Hey, team! My name is Phil Gardner, and I do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work at the Blue Dogs to help our endorsed candidates stop the extremists they’re running against. In 2022 I helped Blue Dog co-chair Marie Gluesenkamp Perez defeat far-right weirdo Joe Kent (he’s back for a rematch this year).
Look, I work every day side by side with Marie and the other co-chairs to fight for rural America and working people. I also see every day the kind of crazy crap Joe Kent tweets at Marie…
And if I’ve learned anything watching Marie, Jared, Mary and the rest of the Blue Dogs work in Congress, it’s that winning isn’t about being the loudest or having a viral moment, it’s about hard work and compromise to get shit done.
Thanks team, if these guys scare you half as much as they scare me, I know you’re standing with us.
Phil Gardner
The Blue Dogs Team
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We’ve said it before – too many of our Blue Dogs’ races are too close for comfort.
Most are rated toss-ups, and whether it's our incumbents or newly endorsed candidates for the 2024 cycle, they have one thing in common – our Blue Dogs are running against not only extremist candidates but some frankly weird ones.
Here are just a few of the people those dollars go toward stopping:
Joe Kent: WA-03
The ultimate “reply guy,” Joe Kent spends more time in Marie’s replies on Twitter than anything else–and Kent has made his support for the extreme far-right crystal clear.
He called the insurrectionists “political prisoners” and asserted that “government-controlled agents” were behind January 6. And if that’s not enough, he’s been directly tied to Nazi sympathizers. We cannot allow this man in Congress.
With his far-right beliefs and notoriety for cursing out teenage Senate pages while leading constituents on a Capitol Hill tour, Derrick Van Orden is not someone we want to keep in Congress.
He was at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th (!), put his name behind national abortion bans, and gummed up the works so much in Congress that he hasn’t delivered for his district.
When famed extremist Laurent Boebert heard Blue Dog candidate Adam Frisch was in the race, she turned tail and ran – abandoning her seat and running to Colorado’s 4th district, she left a seat that Republicans are rushing to fill with even more extreme candidates.
One of the possible candidates – Russ Andrews – recently bragged that he and Boebert “have pretty much identical policies.” Another candidate in the race Ron Hanks was also at January 6 (noticing a pattern here?)
It doesn’t matter what state or district the race is in, one thing is clear – we can’t let these people into Congress.
That’s what the Blue Dogs are all about, electing reasonable, normal, working people in places where Democrats wouldn’t typically have a shot. We’re also the only line of defense against the next Lauren Boebert or Majorie Taylor Greene – so help us keep the extremists out and Blue Dogs in, chip in now.
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Blue Dogs are normal people in Congress who want to get sh*t done. We believe in freedom and we’re fighting to protect yours. We’re pro-America, pro-democracy, and working to pass fiscally responsible policies that benefit everyday, hard-working Americans.
