How to win elections

 Step by step. 

Sisters and brothers - 

Apologies for not writing more frequently. Pretty crazy and busy times.

Let me begin by thanking you all for making possible the extraordinary successes that we’ve been having over the past year. As a result of your volunteer efforts and financial contributions Progressives have been taking on establishment candidates in Democratic primaries all across the country - and winning. We are changing the face of American politics. You are helping to make it happen.

It began in November with Zohran Mamdani’s incredible campaign to become Mayor of New York City. And then the wins kept on coming. Here are some of our more recent victories:

U.S. Senate Michigan - Abdul El-Sayed
U.S. Senate Minnesota- Peggy Flanagan
U.S. House OH-07 - Brian Poindexter
U.S. House PA -7 - Bob Brooks
U.S. House NJ - 11 - Analilia Mejia 
U.S. House NJ -12 - Adam Hamawy
U.S. House CA - 22 - Randy Villegas
U.S. House - MT - 01 - Sam Forstag
U.S. House - NY 10 - Brad Lander
U.S. House - NY 7 - Claire Valdez
U.S. House - CO -1 - Melat Kiros
U.S. House - AZ - 7 - Adelita Grijalva
U.S. House - MI - 13 - Donavan McKinney
U.S. House - MI - 7 - Will Lawrence
U.S. House - TN - 9 - Justin Pearson
U.S. House - WI - 3 - Rebecca Cooke 
California Insurance Commissioner- Jane Kim

Sisters and brothers. I do not need to tell you that running as a progressive in this country is never easy.

Oftentimes we are taking on the local Democratic Party establishment. We are taking on the national Democratic Party establishment. We are taking on super PACs and big money interests who have unlimited resources to elect their candidates. And if we make it past them, we are then taking on Donald Trump, the Republican Party and more super PACs with unlimited money.

In Michigan last week, we supported two candidates for the House -- Will Lawrence in Lansing and Donavan McKinney in Detroit In the case of Will Lawrence, he was outspent and the national Democratic Party establishment rallied around his opponent. In the case of Donavan McKinney, he was taking on an incumbent Congressman who had the support of the cryptocurrency industry. Both Will and Donavan were victorious.

Statewide, we endorsed Dr. Abdul El-Sayed for United States Senate. We raised more than $500,000 in small-dollar donations for his campaign. We held large rallies for him in Michigan and grassroots meetings for him online. We ran ads in the state and turned out our volunteers for phone banks and door knocks everywhere. 

Abdul was taking on everyone. Including, in a way that I had never heard of before in a Democratic primary -- $60 million in super PAC funding from AIPAC and other organizations. He was outspent by 10-1. Didn't matter. He won.

Peggy Flanagan’s victory in the Minnesota Democratic primary followed a similar course. In her case, she faced a 7 to 1 disparity in outside spending with super PACs spending a record-breaking $20 million against her. Minnesotans saw through the ugly ads. She won by 20 points.

How did Abdul and Peggy do it? How did they manage to win against all that opposition? And what lessons can be learned from their campaigns for other progressives running for office?

First, like Mamdani did in New York City, they both ran extremely aggressive grassroots campaigns. They traveled up and down their states, holding hundreds of town meetings, talking to anyone who would attend. In other words they did effective, old fashioned people-to-people politics. But it was not just the candidates who worked hard. Abdul and Peggy mobilized thousands of volunteers who did the grunt work that every good campaign requires - knocking on doors, distributing literature, making phone calls, doing social media and making sure that voters got to the polls.

Further, Abdul and Peggy did something that too few Democrats running for office do: they gave people something to vote FOR rather than just vote AGAINST. In other words, they treated their constituents as intelligent human beings, honestly described the serious crises facing our country and outlined an agenda that addresses the pain that millions of working class families are experiencing. In their campaigns they made clear that it’s too late for tinkering around the edges. We need real change NOW.

Both of them had the courage to take on the Oligarchs who wield such enormous power over our economy and political life, and the greed of corporate America. They campaigned on raising the minimum wage to a living wage and their support for the trade union movement. They demanded an end to poverty for seniors, children and the disabled, making housing affordable and creating millions of good paying jobs by combatting the existential threat of climate change. They made clear that the time is long overdue for the billionaire class to start paying its fair share of taxes. 

