The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (v10)

Regular readers know that I've subscribed to emails from the leading Democratic presidential candidates - or, at least, the ones that have been consistently qualifying for the debates. The others, including Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Steyer, have not been in the mix.

This week, I got 140 emails, as follows: Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, and Elizabeth Warren each sent 18; Amy Klobuchar sent 17; Joe Biden sent 15; Kamala Harris sent 14, Andrew Yang sent 12, and Bernie Sanders sent 10. 

Here's what the candidates are talking about:

• Biden: they're talking about Joe's birthday, which is the day of the Atlanta debate; a donation would be a nice present. We're less than 100 days from the first votes- not only that, but the Republicans are going to spend a billion dollars beating up on Joe, according to someone on Fox News. 

•  Booker: there's concern about the December debate, for sure. He also supports the impeachment effort that's underway, and he's not a fan of Tom Steyer who's spent $35,000,000 of his own money so far in his bid to become president. No surprise he's not excited about Michael Bloomberg's fooling around with this, either. 

• Mayor Pete: they're talking about their Marathon States Fund,, the plan to compete in all of the early states including on Super Tuesday and beyond. His contest to go to a Notre Dame game is still running, and he's got new TV ads on the air in Iowa and New Hampshire. He dropped a new economic plan for American families, 'rules of the road' for the campaign, and a solid message on Veterans Day, with a link to his policies for vets.

• Castro: there continues to be a sense of desperation here, with frequent message about Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Steyer qualifying for the next debates, Bloomberg jumping into the race, and so on. He also announced a policy on expanding diversity and inclusion to all Americans, including the disabled, and he talked again about changing the order of primaries. 

• Harris: her campaign is struggling in the polls and in fundraising, and you can tell. Emails were all about money, and how she's not using super PACs and stuff. And she had one about 'electability' which was interesting.

• Klobuchar: She'll go anywhere she needs to go, and wants to have ads on in the early states; this costs money, of course. She also  asked us to support two senatorial candidates, Doug Jones in Alabama and Amy McGrath, who's running against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. She had a Veterans Day message, too. 

• Sanders: not surprisingly, he attacked Mike Bloomberg and his billions, he attacked Joe Biden and his super PACS,  and he attacked big dollar donors; he talked about being 12 weeks away from the first votes, November being a tough month for fundraising, and his great rallies in Iowa - he had three with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

• Warren: lots of attacks on Bloomberg, and she's angry and not afraid to show it,  and people in my state are tired of the status quo. She wanted 607 grassroots donors, one for each of the 607 billionaires in America;  and like Sanders, her average contribution has gone down, which is bad. 

• Yang: he was all about money this time, with a huge goal and lots of work to get to it. he's got a new ad, which we need to keep on TV - and, he hit 1,000,00 followers on Twitter!

Finally, for our email of the week, I was torn. I got one from Kamala Harris comparing the morning we woke up with Donald Trump having been elected, and the morning we woke up and Barack Obama had been elected. It's a powerful comparison, for sure. 

The winner, though? It's the one from Julian Castro on juggling the primaries. Here's the message, titled "Listen to the black women who power our victories." I've heard the schedule discussed before, but I don't remember the argument being made like this.

On Sunday, I took a bold stance and became the first Presidential candidate in 50 years to advocate that we change the order of states that begin our Democratic nominating process. 

While there has been blow back among some party faithful in Iowa and New Hampshire, folks across the country have rallied behind this simple truth—black women have empowered our Democratic victories and their voices deserve to be heard right from the beginning. 

I understand for many folks in both states this is a tradition that they hold very dear, and I have learned first hand that they take their role in vetting candidates seriously. But “this is how it’s always been done” isn’t ever a good reason to keep doing it.The current system does not give enough of a voice to people of color and it's long past time that we as Democrats practice what we preach and fix it. 

To be clear, this isn’t about which candidates voters in these states may choose, or have chosen in the past. This is about who gets to do the choosing. 

Some of my opponents have dismissed this suggestion. I’m not surprised. If I am the only candidate who is willing to highlight this disparity and advocate for change, so be it.

The Democratic nominating process needs to reflect America. We can’t say that black women are the backbone of our party, then support starting our nominating process in two states with such a low representation of black folks in them. 

We can’t say that we are the party that will fight against voter suppression and structural racism in our political system and then turn around and effectively exclude black and brown voices from the first portion of our nominating process. 

During my ten months on the campaign trail, I visited Iowa and New Hampshire numerous times, and I met many wonderful people who take their duties as voters in the first in the nation contests very seriously. I appreciate how hard they work to make the best, most informed decision possible. 

Castro might not last much longer - although, I've thought that for a few weeks now - but if he does drop out, I hope people will consider his thoughts on the primaries.

Next week's the debate - going to be fun, I'm sure. And, we had Deval Patrick enter the race today, and we have Hillary Clinton inexplicably saying she never says never. This is likely to get ugly before it gets pretty, don't you think?