DAY FORTY-THREE - DR. BARBARA BOLLIER

Oct 11

Day Forty-three | Dr. Barbara Bollier | Kansas Senate
762 Sawbuck Patriots | $8226 pledged today | $398,389 donated overall

Team:

First, from the mailbag:

Hello Sawbuck Patriots!

I am grateful everyday for the generosity and tireless support from people in and around the district. Thank you for having my back this election and generously supporting me in this campaign, I wouldn’t be here without you. We are so close to the finish line now and my opponent and I are nearly tied. Your contributions will be used to educate voters and turn out Dems in these final days before the election! We are nearly there!!!

Hope to make you proud!

Best,
Ammar Campa-Najjar

THE SITUATION: Let's take a trip to Kansas, which coast people know to be a pretty red state. Some folks know that Donald Trump won here by more than twenty points in '16. Some folks know that the last time a Democrat represented Kansas in the US Senate it was the 1930s.

And if those are your two primary data points, I'm sure you're thinking, hey Alex, what's up - you said you'd point us at winnable races!

Right. I did. And I will. So here are some more data points.

The Kansas Governor today? She's a D. The Kansas Lieutenant Governor? He's a D. And recent polls indicate that one of Kansas' two senators might soon be a D, breaking the eighty-plus year streak.

And Kansas is important. We'll be back in Kansas tomorrow, partnering with a New York grassroots group that's quite similar to Sawbuck Patriots. We'll be joining forces to support two statehouse candidates working to break the Republican statehouse supermajority. Further, some of you will be invited to attend a Monday 6p EDT/3p PDT Zoom with those two candidates and some special guests. More on this tomorrow...

THE COMPETITION: Pat Roberts, Kansas Senator since '97, recently announced he wouldn't run for re-election. Kansas House member Roger Marshall won out in a very interesting R primary earlier this year and is the Republican Senate candidate. (Worth reading up on if you're a political junkie, but too detailed to go into here - but imagine eleven white male candidates, including Jr. Trump wannabee Kris Kobach, vying for the honor...)

Marshall has been in the House for two terms. He got into Congress by successfully primarying an incumbent Republican from the right. He's an OB/GYN and an Army Reservist. He's also anti-choice and wants Roe v. Wade overturned. Opposes the ACA. Has said that the country has done a great job dealing with coronavirus. (214,000, in case anyone was unaware of the death toll.) Has said he's not sure there's any climate change happening.

And. He. Votes. With. Trump. 98. %. Of. The. TIME.

OUR CANDIDATE: Dr. Barbara Bollier has served Kansas in its statehouse as a representative and a senator since 2010, she'd previously worked in medicine, including as an anesthesiologist. For the first eight years of her public service, she was a Republican. However, she regularly supported legislaiton across the aisle, working with moderate Democrats and their legislation, reaching across the aisle to be thoughtfully bi-partisan.

But in 2018, she felt the Kansas Republican Party had left her. It had dragged itself and its knuckles into reactionary, cultish territory, supporting an authoritarian president and doing things like striking out against the transgender community. At one point, Dr. Bollier endorsed a moderate Democrat against a particularly conservative Republican for a race for office. R leadership reacted predictably, stripping her of committee assignments - and she took the next logical step, and re-registered herself as a D. (As did two of her fellow statehouse colleagues - there's something happening in Kansas!)

She's always been a thoughtful, purposeful leader, more associated with practicality and policy than ideology for ideology's sake. And her campaign logo includes a strand of DNA. (Let's go, Team Science!) Earlier this year, most handicappers and polls showed Bollier likely losing to Roberts (should he win the R nomination), things have changed substantially. Polls show a tight race - sometimes she's even found to be in the lead in a now-seesaw race. The fundraising is hot in Kansas from both sides - and she's holding her own. Bottom line: THE MATH SAYS BARBARA CAN WIN.

Sawbuck Patriots, it's go time: click HERE to send $10 (or more!) to Dr. Barbara's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $8226 today.

Thank you!

- Alex / www.sawbuckpatriots.com

Alex Clemens

DAY FORTY-THREE - DR. BARBARA BOLLIER

Sawbuck Patriots, it's go time: click HERE to send $10 (or more!) to Dr. Barbara's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $8226 today.

DAY FORTY-FOUR - BREAK THE KS STATEHOUSE SUPERMAJORITY

DAY FORTY-TWO - JON HOADLEY

Join us - click HERE