Over and over again, they described our current healthcare system as broken and dysfunctional, that healthcare is a human right and that we must move to a Medicare for All single payer program which guarantees health care to every man, woman, and child in this country. 

They also spoke out forcefully against our disastrous foreign policy, the need to end “endless wars” and the cessation of all military aid to the extremist Netanyahu government in Israel.

Sisters and brothers - I look across this country at the rallies we've held and the elections we won and I believe we may very well be on the brink of the political revolution we have been fighting for over the last decade.

If I had told you eleven years ago when we launched our first campaign for president that we'd have socialist mayors in New York City, Seattle and Washington, DC; that the people of California would put a billionaire tax on the ballot this November, that progressives and democratic socialists would be defeating establishment candidates in House and Senate races everywhere... I am not sure many of you would have believed me.

But that is what is happening right now in America.

And it's not because of me...

It's because of US.

What all of us - together - have done over the years is to fight for government that works for all, and not just the few - a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice.

Needless to say our work is not finished. Far from it. We’re just beginning. Winning a primary is one thing. Winning a general election is something else.

During the next two and a half months I intend to do everything I can to see that progressive candidates win their elections and that Democrats gain control over the House and the Senate.

We’re in this together. Let's get it done.

In solidarity,

Bernie 

What Is Democratic Socialism: DSA ?

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California Governor's Race

 I need to lay it all out on the table, Duane.

A new poll shows us tied with MAGA-backed Republican Steve Hilton, and right behind him is our other Republican opponent, Chad Bianco, waiting to take the second spot and advance to the general election.

Xavier Becerra 

Here’s the cold and hard truth: if we lose even an ounce of momentum now, less than a month from the primary, then both of my Republican opponents are not only going to lock me out of the general election, but lock ALL Democrats out of the Governor’s office. 

They will virtually guarantee that California is governed by a Republican who is ready to slash benefits working families need and rubber-stamp Donald Trump’s agenda.

We cannot let them succeed.

A plan for voting to follow. 

Sanders on Elections and Socialism : How We Win

Over the weekend, Bernie Sanders spoke to the How We Win conference, a gathering of democratic socialist elected officials and their staff in New Orleans sponsored by the Democratic Socialists of America Fund, Jacobin, the Nation, and other partners. Below is a transcript of his remarks.

Thank you for inviting me to say a few words. Let me begin by thanking all of you for having the guts to run for public office. It’s a lot harder to go out and knock on doors to represent constituents with the problems they face seven days a week. So I want to thank you very much for that. Despite the horror in the White House right now, they’re out there all across this country. We’re seeing strong progressive growth. It is not just Zohran Mamdani in New York or Katie Wilson in Seattle. From coast to coast, you are seeing progressive democratic socialists standing up, taking on the establishment and winning elections.

And one of the great secrets of the corporate media is that right now in the House of Representatives, the Congressional Progressive Caucus has about one hundred members, including dozens and dozens of very strong progressives. That is the result of the hard work all us have done over the last number of years.

I’ve been asked to give you some advice. What I’m gonna tell you is probably what you already know. Number one, here is a radical idea — do your job that you were elected to do. Now, I’ll tell you a story. Here is the story. I was elected to be mayor of Burlington, Vermont; won it by ten votes way back in 1981. We had a strong foreign policy. We had exchange programs. We dealt with national issues. But I’ll never forget there was an article in the local newspaper and the report asked some guy, “But what does it mean? What do you think about having a socialist as your mayor?” And the guy said, “Well, I don’t know much about socialism, but I do know they’re getting the snow off of the streets a lot faster than they used to.”

You gotta do your job. If you’re on the city council, the school board, the state legislature, you gotta do it. And if you do your job well, people will give you the latitude to talk about many, many other issues. But don’t lose focus regarding the job that you are elected to do.

