Donald Trump will still beat Joe Biden in November
Philadelphia — Some Democrats and Independents may see the defeat of Donald Trump and some Republican leaders in Congress such as Mitch McConnell, as a certainty in November. More people on the fringe of this group may wish to that every Republican that hold’s elected official and is up for the possibility of reelection is voted out of office by large, near unfathomable margins. But many Democratic operatives who work in the battleground feel a storm brewing, similar to that of 2016. One operative is Sunshine Johnson a former organizer for Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, in Pennsylvania. Sunshine as she likes to be called is a bisexual, biracial, social democratic, public engineer, working in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I was lucky enough to have an interview with Sunshine, who said this.
Wesley Richards (WR): “Ms. Johnson you worked for former President Barack Obama, as organizer for him in Pennsylvania for both 2008 and 2012?”
Sunshine Johnson (SJ): “Yes.”
WR: “Ms. Johnson why didn’t you work for Hillary Clinton during the 2008, 2016 primary.”
SJ: “I was born in 1987, in Philadelphia. My family struggled, and we had to move as both my mother and father moved from city to city looking for work. By the time I was 10 I had lived in 8 different states and 2 countries. But I do remember my mother being so hellbent on voting in the 1992 election. When my father asked her why she would always answer with ‘Governor Clinton is ready to change this nation. He knows the issues of the working people, people like us. And his wife, oh his wife she is so bright and talented, she knows what I go through.’ I remember going with my mom to vote for Bill Clinton, she was so happy and had a big smile on her face. But by 1998 we had lost confidence in Bill Clinton, sure are job situation had improved, but things still weren’t as we wanted. My father was harassed by the police on anytime he was out in public, my sister & I got dirty looks whenever we went into a grocery store. In 1999 my mother and father had finally saved enough money to buy us a house in a little suburb called Wayne. Are time in Wayne, Pennsylvania was not good, there was so much tension and animosity towards us. I remember in the April of that year my dad was beaten by a gang of 5 white men, but it was how my dad handled it was surprising for me. This was a man who was a victim of hate, but he didn’t argue for hate against people who had used hate against him. We lived on the Pennsylvania main line for 8 more years, until the recession hit. That was around the time I started college, so when I heard of an Illinois Senator of a biracial background was running for President I brought an Amtrak ticket to Des Moines, Iowa.”
WR: “How long did you work for Barack Obama in Iowa?”
SJ: “Two weeks, until September”
WR: “Why did you work in Iowa for only two weeks? Why didn’t you work longer?”
SJ: “Well this was in the early stages of the recession. So many people started to sweat a little, but didn’t really feel the effect. But it was the young college, high school seniors graduating and starting their adulthood were experiencing the early effects. But it was also people like my parents who were lower middle class, who were also experiencing the early effects.”
WR: “Were you going to college at the time?”
SJ: “I had started my first semester at Temple University in late August 2006. But in January 2008 I was told by my dad I couldn’t go to college anymore, that I had to support my family.”
WR: “Why was the burden of caring for a family placed on you, a 20/21-year-old.”
SJ: “Well my mom was diagnosed with early onset dementia, in October 2006. And my father had started to devote more time to caring for my mother, and by January 2008 he had to quit his job as a electrician.”
WR: “Why did choice to become an engineer?”
SJ: “As I stated my father was an electrician, but my mother was a social Worker. When I was 15 my dad was pushing me to get a job that required more skill and education level then a social worker. After he read an article in the Wall Street Journal. My mother had pushed me to become an Artist, preferably a playwright. So I decided to compromise and become an engineer.”
WR: “In 2016 why did you support Bernie Sanders?”
SJ: “I was tired of the Democrats & Republicans. Both parties supported the Iraq & Afghanistan wars, and lied to us. It’s not hyperbole to say that I absolute hated Barack Obama by that point. The man destabilized the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, which holds significance for me, as my father was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1957. And was 1/4 Syrian. I also hated Obama for his lies about hope & change, it was more of the same, and by 2012 I felt like my father in 1996. So when a Democratic Socialist Senator from Vermont came, and started raging against the political machine I like many young people started to gravitate towards his message. As I moved more and more towards Bernie Sanders I felt they same way I felt in 2007/2008.”
WR: “Why didn’t you run for office in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, or 2020?”
SJ: “Well I just didn’t feel like Pennsylvania would be ready for somebody like me. A half Lebanese, bisexual, social democrat, engineer living in Philadelphia. Why I say that is because the only office I would be willing to run for is Governor, Lt. Governor, or one of the Senate seats. I know I would have a better chance getting elected as a local or city official in Philadelphia, but I don’t want that.”
WR: “Tell me about your experience working in this campaign compared to 2016?”
SJ: “In 2016 there was a sense among many political operatives that the populist message of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump was a winning message. I would go into Centre County to canvass and organize for Bernie Sanders, and I mean 80 to 100 people would show up at our little booth, that appeared to be constructed by a second grader. One person said. These weren’t large numbers of people, but the Democratic party in Centre County told me that they have seen Democrats in the county so excited about a candidate, since 2008. I mean it was crazy.”
WR: “After the primary did you work for another campaign”
SJ: “ I did, I worked as a organizer for Katie McGinty who was the Democratic Senate candidate.”
WR: “Why did you work for McGinty?”
SJ: “By that time it was summer, and I hadn’t nothing better to do, and I was in better situation then 2008. So I just went down to the office and volunteered.”
WR: “What was that Senate race like?”
SJ: “Well McGinty didn’t help the PA Dems, as she didn’t run on her own record or opinions. She tried to tie her self to top Democrats in the State and nation, as she touted her record and relations with Governor Tom Wolf who was mildly popular at the time, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama. This made it easier to Toomey to attack us when things turned negative against Hillary, which they did a lot. McGinty just ran a scripted and corporate based campaign, and on October 26th, 2016 I told a friend ‘What is going on. Hillary is going to lose Pennsylvania’.
WR: “What is your stance on the 2020 election”
SJ: “I think Donald Trump is in a better position to win in June 2020, then he did in June 2016. Mainly due to the fact that Joe Biden has co-opted the Hillary Clinton coalition, which said they were going to vote for Hillary and Democrats, but supported and gave money to Donald Trump. These people only view themselves as Democrats, because of social issues, if Democrats nominated Bernie, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Elizabeth Warren, or Marianne Williamson. These suburban Democrats would switch to hard right Republicans on a time, and in a state like Pennsylvania where Philadelphia, more specifically the suburban regions of Philadelphia, have dominated the state and the politics of the state. If Bernie, Yang, Gabbard, Warren, or Williamson would be losing the state by near 20 to 30% point. That is why I give the odds of Trump winning 55% to just 45% for Joe Biden.”
Sunshine Johnson doesn’t reflect the opinions or beliefs of every political operative or party leader in Pennsylvania. Many of the most influential Democrats in Pennsylvania still believe that Joe Biden will win the state handily, but given the fact that on June 15th, 2020 Politico decided to run an article titled “‘We’re thinking landslide’: Beyond D.C., GOP officials see Trump on glide path to reelection”.
