Democrats trying to unseat each other II

[lpetrich]

Katie Hill is getting into the game also.

HER Time on Twitter: "We need people in Congress who are not just there to take votes, but will fight for issues that uniquely and disproportionately impact women. That’s why we’re proud to announce our full list of frontline endorsements - let's protect our House majority by re-electing them in 2022! (link)" / Twitter

Angie Craig MN-02 0.42, Katie Porter CA-45 0.24, Lauren Underwood IL-14 0.30, Susan Wild PA-07 0.29, Abigail Spanberger VA-07 0.50, Sharice Davids KS-03 0.35, Mikie Sherrill NJ-11 0.38, Lucy McBath GA-06 0.37, Elissa Slotkin MI-08 0.42, Haley Stevens MI-11 0.35, Cindy Axne IA-03 0.51, Kim Schrier WA-08 0.35, Carolyn Bourdeaux GA-07 --, Jahana Hayes CT-05 0.10, Susie Lee NV-03 0.41, Lizzie Fletcher TX-07 0.40.

Many of them more centrist than left-wing, the sort who got annoyed by AOC's campaign donations.

I found their ideology scores with Report Cards for 2020 - GovTrack.us

 

[lpetrich]

AP Politics on Twitter: "BREAKING: U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley defeated by young challenger in Democratic primary in New York." / Twitter
datelined 6:51 PM · Jun 26, 2018

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter: "Three years ago today.

Not a day goes by where I’m not forever, deeply grateful to our community and movement of everyday people whose contributions, effort, and support sends me to Congress.

Thank you for taking a chance on me, NY-14. Every day is for you " / Twitter
That's very sweet.

House Democrats launch PAC to protect incumbents from attacks from within

The PAC is being established by three rising stars in the House Democratic Caucus: Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Terri Sewell of Alabama.

...
Two of this new group's leaders — Gottheimer and Sewell — represent the more moderate factions of the Democratic caucus, which are more likely to see primaries from the left. Gottheimer is co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, and Sewell is a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Black Caucus. Jeffries is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose members are also facing primaries from the left.

The group plans to defend progressive members Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., who are already facing primary challenges from the far left.

Their ideology scores: Josh Gottheimer NJ-05 0.64, Terri Sewell AL-07 0.32, Hakeem Jeffries NY-08 0.25.

 

[lpetrich]

Over in reddit, u/sXehero137 is posting his/her/their/its "List Of 2022 Progressives Running For U.S. Congress" with updated versions posted every now and then. Already at some 58 candidates.


Brand New Congress is now endorsing:
Angelica Dueñas CA-29
Malcolm Kenyatta PA-SEN

AD is trying again.


Nina Turner Is Running to Join the Squad | The Nation
"Can the Sanders surrogate win over her district without losing her supporters on the left?"

Before there was the Squad, or even the glimmer of a movement by insurgent progressives to challenge incumbent congressional Democrats, a progressive Black woman legislator in Cleveland contemplated what to many Democrats was unthinkable at the time: challenging a respected Black congresswoman from the left in a primary, in this case Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio, in 2012.

In the end, Nina Turner didn’t run against Fudge, but even announcing she was considering it made her an outsider to establishment Democratic Party politics.

...
Now Nina Turner may be poised to actually join the Squad. In her run to fill the seat vacated when Fudge became the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the former Ohio legislator has the endorsement of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush, four women of color who either defeated an incumbent or ascended after an incumbent stepped down. She’s also backed by Progressive Caucus chairs Pramila Jayapal and Katie Porter, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison—and, of course, Bernie Sanders.

...
The key to this race, though, will be winning over her district’s many Biden supporters—the president won roughly 80 percent of the general-election vote here last year, as did Clinton four years earlier—without losing her admirers on the Sanders left.

...
Meanwhile, her leading rival, Cuyahoga County councilwoman and Democratic Party chair Shontel Brown, is running on her ties to the president. A recent ad includes a photo of Brown with Biden and features a cable host telling Turner, “You’ve been highly critical of President-elect Joe Biden.” The ad closes with: “I’m Shontel Brown, and I’ll work with Joe Biden.” (By press time, Clinton had endorsed Brown.)