Second of all, establishment Democrats have the brilliant idea that the only people they can talk to are establishment Democrats. They literally have lists of people: “Don’t knock on this door; don’t knock on that door. Only on these.” I strongly disagree with that suggestion. Knock on every door in your district. And what you’ll find when you do that is you’ll have the right-wing people slam the door in your face. You’ll have some unpleasantness. But by and large, what you’ll find is that there is a lot more commonality of interest than you might have appreciated. In my view, the reason Donald Trump is president of the United States today is not because people voted for a trillion dollars in tax breaks for the 1 percent or massive cuts in health care. He is the president of the United States because of Democratic establishment candidates’ failure to provide a real analysis and agenda that meets the crises that we face today.

Establishment Democrats believe that you can tinker around the edges, you can tell the world how terrible Donald Trump is, and that’s fine. But right now, what the American people understand is that übercapitalism — an oligarchic form of society, which is what we have today — is a disaster for the working class of this country. We don’t have to tinker around the edges. We have to create a very new form of society.

So for just your average person out there, you are in many cases going nowhere in a hurry. You understand that with real inflation accounted for, wages are basically the same as they were fifty years ago, despite a huge increase in worker productivity as a result of all of the expansion of technology. And almost all of the gains of that new technology have gone to the 1 percent. And ordinary workers know that there’s something wrong with 60 percent of our people living paycheck to paycheck while Elon Musk owns more wealth himself than about the bottom 52 percent of American society. They know that.

Here is a radical idea — do your job that you were elected to do.

They know that there’s something wrong when we have a campaign finance system that is totally corrupt and allows billionaires in both political parties to buy elections. That’s a broken system. I say these things because you’re gonna have Republicans who understand this as well. They understand if you look at the basic necessities of life — just think for a moment: you’re living in the richest country in the history of the world, and it cannot even provide the basic necessities of life for working people.

Just take a look at the health care in your community. Talk about health care. Everybody will tell you that despite spending twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation, the health care system is totally broken. Everybody knows that. The educational system is largely broken, and the childcare system is a disaster. Kids can’t afford to go to college, or they’re leaving school deeply in debt. Public schools are under enormous pressure. Teachers are underpaid. They’re dealing with all kinds of disciplinary issues, kids who come from troubled families or are acting out in school. We are dealing with a situation where our food system, just nutrition . . . we are the most obese and unhealthy nation on Earth because you have a food industry that makes huge profit by selling our kids crap, and the price of groceries is soaring.

People understand that. I flew in from the National Airport in Washington; there was a four-hour delay because they couldn’t figure out how to de-ice the plane. All over the country you are looking at basic problems people are struggling with. The system is failing. Our job is not to run away from that reality but to offer a real alternative. Because in my view, what the future is gonna be about isn’t establishment Democrats. All over Europe, for example, the establishment parties are fading away. The struggle is going to be between the Trumpists of the world — right-wing extremism — and a democratic socialist alternative, which recognizes the problems that we face and provides concrete and real and bold solutions for working families.

So what Donald Trump does is go, “Yeah, we got a lot of problems. And the problem is undocumented people, the problem is the trans community, the problem is that we have Somalians who are ‘garbage.’” That’s what demagogues do. They take the problems that we face — often that they cause — and then you blame a powerless minority. Our job is to recognize the problems are real and to put the finger on the real cause of the problem, which is the greed of the oligarchs in this country. So that’s where we’re at now. And it ain’t gonna be easy. Especially with Trump in the White House.

To summarize, the American people know the system is broken. They are hurting. They can’t afford groceries. They can’t afford health care. They can’t afford education. They can’t afford a lot of things. And at the same time, the billionaire class has never had it so good. The establishment Democrats cannot talk about these things because, very often, they’re getting funded by the billionaire class. So what we have gotta do right now is get out into the streets. We gotta talk to our people — allpeople, not just people within our zone of comfort. And we’re gonna be providing real solutions to the crises that we face. So once again, what you have done is extraordinary. I thank you so much and congratulate you for getting out on the streets, for winning elections, and for standing up for working people.

• Bernie Sanders
• socialist elected officials

 

Trump Autocracy Report - NYT

  

Donald Trump has wielded power as no previous president has, often in open defiance of the law.  

Read the report from the NY Times Editorial Board, Oct. 31, 2025, 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-democracy-report.html

He has persecuted opponents, by passed Congress, sent troops into cities, defied the courts, changed election rules, vilified minorities, and enriched himself and his family. 

