Fellow Democrats – it’s been a huge week in politics, but here are updates on some of the big new items we’re tracking. 

 

Trump Strikes Syria

Thursday night, Trump ordered missile strikes in Syria in apparent retaliation for attacks using chemical weapons on civilians by the Assad government. Obviously the Assad government’s attacks on civilians are unacceptable and despicable, but it’s not clear why the Trump administration is responding the way it is, and how these actions fit into a larger plan to bring peace and stability to the region. We need to see the Trump “plan”, and we fear there is nothing to see other than an escalation of more violence against civilians.

It seems heartless that America is launching air strikes into Syria while Trump is refusing to accept refugees from Syria. If we really want to protect civilians in this conflict, there should be a safe and welcoming place where they can flee the violence. Trump’s values are clear – he’s willing to bomb Syria when he sees violence against civilians, but he’s not willing to let America be a place where those same civilians can go to be truly safe from violence and civil war. We have to get rid of Trump’s Muslim ban once and for all and we need to accept our share of refugees fleeing violence. We can vet people and we can be a safe place for these children and families. It’s our duty as a world leader and it’s our obligation to respecting basic human rights.

We’re hopeful that the Trump administration will make clear what its strategy is and how we’re moving forward in the region. Foreign policy made on the fly at the Mar-a-Lago golf course is an irresponsible way to keep our country safe.

 

GOP Goes “Nuclear” For Gorsuch

The Republicans have used the “nuclear option” in the US Senate to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees so they can pass Trump’s nominee for the court, Neil Gorsuch, without meeting the 60 vote margin that nearly every nominee for the court has met.

Gorsuch is the wrong choice for the court. He’s consistently favored big money and special interests over the rights of working people, siding with insurance companies denying disability benefits and employers discriminating against employees. He’s pioneered a novel standard for judicial review that would allow corporations to attack new rules they don’t like by tying them up in court. And he’s shown troubling signs he would not be an independent check on Trump, which is critically important with President Trump’s attacks on the judiciary and potentially unconstitutional actions.

The Democratic response to filibuster Gorsuch was fair and reasonable – particularly considering that nearly half of all filibusters of judges in American history have happened in the past 8 years by Mitch McConnell’s Republicans against Obama nominees.

Every nominee confirmed to the court since the Eisenhower administration has received unanimous support or has met a sixty vote precedent, with the exception of Justice Clarence Thomas. This is a hugely important appointment, which should have been filled by President Obama, and it should have been a moderate, bipartisan nominee like Merrick Garland.

We want to thank our senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, for standing up to oppose Gorsuch. They have listened to us and worked hard to make sure our voices are represented in the Senate – their leadership to oppose this nomination is deeply appreciated.

 

Manka In The 45th LD

We’re happy to report that the 45th LD Democrats have unanimously endorsed Manka Dhingra, the candidate running for the open state Senate seat in that district!

Manka is a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, an award-winning PTSA mom, and an anti-domestic violence advocate and community leader. She’s running to get the Senate back on track on the critical issues like funding education, improving mental health care, and protecting our environment and more.

This race is critical for retaking our state Senate. Trump got only 28% of the vote in this legislative district and with only a one-seat Republican majority in the state Senate, this is a fantastic opportunity to win a seat we need to retake control of our state legislature.

You can find out more about Manka and please support her campaign at www.electmanka.com!

 

Action You Can Take To Help

1. Sign Our Thank You Card For Senators Murray And Cantwell

We want to thank our Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell for their fight against Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. They have listened and they have led.

We’re collected names of Democrats who appreciate their effort on our behalf – will you sign our thank you card by giving us your name here?

 

2. Commit To Volunteer Or Run For Office

We’ve got a great shot to win back our state Senate this year with Manka running in the 45th LD and Republicans seats up in the 31st and 7th districts as well – but we’ll need your help. We’re going to need help from all over the state in these key districts, and we want to start building our volunteer list now.

If you’re angry that we don’t have a better state budget – if you’re fired up about underfunded schools – if you think we need to do more to make housing affordable and get better pay and benefits for workers in jobs across the state – we can do something about that.

Sign up here and we will be in touch with you about helping us win these critical special elections.

And if you’re interested in running for office yourself or helping someone you know run, we have great training opportunities open for candidate training.

We’ve had 114 people from Washington use our online Train Democrats platform, a way to get candidate training anywhere and on your schedule. We encourage you to check it out yourself!

And if you’re in the Puget Sound area, Camp Wellstone is a great training program whose application deadline is coming up next week. This is a proven successful program for training progressive candidates. Consider signing up for a Camp Wellstone training where you will learn a ton about running for office or managing a campaign!

 

3. Help Fund Our Grassroots Organizing – Join The Resistance!

We’ve rolled out our new program to fund grassroots field organizing across the state – The Resistance! We’ve heard from the activists of the party that field organizing working with local party organizations is the most effective thing we can do to help, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. This is an exciting new program that will help us build the progressive movement, win elections, and retake our state and our country!

Click here to find out more and help fund our grassroots efforts at $3, $7 or $14 dollars a month – even $27 – makes a huge difference! Thanks for considering and again, here is the link.

 

Thank you for your support!