Fund Key Candidates and the Press

At no time in history has the future of democracy and the human race on planet Earth been at risk more than NOW! The outcomes of the midterm elections in November, 2022, are critical.

Since tech giants Google and Facebook have sucked up all the revenue for political advertising online, and in our continuing efforts to pioneer solutions to funding the press to tell the stories people must know about to help protect democracy and preserve the Earth, we’ve figured out a new way to host political advertising used by no one else to date.

The liberal blog DailyKos did a version of this back 12-15 years ago with blogads.com, which is out of business now like many newspapers and local online news sites that simply can’t draw political advertising like they used to to pay reporters to cover political news. Facebook and Google don’t pay reporters or cover anything.

What can people do?

Get informed about the key candidates — and their opponents — and help the cause in the most important races with small, grassroots donations to fund candidates most at risk who stand for democracy and support keeping planet Earth livable for us all. At the same time, you will also help fund the press to cover the news and get the word out.

How do we know who the key candidates are in the battle to hold the U.S. House and Senate?

We will be reporting on them here, to help busy people cut past the bureaucratic leg work of figuring this out for themselves.

Reporting has identified four key Senate races, for example, where the stakes are high and the seats most at risk, in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire.

Mark Kelly of Arizona, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada.

We are working in a similar page for key House races.

Senator Mark Kelly, Arizona

Senator Kelly is defending the seat he won in 2020, where he outperformed Biden in all 15 counties. The race is taking place in the shadow of a yearlong right-wing crusade in Arizona to undo Biden’s victory, however, which has turned off many traditional Republicans but could also drive Republican enthusiasm and voter turnout.

Republicans who could challenge Kelly include Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who did acknowledge that Trump lost Arizona, angering the right. He’s tried to regain credibility with the conservative base ever since.

The Republican field also includes the venture capitalist Blake Masters, who has gone out of his way to appeal to Trump-fueled anger at China and immigration over the “porous” Mexican border. Businessman Jim Lamon is also making a race of it with inflammatory TV ads.

“You’ve got Republican candidates doing everything they can to out-Trump themselves in a state that defeated Trump,” according to one Democratic strategist, Tony Cani.

Kelly is married to Gabrielle Giffords, the former congresswoman who was critically injured in a mass shooting in 2011. He’s running as a moderate and touting his background, the son of two police officers. He attended public schools from elementary school through the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

As a naval aviator, he served on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Midway and flew 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm. Kelly was later selected as an astronaut in 1996 in the same class as his twin brother Scott.

He flew his first of four missions into space in 2001 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour and retired from the Navy and NASA after commanding the final flight of Endeavour in 2011. Senator Kelly was sworn into his Senate seat on December 2, 2020 to finish the term of the late Senator John McCain. He lives in Tucson with his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

“We need someone representing Arizona who leads with science, data, and facts,” his campaign says. “Mark is a veteran combat pilot, an engineer, and an astronaut who has devoted his life to public service. Now he’s running for the U.S. Senate to improve people’s lives. Mark refuses to accept corporate PAC money, which means his campaign is fueled by grassroots donors.

“He can’t do it without you!”

Click here to make your contribution today!

You can donate directly to the campaign through the ActBlue link, and send us a Tip with PayPal for bringing you this information and covering these critical campaigns.

Or donate through GoFundMe or Patreon.

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Senator Raphael Warnock, Georgia

Senator Warnock was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in the January 5, 2021, special election runoff, and took the oath of office on January 20, 2021.

Local polling has him in a statistical tie in a general-election matchup with the former football star Herschel Walker, beckoned into the race by Trump. Women have claimed Walker threatened them with violence, and he has acknowledged a history of mental illness, the press has reported. But his stature with Republicans seems to have suffered little.

Senator Warnock needs your help to raise the funds to tackle the old running back off the field.

Donate now to keep Georgia blue and protect the Democratic Senate majority.

“I’m no political insider or career politician. I’m the son of a Georgia preacher who’s committed my life to service. With your support, I flipped Georgia’s Senate seat blue – but I need your urgent help today,” Senator Warnock says. “I’m ready to restore moral leadership to our government – but the GOP is already coming after me, and I can’t do it alone. This people-powered campaign can ONLY win with a massive wave of grassroots support.”

Make a monthly donation now to our people-powered campaign to fight back now and keep Georgia blue in 2022 so Democrats can protect our Senate majority.

Click Here!

You can donate directly to the campaign through the ActBlue link, and send us a Tip with PayPal for bringing you this information and covering these critical campaigns.

Or donate through GoFundMe or Patreon.