A great summing up of the current situation.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-democracy-report.html

 

Ways to Participate in these Vital Elections

Ways to participate in elections.

 

Volunteer to be a poll worker

Volunteer to be a poll watcher

Boost voter turn out.   Send cards, text messages, phone bank.   

Defend the right to vote.  Oppose voter interference.  Voter suppression. 

Educate your friends and neighbors, and union members, church members, civil rights organizations, etc.

 

The California Poor People’s Campaign has produced a voter education page. 

The California Poor People's Campaign has prepared the following, 

We’ve put together a voting education page to support you as you make preparations to vote. The page offers a variety of resources to prepare for this year’s elections, including:

• A Voting Record: This voting record graphic will help you see where major candidates and parties stand on the big issues of the day, from raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour to lowering prescription drug prices. It offers detailed information about how they’ve voted on these issues in the past.

• Voter Protection Resources: These resources include voter protection hotlines and websites for help if you face any issues voting in this year’s elections. Trained experts will ensure you are able to cast a ballot.

• Everything You Need to Vote: This graphic includes clickable links to essential resources, such as important deadlines for voting in your state, registration checks, absentee ballot requests, ballot previews ahead of time, finding local polling place locators, election reminders, and registration to vote. 

We encourage you to share this page with your friends, family, and social networks. These resources will help guarantee that we can mobilize many poor and low-income infrequent voters during this year’s elections. 

Local campaigns where you can get involved.

Kamala Harris for President

Jessica Morse for Congress

Activate America

Emily's List

events.dems.org

Indivisible

Mobilize

Sister District

Swing Left

Women Rising

 

Project 2025: The MAGA Plan to Take Your Freedom | Robert Reich

Sanders: We must have the guts to take on and defeat a powerful and greedy ruling...

The Dangers of Fascism in 2024

  

 

North Star  has  a new post up by Fred Glass on the dangers of Fascists in the 2024 Elections.

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/2024-the-fascist-danger

 

Topics include

No Lesser of two evils approach.

Retaining the possibility of a socialist movement. 

 

Recall that the rise of fascism in Germany and German American Bund in the U.S. was based on the first targets being the opposition and destruction of communist ( and socialists) movements. 

 

 

Sen. Chris Murphy: ‘This Party Has Not Made a Firm Break From Neoliberalism’

Sen. Chris Murphy: ‘This Party Has Not Made a Firm Break From Neoliberalism’: Connecticut’s junior senator launches a new interview series focused on monopoly power, part of his quest to understand American unhappiness.

Why Do So Many Believe Trump's Lies ?

 Donald Trump is a confidence man, a charlatan, an unrepentant liar whose deceits have cost at least a half-million Americans their lives.

By Thom Hartmann

The Hartmann Report

When Dustin Thompson was hauled before US District Judge Reggie Walton for assaulting the Capitol police on January 6th, his defense lawyer, Samuel Shamansky, argued about Trump:

“You had, frankly, a gangster who was in power. The vulnerable are seduced by the strong. That’s what happened.”

The jury didn’t buy the argument and sent Thompson to prison, as US District Judge Reggie Walton, who was overseeing the case, said:

“I think our democracy is in trouble because, unfortunately, we have charlatans like our former president who doesn’t, in my view, really care about democracy but only about power.”

And yet Trump remains popular with about 20 percent of the American public, making up the majority of the Republican primary-voting base. But why?

There’s nothing new about charlatans and confidence men. Marco Antonio Bragadini(1545-1591) was one of Europe’s most famous: he convinced both a pope and the government of Venice that he could turn lead into gold and they financed a lavish lifestyle for most of his life.

William Thompson was America’s first labeled “confidence man” in New York in the 1840s because he’d approach wealthy men, pretend they were old friends, and ask them if they had “the confidence” to give him their gold watch for an hour: many did, and he ran the scam for years before being busted.

Donald Trump similarly convinced banks that he was had assets worth ten, twenty, sometimes more than fifty times their real value as was revealed in court this week. The self-proclaimed “king of debt” then used his borrowed money to support a lifestyle that reinforced everybody’s belief that he was truly rich.

