We have 48 days to help my friend win an election in the Philadelphia suburbs. I need your help. And it'll only take you a few minutes.
The Netroots has always come through for races in my backyard, from Ginny Schrader in 2004 (in some ways, the first Netroots candidate); to Patrick Murphy, Dr. Manan Trivedi, and Adm. Joe Sestak -- both for Congress and for the Senate. You all understand how important our turf is. We are the swing.
It's time to step up again.
My friend Leanne Krueger-Braneky is running in a special election for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on August 4. The seat is vacant because the Republican incumbent has left for a job in law enforcement. Leanne was our candidate against him in 2014, one of many amazing women I got to know and helped support through Represent! PA PAC (which I co-founded). She did well then, in a bad year for Democrats nationally, but she has stepped up to run again. She does not quit.
Let me tell you why Leanne is a great candidate, and then I'll explain why this is a race we can win.
Leanne is not a professional politician. She comes to politics from a career in the nonprofit world, where her focus has been on sustainable small businesses. She is a pro-choice, progressive woman who wants to go to Harrisburg to help Gov. Tom Wolf enact an agenda of increased education funding, smart job growth, and strong environmental protection. She will check off every box we care about.
In person, Leanne comes across as engaging, smart, and sincere. She listens well. And she will (again) work unfathomably hard to knock on doors, make phone calls, and do everything it takes to reach out to voters.
Meanwhile the Republicans are in disarray: they've nominated a local labor official whose union has supported some Democrats in the past; as a result, a tea party candidate is running as a third-party write in:
In front of dozens of supporters, Esler voiced her concerns with not only the process in Harrisburg, but also how the GOP leaders selected a candidate....
Esler called the party’s nomination of Mullen a “slap in the face to every Republican in Delaware County,” claiming the selection was prevetted before the official nomination.
And it's a district we can win. President Obama
won this district 56-43% in 2012. It's just west of Philadelphia, a Delaware County district
which includes Swarthmore, Nether Providence, Aston, and parts of Ridley and Springfield Townships.
These are our voters. Leanne just needs the resources to turn them out in an election which the Republicans deliberately scheduled in the dead of summer. We can win this.
So give us some help today. Give $10, $20, $25 or more, and let's start to take back the Capitol in Harrisburg.
There's more: if you can get us to $500, I'll match it. And we'll see where we go from there. This race means a lot.