My Endorsements for 2018 U.S. Senators (July 2017)
I, Marian of ~MA Redpine~®, proudly announce my official endorsements of three Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senators in 2018: Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Beto O’Rourke of Texas.
Joe Manchin III (West Virginia): As a conservative/centrist Democrat, Joe reminds me of his predecessor, late Robert C. Byrd, who served in the U.S. Senate for historic-longest 51 years from January 1959 through June 2010 (his death time). Like Robert, I’m sure that Joe will easily win the U.S. Senate re-election at least 60% in the deep-red state next year, defeating a winner of the Republican primary election (most likely centrist U.S. Representative Evan Jenkins over far-right conservative West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey). Prior to his current position, he was the secretary of state and governor in his state. Like Robert and myself, Joe is one of many conservative or centrist Democrats who believe the traditional family values, including a marriage between one man and one woman only accordance to Christianity’s Holy Bible. Like Robert during his senatorial tenure, Joe is one of the most respectful senators ever I’ve seen in the U.S. Congress. He is on the Senate Democratic leadership as well.
Tim Kaine (Virginia): Last year, the moderate Democrat was the U.S. Vice President nominee along with Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, formerly First Lady for her husband Bill Clinton from 1993 through 2001. Tim was the lieutenant governor under then-Governor Mark Warner (now other U.S. Senator) before he became the next governor of Virginia. Before that, he was a mayor of Richmond. He will be challenging a winner of the Republican primary election that includes far-right conservative Corey Stewart, who lost to eventual nominee Ed Gillespie in the 2017 Virginia Republican gubernatorial primary election last June.
Beto O’Rourke (Texas): Beto is currently the U.S. Representative for the 16th Texas District serving El Paso and is seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican senator Ted Cruz in next year’s U.S. Senate election in Texas. I am very impressive with Beto for supporting the term limits for the U.S. Congress. Like me, he is one of the only few Democrats supporting the term limits along with about half of the Republicans in the current U.S. Congress. Beto is trying to unseat far-right conservative Ted Cruz to become the first Democratic senator to represent the state of Texas in 25 years next year.
As I consider myself as a slightly right-centrist Democrat, I have a lot of common political things with those three centrist/moderate Democrats:
- Strong bipartisanships on numerous issues, presidential nominations and legislation bills
- Always putting the legal American citizens first over the special interests, corporations and globalism.
- Supportive of the military and veterans
- Civil rights including Disability and Deaf rights
- Women’s rights to empower
- Climate Change environment
- Economy: Tax reductions from the low/middle-class individuals and families; Tax raises on the wealthiest people (especially millionaires and billionaires) and big corporations
- Affordable healthcare, including Medicaid that protects the patients who are elder and severely disabled. I agree with most moderate Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, that the Affordable Care Act legislation needs to be resolved in the bipartisanship between the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate after the new GOP healthcare bill 2.0 failed again. (On 17 July 2017, I proudly applauded four GOP senators for opposing the Trumpcare “Repeal and Replacement” bill -- Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas.)
- Privacy protection rights
- Gun control: Guns and weapons must be limited to the police and military personnel only with vetting security background within the government. Owning guns and weapons must be banned for all private citizens and immigrants for everyone’s safety from the terrorism in the U.S.
Those three Democrats are very easy for me to endorse for next year’s U.S. Senate elections. I wish them the Best Luck!