After American banks refused to lend Trump money, he and his good friend Jeffrey Epstein turned to Deutsche Bank and managed to extract over $2 billion from that institution with the help of William Broeksmit, Thomas Bowers, and Justin Kennedy.

Broeksmit hanged himself in 2014, leaving a suicide note and paperwork tying him to the bank’s unit accused of laundering some $10 billion of Russian oligarch money along with over $400 million in questionable loans to Trump.

As stories about Trump’s finances began hitting the media in 2019, Tom Bowers (55 years old), who signed off on Trump’s loans, also hanged himself.

Justin Kennedy worked for Deutsche Bank from 1998 to 2009 and, according to the Finance Editor of The New York Times, David Enrich as reported by The Guardian’s Julian Borger:

“Drawn to Trump’s risk-taking and glamour, he [Kennedy] became a Trump confidant, sitting with the real estate impresario at the US Open tennis or in Manhattan nightclubs, and chaperoning huge loans to finance Trump’s real estate spending sprees.”

Kennedy was also the son of US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who, when apparently asked by Trump to resign to make room for Brett Kavanaugh, mysteriously complied and stepped away from one of the most powerful positions in America.  

Without the help of these three men, Trump would almost certainly have ended up broke and destitute. He’d been sued thousands of times for nonpayment of his debts and was well known to New Yorkers as a hustler and scam artist with a long string of failed businesses behind him.

In fact, by the time of his bankruptcies in the 1990s he had squandered almost all the roughly half-billion dollars he inherited from his father and stole from his brother, nephews, and nieces (as Mary Trump will tell you) before being rescued by mobbed-up Russian oligarchs looking to launder ill-gotten gains via real estate.

NBC further saved him by making him the star of a reality TV show that was every bit as deceptive about Trump’s wealth and business acumen as were Bragadini’s exhibitions of gold he’d “transmuted” from lead.

School Board Elections Could Make (or Break) Our Democracy

 

School Board Elections Could Make (or Break) Our Democracy Julie Marsh, Miguel Casar Rodriguez, Pedro Noguera  November 1, 2023 The Progressive  Attacks on school boards are part of a strategic, deliberate, and well-funded effort to erode public schools and advance a broader political agenda. , (Joe Brusky, CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED)   chool boards across America are under attack. We have all seen the disruptions at school board meetings triggered by clashes over controversial policies regarding the teaching of race and racism, ethnic and gender studies, and LGBTQ+ inclusion. What we may not have noticed, however, is that these attacks are not only about school boards, but about public education as a whole. These disruptions are much more than concerned parents advocating for what’s best for their children. Instead, it is part of a strategic and deliberate—and well-funded—effort to erode public schools in order to advance a much broader political agenda. Initially tapping into parent frustration over school closures and mask mandates, political agitators have targeted school boards, and in several cases, the schools and educators who serve in them, to mobilize their base.   In a country that prides itself on being a beacon of free thought and democracy, growing assaults on the teaching of history, book bans, and the criminalization and surveillance of teachers are a threat to both. School boards have become a key political battleground. As former Trump advisor Steve Bannon called out in early 2021, “The path to save the nation is very simple—it’s going to go through the school boards.” Local control and governance through elected school boards has long been criticized because of what they have contributed to gross inequity in school funding. But this model can also lead to greater community engagement with schools if people approach them with that spirit. In our own research, more than two-thirds of California voters—73 percent of voters with children and 69 percent of those without children—agreed that “local school boards are important because they ensure that decisions about education are made close to those who will be affected by them.” We know that politics is often a dirty business. And when politics becomes a struggle for power at all costs and schools are disrupted, children lose. And let’s be clear: more often than not, these agitators are not parents of children in the schools they disrupt. A recent national poll showed that 76 percent of parents support the schools their children attend.  The disruptions are taking a toll on an already burdened school system. Personal threats and attacks are resulting in resignations and turnover. They also dampen community participation in the democratic process and reduce the interest of potential educators in joining the profession and leading schools. Most importantly, precious time is taken away from what should be at the center: students.

