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.

Email of the Week (v3)

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

Because we're in the midst of holiday season - Hanukkah, Festivus, Christmas, Kwanzaa and the upcoming New Year, etc. - I decided to see how the candidates referenced the holidays. Instead of singling any one of them out for the coveted honor, I'll share all of their emails in full.

I received messages from all of the candidates I'm still following - well, all of them except Bernie Sanders. He was also the only one from whom I didn't receive Thanksgiving greetings, so at least he's consistent. I also receive a rather long message from Julian Castro, but since I've stopped tracking his emails, I didn't include that here.

Here we go - in alphabetical order, holiday greetings to one and all.

I love the holidays, Sue. 

It’s a time of joy and a time you get to spend with loved ones. This year, I’ll be with my wonderful family, my friends, and girlfriend. We’ll enjoy a few nice meals, relaxed days, and best of all, vegan eggnog (for anyone who’s not down with dairy, it’s a game-changer, check it out). 

Nogs aside, this time of year always makes me reflect on what I’m grateful for -- and this year, that’s people like you. I don’t know where I’d be right now without you. 

Whether it’s making a donation, signing up to volunteer in early states, or even just sharing one of my posts on social media, I’m blown away by how many people have stepped up to be a part of this effort.

So thank you for everything. From my family to yours, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and here’s to a phenomenal 2020. 

Off to open the vegan eggnog to share with Ro,

Cory

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Happy Holidays! The holiday season is upon us, and whether you celebrate these holidays or something else, or nothing at all, I hope you take these next few days as an opportunity to rest and reflect, to spend time with loved ones, to practice kindness, and, most importantly, to make room for joy.

Joy is important to me, and to this movement -- in fact, it’s one of our Rules of the Road, the ten guiding principles that govern our campaign. Part of the Pete for America mission statement reads, “Amid the great challenge we have accepted, let us be joyful.” I want to echo that sentiment now, to all of you, in light of the holidays: Amid the challenges we face, let us be joyful.

For many Americans, I know this is a particularly divisive, and in many ways dispiriting, moment. The House has impeached the president. The contest to replace Donald Trump is heating up. Many Americans are struggling not even to get ahead, but just to hold onto what they’ve got. What I hope we remember in this moment is that we cannot give in to exhaustion and cynicism.

When the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, we’ll say goodbye to the second decade of this century and ring in 2020. Remember that this 2020 election is our chance to refuse to be taken in by helplessness or cynicism; to choose to define America not by exclusion but by belonging. The trajectory of our nation is still up to us -- and that is something to be joyful about. Because the way we keep going, the way we meet those challenges with strength and conviction, is by making room for joy.

Importantly, with joy, comes hope and resilience. Going into this critical year in the life of our nation, I can’t think of qualities we’ll need to draw upon more to fuel the work ahead.

So this holiday season, however you celebrate, I hope we all have a chance to spend some quality time with family, friends, and loved ones. I hope we take this chance to take a breath, remember the values we share, and recharge for the weeks and months ahead. And I hope we all make room for joy, however and wherever we can.

Pete

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Happy holidays to you and yours!

As my family gathers to celebrate today, we want to extend warm wishes for a season that is full of joy and peace.

The holidays are a wonderful opportunity to spend time with those we love. And for me, this season feels even brighter than usual: I’m so uplifted and encouraged by people all over America who share my optimism for the future of this country.

The year ahead will be an exciting one. Together we’ll meet every challenge, overcome every obstacle and go on to win the nomination and the White House. But for now, let’s enjoy the warmth and cheer of this special season.

Yours,

Amy

Donate now

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All the best to you and yours this holiday season.

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... 

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?

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (9)

Time to update my social experiment with the top nine Dems running for the 2020 nomination.  As you know Beto O'Rourke dropped out last week, leaving me with one less bell to answer. This is the 9th update I've done since signing up for emails from the leading candidates; you can read the history of all this in last week's edition.

So -- let's get the numbers out of the way first: things have sort of levelled off with the gang, it seems. I got a total of 146 emails, with four candidates - Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Julian Castro and Kamala Harris - each sending 18. The rest of them weren't far behind: Amy Klobuchar (17), Pete Buttigieg (16), Elizabeth Warren (15), Bernie Sanders (14) and Andrew Yang (12).

