DAY TWENTY-THREE - JON OSSOFF

Sep 21

Day Twenty-three | Jon Ossoff | Georgia Senate
598 Sawbuck Patriots | $6380 pledged today | $174,375 donated overall

Team:

Found in the inbox:

Sawbuck Patriots:

Thank you for your contributions! Your generosity helps us continue our momentum heading into November, and I’m thankful for your support.

As you know, these past few days have brought us a number of challenges and fears. We are in tense and dangerous times under this President. There are members of Congress like Rep. Mike Garcia willing to put extreme partisanship and blind loyalty to Trump above the wellbeing of our communities. As a Congresswoman, my decisions will be driven by commonsense ideas that will benefit you, your family, and our country - not special interests.

In less than two weeks from today, ballots will begin arriving to registered voters in CA-25. All our efforts from now until November 3rd will go into our voter outreach and our GOTV plan, particularly in our work to reach out to the Hispanic community in the district. Thanks to your support, we are more than confident we’ll have the resources we need to reach out and educated these voters and help them come up with a safe and secure plan to vote.

Thank you for your investment in my team. Together, we will win in November.

Christy Smith

THE OVERALL SITUATION - PLEASE READ CLOSELY: Their words are all over the internet: R Senator after R Senator (Graham, Cotton, Rubio, Gardner and more) made staunch declarations in '16 during Scalia/Garland that should the SAME death of a Justice happen with a REPUBLICAN as President well then they'd act the SAME way because they have PRINCIPLES and this isn't about POLITICS how dare the Democrats say it's about POLITICS. (Here's an ad of Senator Disgraceful Weathervane making a promise he knew he wouldn't keep.) That, of course, was all BS, as proven by the past 48 hours.

So, gentlefolk: the path has become clearer. R Senate leadership WILL attempt to force through a pure, party-line hearing on Trump's appointee (Lagoa or Comey Barrett) either before the election or before the inauguration. There are few ways to stop it, besides sudden spine growth occurring in some Senators. (And no - "I won't support a vote before the election" doesn't prove spinal evidence. They have to say, and mean, and follow through on "I will only support a vote on a candidate proffered by the winner of the November election." Listen to the outs; they are building in plenty.)

Should Biden and Harris win, but we don't take the Senate, we will find legislative gridlock in Congress, an ongoing battle between the Executive and Legislative branches, and a right-leaning SCOTUS that wields more power than before as legislative and policy battles fall ever more towards a functioning branch of government.

At this point, I want to believe that the House will remain in D hands - though we must work to help it stay that way. With that said: at this point, should Trump win, but the Ds take the Senate, it is possible that sober and dedicated legislators may be able to stave off the excesses of the tyrant in the White House.

But if Trump wins, and the Senate is held by the Rs, well ........ I've rewritten this sentence a dozen times, because I don't have access to the right words.

Sawbuck Patriots will certainly continue to support some folks in House races between now and the election, of course. But I'm going back to my steering committee and my best advisors in coming days to confirm what I believe; with the tragic death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the nonchalant hypocrisy of the R Senate leadership, our most important battle is for control of the Senate, and perhaps to the exclusion of most other things.

Out of necessity, I expect we'll triple down on Senate races, hitting many of them more than once - and also visit organizations that support voter registration and voter turnout in states with critical Senate races as well. I hope you'll be with me as we adjust our strategy due to circumstance.

And let's start in Georgia.

THE SPECIFIC SITUATION: Georgia's a big, diverse Southern state. Most don't know that it's the eighth-most populous state in the nation, it has changing and expanding demographics that, more and more, favor Democratic candidates. The ever-more-sophisticated region of metro Atlanta is the fourth-fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation, and more than half Georgia's population is there. (Given the trends in GA and other states, it's not inconceivable that Georgia could be a top-five-population state by 2030 - really!)

And while Georgia hasn't had a Democratic Senator since the early '00s, there are a couple races going on right now that could change that dynamic. Today we focus on one of them.

THE COMPETITION: Senator David Perdue is a charmer. A management consultant, he's served as CEO of Reebok and Dollar General, amongst other companies. He's one of the wealthiest members of the Senate. He urged Trump to dump the Paris Agreement, supports repealing Obamacare, has sponsored legislation sharply reducing immigration and restricting family reunification.

And he's a paragon of rectitude, when it comes to some things. Purdue was in the meeting where President Trump used the phrase "shithole countries" in an immigration discussion. Even though the very leaky White House immediately leaked out many contemporaneous confirmations of the President's interesting choice of words, Perdue said that he didn't remember Trump saying that. Three days later on Meet The Press, he stated that Trump absolutely didn't say that.

(Narrator voice: "Trump said that.")

Oh, and because anti-Semitism is super-funny and something we shouldn't miss an opportunity to kid folks about, he enlarged the nose of his Jewish opponent in an ad, and also put that photo next to (Jewish) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, saying that they were trying to buy Georgia.

SUBTLE, Senator Purdue. Subtle.

OUR CANDIDATE: Jon Ossoff. Born in Atlanta, educated at Georgetown and the London School of Economics, he's a smart and tough fellow. He's worked for Representatives John Lewis and Hank Johnson, and has been running a media company for most of the past decade. You'll remember that he ran in one of the most focused-upon Congressional races in US history in 2017, as the nation was reeling from Trump's election and the subsequent chaos. Ossoff narrowly lost to an R in a district where he shouldn't have been competitive - it had a +14 R registration advantage - but made a strong name for himself with a fantastic showing. He's ready to take back one of Georgia's two Senate seats for the D team.

The polls have had both men leading at various points in the race. The handicappers all have this race somewhere between toss-up and lean Republican. Sawbuck Patriots is all in today because THE MATH SAYS HE CAN WIN.

(And wouldn't it be awesomely ironic if Ossoff thoroughly whupped Perdue by a solid margin, rather than just beating him by a ... wait for it ... a nose?)

Sawbuck Patriots, it’s go time: click HERE and send $10 (or more) to Jon's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $6380 today.

Alex Clemens

DAY TWENTY-THREE - JON OSSOFF

Sawbuck Patriots, it’s go time: click HERE and send $10 (or more) to Jon's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $6380 today.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR - EUGENE DePASQUALE

DAY TWENTY-TWO - CHRISTY SMITH

Join us - click HERE