New Corporate Party Advances

 

https://boulderweekly.com/opinion/corporate-centrist-third-party-could-spoil-2024/

opinion
the anderson files

Corporate ‘centrist’ third party could spoil 2024

By Dave Anderson - May 11, 2023

In 2024, a new supposedly “centrist” political organization may run a
“unity” presidential ticket. No Labels is already on the ballot as a
party in Colorado, Arizona, Oregon and Alaska. They have raised $70
million and refuse to name their donors. They plan to get on the
ballot in all 50 states.

No Labels insists that the two major parties are captured by crazy
extremists. A video sent out to donors and potential supporters
obtained by The New Republic warns, “With the extremes on both sides
dominating the primaries, the two parties are on a path to nominating
candidates most eligible voters will find unacceptable.” As ominous
music plays, you see Donald Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie
Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Joe Biden isn’t even mentioned in the video. When leaders of No Labels
are asked if they think Biden is unacceptable to them, they have a
wait-and-see attitude.

In a recent Washington Post op-ed, the leaders of three ideologically
divergent, pro-Democratic Party groups (Third Way, MoveOn and the
Center for American Progress Action Fund) denounced No Labels for
equating Trump and Biden and argued that Biden has been responsible
for significant and necessary bipartisan legislation. They said a No
Labels candidate would most likely help elect Trump.

Actually, No Labels’ own poll shows “Democrats, liberals and urban
voters to be more open to a moderate independent candidate than
Republicans, conservatives or rural voters.”

No Labels supports balancing the national budget, reducing business
regulations and shifting federal programs to the states.

No Labels criticized the Jan. 6 committee as “a partisan exercise
about which the public is skeptical” and compared it unfavorably with
the Republican-dominated special committee that investigated the 2012
Benghazi attack on a U.S. embassy.

No Labels publicly opposed Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB)
legislation, which included efforts to fight climate change, raise the
corporate tax rate, expand the Child Tax Credit and improve
healthcare.

Two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten
Sinema of Arizona, were able to force big cuts in BBB due to the
Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate. During the legislative
process, No Labels praised Sinema for her “heroic efforts” and ran ads
supporting Manchin “hit[ting] the brakes on BBB.” The Intercept
reported that the group hosted Manchin at a “billionaire-backed
gathering” in Los Angeles during BBB negotiations.

The BBB was killed and we got the Inflation Reduction Act, which
doesn’t go as far but provides for lower prescription drugs for
seniors, higher taxes for corporations, more IRS law and order for
rich tax cheats. It is also the biggest federal climate change bill in
history. Well, that’s a low bar. It’s the only real climate change
bill ever enacted.

This March, news website Semafor reported that some Wall Street
backers of Biden in 2020 are “holding back” on supporting him in 2024,
“citing rules proposed by his Securities and Exchange Commission that
target the financial services industry.”

Biden’s approach to financial regulation “has left a sense of buyer’s
remorse.” Financial industry lobbyists are reportedly “beyond
frustrated.”

No Labels doesn’t have to disclose who its sugar daddies are. However,
in 2018, The Daily Beast obtained a leaked donor list including
billionaires in the private equity, hedge fund, real estate, and oil
and gas industries. Republican megadonors are courted.

The group’s CEO, Nancy Jacobson, was a fundraiser for both Bill and
Hillary Clinton, and her husband, corporate consultant Mark Penn, was
a top Clinton campaign advisor.

No Labels is co-chaired by lobbyist and former Senator Joe Lieberman
of Connecticut (who was a Democrat and then an Independent) and Larry
Hogan, the former Republican governor of Maryland. Manchin and
Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine are “honorary co-chairs.”

No Labels is very vague about its stances on major policy issues.
Campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fischer told The Lever that this
leaves a lot of room for wheeling and dealing.

“At this point, No Labels isn’t saying what ‘values and commitments’
they are looking for from a major party candidate,” he said. “This
raises the specter of No Labels officials or donors using this
leverage to extract backroom concessions.”

Manchin has praised No Labels’ strategy and hasn’t ruled out running
for president in 2024 on their ballot line. Meanwhile, Manchin and
Sinema seemed to be allied with Republicans in their reckless debt
ceiling brinkmanship.