There were a lot of emails around the end-of-October fundraising deadline, and how they did; there were emails about it being 100 days from the New Hampshire primary (we saw the same for Iowa) and November 3rd being 365 days from the 2020 vote.

Here's what else the candidates wanted me to know:

• Joe Biden: good polls showing him ahead of the other Dems (and Trump); Trump  joking about asking Ukraine for help beating Joe; attacks from Sanders and Warren (the latter suggested he was running "in the wrong primary") and being worried about how much money those two have, and that Trump raised $3M the day the impeachment vote was taken. 

• Cory Booker: the November debate, hosting a debate watch party, and the tightening of requirements for the one in December; finding unity as a party and country to win the election; the impeachment vote being a sad day for America; pictures from Iowa, and a message about what people really want. 

• Pete Buttigieg: lots of info from Iowa, the Liberty and Justice celebration, and the resonating message he's been sharing; a chance to win a trip to a Notre Dame football game; a message from a disabled supporter; his new ad, and the 'fishbowl' video. 

• Julian Castro: continuing to be the most desperate of the remaining candidates, the emails were very similar to last time. He did have two mentions about his new criminal justice plan and spending time with prisoners, but other that that and the debates, it's money money money. 

• Kamala Harris: a couple of emails from "Kamala's husband (Doug)" this time, don't remember seeing those before. Kamala is focused on Iowa Iowa Iowa and the upcoming debates (she's qualified for December); Tom Steyer's folks stole her data; Jeff Sessions is in the race in Alabama. and you can split a donation between Kamala and Doug Jones if you want, and there's some new fall merch. 

• Amy Klobuchar: Iowa, the November and December debates (she's qualified for both, one of ten for November and six, so far, for December); she reminded me of her record of winning, including in 2018 when she won more than 40 counties won by the president in 2016. 

• Bernie Sanders: AOC is all over the place - there was an email from her asking me to join her in endorsing him, one from him sharing her earlier email, and one letting me know that AOC and Sanders would be appearing together in Iowa. He's got some new merch, including a shirt bearing the picture of him being arrested back in the 60s. 

• Elizabeth Warren: I could get a phone call from one of the 'Queer Eye' guys for donating; several mentions of her Medicare for All plan; negative press from rich people; new merch, and a story from her 2012 campaign about a poor college student donating to her campaign each month. 

• Andrew Yang: he's got his first ad on TV, he's worried about qualifying for the December debate; he offered a split donation to Virginia Dems and his campaign,  he's got new merch, including a new hat that will give $1 to the USO for every purchase, and we heard from his wife Evelyn for the first time.

There weren't a lot of outstanding candidates for email of the week, but I'm choosing the one from Cory Booker about his friend and mentor, a guy named Frank. Here's an excerpt talking about time he and Frank spent doing tenants' rights work, which often involved gathering information from families living in less than optimal conditions.

Sometimes, the meetings would go on for hours. I would grow restless and impatient -- most folks were saying much of the same things, and I already had all the information I needed for our case.

But Frank never rushed anyone. He sat and he listened.

After one especially long meeting, I said something to Frank about how long it was. And without judgment or pride, he told me that the meetings were about more than just fixing the buildings. The meetings were about more than sharing information.

They were about making people feel seen and heard and understood. They were about giving people a platform and a place to know that they were not alone.

They were about healing.

The email goes on with Booker asking us to do more than just beating Donald Trump (that's the floor, not the ceiling, he says), he wants us to believe in an America

• where we come together to take on our biggest challenges -- from the epidemic of gun violence to the disease of addiction.
• that leads the world because we invest in people. In good jobs in every community. In a high quality public education for every child.
• that doesn’t shrink into isolation in the face of the world’s biggest challenges, but leads and unites the world’s great democracies to take it on.
• where you can turn on the news and see our leaders and feel pride and not shame.
• where we revive civic grace, where we extend a more courageous empathy to one another and where nobody gets left on the sidelines and nobody gets left behind.

Onward we go. 

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (8)

Here we go again: "Emails, emails, emails!" Here's the history on this series.

This week's tally?  191 emails, up thirty from last week. Here's how it compares with last week on a candidate-by-candidate basis.

