For a number of very good people, today is their last day at @OHDems
I want to personally thank them for their service. From @ForwardFalcon to @Vashitta7 to @BennettGretchen to @psbarnacle & others, these good folks left it all on the field, every year, up & down the ballot
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If you are happy to see @OHDems enjoying a stronger, broader local footprint of elected officials than we’ve had in years, thank @ForwardFalcon .
If you liked that we gave @FrankLaRose hell on drop boxes, proving his lie in court again and again, thank @BennettGretchen
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If you believe in registering voters through thick and thin, even in a pandemic, thank @Vashitta7 — who led our voter registration hub effort w passion and creativity
If you believe in the need for good data and training on/access to data at all levels, thank @psbarnacle
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The staff leaving today were part of a team that left it all on the field, and in the process helped re-elect @SenSherrodBrown , helped flip 3 Supreme Court seats in 2 years (best since 1994), and helped secure historic wins for diversity and representation at all levels.
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And after the 30-point losses of 2014, this team helped rebuild a broken party to make the 2018 mid-term the most competitive since 2006, w the highest Dem turnout ever in a midterm and the first statehouse flips of the decade.
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A number of them were key participants in the successful effort to enact changes to the Ohio Constitution to root out gerrymandering once and for all, giving the state a chance, in ‘21, for fair districts once and for all and end the curse of gerrymandering
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And even without the traditional size and in-person efforts seen in a presidential race in Ohio, this team worked closely with the Biden campaign to keep Trump on his heels to the end, so much so that Trump returned here again and again in the final month.
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Bottom line: the good people leaving today have done incredible work in Ohio. I am honored to have worked with each of you, and I look forward to the great service you will continue to do in the future.
We owe you all a debt of gratitude.
END
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I don't talk much about it, but @AOC 's brave comments brought home my own experience, decades ago, when I was abducted at gun point for an hour.
The feeling that your life may end, that your fate is wholly in someone else's hands, that you have no control...
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...never leaves you.
The emotions don't disappear after the situation ends, but they do evolve, from fear to anger--that anyone else would claim for themselves the role of determining whether you live or die. That anyone dared place themselves in that position is enraging.
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And when you see similar situations that arise--a video on the evening news of a 7/11 being robbed at gunpoint, for example--you remember it all again. The feeling of seeing that gun pointed right at you. The lack of control.
It’s a short book. But one of the most consequential in American history. Haunting.
And I keep going back to it now.
The Strange Career of Jim Crow, by C. Vann Woodward
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And it’s scary as hell to say it, but the moment we’re in, and the next 2 years at least, greatly resemble the moment that the progress of Reconstruction hung in the balance.
(Let’s be clear about how dangerous ‘22 is. With a new round of districting
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primaries and a mid-term, some of the very extremists who fomented the insurrection could gain MORE power)
Strange Career is about how the Reconstruction era became the Jim Crow era, which lasted close to a century.
And it’s primary lesson could not be more clear:
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One of the toughest but most important things you do as Chair is calling candidates who left it all on the field, and didn't prevail--usually for reasons way beyond their control.
And no doubt that happened in Ohio last week
I've called many, yet still have more calls to go
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So why I have been talking about Phil, Jessica, Casey, Paula, and Jill?
Because they won last week, which they all did?
No.
Because they lost...in '16, '18, or '19
Their stories teach one of the most important lessons in politics.
Through persistence & focus, Ohio has made huge gains to combat gerrymandering as we hit the re-districting year
1) Activists, good government groups & @OHDems pushed and passed 2 successful Const amendments that enacted restrictions to stop partisan gerrymandering.
2) Knowing that the Ohio Supreme Court will hear direct challenges to any attempt to defy these new restrictions, and that past courts had upheld egregious gerrymandering, @OHDems then prioritized Ohio Sup Court races, and took the Court from 0-7 to 3-4 in the past two years.
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This included ousting two incumbent Justices in two years, no easy task, with Justice @Stewart4OhioSC and Justice-elect @JenniferBrunner doing so through absolutely perfect campaigns and Democrats all over Ohio voting through their entire sample ballot
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