This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

International Observers on U.S. Elections,- Polorized

 

WASHINGTON DC, 9 November 2022 – The 8 November mid-term congressional elections were competitive and professionally managed, with active voter participation, but also with threats against election workers and efforts to undermine voters’ trust in the electoral process by baselessly questioning its integrity, international observers said in a statement released today. Candidates could campaign freely, but many contests were highly polarized and marred by harsh rhetoric, and partisan redistricting resulted in many instances of uncompetitive constituencies, the statement says. Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Capitol dome in Washington, D.C. (Shutterstock)

PRESS RELEASE United States Mid-Term Elections Competitive, but Polarized and With Efforts to Undermine Trust, International Observers Say WASHINGTON DC, 9 November 2022 – The 8 November mid-term congressional elections were competitive and professionally managed, with active voter participation, but also with threats against election workers and efforts to undermine voters’ trust in the electoral process by baselessly questioning its integrity, international observers said in a statement released today. Candidates could campaign freely, but many contests were highly polarized and marred by harsh rhetoric, and partisan redistricting resulted in many instances of uncompetitive constituencies, the statement says. The economy, inflation and abortion rights were prominent issues across the country. Political campaigns by both major parties were intensely divisive, and the inflammatory rhetoric was accompanied by racist and transphobic tropes invoked by some candidates and prominent commentators. A number of Republican candidates in key races, including those who, if elected as secretaries of state, will have direct responsibility for overseeing future elections in their states, challenged or refused to accept the legitimacy of the 2020 results. “The American people once again demonstrated their commitment to democratic elections in a hard-fought campaign and professionally run process,” said Margareta Cedefelt, the OSCE Special Co-ordinator and Leader of the short-term observers. “Unfortunately, we also noted that baseless allegations of fraud continued to have a serious result, in harassment of and threats against election officials. Certain systemic challenges, such as gerrymandering, enabling politicians to choose their voters, rather than the opposite, and the outsized influence of money on campaigning, must be addressed to ensure real equality of the vote.” Disclosure mechanisms for campaign finance are generally comprehensive, but loopholes in the regulatory framework make the impact of money in politics less transparent, the observers said. Following the 2020 population census, the 435 seats in the House of Representatives were reapportioned among the states, and electoral districts were redrawn. Redistricting is highly political, with state legislatures responsible in 33 states, and external commissions in the remaining 11. A total of 78 legal challenges were filed against congressional district maps, often alleging partisan or racial gerrymandering, and court decisions changed district maps in 8 states. In designing the maps, competent bodies use algorithms that at times took into account politically favourable variables, including past voting results and racial demographics at the precinct level. As currently implemented, redistricting does not fully ensure competitiveness, representativeness and the fair representation of minorities.

Elections: Which Side Are You On ?

We’re one week out from this election, and it comes down to recognizing who is on our side. Ask yourself: Who are the candidates trying to solve problems, and who are the ones just trying to stoke fear and division? Who supports public education, and who is trying to ban books and engage in culture wars? Who is protecting freedoms like a women’s right to reproductive health, and who is undermining our democracy?  Check out the GOP plan for the economy. They want to: Raise prescription drug costs. Increase healthcare premiums. Cut Medicare and Social Security benefits. Cancel student loan forgiveness. Drive up inflation and the deficit by cutting taxes for the rich. Look how well that worked for the last U.K. prime minister. The AFT has endorsed the problem-solvers—the lawmakers and candidates who are working to solve the problems that keep us up at night: inflation, the costs of prescription drugs and gas, the struggle for a better life, potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare, global climate change, the need to strengthen public education, and threats to and our freedoms and our democracy. On the other side, we have the problem-makers—the lawmakers who use anger and fear to divide people and want to slash Social Security and Medicare, roll back freedoms, allow Big Oil to gouge us at the pump and Big Pharma to gouge us at the pharmacy, and stop student debt forgiveness. Their answer to everything seems to be to cut taxes for the rich.  We need problem-solvers who will work for us. We need lawmakers who are on our side. That means turning out and voting in this election and getting our families and friends to do the same.  Everything is on the ballot this year. Thank you. In unity, Randi Weingarten AFT President