Back in mid-2020, an article in The Atlantic noted NT's lack of enthusiasm about Joe Biden. “It’s like saying to somebody, ‘You have a bowl of shit in front of you, and all you’ve got to do is eat half of it instead of the whole thing.’ It’s still shit.”

But since he became President, NT praised him, especially for his COVID-19 response.

Democratic voters will decide in an August 3 primary. An internal poll released on June 1 showed Turner at 50 percent and Brown at 15 percent, trailing “undecided.” But observers say the race could tighten, given Brown’s access to outside money.

 

[lpetrich]

The article then got into her biography, of the difficult life that she had.

She got into Cuyahoga Community College, and one of her teachers was American-black history teacher Dorothy Salem, "my mentor and surrogate mom".

“She’s a white lady with blond hair—and I was in my Black history class,” Turner recalls. “Of course, I was like, ‘White people can’t teach Black history!’ I’m looking at my schedule and saying, ‘I gotta be in the wrong class!’” Salem confirms the story: “Students would come to class the first day, look at me, and check their schedules. That was Nina. She came in and sat in the back of the class, and I could tell I had to prove who I was.”

NT got a master's degree at Cleveland State University, and went on to become a history professor at CCC in 2009. She also worked as a political aide in a variety of jobs, got elected to the Cleveland city council in 2005, and to the Ohio State Senate in 2008.

Then Issue 6, the reorganization of the Cuyahoga County government. "The measure did away with the all-powerful three-person county board and created an elected county executive and an 11-member county council. Democrats were against it, because it meant some Republicans could win seats."

NT recalls "Old-time Democrats, old-time Black leaders, opposed it. When it came to county corruption, in terms of Democrats, I stood up to say, ‘We have an opportunity to change the structure and let more people be in elected leadership.’ They threatened to ruin my career."

A local black newspaper caricatured her as Aunt Jemima.

In effect, a black version of Tammany Hall. In the mid to late 19th cy., it catered to Irish immigrants but was often grossly corrupt.

"Soon came the issues that would cement her image as a progressive rabble-rouser: the 2010 GOP takeover of state legislatures across the country, as well as Congress, and the rise of anti-worker, anti-women, and anti-voter legislation nationwide."

 

[Swammerdami]

Democratic voters will decide in an August 3 primary. An internal poll released on June 1 showed Turner at 50 percent and Brown at 15 percent, trailing “undecided.” But observers say the race could tighten, given Brown’s access to outside money.

I've not taken sides in the Turner vs Brown contest. But in general the fact that money may undo a 50-15 advantage seems quite discouraging.

 

[lpetrich]

Then Nina Turner's campaigning for Presidential candidates. In 2016, she campaigned for Hillary Clinton, and then she discovered Bernie Sanders.

Turner thrilled to his calls for Medicare for All and free college and to his campaign’s defiance of centrist incrementalism. Turner thrilled to his calls for Medicare for All and free college and to his campaign’s defiance of centrist incrementalism. Sanders also asked Turner directly for her support; his team courted her ardently, something Clinton never did. In fact, at a women’s conference in 2015, Clinton failed to recognize her. The memory still causes pain.

Then her present run for office.

Turner is walking a careful line in this race. She never hides her commitment to Sanders, but in certain settings she puts more emphasis on her strong Democratic Party ties. She has come in for criticism from the left: After the podcaster Jimmy Dore trashed Ocasio-Cortez for opposing a doomed attempt to force a vote on Medicare for All at the start of this congressional session—addressing her viciously as “You liar. You coward. You gaslighter”—Turner defended her and the rest of the Squad on the lefty Humanist Report podcast.

“The Squad is ultimately the best that we have in terms of being able to push an agenda,” she said passionately. “Just because they’re not using the exact tactics some in the activist community want them to… Guess what: If you’re throwing away members of the Squad, then you’re not going to have anybody there.”

 

[lpetrich]

Corporate Democrats are scrambling to keep Nina Turner out of Congress | Salon.com
Like Hillary Clinton, who has endorsed NT's main opponent, Shontel Brown.

