This week, Margaret Good and Karla Bigham won their races for state legislature in Florida and Minnesota, raising the number of seats flipped from red to blue since 2017 to a whopping 36!
These are obviously huge wins, and we need to keep the momentum going. There are several more special elections coming this month, including two in Kentucky. Next week will feature a race shaped by tragedy. In December, Dan Johnson, the GOP representative for the 49th House District in Kentucky, took his own life after news broke that he was accused of molesting a friend of his daughter’s during a sleepover, when the friend was just 17 years old.
He was controversial long before that — he had made racist Facebook posts and made up all kinds of lies, including claims that he worked in the White House and set up a morgue and blessed bodies for weeks after 9/11. Now his wife is running to take over his seat, facing off against Linda Belcher, a Democrat who narrowly lost to Johnson as the incumbent in 2016. She’s hoping to return to Frankfort after a year break, and we can help make it happen.
Another race in Kentucky involves a teacher running for a previously uncontested Republican seat. We spotlighted several teachers running for office in Kentucky a few weeks ago, and another teacher, Kelly Smith, is running in District 89. Her election is on February 27th, and just a little bit of money could make a big difference. She’s in a solid red district, and is a long shot, but a decent Democratic showing could at the very least begin the long climb back to parity in states like Kentucky.
CLICK HERE to donate to Linda Belcher and Kelly Smith using Progressives Everywhere’s ActBlue page!