Email of the Week (v4)

Thursday is 'Email of the Week' day, when I plow through a hundred or so emails from the handful of Democratic presidential candidates I'm following to see what's going on. 

Since last week, I've received 140 emails from the folks I'm still following: Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Andrew Yang. 

I anticipated I'd be sharing New Year's wishes from the candidates today, but instead I'm sharing something I thought would have come a long time ago: notification that Julian Castro, the only Hispanic in the field, is suspending his campaign. Early on, his emails were among the most desperate seeking donations, blocking out any other message he was trying to share. In fact, I took his email subject lines and wove them into a story of desperation - it was that bad at the end of October, and didn't really get all that much better.

Like Kamala Harris before him, Castro never really got traction where it mattered - from the media. That lack of traction translated to poor fundraising, which translated to poor polling. Together, the fundraising and polling led to missed debates, which fueled further lack of interest from the media.

There's a theme in there, and it's not a difficult one to see, is it? Anyway – here’s our coveted Email of the Week. 

Friend,

I’m so proud of the campaign we’ve built together. We’ve accomplished so much together and made our mark on history.

We’ve stood up for the most vulnerable Americans—folks who are left out, cast aside, marginalized. We’ve fought for not only the middle class, but also the poor and those who are struggling the most.

We’ve put forward some of the most bold and comprehensive policy that rivals any candidate. We were the first to release polices on immigration, lead exposure, police violence, Indigenous communities, farmworkers, foster care, and hunger. And we set the pace on so many other important issues.

We traveled to communities not typically visited by presidential candidates to shine a light on important issues. We walked the storm drain tunnels beneath the Las Vegas strip where folks experiencing homelessness take shelter. We crossed the border to Matamoros, Mexico to see the effects of Trump’s immigration policy. We met with people living in a trailer park in Waukee, Iowa, after a corporate landlord jacked up their rent.

We’ve told the truth at a time when lies come easy out of the White House. We were the first to call for Trump’s impeachment. We said frankly from the debate stage that police violence IS gun violence. And we said that it’s time for a state other than Iowa or New Hampshire to vote first, so that our primaries reflect the diversity of our party and nation.

This campaign left our politics better than we found it—and that’s due in large part to you. You made phone calls, knocked doors, donated, and told your friends and family about our vision to put people first. I can’t thank you enough.

That’s why, it’s with a heavy heart and profound gratitude, that today I will suspend my campaign for President of the United States. With the Iowa caucuses just around the corner, and given the circumstances of this campaign season, I have determined that it simply isn’t our time.

I know this news hurts—but I’m not done fighting. I’m going to keep working to build an America where everyone counts, and where Democrats win races up and down the ballot.

I hope you’ll join me in that fight.

With gratitude,
Julián

I wish that the Castro who appears in the video announcing the end of his campaign had gotten even a little bit of attention from the media; had that happened, we could be looking at a very different debate stage later this month, one that is more representative of the Big Blue Tent that is the Democratic Party.  

How many are still in the race? Well, there are 13 Dems (and that guy from Vermont) still theoretically in the running; the number left in the race is equal to the number who have dropped out, if you can imagine that.

How many of them would you recognize if you bumped into them at the grocery store or the coffee shop? I'm guessing I'd know probably only a handful, and I pay attention to this stuff more than most folks I know. And that 'identity crisis' is something I'll address in another post.