• Joe Biden - 20, down one
• Cory Booker - 17, up one
• Pete Buttigieg - 21, up eight
• Julian Castro - 31, up five
• Kamala Harris - 24, up four
• Amy Klobuchar - 14, up one
• Beto O'Rourke - 17, up four
• Bernie Sanders - 14, no change
• Elizabeth Warren - 18, up four
• Andrew Yang - 15 up four

So, let's look at the biggest movers, Buttigieg and Castro.

Mayor Pete was looking ahead, with eight emails focused on what has to happen in the 100 days until the Iowa caucuses. He also wrapped up the contest to attend Hamilton in San Francisco (3 emails), introduced new policies (his Women's Agenda and Criminal Justice Reform plans) and shared two emails comparing 2007 and 2019.  Here's the gist of them.

On a November evening, at what was then called the “Jefferson-Jackson Dinner,” Barack Obama took a stage in Des Moines, Iowa and presented Americans with a passionate appeal for a new vision that instilled hope for the future and led to a surge in support for his campaign. The crowd roared as he declared, “This is our moment.”

It was the moment that changed everything for the Obama campaign and, ultimately, for the country.

That same moment for Pete, and for America, is this Friday night.

Meanwhile, back at the struggling Castro campaign, here's what's going on - and note,  all the bolded words are Castro email subject lines, as delivered to my in box since last week's deadline. I think it's pretty clear the status of his campaign, and the heightened desperation that we're seeing in the outreach.

I'm so vulnerably asking, I really am vulnerably asking.  It can't end like this. I don't say this lightly, but we could be on the verge of a TRAGIC mistake!!! This could be the end. It might be time to pack up. go home. it's dire. I really need your help, I mean, I'm in dire need. Forgive me for being blunt - this isn't easy for me, but we are truly in dire need and as of 9AM!!! I hate to say but this could be the end, the end of my campaign. I mean, I'm floored. It would be U-N-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E!!!!!! if I suffered a HISTORIC upset myself, instead of having someone else face an UNPRECEDENTED upset. And so, as of 12PM (!!!) I'll share this: Joaquin Castro SHAVES his head!!!?? That's how desperate things are here on our team. I hope you'll help. let's hop on the phone?

There's a clear difference in tone from the two most active campaigns, don't you think?

And now, to our email of the week: it's the Halloween message from Gory BOOker:

Real quick, then you can get back to putting the final touches on your costume

Well, we're here... The last day of October, the spookiest fundraising deadline of the year. I wanted to send you a quick update on our goal progress.

The scariest thing you’ll see today is this: We're still $75,882 short of hitting our $725,000 goal -- and we need to get there by midnight tonight if we want to stay competitive.

I know it may seem like a lot to raise in a short amount of time, but each time we’ve set a big goal, this team has risen to the challenge -- and I know this one will be no different.

Make a fun-size donation today: 

Whatever you do today, I hope it's something fun-sized.

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (7)

It's time for another update on the Dems (and Bernie) running for president. I have to tell you, my social experiment has been enlightening, for sure. I'm learning all kinds of stuff about the candidates, if not about their positions, and about how to ask for money, tips I'll keep in mind for my annual fundraising for my favorite charity.

This week, I got 161 emails; Julian Castro (26), Joe Biden (21), Kamala Harris (20) and Cory Booker (16) led the way. A little less frenzied? Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders (14 each) Pete Buttigieg, Beto O'Rourke and Amy Klobuchar  (13 each) and Andrew Yang (11).

I want to share some email subject lines with you, so you get the true feel for how things are going out there, starting with the most desperate of them all, Castro. Take a look at these:

• four emails received 10/22: this could be the end; Julian Castro RESCUED; unfortunately; vulnerably asking
• three emails received 10/23: in dire need; TRAGIC ending; I won't sugarcoat this
• one email received 10/24: the fate of my campaign

Biden's emails, while slightly less frequent, generally reached out with Castro-like subject lines: we're dropping; we fell short; reaching out to you personally; I hate doing this; here's the honest truth; please. 

