter is that anyone who welcomes the Free Beacon backing Brown is a Republican. So miss me with your Republican bullsh**.

[Morning in Atlas]

Once again, the #MAGA Democrats have no defense for allying with the far-right to stop the left so they resort to whataboutery.

[coloradocowboi]

By the way here is Shontel's apology after the forum.  This is your "transphobe."

I appreciate the request to clarify my statement from last night’s equality forum.

I was fortunate to learn more about the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community from my friend before their passing and was able to acknowledge and use my privilege to support many of the unaddressed issues.

Out of respect for my friend I did not share their name as I discussed their tragic passing, but I did refer to them as “he.”

To be clear, my friend didn’t always present themself as a woman, but when doing so I would refer to my friend as she. When my friend presented as a man, I would address them as he.  As I mentioned in the forum, I knew them since we were children and while they spent most of their life identifying as a man, I have always been respectful to refer to them how they wanted to be referred to.

Like everyone, I make mistakes – I am still learning, and sometimes I trip up. I am working every day to be better – and I sincerely apologize to everyone in the trans community for my mistake. I will always stand with the trans community – who are under attack here in Ohio from a Republican Party that is working tirelessly every day to strip their basic human rights.

Nearly every day we learn of another murdered trans woman of color. And our leaders – in Ohio, and in Washington – have done little to stop this epidemic of violence. When elected, my door will always be open. I will never stop fighting for the rights of trans people and will hold myself and others in my own party to account when they fail to speak up.

My goal last night was to be as open about my own experience losing a friend, who was a member of the trans community, when asked about violence against black trans women and how more needs to be done to address them specifically.

I am also committed to respecting any and every person’s preferred pronouns and I will continue to lead by learning and do the work as an ally and advocate for the LGBTQIA+ and other underrepresented communities.

Thank you for being a voice in this great democracy and I appreciate all of the work you do.

Of course, the path to trans rights is via a draconian approach where simple, honest mistakes are grounds for ruthless demonization and cancellation, and then apologies are never accepted so any imperfection results in permanent, inescapable condemnation to the fires of hell.  That's really the best way to get people on your side and help reluctant allies adapt to an unfamiliar new reality.  Just kill them the second they step out of lines they're still trying to get used to.

Bonus points if you, Robespierre, are not actually trans yourself, but you're feigning outrage on behalf of trans people and rejecting the apology on their behalf, because this is just a game to you and trans people are just a political weapon.

Simple, honest mistakes to people like you include Stop and Frisk, so pardon me if I'll just skip a response to your sophistry and say plain and simple that some people's politics are guided by a moral compass and yours are evidently not. I think that is one of the central problems of liberalism as an ideology tbh, this whole idea of "tabula rasa," we're all humans and make mistakes so who are you to judge? That gets conveniently applied to liberal, status-quo-oriented elites as if the whole point of having an elite weren't that they are *supposed* to be above the petty mistakes of the "little people." They are supposed to be the best our society has to offer, and you are here cissplaining to me that the best our society has to offer is a woman inflated into relevancy with lies and corporate money who can't even bother correctly gendering a so-called "friend" at an LGBT people's forum. I don't know what to tell you. Clearly you aren't looking for the same leadership qualities in an individual that I am--i.e. compassion, intelligence, strategic sense. And clearly you don't know how dehumanizing this whole conversation is for the people affected by issues that are just theoretical to you.

You lecture queer people about "how to get people on your side" as if we haven't already managed that perfectly fine on our own. And as if your opinion, born of a nothing more than a mere reflexive defense of a status quo you have some emotional attachment to, were something that any LGBTQ person would find valuable even if we were not already plainly aware that you aren't engaging with us in good faith. I definitely would never want you to be on my side, and all the LGBTQ people that will now not be voting for your DNC puppet agree...

[coloradocowboi]

Once again, the #MAGA Democrats have no defense for allying with the far-right to stop the left so they resort to whataboutery.

The real fascists tbh, committed only to the existing elite and status quo. T

[Xing]

We’re still going to be reliving the 2016 primary in 2040, aren’t we?

[Morning in Atlas]

https://twitter.com/ShontelMBrown/status/1415687586761347072

Again, hilarious to see the "Turner's not a real Democrat" crowd hand-wave her opponent literally allying with the Republican Party to get positive media headlines. I'm especially disappointed that some of you are defending this crap - some of you have even acknowledged the hypocrisy yourselves!

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

Yikes, looks like that Free Beacon poll may be true if they’re bringing in the big guns like this!
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1415731970672365579?s=21

Great news for the Shontel Brown campaign- Having someone as toxic as AOC go and campaign for Turner will only increase Shontel's chances of winning.

I had said earlier that it was laughable that anyone believed that Hillary’s endorsement of Brown would help Turner. This take is equally laughable.

[lord_moxley]

Hate to be a doomer but Turner is sadly probably losing unless something big happens in favor of her.

[JM1295]

Yikes, looks like that Free Beacon poll may be true if they’re bringing in the big guns like this!
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1415731970672365579?s=21

Great news for the Shontel Brown campaign- Having someone as toxic as AOC go and campaign for Turner will only increase Shontel's chances of winning.

