DAY THIRTY-EIGHT - DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL

Oct 6

Day Thirty-eight | Debbie Mucarsel-Powell | FL-26
772 Sawbuck Patriots | $8233 pledged today | $343,906 donated overall

Team:

From the mailbag:

To the Sawbuck Patriots:

Thank you so much for your support and generosity. Thanks to grassroots donors like you, this campaign has grown from a small gathering in the park next to my house to one of the most competitive races in the country. The resources that you have been so kind in giving will be used to get our message out to voters across the district through TV, mail, phone calls, and texts. Your help truly makes all the difference.

Onward to November,

Hillary Scholten

Thank you, Hillary - GO WIN.

Also, gang, I wanted to tell you something that I hope you'll applaud. I won't use last names, because I promised y'all anonymity. But you should know that Robert has pledged $15 a day - every day! - to the Sawbuck Patriot candidate of the day. Nathaniel has pledged $18/day. Jonathan, Alex, Joshua, Karen, and Stephanie have all pledged $20. Wynne, Beth, Kim, David, Amy, Katherine, Julia, Wylie, Paul, Lisa, Col, Tara, Pamela, Elizabeth, Peg, Leslie, Rick, and Bill are kicking in $25. Kathleen is showing up with $50. And Andy has joined me at $100, (and probably also joined me in moving to ramen as a primary food group.)

I get dozens - sometimes HUNDREDS - of inbound emails each day from you fantastic humans saying "I donated in $20//$100/$15/$500/$11 today" ($11 only for Spinal Tap, naturally), which I happily plug into my spreadsheet, which today has 30,108 data points in it, and grows by 700+ every day. And TWENTY-ONE different times, someone on this list (and you all know who you are!) have shot me a note casually saying "hey thanks for today's bulletin, you should know I just maxed out to them," informing me that they've donated $2800 on that very special day.

Folks, I'm completely humbled by your outpouring of support - over the past eighteen days, we're averaging over $11,300/day of donations to candidates and causes. We are likely to crack a half million dollars (or more) of investments in democracy by the end of October. I'm taking the responsibility you've given me quite seriously; I hope you know that I'm working hard to identify the races that are worthy of your investment. I'm attempting to make sure that at the end of this campaign season, this you'll think this effort was worthy of your trust (thanks a LOT, Cal Cunningham), so every time I make an educated guess, I hope it's sufficiently educated, and deadly serious. The stakes couldn't be higher.

But now, let's head to the Sunshine State and help another D defend her seat.

THE SITUATION: Hello, Florida! We're in the 26th - Key Largo, Key West, Marathon, the Everglades - all of the furthest southern portions of Florida - the area south of Miami. The district voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, but it voted for Marco Rubio over his D opponent. The D House rep is in her first term - but before two years ago, it had been represented by an R, and it's got a tradition of flipping back and forth. And until the D won it two years ago, this district has been represented by a Cuban-American since basically forever, because this district is quite substantially Cuban - 65%+ Latino, most of whom have Cuban heritage.

This race is already a knife fight in a phone booth. Both campaigns are savaging the other. It's ugly. And it's a super-close toss-up, according to handicappers and polls.

THE COMPETITION: Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez. His family fled Cuba when he was six. He became a firefighter with Miami Fire, and rose to become City Manager of Miami. Giménez was elected to the Miami-Dade Board of Commissioners in 2004, and Miami-Dade Mayor in 2011. He's running mostly as a fiscal conservative, but solidly plants his feet in the midst of the R platform.

Compared to some of the other Rs we've read up on, Giménez sounds like a relatively decent guy - but he could be MUCH better. In 2016, he stood up to his own party and publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton (who handily won in his city, which might have had something to do with it.) Sadly, he's gone in the wrong direction: now he proudly touts his Trump endorsement. He's been weak on environmental issues like sea level rise, which couldn't be more critical here in the Everglades. And he made missteps in when and how to re-open his city - far too early, causing chaos - during COVID.

However, he's never lost a political race.

(Narrator voice: "Well, it's about time.")

OUR CANDIDATE: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell immigrated to the US from Ecuador when she was 14. She earned a Masters in international political economy from Claremont. Before running for Congress, and winning, two years ago, she worked at a variety of nonprofits and at the College of Health at Florida International University. Two years ago, she methodically and professionally targeted the two-term incumbent, Carlos Curbelo, and shocked the nation by knocking him off, which wasn't anyone's expectation at the race's outset - well, anyone's expectation but hers.

DMP is running on educational opportunity, a living wage, sensible environmental protections, equal pay, repealing Trump's unfair tax overhaul, and gun safety - when she was 24, her father was murdered in front of his home in Ecuador. She's fearless - she's tangled publicly with reckless House knuckle-draggers like Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan. She's got all the right endorsements, from Biden and Harris all the way through Pelosi, who is working very hard to ensure that DMP returns to Congress in the next session.

The money is on Debbie's side, slightly. The polls go back and forth as to who is leading. The charges and counter-charges are ugly here. But she can win. SO SAYS THE MATH. So let's do our part to help.

Sawbuck Patriots, it’s go time: click HERE and send $10 (or more) to Debbie's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $8138 today.

Thank you!

- Alex

Alex Clemens

DAY THIRTY-EIGHT - DEBBIE MUCARSEL-POWELL

Sawbuck Patriots, it’s go time: click HERE and send $10 (or more) to Debbie's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $8138 today.

DAY THIRTY-NINE - STEVE BULLOCK

DAY THIRTY-SEVEN - HILLARY SCHOLTEN

Join us - click HERE