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Senator Cortez Masto, Nevada

With Republicans attacking everything from reproductive freedoms to voting rights, Democrats’ 50-50 Senate majority is the last line of defense for our democracy, Senator Masto’s campaign says. But a recent poll shows Masto trailing her extremist, Trump-endorsed opponent by THREE points.

A war of words over Trump’s loss in 2020 is likely to animate the Senate race in Nevada, where the leading Republican, Adam Laxalt, has pushed efforts to reverse Biden’s 33,000-vote win in the state. He has called the falsehood of a stolen election “the hottest topic” of his campaign this year. He has the backing of both Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader.

Masto was first elected in 2016, a protégé of Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader who died last year. Her campaign is being massively outspent in the race, and cable news outlets like CNN are calling Nevada a top pickup opportunity for the Republicans. Outside groups have already poured more than $4 million into Nevada to defeat her.

“I’ve always been in tough races,” Masto said in an interview with The New York Times. “I know that Mitch McConnell will continue to put millions of dollars into this race.”

Laxalt and Masto are former state attorneys general. Laxalt is hammering on fears of rising crime, undocumented immigrants and inflation. The state’s tourist-dependent economy has the nation’s second-worst unemployment rate at 6.4 percent.

Laxalt has accused Masto of failing to stick up for the police and denounce violent crime.

“Vegas can’t survive if violence continues to increase,” he said at a rally in March. “We’re a tourism economy. People are scared to come here.”

Masto, who says she helped deliver Justice Department grants to local police departments, is trying to localize her race, promoting her procurement of funding to combat wildfires and drought in the infrastructure law, which Laxalt opposed.

“Let me tell you, there’s a stark difference between me and Adam Laxalt,” Masto said. “Every day I’m talking to Nevadans, hearing what they need and fighting for them.”

The only way she can turn this around and “defend our democracy” is if you chip in now to help her reach her critical midnight grassroots fundraising goal. Rush a donation now to defend Nevada and our Senate majority.

Donate now to defeat Donald Trump’s endorsed candidate in Nevada!

You can donate directly to the campaign through the ActBlue link, and send us a Tip with PayPal for bringing you this information and covering these critical campaigns.

Or donate through GoFundMe or Patreon.

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Senator Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire

Senator Hassan won her Senate seat by a mere 1,000 votes in 2016. She caught a big break when the most popular official in the state, Governor Chris Sununu, told fellow Republicans he wouldn’t run for Senate.

But voter disapproval of Hassan, which has reached 51 percent, drew a second tier of Republicans off the sidelines, including Chuck Morse, the State Senate president, and Kevin Smith, the town manager of Londonderry. They joined Don Bolduc, a retired Army general.

Hassan, who was twice elected governor, has $5.3 million in her campaign account, far ahead of rivals.

Her campaign boasts that she was one of the original bipartisan negotiators of the infrastructure deal and secured funding for two state priorities, coastal resiliency and high-speed internet (many New Hampshirites work from home). Yet, Republicans point to New Hampshire’s receiving the fewest highway dollars of any state.

“I would say there’s zero chance, barring a disaster in our primary — which is always possible — that she could get re-elected,” said David Carney, a Republican strategist who is advising Morse.

The soaring cost of fuel, in a state with no mass transit and where most homes are heated with fuel oil, is one factor driving voters’ pessimism about the country’s direction. On the other hand, a Supreme Court ruling undermining Roe v. Wade this year could infuriate New Hampshire voters, among the most supportive in the country of abortion rights.

Hassan has won three statewide races, including re-election as governor in 2014, a brutal midterm for Democrats.

“President Obama was not popular in New Hampshire in 2014,” said Ray Buckley, the chairman of the state’s Democrats. “She was able to win.”

Maggie Hassan is the GOP’s top target in 2022. Mitch McConnell and dark money groups have spent more money attacking Maggie than any other Senate Democrat.

Senator Maggie Hassan is working across party lines to solve problems, expand opportunity for all hard-working families and small businesses, and keep New Hampshire and America safe, secure, and free, her campaign says.

In 2016, she was elected to represent New Hampshire in the United States Senate, winning one of the most competitive Senate races in the country by 1,017 votes. Senator Hassan is only the second woman in American history to be elected as both Governor and Senator.

“If we’re going to win in New Hampshire and protect our slim Senate majority, we need all hands on deck,” her campaign says.

Donate today to help keep this seat and our Senate blue.

You can donate directly to the campaign through the ActBlue link, and send us a Tip with PayPal for bringing you this information and covering these critical campaigns.

Or donate through GoFundMe or Patreon.
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