#wayne messam

Attention everyone. As we move forward with about two dozen candidates, we need to remember a few things. Especially if we don't want to have another four years of Trump.

1) DO NOT PAY ATTENTION TO NEWS STORIES ABOUT TRUMP. By paying attention to news on him we helped give him the momentum he needed to secure the nomination, and then the presidency. Furthermore, if we show CNN, ABC, NBC, FOX and more that we won't watch stories on him, their ratings will decrease. As such, they are likely to run less on Trump, which means more time for the Democrats or other stories. Bottom line is he needs to lose air time.

2) *REGISTER TO VOTE* You need to vote. You have to participate to help make sure that this crazy person can't continue. Each state has different laws, and some of them have a deadline to register. Look into your state and make sure you register before the primary or the general election deadline. The sooner the better.

3) Whether you are more of a Social Democrat or a Corporate Democrat, we need to stick together. The Democratic party may have two or three distinct sectors, but we need to band together to support whichever candidate wins the nomination. Whether you're as Corporate as Biden, or as Social as Sanders, we have to stay strong and committed to the party. Furthermore, Independents and Third Party candidates are not our enemy, but we gotta stick together.

4) Don't attack other Democrats. Attacking each other, issues like rigging the election for Hillary Clinton and so on is what helped us lose in 2016 and allowed Trump the win in the electoral college (even if he did lose the popular vote). Regardless, we have to run a clean primary/caucus season, focusing on issues, and Trump's deranged policies, rhetoric and behavior.

5) It is okay if we lose. Hear me out! I hate Trump. I hate he is our president, and the idea of him having any level of power terrifies me. However, this time we only risk him for another four years, not risking eight. Furthermore, as long as the House of Representatives or Senate, or preferably both are Democratic, we can minimize the exact level of damage he can do. Keeping the House of Representatives alone means we can avoid major Republican policies that could further contribute to harmful treatment of minorities, LGBTQ people and other areas. And if we can take the Senate in 2020 or 2022, then we can block nominations. Bottom line is now that we know how psychotic he is, we can work to minimize the damage even if he does continue as president.

From the October 22, 2019 analysis:

Who is Wayne Messam? Your life probably won’t be measurably different if you never find out, but just for shits and giggles lets give this thing a go.  

Messam is one of the lowest polling and least-known Democratic candidates for president and the mayor of Miramar, Florida, a place that sounds Floridian enough but, let’s be honest, neither of us knows where on the map it is. He declared his candidacy in March of 2019 and by June...The Des Moines Register couldn’t find a single person in Iowa who was actually supporting him. He seems to be vaguely running on an “outsider knows best” platform, but it’s actually pretty hard to figure out his messaging strategy because nobody besides a few running groups have seen or heard from him on the trail.

Like a handful of other presidential hopefuls, Messam’s only executive experience is as a mayor. That said, the mayorship in Miramar is actually more of a “city manager” position appointed by the city council so he doesn’t even really have executive experience as much as “working with various city players” experience. He started his career at the city commission level, winning his first race by just 33 votes, and became mayor in 2015, beating a 16 year incumbent. He’s Miramar’s first black mayor, and he’s incredibly popular in his hometown - he got reelected in 2019 with 86% of the vote. As mayor, Messam has made gun reform and bringing jobs to town his main priorities. Before his campaign launch (and possibly also since), he’s been best known for part of a team of Florida elected officials that sued to change a 2011 state law that limits local governments’ ability to regulate firearms.

Messam has a host of the same vague Democratic priorities as the other contenders, including expanding gun reform, protecting a woman’s right to choose, expanding healthcare access without eliminating private insurance (blargh), dealing with climate change, providing a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, and erasing student debt. He also has tried on his Liz Warren shoes by calling to eliminate the filibuster and the electoral college. Gun control is really his calling card, but his proposals are pretty milquetoast, and are mostly things like empowering law enforcement officials to ban weapons access to the mentally ill, people on national security watch lists, and those with records of domestic abuse.

From the June 11, 2019 analysis:

Missing out on the first debate, Democratic strategists said, would ordinarily mean the beginning of a death spiral from which recovery might not be possible.

The stakes are highest for Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), who launched his campaign just last month and has yet to meet the threshold to make the debate. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) and Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Fla., are also likely to miss the debates.

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