Dear fellow MoveOn member,
I've known Mitch McConnell for a long time, since I was a Cabinet secretary in the 1990s, and I can tell you: He truly is the Darth Vader of Washington politics. Which is why I'm glad to see that he's finally getting into hot water.
The nickname "Moscow Mitch" is sticking to him like glue because of his efforts to kill election security legislation. He's under fire from constituents for blocking bipartisan background checks legislation for gun sales after the mass shootings in Dayton, OH, and El Paso and Odessa, TX.
And, now, he's being called out for blocking funds for Kentucky coal miners suffering from incurable black lung disease.1
Even before these latest controversies, McConnell was the least popular senator in the country with his own constituents. Now, Democrats are lining up in Kentucky to run against him in 2020.
It's clear that Democrats CAN beat McConnell, but there's one giant problem: McConnell is up for re-election on the very same day as Donald Trump and other GOP senators, and Kentucky isn't one of the key swing states that will determine the outcome of the presidential election. MoveOn can't pull money away from their plan to beat Trump and the GOP in 2020, and that's why they've asked me to help raise enough money to increase their overall 2020 campaign budget to take on Trump, GOP candidates who'll determine control of the Senate, AND McConnell at the same time.
Will you join me and chip in $5 a month to fuel MoveOn's 2020 election campaign?
Yes, I'll become a monthly donor to help beat Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and the GOP in 2020.
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Kentucky is one of the biggest coal states in the country. Coal mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, and the number of cases of incurable black lung disease has been on the rise.
If you live in Kentucky coal country, it's pretty much a lock that you know someone who is suffering from the dreadful health effects of coal mining.
For years, Republicans have been incredibly skillful at using divisive issues like guns, global warming, and abortion rights to turn Kentucky coal families against Democratic candidates.
But the truth is that it's the Republicans who don't give a damn about coal miners, except as political props.
That was never more clear than this summer, when a group of coal miners took a 10-hour bus ride to Washington, D.C., to ask McConnell to provide health care funding for the coal miners suffering from the incurable lung disease. McConnell met with them for one minute and then refused to help them.2
This is one of the reasons why McConnell's approval ratings are so bad even in his solidly Republican home state of Kentucky—and it's why we can beat him and so many other GOP senators, if we go big.
But adding Kentucky to MoveOn's list of target states will mean taking on a whole new set of fixed expenses that MoveOn otherwise wouldn't budget for. For instance, to run a real get-out-the-vote operation, they'll need to hire organizers and fund campaign ads.
My friends at MoveOn first contacted me about this challenge—and opportunity—earlier this summer. They wanted to know if I thought it was worthwhile to try to take on McConnell and how much more they'd need to raise in order to defeat both Trump and McConnell in 2020.
I immediately said, "Let's go for it!" Because if we beat Trump, but McConnell remains as Senate majority leader, then he will STILL be able to block anything that helps people or hurts the GOP's big donors.
John, the 2020 election will be a defining moment for America. If we beat Trump and replace McConnell as Senate majority leader, then we'll have a real chance to take back the courts, repeal Trump's tax scam, finish the job that we started on health care with the Affordable Care Act, do something about guns, make progress on the climate crisis, and so much more.
But it starts here, with regular folks like you and me stepping up to make sure that MoveOn has the resources to take on McConnell, Trump, and the GOP and win. Will you join me and chip in $5 a month to fuel MoveOn's 2020 election campaign?
Yes, I'll become a monthly donor to help beat Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, and the GOP in 2020.
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Thanks for all you do.
–Robert Reich
Sources:
Want to support MoveOn's work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it MoveOn needs your ongoing support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
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