The contrast was sharp with Brown, who chairs the Democratic Party in Cuyahoga County, a major population center that includes the city of Cleveland. The discussion of health care was typical: Brown voiced a preference for a "public option," while Turner strongly advocated Medicare for All while calling the current health care situation "absurd" and "asinine." Brown sounded content to tinker with the status quo. Turner flatly declared: "The employer-based system, the commodification of health care, does not work in the United States of America. Almost 100 million people are either underinsured or uninsured right now."

...
So the attacks are escalating from Brown's campaign. It sent out a mailer — complete with an out-of-focus photo of Turner, made to look lurid — under the headline "Nina Turner Opposed President Biden and Worked Against Democrats." A more accurate headline would have been: "Nina Turner Supported Sen. Sanders and Worked Against Neoliberal Democrats." The Brown campaign's first TV ad, which began airing last month, features her saying that she will "work with Joe Biden … that's different than Nina Turner."

Rep. James Clyburn Opposes Sanders Ally in Special Election - The New York Times
He is in the House leadership as the Majority Whip.

"The decision by Representative James Clyburn to oppose an outspoken ally of Senator Bernie Sanders in a special election in Cleveland highlights the generational and ideological gulf in the Democratic Party."

 

[lpetrich]

Charles Booker is now officially in the Kentucky Senate race. If he wins the Democratic primary, he will be up against incumbent Senator Rand Paul.

Another progressive PAC: Democracy for America : Home

Endorsing
Aramis Ayala FL-10, because Val Demings will be running for US Senate, challenging Marco Rubio.
Michele Rayner FL-13, because Charlie Crist will be running for Governor of Florida.

 

[Rhea]

What do his chances look like, though? Are Rand’s numbers strong?

 

[lpetrich]

What do his chances look like, though? Are Rand’s numbers strong?

I checked on polling site RealClearPolitics - 2020 - Latest Polls
I found polls for AZ, GA, and NH, but none for KY.

I found this cute comment:
Sarafina Chitika on Twitter: "You know you're out of touch with your district when nearly every non-incumbent you endorsed loses -- most of them badly -- after round one of voting. Not looking great for @CarolynBMaloney in her upcoming primary against @RanaForCongress. (pix link)" / Twitter

While some of AOC's endorsements won, like her good friend Tiffany Caban. She endorsed 60 candidates in 31 districts, and so far, 16 of them won.

Brand New Congress is now endorsing Marsha Williams IL-16, bring its endorsed non-incumbents to 8. Justice Democrats is a bit behind, at 4.

 

[lpetrich]

Donna Imam on Twitter: "It's on! I'll see you out there. (vid link)" / Twitter
Donna Imam announcing her candidacy.

She plans to run in Austin TX, but she doesn't know which district to run in, since Texas will be having some redistricting.

Brand New Congress is now endorsing 11 candidates.

• Against D incumbents (4): Angelica Duenas CA-29, Shervin Aazami CA-30, Melanie D'Arrigo NY-03, Rebecca Parson WA-06
• For open seats (4): Nina Turner OH-11, Jessica Mason TX-30, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick FL-20, Malcolm Kenyatta PA-SEN
• Against R incumbents (3): Marsha Williams IL-16, Brittany Ramos De Barros NY-11, Charles Booker KY-SEN

Challenging Jerry Nadler in NY-10 is a certain Ashmi Sheth.

 

[lpetrich]

With 2 weeks to go, the special election for the Ohio 11 Congressional seat heats up

The race in OH-11 has been heating up, with Shontel Brown issuing attack ads against Nina Turner, claiming that she would not work well with centrist politicians like Joe Biden.

NT responded with attack ads of her own, saying that she has not done much while in office, and that she's used her position to enrich her family and friends and herself.

Garfield Heights Councilman Endorses Nina Turner, Says He Was Erroneously Included on Shontel Brown Endorsement List | Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog
noting Councilman Michael Dudley Sr. Endorses Sen. Nina Turner - YouTube

Dudley's endorsement, which he said is one of fewer than 10 he has made in 14 years of elected office, is also a repudiation of Shontel Brown, whom he said erroneously included him on a list of more than 100 local elected officials supporting her.