Booker is pushing not only his charming personality, but his girlfriend's too: I think Rosario reached out, Sue; Have you ever wanted to hang out with Rosario Dawson AND Cory Booker?; Have you entered to meet Rosario Dawson and Cory Booker yet, Sue?; So, what do you say, Sue, dinner?  

And here are four emails in four days from Kamala Harris, the other candidate in the 'desperate' column: not so great news; since this morning; absolutely critical; clear. These relate primarily to daily fundraising goals that are not being met, or barely being met.

So, the candidates that are happier, who are doing better since the debate last week?

• Warren was pushing to get 2 million contributions, with one email on the 18th, two on the 19th, and two on the 20th, including the one announcing the milestone had been reached. 

• Sanders was torn between leveraging Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and not even mentioning her. There were two emails on the 19th featuring her, one with a picture of the two of them at his rally. Over the next three days he was still talking about the rally, but not about her. 

• Klobuchar was in a celebratory mood after her debate performance, including a thank you for blowing past the $100K one-day-post-debate fundraising goal. In the first 24 hours, her campaign raised $1.1 million, with a $2M total for the week.

• Yang was heavily focused on proving people wrong, helping convince people who haven't made up their mind yet that he's the right one, and on his 10-hour Q&A (huge props for that). But it sounds like he has too little cash on hand, which could be a problem. 

• Mayor Pete also raised a million bucks in the first 24 hours after the debate, and there were five emails related to his latest contest: a trip to San Francisco to see Hamilton with his husband. The subject line on one of those? young, scrappy and hungry. Gotta love that! And, he wins the the prize for the email of the week.

Next week? I'll try and cull the herd so this becomes a little more manageable, unless the herd culls itself. 

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (7)

It's that time again - another Thursday spent reading emails from the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Well, the top 10 of them, that is. I won't be adding anyone to my social experiment, so Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Steyer and the rest of them who are still in the race but not making it to the debates? Yeah, our relationship is going nowhere.

For the ten contenders, if that's the right word to use, I'm close to cutting a few of you loose, if you don't cut yourselves loose first. Just being honest, and we all know honesty is the best policy - even better than Medicare for All.

I'm changing things up again a little, because it's been made very clear throughout the course of the social experiment that the majority the emails the candidates are sending are requests for money. Sure, sometimes there's a hint of policy, or news, but for the most part they are sending bald-faced money requests, so I'm not going to focus on that anymore. Instead, I'm going to focus on what they are talking about, in addition to money.

First, the numbers: I received 178 emails before this week's deadline. Because we had the debate on Tuesday, I bucketed the emails into those received by midnight on the 14th, the day before the debate, and emails received on debate day or later. 110 emails made it into the first bucket, with another 68 in the second one.  Here's the breakdown by candidate.

Diving a little deeper into the candidate's emails, here are some trends: 

• There was a lot of concern about not only their appearances at this weeks' debate, but also viability for the next one, and there were of course a number of post-debate emails celebrating individual performances.This was consistent across all candidates, whether (in my opinion) there was anything to celebrate from the debate, or not. 
• Several candidates tied emails to both pre-debate and post-debate fundraising goals; Kamala Harris had a fundraising email during the debate. Goals ranged from $100,000 (Castro) to $1,000,000 (Mayor Pete) to $2,000,000 in six weeks (O'Rourke), so you can see expectations are vastly different among the candidates. 
• It seemed the candidates asking for money the most were Harris and Warren - or at least, they were the most desperate.
• Surveys were common, as were merch rollouts; this is a continuing trend from the very beginning. Andrew Yang's campaign has a cool new scarf, while Bernie Sanders  is continuing his "Billionaires Should Not Exist" campaign, with a bumper sticker you can put on your neighbor's car or something. 
• Biden continued to focus on Trump, including a demand that the president produce his income taxes "or shut up" - a more strident approach then any of the others took. O'Rourke planned a protest rally during Trump's Texas visit, and also pointed out that Trump is a symptom, not the problem; Mayor Pete focused on his 'day after the Trump presidency' messaging, and Klobuchar said Trump could come to Minnesota as often as he wanted, but he wasn't going to win, 
• Harris had whole litany of things to talk about, including LGBTQ issues, which the other candidates got in before last week's deadline; electability; Don Junior's tweet about her laugh, which she milked for three emails alone, and reproductive rights.
• For her part, Warren clarified her position on who she'd take money from, and her plan for getting money out of politics should she win.
• Klobuchar focused on what's she's been doing in Iowa, her new ads, polls, and the debates; Yang focused on similar subjects, including having set and met goals already, as he continues to do well. 

