On Friday, National Coming Out Day, Julian Castro and Tom Steyer explicitly celebrated, while Kamala Harris simply dropped her plan. Pete Buttigieg began another fundraising push, and Cory Booker knows my weakness.
| Emails | Campaigns | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 55 | 14 |
| Non-Donor | 29 | 14 |
| Donor | 26 | 11 |
Kamala Harris realized she was slacking and sent out 4 emails on Friday to put herself in the email lead again. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar all restrained themselves to just 3 emails. Just about everyone else who emailed stuck to 2 emails, except Michael Bennet, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Joe Sestak, and Tom Steyer, who each sent 1.
Despite it being National Coming Out Day, not many candidates celebrated via email. (There were many celebrations on Twitter.) Julian Castro sent a nice email (one of his staffers sent a nice email) detailing his history with LGBTQ+ rights and how his record demonstrated he was a firm ally. Kamala Harris talked about her appearance on the CNN LGBTQ+ town hall Thursday night, and how her record shows she’s also always been an ally. In addition, she spoke a little about her plans for moving LGBTQ+ rights forward. Tom Steyer also offered up a clip from his appearance at the town hall, thanking all his supporters who answered his survey about what they wanted him to talk about.
Pete Buttigieg began a new fundraising push, Keep the Lights On. Sounds a bit like he’s desperately out of money, but no, actually, this was referencing an event on the campaign trail. While giving a speech in Sparks, Nevada, the power suddenly cut out.
Just take the other week, when the lights went out at our rally in Sparks. Seriously, the place was pitch black. But Pete didn’t leave the stage. Supporters didn’t panic. They chanted his name. Then one by one, hands rose up and illuminated the place with phones. We brought the light back, together.
Paul Selberg, Nevada State Director, Pete for America
This was an incredibly powerful moment, and it happened purely by chance. Clearly, Buttigieg’s team is capitalizing on it: bring the light back is such an important metaphor this election cycle. I don’t think he could have created a better moment if he’d planned it.
Campaigns have to capitalize on what they’re given. Andrew Yang, for example, is using a recent news story where he was put in Tier 4 of candidates to push for more fundraising. He is trying to gather 40,000 contributions so he can prove that the Yang Gang is unstoppable.
He did stop calling me Yang Gang, though, and went back to the generic and bland “Friend.”
Yang also screwed up my city. In the donor email, he got my location correct, but in the non-donor email, I apparently moved to Kansas City. Interestingly, he was asking for $1 from my home city and $5 from Kansas City (though I suspect this was because I had donated $1 and he was mirroring it in the donor email). Also interesting, he ran the numbers and if just 53 more people from both my home city and Kansas City donated, he’d make his goal!
Funny how conveniently those numbers are exactly the same, huh?
Joe Biden is also using what he was given, trying to capitalize on Trump’s attacks to raise more money. He gave a STUNNING call to action, his campaign declared, and now Trump is TERRIFIED.
Bernie Sanders released a new sticker, free with donation ($9 is what most people give, but you can give whatever you feel is fair).
Cory Booker capitalized on his own strengths too, still offering me a chance to grab dinner with him and promising that he wouldn’t overdo the dad jokes… unless I wanted to hear his best material.
I swear, sometimes that man is trying to market directly to my soul.
And speaking of souls, Marianne Williamson made a valid observation that I agree very much with.
In 2016, people were angry. But that’s not the dominant emotional tenor of the American voter in 2019. Today, people are exhausted. They aren’t looking for a fight now; they’re looking for inspiration.
Marianne Williamson
2016 and even 2018 were years of anger, but she’s absolutely right. 2019 is shaping up to be a year of exhaustion. We’re all worn down by Trump, and we want it to end. We’re willing to fight, if that’s what it takes to end it, but we’re really just looking for someone to soothe our burns and make us feel better. America is hurting. It’s hurting badly. We need someone who can help us get back to our feet.
