The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (v11)

I'm switching things up again this week with my social experiment with the 2020 Dems and their campaign emails.

Going forward, I'm going to limit who I track - and as of this week, I'm dropping Joe Biden and Julian Castro. They have consistently been the most desperate of the candidates, and their email subject lines, especially Castro but more and more Biden, too, sound like bad country songs.

Castro didn't qualify for last night's debate, has not yet qualified for next month's debate, and has no real path to the nomination that I can see.  As for Biden, if you're a regular reader you know that I don't believe he should even be in the race, or stay in it. For those reasons, I'm not going to entertain either of them on a regular basis.

So, how'd we do with the remaining 7 of the original top ten? I got 89 emails, with Mayor Pete leading with 17, followed by Amy Klobuchar with 14, Cory Booker and Andrew Yang with 13 each, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren with 11, and Bernie Sanders with 10.

Right off the bat, you know they're going to be talking about money, and you know they're going to be talking about debates, both the November one, which was last night, and the one on December 19th, for which some of the candidates are still working on making the cut.

Before we get to our email of the week, here's what was noticeable in this week's barrage:

• Mayor Pete rolled out his new college/workforce development/lifetime learning plan, which includes tuition-free or subsidized college for 90% of Americans, auto-enrollment in income-driven repayment plans if needed, investments in community colleges, and more.
• Amy Klobuchar started including highlight of articles and editorials along with her requests for donations, including one from the Des Moines Register's editorial board on her ability to take on Donald Trump.
• Andrew Yang introduced four folks who were the recipients of his $1,000 monthly dividend, and he also asked supporters to choose between two ads, one about his family, and one about other people's families.
• Elizabeth Warren hit a couple of billionaires - an old story about meeting Jamie Dimon when she had only been in the Senate for a short time, and the second on her capitalizing on the dismay expressed by Leon Cooperman, the former Goldman Sachs exec, on the prospects of a Warren presidency.

Now, to Kamala Harris. I've not given her a lot of attention, because she hasn't hit me with anything memorable up to this point. But this week, she finally got personal, and that gets her the coveted email of the week designation. Here are excerpts:

I’m running for president because I believe that, in 2020, justice is on the ballot.

When in our country, there is a father anywhere who will be sitting at his kitchen table tonight, trying to figure out how to pay the bills through the end of the month, economic justice is on the ballot. I'm running to enact the largest middle class tax cut our country has had in generations.

When in America, on any given day, there is a mother sitting in the parking lot of the Emergency Room, her child has a raging fever -- and she’s hesitant to go through those doors because she knows she'll be out of pocket a massive deductible. Health care justice is on the ballot. I'm running for president to ensure health care is a right and not just a privilege for those who can afford it.

When in America, our babies have to go to school to endure a drill during which they're taught to hide in a closet from a shooter, justice for our children is on the ballot. I'm running for president to take executive action to curb our country’s gun violence epidemic -- a major difference between me and my friends on the debate stage.

When in America, teachers are working two and three jobs because they can’t afford to follow their calling, educational justice is on the ballot. I am running for president to enact the first federal investment to close the teacher pay gap.

When in America, we have a policy of putting babies in cages, separating them from their parents in the name of border security, justice for immigrants is on the ballot. I'm running for president because I believe that immigrants have made America great -- and they must not be vilified.

Here’s the epitome of what it means when I say justice is on the ballot: nobody is above the law, including the President of the United States. We have a criminal living in the White House, and it’s on us to get him out.

Listen: I've been in this race for about 10 months, so I'm all about real talk. I know that there are a lot of conversations about which candidate voters consider to be "electable."

I've heard this conversation before, and it goes something like this: "I don't know if America is ready for a woman of color to be President of the United States." Or, "It's not your turn," and "It's not your time."

This is not the first time I've heard this conversation. I've heard this conversation in every campaign I’ve won.

I share this with you not to say anything about me, but to say something about you and who I know the American people to be. We have the ability to see what is possible, even when we've never seen it before.

Let's see what comes in next week. I can tell you, my inbox is full of emails sent during last night's debate, and since it ended. 

I can't wait to read them...