What do you mean? AOC is popular with Democrats and this is a D+30 district lol. Approval rating polls have shown AOC is very popular with Democrats and even has a non-negative (an even rating) with Republicans included. Despite what Twitter may indicate or show, most Democrats like AOC, Biden, Sanders, Kamala Harris, etc.

[GeneralMacArthur]

Again, hilarious to see the "Turner's not a real Democrat" crowd hand-wave her opponent literally allying with the Republican Party to get positive media headlines. I'm especially disappointed that some of you are defending this crap - some of you have even acknowledged the hypocrisy yourselves!

Do you ever take the hyperbole down to like 9 or 8?  Why does it have to always be at a 10?

A conservative news outlet did a poll on a race people are interested in, and Shontel is talking about it.  That's not her "literally allying with the Republican Party."  For Christ's sake.

[Morning in Atlas]

Address the situation. Why is it okay for Shontel Brown to promote a conservative organization that's trying to boost her campaign?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Address the situation. Why is it okay for Shontel Brown to promote a conservative organization that's trying to boost her campaign?

Any candidate would promote any poll showing them ahead, there’s nothing wrong with that.  I say this as someone who would sit out the primary if I lived in the district b/c of how bad the candidates are.

[wbrocks67]

How is Shontel Brown a transphobe? I listened to that segment, and the most you could accuse her of would be the offense of "misgendering". From the tone that she used and the language that she used, I didn't get the impression that she was bigoted or prejudiced. As I've said elsewhere, you have legitimately hateful people out there who ought to be criticized, but there are many reasonable people who don't fully understand all of the nuances around gender identity and sexual orientation, and the like, but who are supportive of LGBT rights and who are trying to seek greater understanding about the issue. This woman seems to fall into that category.

Yep. If anything, she just seems like she's still learning about the pronouns and making sure she properly genders people. This is literally NOTHING like actually being transphobic and it's ridiculous to call her that based on that video. People need to stop labeling people that just because they see someone who doesn't understand, which if you got out of your bubble, is most people in the country, who are still learning about all of this and figuring it out.

[wbrocks67]

My take on the whole Shontel Brown transphobia thing is she's probably not any more transphobic than the median Democrat (which to be honest doesn't say a whole lot, unfortunately). However, the fact that she was so careless with her pronoun usage when talking about a black trans woman who died isn't nothing, and demonstrates at the very least a level of disengagement with the issue which some voters would be totally justified in not being comfortable with for a Democratic nominee.

Being "careless with pronoun usage" is not the same as not understanding. We shouldn't demonize people who don't know everything, considering many people are still learning. It clearly wasn't coming from a place of maliciousness, so this whole thing is just being ridiculously blown out of proportion.

[wbrocks67]

Address the situation. Why is it okay for Shontel Brown to promote a conservative organization that's trying to boost her campaign?

Any candidate would promote any poll showing them ahead, there’s nothing wrong with that.  I say this as someone who would sit out the primary if I lived in the district b/c of how bad the candidates are.

ah yes, more false equivalency. the old "they're all bad!!" take. which is almost never true.

[Continential]

The good people of OH-11s congressional district won’t elect a radical socialist like Nina Turner to congress

Please elaborate on how Nina Turner is a "socialist", or a "radical socialist" as she clearly isn't a "radical socialist".

[GALeftist]

People calling Nina Turner a radical socialist really have no more idea what a socialist is than the people who call Biden a socialist lol.

Anyway, to return to the topic of the actual election, I promise I understand that Nina Turner can inspire some passion in some of y'all, but lord, there is some serious spin going on in this thread on behalf of Shontel Brown; if you think one internal showing a 7 point gap and a pretty obviously shoddy Republican poll showing a tied race show anything of note other than that A. the anti-Turner vote is consolidating (which everyone should have expected) and B. that some people out there really want to see polls in which Nina Turner has a chance of losing, I have some beachfront property in Omaha to sell you.

I guess the TargetPoint poll makes me increase Brown's chances of winning, but not by much; I would want to see a credible poll in which she is actually up before giving her anything other than an outside chance. Probably about 15-20% chance Brown wins, likely Turner.

Yikes, looks like that Free Beacon poll may be true if they’re bringing in the big guns like this!
https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1415731970672365579?s=21

Great news for the Shontel Brown campaign- Having someone as toxic as AOC go and campaign for Turner will only increase Shontel's chances of winning.

I don't know how "toxic" AOC is in American politics writ large, but in Ohio's 11th district I would venture to guess that opinions of her are pretty overwhelmingly positive.

[jdk]

Address the situation. Why is it okay for Shontel Brown to promote a conservative organization that's trying to boost her campaign?

She's not "promoting a conservative organization trying to boost her campaign".  It's an unbiased poll from a pollster with no vested interest in the race (if anything, anyone who supports the GOP would want Turner to win because her serving in congress while posing as a Democrat would be a huge asset for Republican candidates across the country, not to mention it would be one less Democrat in congress)

Be honest, you're just salty that Turner's campaign is in trouble because  the voters are becoming more informed and finding out the truth about how awful Turner truly is.