All in all, they worked pretty hard this week. Booker had the most eclectic set of emails, including one asking for money for wildfire relief, and one from his girlfriend, Rosario Dawson, which was in the running for email of the week. 

But the winner there, hands down, was Julian Castro. Take a look:

BREAKING: After uproar when SNL failed to represent Julián Castro, the only Latino candidate running for President, SNL reverses course. WATCH THE SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE CLIP: See Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hilarious impression of Julián. After Julián was left out of SNL, there was an uproar. Activists all over the country wrote in to SNL, called them out on social media, and called NBC in protest.  And your activism worked -- after erasing the only Latino from the debate stage, this weekend SNL had none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda from Hamilton play Julián. Thanks for the laughs, Lin-Manuel! And thank you for your activism. -Team Julián

So - another week in the books. We saw humor, we saw desperation, we saw hope, and we saw personality.

I'll take it. 

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (6)

This is the sixth update on my social experiment with the top ten 2020 Democratic presidential candidates and how they communicate with prospective supporters. (You can read the original post that started all of this silliness here, and prior updates here, here, here , here and here.)

Things slowed quite a bit this week, now that we're past the Q3 deadline. Here's this week's tally:

• 118 emails received, a drop of 76 compared to last week (and can I tell you, I appreciated that?);
• 83 (70.3%) were primarily requests for donations, even though there may have been some kind of underlying message;
• 30 of the emails were in the general/miscellaneous category; as with past weeks, the focus for these tended to be surveys, those darn sticker, merch, and so on. This week, several candidates mentioned LGBTQ rights because of the Supreme Court activity;  and 
• 5 emails were directly related to the October 15th debate; now that they've all qualified, the emails were looking for issues to focus on, or hosting debate watch parties. 

In order, the top five asking for money the most were Kamala Harris (84.6%), Cory Booker (78.6%), Julian Castro (77.8%), Elizabeth Warren (76.9%) and  Andrew Yang (70%). The other candidates, in descending order:  Amy Klobuchar (66.7%), Bernie Sanders (63.6%), Joe Biden (63.2%), Pete Buttigieg (60%), and Beto O'Rourke (57.1%). 

This week saw only one email related to guns - and it wasn't Beto this time, it was Biden. Bernie mentioned Medicare for All, pointing out that everyone should be entitled to the same great health care he received after suffering his heart attack.  

On other issues, we saw new plans from Warren, who introduced a new worker's rights plan, and Sanders, who rolled out his 'Money isn't Speech' plan.  And, both Buttigieg and Warren released plans for LGBTQ equality.

Not surprisingly, Joe Biden spent a lot of time talking about Donald Trump, including announcing (later than several of his counterparts) that the president should be impeached. 

Andrew Yang, who had a really good Q3 from a fundraising perspective, devoted some time to pointing out media bias, including leaving him out of graphics showing the top money raisers (Booker, who raised a couple million less than Yang, made the list) and how he and his plans are not getting the attention they deserve given his support. Honestly, I don't blame him.

Warren made mention of pregnancy discrimination, reiterating her story of  "being shown the door" when she was a young, visibly pregnant teacher, which has recently come under scrutiny. She asked women to share their stories with her, and if it goes as it has for many news outlets that asked the same question, she's going to get a lot of them.

And finally, our email of the week. I was intrigued by one from the Harris campaign that referenced an app called TikTok and cow videos, but in the end, I chose this one from Mayor Pete's campaign for the win.  

Hi there,

We’re running a massive weekend of outreach this weekend -- we’re calling it “Boot-Pledge-Pledge.”

All across the country, members of Team Pete (that’s you!) are gathering to knock on doors, make phone calls, reach out to your friends and family, and in some cases, collect signatures to help get Pete on the ballot. We’re asking people to pledge their support for Pete. (See what we did there?)

Will you sign up to make calls this Boot-Pledge-Pledge weekend?

