List of Things Progressives Should Do Before Primarying Joe Manchin

After Joe Manchin voted to confirm Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, I heard that there were some calls from people on the left to primary him. Now, I wouldn’t do that. But I cannot 100% control the actions of everyone else.

So, instead, I offer a list of things I think fellow progressives should consider dedicating time, money, and energy towards before trying to knock out Manchin:

• Beat Dean Heller (Nevada)
• Find out about the other four Democratic senators in Romney-Trump states, defend some of them
• Defend the Obama-Trump state Democratic senators: Nelson (Florida), Stabenow (Michigan), Brown (Ohio), Casey (Pennsylvania), and Baldwin (Wisconsin)
• Beat Jeff Flake (Arizona), a Republican senator in a Romney state that Trump won with less than 50%
• Beat the 23 Republicans in Clinton house districts

via http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/6/1629509/-These-23-Republicans-hold-congressional-districts-that-voted-for-Hillary-Clinton

via http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/6/1629509/-These-23-Republicans-hold-congressional-districts-that-voted-for-Hillary-Clinton

• Defend the 12 Democrats in Trump house districts

via http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/6/1629657/-These-12-Democrats-hold-congressional-districts-that-voted-for-Donald-Trump

via http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/6/1629657/-These-12-Democrats-hold-congressional-districts-that-voted-for-Donald-Trump

• Beat the (non-special-case-Utah) Republicans in house districts that Trump won with less than 50%

via http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/07/1630917/-These-40-Republicans-hold-congressional-seats-where-Donald-Trump-took-less-than-50-percent

via http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/07/1630917/-These-40-Republicans-hold-congressional-seats-where-Donald-Trump-took-less-than-50-percent

• Defend the 8 Democrats in house districts that Clinton won with less than 50%

via http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/07/1630918/-These-20-Democrats-hold-congressional-seats-where-Hillary-Clinton-took-under-50-percent-of-the-vote

via http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/07/1630918/-These-20-Democrats-hold-congressional-seats-where-Hillary-Clinton-took-under-50-percent-of-the-vote

• This year(!), take back and retain the governor’s mansions in New Jersey and Virginia, both Clinton states
• In 2018, take back the open governor’s mansions in the Clinton states of Maine, Nevada, and New Mexico
• Beat the 5 Republican governors in states Clinton won: Rauner (Illinois), Hogan (Maryland), Baker (Massachusetts), Sununu (New Hampshire), and Scott (Vermont)
• Defend the one Trump state Democratic governor: Tom Wolf (Pennsylvania)

By MB298 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUnited_States_gubernatorial_elections%2C_2018.svg)

• Take back the governor’s mansions in 5 Obama-Trump states: Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin
• Beat Doug Ducey (Arizona), a Republican governor in a Romney state that Trump won with less than 50%
• Win the governor’s mansion in Georgia, a state that Trump won with only a little more than 50%, and moved significantly towards Democrats in 2016
• This year(!), beat the 17 Republicans in Virginia state house districts that voted for Clinton

via http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/23/1624010/-Virginia-s-House-is-the-most-important-legislature-up-this-year-and-Clinton-won-a-majority-of-seats

• This year(!), beat the 13 Republicans who hold Clinton districts in both the New Jersey state senate and assembly, and defend the 6 Democrats in Trump districts.
• Beat all the Republicans holding Clinton legislative districts up in 2018, and defend all the Democrats in Trump districts.

via http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/02/06/1629653/-Daily-Kos-Elections-2016-presidential-results-for-congressional-and-legislative-districts

• Do something in literal hundreds of local and municipal elections that will be happening in your area/state this year

So, I hope that before progressives hop on a plane to Charleston, they consider that the aforementioned races need attention as well.

Along with the things I put in bold above, there are even more things happening this year. Pay attention to any special elections coming up, especially in Congress and in state legislatures; Georgia’s 6th Congressional district falls into the category of a district that Trump won with under 50% — a huge fall from Romney’s ~23% margin four years earlier.

Happy campaigning, y’all.