Special Election megathread (4/30: NY-26)

[Donerail]

Turner will not be competitive

Turner will absolutely be competitive and should probably be considered the frontrunner for the seat. This election is going to draw every serious candidate in Cleveland (and Akron). It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make the jump to Congress, and it's a special, so none of them will have to give up their current seats to run. Turner has a committed ideological base and will raise an unimaginable amount of money — and if you only need 25% of the vote to win the primary...

[Donerail]

Turner will absolutely be competitive and should probably be considered the frontrunner for the seat. This election is going to draw every serious candidate in Cleveland (and Akron). It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make the jump to Congress, and it's a special, so none of them will have to give up their current seats to run. Turner has a committed ideological base and will raise an unimaginable amount of money — and if you only need 25% of the vote to win the primary...

Outside of the Twitterverse Nina Turner is not actually a popular or very well known politician. She drove Our Revolution into the ground and while she was never going to win in 2014, it remains only her foray into actually competitive politics and she failed miserably.

So what? She'll still raise a ton of money, and she's running in an election where you might not have to be popular or well-known to win.

[Donerail]

https://www.cleveland.com/open/2020/12/nina-turner-announces-bid-to-succeed-marcia-fudge-in-congress.html

Turner announced. Looks like she's picked up endorsements from the typical progressive groups as well as Ro Khanna, Cori Bush, and Keith Ellison. Based on comments from yesterday Bernie will also likely endorse soon. Progressives seem to be lining up thus far, let's see if it holds up or can get Turner over the finish line.

Also endorsed by Killer Mike, Danny Glover, and Charlamagne tha God lol

Also endorsing her today: Akron Councilwoman Tara Samples (who ran for Lt. Gov. in 2018), former State Senate Minority Leader Eric Kearney of Cincinnati, and current State Senate Minority Leader Kenny Yuko. I distinctly remember being told in this thread that establishment figures would rally around whoever has the best shot of beating her?

[Donerail]

Turner has raised $270k in the first 24 hours since announcing her campaign. This breaks the previous fundraising record for any Congressional race (previous holder was Wendy Davis).

[Donerail]

lol
https://twitter.com/AsInMarx/status/1356326821650960384

[Donerail]

A lot of her talk is merely that. I fully expect her to be an indistinguishable progressive in office aside from a few odd comments said here and there for her ventures in wider politics.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnd I’m right

https://mobile.twitter.com/unapologeticYT/status/1376723147500744705

What exactly do you think this shows? Those people are clearly not "DNC operatives" (lmao), they're just career campaign staffers who will be writing press releases and knocking on doors (or whatever a ROD does during a pandemic). You hire people 1. with relevant experience 2. who know the district, and it seems like they both check those boxes.

[Donerail]

Literally why do people here hate Turner.

They hate to see a girlboss winning

[Donerail]

Turner's entire persona is being an obnoxious, conspiracy-addled asshole though.  If you take that away (her "tone") what does she bring to the table?

People like her because she's obnoxious and rude to people they dislike, and because she says crazy
 things that validate their conspiratorial belief system.  That's really all there is to it.

She's gonna be in Congresssss and you're gonna be soooo maaaadddddd

[Donerail]

Turner dominates both the primary and general. I get to watch Atlas Dems rage while Congress becomes one member more populist; win-win.

Who's raging?  Do you see me raging or crying about Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib or Cori Bush?

Yes, literally all the time. You're doing it right now.

[Donerail]

They truly hate to see a girlboss winning. Despicable.

[Donerail]

Nina Turner has received the endorsement of the Cleveland Plain Dealer this fine Fourth of July morning.

It's the newspaper.

[Donerail]

Nina Turner has received the endorsement of the Cleveland Plain Dealer this fine Fourth of July morning.

It's the newspaper.

I'm not convinced newspaper editorial board endorsements mean much these days.

Means more than the endorsement of some Congressman from another state, and we spent a couple pages of this thread talking about that

[Donerail]

Anyway, this isn't the Individual Politics board.  I just think it's pretty desperate and disgusting to try and attack Shontel because she let this guy get involved in community event organizing 15 years after he completed his sentence.

Well, yes, but more to the point — this probably cannot be used as a cudgel against the Brown campaign because his LinkedIn also lists him as "Lead Campaign Volunteer, Nina Turner for Ohio Secretary of State."

[Donerail]

Someone better do some investigative reporting. I have trouble believing such a servere crime wouldn’t be noticed by either of them.

It seems like his actual job is a security guard. A "lead volunteer" is just the volunteer you task with handing out clipboards to the other vols; you accept pretty much anyone who's willing to knock doors for you. Not quite sure what his party role is but it doesn't seem that sophisticated either. I don't think either would've involved a formal background check like you'd get in a paid position.

[Donerail]

I knew the "Zionists" would be blamed. They control everything after all, as they have for generations!

DMFI dumped a couple mil into this race — basically equivalent to all other PAC spending combined. I'm sorry if the facts bother you or something

[Donerail]

I knew the "Zionists" would be blamed. They control everything after all, as they have for generations!

DMFI dumped a couple mil into this race — basically equivalent to all other PAC spending combined. I'm sorry if the facts bother you or something

Turner outspent Brown, but blame the jews.  You guys always love to do that.

In campaign dollars. Brown got three times the spending ($900k vs $2.7 mil) from outside groups. ~2/3 of that was DMFI. Just reporting the facts here.