"You saw my name out there supposedly endorsing another candidate," Dudley said in the video. "That is absolutely not true. I haven't signed nothing or endorsed any other candidate. My endorsement clearly goes to Nina Turner."

He also didn't like the idea of electing someone for "on-the-job training", as he called it. After noting NT's experience,

"We don't want to have a person who's selling us out to special interest groups," Dudley said. "Nina doesn't work for special interest groups. I've known her all these years. She works for the people, and she puts herself on the line for the people."

 

[lpetrich]

How the Cleveland House Race Between Turner and Brown Captures Democrats' Generational Divide - The New York Times

Nina Turner’s move from Bernie Sanders’s campaign co-chairwoman to House candidate has highlighted a Democratic divide between impatient young activists and cautious older voters.

The Democratic establishment is throwing copious amounts of time and money into an effort to stop Nina Turner, a former Cleveland councilwoman and Ohio state senator.

...
On Aug. 3, the voters of Ohio’s 11th District will render that judgment and with it, some indication of the direction the Democratic Party is heading: toward the defiant and progressive approach Ms. Turner embodies or the reserved mold of its leaders in Washington, shaped more by the establishment than the ferment stirring its grass roots.

Democrats say there is little broader significance to this individual House primary contest, one that pits two Black women against each other in a safe Democratic district that had been represented by Marcia Fudge before she was confirmed as President Biden’s secretary of housing and urban development.

...
The outcome of the special election could reverberate through the party. Progressive primary challengers have already declared — and are raising impressive sums, far more than previous challengers — to take on Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney in New York, Danny K. Davis in Chicago, John Yarmuth in Louisville and Jim Cooper in Nashville. They are hoping to build on the successes of Representatives Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman in New York, Ayanna S. Pressley in Boston, Marie Newman in Chicago and Cori Bush in St. Louis — all of whom have knocked off Democratic incumbents since 2018.

...
And now, inexplicably to Ms. Turner and her allies, the powerful Black establishment is intervening in an open-seat race between two Black candidates.

“I don’t begrudge anybody wanting to get involved in the race,” Ms. Turner said, “but the entire Congressional Black Caucus PAC? That’s sending another message: Progressives need not apply.”

The Congressional Black Caucus is taking the side of Shontel Brown, as is Rep. James Clyburn and Hillary Clinton.

 

[lpetrich]

Oil and Gas Heir Funding Super PAC Attacking Nina Turner - "Samson Energy’s chair has donated $1.25 million to the Democratic Majority for Israel super PAC, which endorsed Turner’s opponent Shontel Brown."

Stacy Schusterman, heir and chair of Samson Energy, a fossil fuel company that owns at least 11 oil and gas wells in Wyoming, donated $1.55 million to Democratic Majority for Israel in 2019 and 2020, a super PAC that has in turn spent over $660,000 on ads supporting Brown and attacking her Democratic primary opponent Nina Turner, according to an Intercept review of federal campaign finance records. Schusterman is the super PAC’s largest individual donor.

That PAC is the DMFI. It attacked Bernie Sanders and supported Rep. Eliot Engel against Jamaal Bowman.

While Democratic Majority for Israel describes itself as working to “maintain and strengthen support for Israel among Democratic leaders including presidential and congressional candidates,” much of the group’s ad spending has not focused on a candidate’s support for Israel and has instead launched various attacks on candidates perceived to be more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

...

Some of Brown’s notable backers have deep ties to fossil fuel interests.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, Rep. Troy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Rep. Marc Veasey.

"The Congressional Black Caucus PAC, which endorsed Brown on July 7, has on its board Michael Williams and Al Wynn, who have worked as lobbyists for the petroleum and coal industries, respectively."

 

[lpetrich]

Shontel Brown’s Campaign Website Is Low-Key Pleading for Super PAC Support

Brown’s campaign has listed on its website a set of negative talking points about her opponent Nina Turner, all enclosed in a bright red box. Directly under the red box is a quote from Democratic consultant Mark Mellman, the leader of a major pro-Israel super PAC that has consistently spent large sums of money against Sen. Bernie Sanders and his congressional allies. (“Red box” is a campaign industry term, referring to the spot on the website that candidates use to communicate with outside groups like super PACs.).