We’re making calls all weekend into the early states to identify Pete supporters, and we’d love for you to join. Click here to sign up to share Pete’s bold vision for the future, and we'll be in touch with all the information you need to get started.

We’re so excited for this Boot-Pledge-Pledge weekend, and really hope you can join us.

See you soon, and thanks!!

Yes, I saw what you did there.

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby (5)

This is the fifth update on my social experiment with the top ten 2020 Democratic presidential candidates and how they communicate with prospective supporters. (You can read the original post that started all of this silliness here, and prior updates here, here, here and here.)

And, if you do read the prior posts, or if you remember where we left off last week, you can tell that we've kind of hit a rut. Actually, not just a rut - a pit. A money pit, like the one you get when you buy a hose.  A giant, sucking money pit, that steals all of the conversation that could be happening around policy and what differentiates the candidates from each other, and instead forces them to talk only about money.

My money. My zip code's money. My state's money. The universe's money. All the money ever invented, and even money not yet invented. OK, I made those last ones up, but it felt like that's what was being requested.

Now, this was not unexpected - Monday was September 30th, the last day of Q3 fundraising, so the push was on, right up until 11:22 PM, which is when I received the last email of the quarter, from Joe Biden's campaign.  Beto O'Rourke gave up first, sending his last Q3 email to me at 7:17PM.

Speaking of Biden, I'm not sure whether he's running for president anymore, or building a legal defense fund. I say that at least half in jest but the tone of his emails since the noise about his son Hunter's lack of qualifications for pretty much everything started hitting the fan have been all about Trump attacking his family, and how he needs to fight back. Here's a sampling.

We’ll be honest: Joe won’t have as much cash as Trump when the fundraising deadline hits. But we’d love to tell Joe that his team rallied to his side after Trump's baseless attacks. It’d mean a lot. (Note: I received this wording at least three times)

We still need $190,000 before Monday’s end-of-quarter deadline to elect Joe Biden and fight back against (Trump's) lies. If we fall short, the consequences could be dire. 

Please, can we count on your help? Chip in now to defend Joe Biden.I think you get the drift here. We are not 'rallying to Joe's side' - he can start a GoFundMe page for that. We're trying to find someone to be president, for heaven's sake. Do better, Joe - do better.

To make life easier for me, I changed the counting methodology just a bit. The first few weeks, I tracked emails by subject, including general emails, and separately categorized how many direct requests for money were received. So, that made me categorize most emails twice. Going forward, an email that is primarily an ask for money is now counted as just that. General emails are those which discuss something in depth other than just "I need your cash."  Nothing nefarious here, just a bookkeeping change.

Here's this week's tally:

• 194 emails received, 35 more than last week;
• 171 (87.6%) were primarily requests for donations, compared to 82% last week;
• 21 emails were in the general category, focusing on things like surveys, new advertisements, new merchandise, what they've been doing on the campaign, and whatnot; and 
• 2 emails were directly related to the October 15th debate, mostly about making sure the candidate made the stage. 

Who asked for money the most? Elizabeth Warren; 96% of her emails were about money. Amy Klobuchar (92.8%), and Kamala Harris and Biden (92.3% each) also were in the top echelon. At the bottom of the pack was Cory Booker, with 72.2% direct requests for money. This is interesting; you might recall, he went public that if he didn't meet his fundraising goal, he'd get out of the race. Having exceeded the goal, Booker plans on being around for at least a while longer.

A couple of emails did touch on issues -- trying to solve childhood poverty was one, from Booker, and there were some references to the NRA and gun control, but nothing on the other big issues such as climate change or immigration.

Kamala Harris hit out at the potential for a Biden Super PAC, and at Tom Steyer for buying $12M in advertising, and she hit at Rudy Giuliani a couple of times, too, showing little fear in her goal to raise money.

Finally, to our email of the week, there was this one from Beto O'Rourke, with the subject line 'Miss Whiskers' - take a look.

Campaigns are really upping the ante when it comes to fundraising for the FEC deadline. Two candidates said this week they would drop out if they don’t meet their goals. Now, we’re not going to do that. But, I am starting to run out of ways to show how important this deadline is.

