“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and with hold justice from the oppressed people..”
Isaiah 10:1-2
Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.
Mary Harris ’Mother’ Jones
Many in First United Methodist Church Seattle, along with residents of Mirabella are engaged in a non-partisan postcard writing campaign sponsored by the Center for Common Ground/Reclaim Our Vote. They write to voters in states with a history of voter suppression and intimidation and states that have passed more restrictive voter access laws. The message encourages voters to check their registration status, contact their voter registration office, and vote.
The Church and Society/Social Justice Committee hopes this primer on the primary elections will encourage you to become involved now in the postcard writing effort. Please contact Sue Porter (seporter29@gmail.com) if you would like to join other First Church community members in writing postcard to marginalized voters in states where voter suppression efforts are underway.
– Why are we involved in this now? The mid-term elections are in November, but before then there are many state primaries that will decide who is running in the November election. The primary elections also are important because people who vote in the primaries are more likely to vote in the main election.
The upcoming midterm elections will determine the composition of both houses of Congress. In addition, races in some states for governor, state legislative seats and school board positions impact voting rights, the environment, health care, and education. While local races are difficult to follow, the New York Times created a website to follow state primaries and midterm elections.
Here are some of the contests where Reclaim Our Vote is concentrating their efforts and comments from the New York Times election website.
North Carolina: With the Republican senator Richard Burr retiring, the race to fill his open seat will help determine control of the Senate. In the Republican primary, former Gov. Pat McCrory is running against former Representative Mark Walker and Representative Ted Budd, who has former President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement. Cheri Beasley is favored to win the Democratic primary. She would be the first Black woman to serve in the Senate from North Carolina. The North Carolina primary is May 17.
Alabama: Senator Richard Shelby is retiring after more than 30 years in office. Alabama has been racially gerrymandered so that in a state with almost 1/3 Black voters, the new redistricting maps almost guarantee that only one out of seven Congressional districts can elect a Black representative. Besides voting rights and representation, important issues are the state’s refusal of Medicaid expansion which contributed to the closures of two rural hospitals and education. Alabama primary is May 24th.
Georgia: Nowhere are there more elections to watch than in Georgia. Senator Raphael Warnock and Stacey Abrams lead a strong Democratic field in marquee races. Senator Warnock’s re-election bid for a full term in the seat he won last year is critical to Democrats’ hope of maintaining Senate control. (Former President Donald J. Trump endorsed his challenger, Herschel Walker.) Ms. Abrams is seeking to defeat Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican who beat her by a small margin in 2018 — but first, Gov. Kemp will have to best David Perdue, the Trump-backed former senator, in the primary. At the House level, redistricting is expected to pit two Democrats against one other. The secretary of state race is notable: Mr. Trump endorsed Representative Jody Hice to challenge Brad Raffensperger, the Republican incumbent who rejected the former president’s efforts to overturn the election. Georgia’s primary is May 24th.
Texas Primary results from March: Gov. Greg Abbott easily defeated two vocal primary opponents, and Beto O’Rourke, the former El Paso congressman and former presidential candidate, won the Democratic nomination. Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued and Trump-endorsed attorney general, was forced into a May runoff with George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner. Democratic congressional primaries will also go into runoffs in the 15th District — an open seat where the parties are pretty evenly matched — and in the 28th District, where Representative Henry Cuellar faces a progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, who narrowly lost to him in 2020. Run-off elections are May 24th.
Washington: Dan Newhouse and Jaime Herrera Beutler, two of the 10 House of Republicans who voted to impeach form President Donald J. Trump, are seeking re-election and are facing primary challenges. Mr. Trump endorsed Joe Kent, a U.S. Special Forces veteran, in the primary against Ms. Herrera Beutler. Republicans are also hoping to flip the seat of Representative Kim Schrier, a Democrat. Primary elections will be held August 2.