Dear MoveOn member,
Last night, the Republican governor of McConnell's home state of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, lost re-election to his Democratic challenger—in a state that Donald Trump won by 30 points in 2016. McConnell and Trump pulled out all the stops for Bevin, including a Trump-headlined rally Monday night during which Trump said to Bevin, "If you lose it sends a really bad message ... You can't let that happen to me."1
One commentator tried to brush off the news by saying that "Bevin was uniquely unpopular, even within his own party ... Lowest approval of any governor in America."2
Well, do you know who else is uniquely unpopular, even within his own party ... and just so happens to have the lowest approval of any senator in America?3 Mitch McConnell. McConnell's re-election race—and, ultimately, which party will have control of the Senate—will be decided in just under 52 weeks.
Last night's election results in Kentucky should send chills down McConnell's spine, and this comes at a time when the news just keeps getting worse for him—about his own Senate seat and about the prospects of Republican control of the Senate.
Trump's own pollster came out with a poll showing McConnell in a statistical tie against his top opponent, Democratic challenger Amy McGrath. Then, McGrath announced that she'd raised a stunning $10.7 million from nearly 300,000 donations in the third quarter—more than most presidential candidates.4 And McGrath is one of several viable, competitive contenders who are giving McConnell the threat of his electoral life.
Listen, Eddie we have a real shot at beating McConnell and ending GOP control of the Senate next year, in addition to defeating Trump. But we have one big problem: McConnell is up for re-election on the exact same day as Trump, and Kentucky is not one of the key battleground states that will decide the outcome of the presidential election.
We can't possibly consider pulling crucial resources out of the campaign to defeat Trump, so we need everyone to step up and make an extra donation to allow us to fund an entire additional state campaign operation over and above what we need to do to beat Trump and compete in other races in presidential swing states. Will you chip in to help defeat McConnell?
Evidence that we can beat McConnell keeps piling up. Polls show that he's the single most unpopular member of the entire Senate with his own constituents.5 The massive outpouring of small donations to McGrath's campaign and the excitement forming around other potential Democratic candidates show how much grassroots energy there is behind the effort to ditch Mitch.
Meanwhile, the news keeps getting worse for Trump, too, and his approval ratings keep falling, dragging down every Republican with him.6
But defeating McConnell and ending his reign over the Senate is not going to be easy. McConnell is a vicious political attack dog who will have unlimited amounts of money from his corporate backers to tear down his Democratic opponents.
MoveOn has put up billboards across Kentucky, funded by MoveOn members. But McConnell is running ads on TV already. We'll never beat him dollar for dollar, but if we can raise enough in small donations, we'll be able to leverage our grassroots membership and cutting-edge campaign technology to push our message that McConnell must go, and we can get out the vote come Election Day 2020.
But one thing we absolutely cannot do is pull critical resources out of any of the key battleground states necessary for beating Trump. If we're pulling staff time or money that we need to beat Trump from states like Wisconsin, Florida, or Pennsylvania to defeat McConnell, then we're just cutting off our nose to spite our face. We need MoveOn members to step up and let us run BOTH efforts in a huge way—keeping all of our Trump-focused state campaigns fully funded while also funding a huge effort in Kentucky to beat McConnell. And we need similar operations in Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and elsewhere to flip enough seats to turn the Senate blue.
Thanks for all you do.
–Rahna, Nick, Michael, Tzyh, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Trump urges thousands in Lexington to vote for Bevin even though 'he's such a pain,'" Lexington Herald-Leader, November 4, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/112514?t=5&akid=249966%2E10220574%2EuydEM9
2. "Democrats cheer stunning victory as Kentucky's Andy Beshear defeats GOP incumbent governor in red state," AlterNet, November 5, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/112515?t=7&akid=249966%2E10220574%2EuydEM9
3. "Poll: McConnell is most unpopular senator," The Hill, July 18, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/68663?t=9&akid=249966%2E10220574%2EuydEM9
4. "McGrath raises nearly $11 million in third quarter for bid to unseat McConnell," The Hill, October 10, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/111129?t=11&akid=249966%2E10220574%2EuydEM9
5. "Poll: McConnell is most unpopular senator," The Hill, July 18, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/68663?t=13&akid=249966%2E10220574%2EuydEM9
https://act.moveon.org/go/40076?t=15&akid=249966%2E10220574%2EuydEM9
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.
PAID FOR BY MOVEON
This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on November 6, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. If you'd like to receive less frequent emails from MoveOn, you can click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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