Maybe I could do a Facebook live stream with a kitten in hand and say, “You know, we wouldn’t want anything to happen to this kitten now would we… Send your $5 now and Miss Whiskers will be fine.”

To be clear, we’re not planning on harming any kittens. But we do need your help...

They're going to have to up their game to top that one next week.

The Update Desk: Who Loves Me, Baby? (4)

We are now in week four of my social experiment with the top ten Dems running for president.

If you're new to this one, I decided (and I confess, I might have been drinking,...) to sign up for emails from the campaigns of all the contenders who qualified for the 'single-stage' debate in Houston earlier this month.  The point? To see what's on their mind, and what they want to be on my mind as I look to find a candidate with whom I can move forward.

Here's the link to last week's update, which includes updates to all of the previous articles in this series, and the highlights from the post:

How did we do in week three?

• I received 175 emails by this afternoon's deadline, 35 more than last week; 76% directly asked for money.
• Kamala Harris sent me 29 emails, followed by Cory Booker (24), Joe Biden (22), and Elizabeth Warren (20). At the other end of the scale, Bernie Sanders and Julian Castro (12 each) were trailed only by Amy Klobuchar (8)...  
• On the asking for money part, Sanders led the way, with 92% of his emails making a direct pitch for money. He was followed closely by Warren (90%) and Klobuchar (88%).  The one asking for money the least? Beto, with only 65% of his emails making a blatant pitch.

And this week?

• Email volume overall was down. I only received 159, compared to last week's 175, but the percentage that directly asked for money was up -- from 76% to 82% (131 emails).
• Individually, most of them slowed down at least a little, since we didn't have a debate staring us in the face. Kamala Harris reached out the most, with 27 emails. Joe Biden (23), Cory Booker (21) and Elizabeth Warren (19) were also in the top tier, with Andrew Yang (14), Beto O'Rourke, (13), Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders  and Julian Castro (11 each) and Mayor Pete (9) rounding out the list.
• Who wanted my money the most? That would be Andrew Yang; 100% of his emails had a direct ask for money. Biden and Klobuchar (91%), Harris (85%), Booker (81%) and Warren (80%) were also pretty good at pushing the donations. Buttigieg (78%), Sanders (73%), Beto (62%) and Castro (60%) trailed here. 

And I can get on the donor wall, get a phone call from a candidate - and they don't care if I've made up my mind yet, they'll still take my money.  Both Biden and Harris sent emails with a subject line 'Bernie Sanders' which I thought was odd; they mentioned Bernie hitting 1,000,000 donors and how that meant I had to step up my game to keep them in the mix.

It's a lot of pressure on me, I have to say.

What else are they talking about? Trump and Ukraine, especially the Biden team. Impeachment and how much fun they're having in Iowa are common to all campaigns. Beto's still talking a little about pot, more about guns. And Bernie? He wants to wipe out billionaires. Seriously - take a look at these excerpts from his email with the subject "Billionaires should not exist"

And in order to reduce the outrageous level of inequality that exists in America today and to rebuild the disappearing middle class, the time has come for the United States to establish an annual tax on the extreme wealth of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. households.

Our tax on extreme wealth would only apply to the wealthiest households in America and would cut the wealth of billionaires in half over 15 years — which would substantially break up the concentration of wealth and power of this small, privileged class.

Now, I have never understood how someone could have tens and hundreds of billions of dollars and feel the desperate need for even more. I would think that with the amount of money the 0.1 percent of this country has, they might just be able to get by. 

I'm curious as to why Sanders only wants to take away half of their wealth, or how he thinks they'll have less power if they only have $50B instead of $100B or more, and why he thinks they feel the desperate need for more money. I guess they're supposed to just quit their jobs and shutter their companies to avoid making more? (Clearly, as regular readers know, I'm not a Sanders fan.)

As with prior weeks, they are not talking about jobs (0 emails), education (0), the economy (1), immigration (0), foreign policy (0), climate change (1) or barely mention health insurance (2). Warren has updated both her shopping options and her website with a special place just for her plans.

With the end-of-quarter FEC deadline only four days away, I expect the money pressure to ramp up significantly over the next couple of days. I also expect to see more emails about Trump, impeachment, and the debate requirements after today's goings-on in DC.

Stay tuned.