How ingenious. Requesting help from PAC's while claiming no direct connection with them.

Corporate Lobbyists Declare War on Nina Turner

Punchbowl News recently posted an invitation for a fundraising reception on June 16 “honoring” Brown. Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA), a caucus vice-chair of the corporate New Democrat Coalition in the House, was listed as a special guest at the event. The coalition’s PAC, NewDem Action Fund, was listed as a host.

...
The super PAC’s treasurer is Marcus Mason, a corporate lobbyist who is also listed as a host of the event. Mason’s clients include Fox News parent company Fox Corporation, private equity giant Carlyle Group, student loan servicer Navient, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, tech giant Google, and gig delivery company DoorDash.

Every other host named on the fundraising event appears to be a lobbyist, too. Virgil Miller lobbies for oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, telecom firms Comcast and AT&T, pharmacy chain CVS Health (which owns health insurer Aetna), and DoorDash. Nicole Venable lobbies for Apple, Bayer, McDonald’s, and Navient. She also represents the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group for corporate CEOs, and surveillance software company Palantir.

Jerome Murray lobbies for the American Investment Council, a trade group for the private equity industry. He also represents the powerful drug lobby Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), as well as drugmakers Pfizer, Amgen, and AbbVie individually. Brandon Garrett lobbies for Walmart, American Airlines, FedEx, Nike, and the Managed Funds Association, a trade group for hedge funds. Dontai Smalls is a lobbyist for UPS.

I quoted that at length because of all the big-money lobbyists it listed.

 

[lpetrich]

But in a Daily Poster live chat, Nina Turner stated her reason for running.

“What came after the Gilded Age? The progressive era,” she said. “We are doing that same dance in the twenty-first century. That just increases my resolve to do what I am doing right now, which is to fight this fight, both in a movement capacity and run for office yet again, to be able to use that platform to do a whole lot of good for a whole lot of people.”

So she's hoping to help end Gilded Age II.

Hillary Clinton Wants Nina Turner to Lose
HC endorses Shontel Brown. The article's author speculates that HC is against NT because NT worked for her 2016 opponent, Bernie Sanders.

The Politics of a Second Gilded Age - I like that article.


I like that comparison, and it is evident that Gilded Age II has accumulated a lot of unsolved social problems, much like previous Schlesinger-cycle conservative eras. Society's elites are reluctant to do much to solve those problems, if they recognize the existence of those problems and not dismiss them as non-problems. Efforts to solve those problems then end that era and start a new liberal era.

I must concede that Gilded Age II has lasted longer than the first one, and that attempts to end it have failed so far. I remember what a flop the Occupy movement was. The organizers of the Occupy camps never bothered to try to find new meeting places after their original camps were shut down.

 Cyclical theory (United States history)

 

[lpetrich]

The Newest Member of the Squad Is Already Backing Challenges to Her Colleagues – Mother Jones - "Cori Bush is jumping in early to try to boost the ranks of the progressive wing of the House"

Rep. Cori Bush is endorsing Amy Vilela, challenging incumbent Dina Titus for NV-01. AV ran back in 2018, and her run was chronicled in "Knock Down The House", along with runs by AOC, CB, and Paula Jean Swearengin that year. Only AOC won, though CB won in 2020. AV sat out 2020 and campaigned for Bernie Sanders, but she's campaigning again.

As a newly elected lawmaker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) raised eyebrows when she called for primary opponents against soon-to-be colleagues soon after her 2018 election. But after that initial broadside, she has ended up being choosy about her endorsements when she actually started working alongside them as a member of Congress. She’s lent her support only to a handful of candidates— and typically not until much later in the cycle. (Ocasio-Cortez conspicuously declined to endorse Bush’s 2020 rematch against Clay after campaigning on Bush’s behalf in 2018.)

