Progressives, Keep an Eye on These 10 Races

1. Andrew Gillum, candidate for governor of Florida: The 39-year-old Tallahassee mayor upended conventional wisdom by running a progressive primary campaign that proposed criminal-justice reform, adoption of gun-safety measures, state-based Medicare for All health care, and a plan to create jobs and address climate change by making Florida the country’s “solar capital.”

2. Janet Mills, candidate for governor of Maine: The state’s Republican governor, Paul LePage, is one of the most Trump-like figures in the country. In 2016, he failed to respond to the state’s opioid crisis by vetoing a bill making it easier to obtain the overdose drug Narcan.

3. David Zuckerman, candidate for Vermont lieutenant governor: An incumbent backed by the Vermont Progressive Party (of which he’s a longtime member) and the Democratic Party, in a state where votes on separate party lines can be combined, Zuckerman is an organic farmer who has a talent for getting urban and rural voters together in support of progressive initiatives: legalizing marijuana, labeling genetically modified food, defending net neutrality, raising wages, and welcoming refugees.

4. Dana Nessel, candidate for Michigan attorney general: “The AG’s job is to protect Michigan citizens against the individuals and corporations that would do them harm, not the other way around,” says Nessel, who has mounted an unapologetically progressive campaign to take charge of one of the most powerful law-enforcement posts in the country. With experience as a prosecutor, civil-rights attorney, and head of the LGBTQ-rights group Fair Michigan, Nessel promises to “aggressively prosecute hate crimes and all cases of discrimination, protect women’s rights to access health care, and defend immigrants from federal overreach.”

5. Ricardo Lara, candidate for California insurance commissioner: Big states like California can lead the nation in developing single-payer health-care models, just as Saskatchewan did in Canada. State Senator Ricardo Lara knows this; he led the fight for the Healthy California Act, one of the most innovative single-payer proposals in the country. As insurance commissioner, he’d be uniquely positioned to implement desperately needed reforms—a fact the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee has emphasized in its advocacy for his bid.

6. Ammar Campa-Najjar, candidate for California’s 50th Congressional District: “Country Over Party” is the central message of Campa-Najjar’s campaign, which offers a progressive alternative to the low-road politics of Representative Duncan Hunter, one of Trump’s closest allies.

7. Jahana Hayes, candidate for Connecticut’s Fifth Congressional District: Raised in a public-housing project by her grandmother as her own mom struggled with drug addiction, Hayes says she was “cast aside.” Yet she worked nights, attended community college, and earned an education degree. Her remarkable ability to connect with students in her history classes earned her the 2016 National Teacher of the Year Award.

8. Kara Eastman, candidate for Nebraska’s Second Congressional District: When Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan made an Omaha stop on her behalf, Eastman told him, “I can’t wait to join you in the Progressive Caucus.” While many candidates in swing districts mount insipidly cautious campaigns, Eastman is running as a true progressive. A social worker who has made Medicare for All central to her bid, she declares in ads that “I won’t take a penny from insurance companies.”

9. North Dakota Measure 3, the Marijuana Legalization and Automatic Expungement Initiative: Willie Nelson’s Texas has not legalized marijuana, and neither has Andrew Cuomo’s New York, but North Dakota might just do so on November 6, when jurisdictions across the country vote on legalization.

10. California Proposition 10, the Local Rent Control Initiative: Access to affordable housing has become a front-burner issue across the country. Candidates like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York and Ben Jealous in Maryland have made housing central to campaigns that address economic and racial inequality.



https://www.thenation.com/article/10-more-races-to-watch/