General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWould Jason Kander going to Alabama to campaign for Doug Jones be helpful or harmful to Jones?
Kander was the Democratic nominee for the 2016 Missouri US Senate Election against Republican incumbent Roy Blunt. Kander lost by a 2.8 percent margin while Trump won Missouri by a 18.6 percent margin.
Raster
(20,998 posts)....I see him as an up-and-comer for the Dems. Anyone putting in the effort to campaign for Doug Jones is alright in my book! Moore is a theofascist.
LonePirate
(13,407 posts)democrank
(11,084 posts)He's bold, straightforward, and won't allow himself to be pushed around.
Loved his ad....where he was blindfolded.
brooklynite
(94,294 posts)...because hes not from Alabama. Nobody would know who he was.
democrank
(11,084 posts)They'll know him after he speaks for five minutes. He's focused, bold and courageous....a fresh voice in the Democratic Party, and a voice worth listening to.
brooklynite
(94,294 posts)...the average voter is not.
(nb - I've met Jason several times from the 2016 election; he's a great force FOR Democratic activism, but that won't play strongly in Alabama.
karynnj
(59,495 posts)(the same with Republican endorsements for the Republican.) One would expect, given how polarized each party is, that the norm is every politician supports his/her team. The most they might do is give the nominee a little more attention on the news and if lucky get some positive coverage.
It is only when many of one party support the nominee of the others or definitively that people even notice .... and we saw in 2016 that it did not seem to have a significant effect on the voters.
Onyrleft
(344 posts)even if they don't know who he is there, he should have some sway over reasonable voters.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)Is not to rally, but to quietly raise money for Doug Jones.
sarah FAILIN
(2,857 posts)Specifically I think we need people calling the republicans to see if any of them will come over. Yes, we need to have door to door canvassers too, but I do not know how we will get it done. There are so few active dems that actually go to meetings
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)Typically some of the national groups will buy into a predictive dialer and have people nationwide call into it to call voters in the district/state. I'm sure some are already planning to do so after the November elections elsewhere. If my inbox is correct, Democracy for America will step up.
THe one problem I can see (please correct me if I am wrong) is that many progressives (including myself) are fast talking 'Yankees' (to me that term means a baseball player) and would fit in like a fish out of water in Alabama. (I've never been to Alabama, but I was born and raised in NY, and throughout my 9 state political career I've been called a Yankee and told I talk too fast). I wonder if that has the potential to backfire.
sarah FAILIN
(2,857 posts)Yes, it is a potential problem, but I do not know how else we are going to get the calls made and we need to get calls made to republicans and dems alike. Right now the calls are supposedly focused on known dem voters which I feel is a mistake.
We have dem voters and I know we are going to get cross over votes from people ashamed of Moore, but we don't have a lot of dem volunteers in rural areas. I get excited in 20 show up to our local meeting.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)KNown Dems is where to start (and they're the likely people that turn into volunteers and donors).
As far as the national groups. Right now most are focused on the elections in November, but look for help after then.
sarah FAILIN
(2,857 posts)I don't feel like it's early at all, lol.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)That said (I'm typing this as I'm managing a 9 person phone bank for local races in NJ) the national organizations are putting effort into VA and the special election in WA (control of the state senate is at stake) and will probably shift to AL after those elections.
Yes his operation officially began when he won the primary, but the election was only set in stone last week.
I may end up hopping on a dialer myself for an hour if they can stomach this northerner making calls. But I've got races in NJ to win first.
sarah FAILIN
(2,857 posts)I honestly have no ide how this stuff works
JustAnotherGen
(31,777 posts)But we need all the help we can get in NJ flipping everything. Nothing is a slam dunk.
haele
(12,635 posts)Even my shot-from-working-shipyards southern Californian ear can hear at least five different variants of the Alabama accent of my in-laws, depending on whether they're north or south, or closer to Florida, Tennessee, or Mississippi.
I could fake a bit of a Tuscaloosa accent - sort of a Southern version of Eliza Doolittle at the beginning of My Fair Lady - because I hear that from my sister-in-law all the time. But I wouldn't dare attempt to "pass" as a southerner without a month or so of practice with a dialect coach.
BTW, there are two versions of stereotypical Southern accent I hear most people try to fake - one is closest a North- East Texas/Arkansas accent and the other is an exaggeration of a Appalachian patois mixed with an east Mississippi accent.
Neither of which you'd recognize as someone who actually grew up in the South.
On edit - don't see that Kandar would hurt Jones. Alabama isn't quite as isolationist from their neighbors as the Evilangelical GOP churches would like to pretend.
I would have suggested Don Siegleman, who still has somewhat of a base, but my MIL says that there's still some people out there with "brushes full of stink" just waiting to smear him some more.
What would help Jones is to bring up the implications of using the Senate to ensure that at least some of the foreign investments in Alabama actually help the state instead of only lining pockets of lobbyists and oversees executives.
Haele
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)However, I sound like Kyra Sedgwick's character on The Closer. It is just too fake sounding.
sarah FAILIN
(2,857 posts)We hear fast talkers with a different accent and it gets people confused which is the main issue. People get scared they're going to be tricked into thinking something or giving out personal info.
I never knew there were so many southern accents. We don't think we have one unless we fake it, but my husband and I both went to college with people from other areas and watered our accents down..
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)Right after their primary I sent $25 to Jones. I think they are using Ossoff staff or something because I immediately began getting those ridiculous, hysterical e-mails begging for more money. They hit every day. I finally unsubscribed and told them why.
That shit is out of hand.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)though he favors gun control. I helped raise $ for his camp. He would have won, but for the last 2 weeks, the Repubs targeted him with a flood of negative ads. That's the problem; they do that right at the end of races when the polls show it's narrow, unlike the Dems who decided.to stay away, so we wouldn't stir it up.
grantcart
(53,061 posts)kentuck
(111,049 posts)But they don't want to send Nancy down there...
ecstatic
(32,641 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Hold rallies in some of the smaller towns, talk to the local media without the Fox filter, and tell the crowds about the Democratic platform. Generate some local excitement, buck up the locals who have been fighting the good fight, and demonstrate to the people of Alabama that Democrats care about them.
Guaranteed to achieve victory? No, but it's a damn sight more than what Democrats have been doing in Alabama. Let's see how it goes in a relatively small, relatively inexpensive media market.
GaryCnf
(1,399 posts)But folks are missing a major force.
Doug Jones may be an old white guy but he's an old white guy with a lot of credibility in the black community. I've talked to friends who know in Montgomery and they think he will get more like Obama-level turnout than Clinton-level turnout if he just reaches out and talks about how he had the courage to go after white hate when it was not popular to do so. He's a good person.
We can win this.