Early in the 2020 House races, AOC only endorsed Jessica Cisneros vs. Henry Cuellar in TX-28 and Marie Newman vs. Dan Lipinski in IL-03. JC lost and MN won. Close to the primary elections, however, AOC endorsed Jamaal Bowman vs. Eliot Engel in NY-16 and Alex Morse vs. Richard Neal in MA-01. I think that she did so because she considered the incumbents guilty of moral turpitude. EE of being negligent about his district during the early months of COVID-19, and only returning because he has a primary. RN's campaigners because of their smear campaign against AM.

 

[lpetrich]

Paula Jean Swearengin ran for US Senate in 2018 and 2020, losing both times. First in the primaries, to Joe Manchin, and then in the general election, to Republican Shelley Moore Capito.

I'm Paula Jean Swearengin And I'm Joining The People's Party

The Democrat party didn’t just refuse to support our campaigns, they actively worked against us. Now, the same party that worked so hard to keep Sen. Joe Manchin in his seat in 2018 is using him as a scapegoat for legislation they had no intention of passing in the first place.

Even though I was the U.S. Senate Democratic Candidate in West Virginia, in 2020 the Party refused to support a debate between myself and Republican Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito. They’d rather ignore a non-corporate candidate that would take them to task than give the voters a real choice.

Most recently the West Virginia Democrat Party had a public racist implosion within their Democrat Executive Committee meeting. Despite a public outcry, we heard crickets from Sen. Joe Manchin and the Democrat Party National leaders, even after the public demanded the Chair of the West Virginia State Party to step down. I’ve been thinking about leaving the Democrat Party for a long time. The fact that the party once again was willing to ignore their members AND actively suppressed people of color asking for a voice, was the icing on the cake for me.

Saying that the party leadership didn't help her, even though she ran against a Republican. It's not like she was some DINO.

Two-Time West Virginia U.S. Senate Candidate Paula Jean Swearengin Joins The People’s Party

Swearengin’s duties at the People’s Party will include mentorship and training to Party candidates, infrastructure advising for campaign support as Candidate Engagement director, and building up support as West Virginia State Director. “I look forward to helping vet and mentor candidates that are ordinary people like myself. And help advise on systems that actually build real support for candidates and their teams,” Swearengin said. “We are working to put the power back in the hands of the people. I’m joining a Party that does better than making promises on the campaign trail only to pass bread-crumb legislation when they make it to o office.”

 

[lpetrich]

Paula Jean Swearengin on Twitter: "PSA: I'm joining @PeoplesParty_US! Two party systems are gatekeepers who work for the corporations & they don’t let the rest of us into their so-called “big tent.” If we don’t work together to build a major new party that works for all of us, we’ll continue to suffer together." / Twitter

Also joining the People's Party recently is:

The People’s Party Is Announcing Zeynab Day As The Executive Director Of The National Party
Meet Our New Executive Director
Formerly Communications Director of Brand New Congress.

Justice Democrat Lisa Ring Joins The People’s Party - The People's Party
I Ran As A Justice Democrat. Now I’m Joining The People’s Party.
Formerly candidate for GA-01 in 2018 and 2020 and formerly an activist in the Democratic Party.

This party is now registered in CA, CO, ME, OH, and OR, with more states on the way.


Also running for CA-30 is Aarika Rhodes, alongside Shervin Aazami. Two candidates with names beginning with Aa.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Paula Jean Swearengin on Twitter: "PSA: I'm joining @PeoplesParty_US! Two party systems are gatekeepers who work for the corporations & they don’t let the rest of us into their so-called “big tent.” If we don’t work together to build a major new party that works for all of us, we’ll continue to suffer together." / Twitter

Also joining the People's Party recently is:

The People’s Party Is Announcing Zeynab Day As The Executive Director Of The National Party
Meet Our New Executive Director
Formerly Communications Director of Brand New Congress.

Justice Democrat Lisa Ring Joins The People’s Party - The People's Party
I Ran As A Justice Democrat. Now I’m Joining The People’s Party.
Formerly candidate for GA-01 in 2018 and 2020 and formerly an activist in the Democratic Party.

This party is now registered in CA, CO, ME, OH, and OR, with more states on the way.


Also running for CA-30 is Aarika Rhodes, alongside Shervin Aazami. Two candidates with names beginning with Aa.

I've been wondering why the republicans have been so happy lately!