Chef's Special on Tuesday: MAGA Slayer

Join Welcome with Rebecca Cooke at 1pm ET

Join our Zoom with Welcome-endorsed Democrat Rebecca Cooke this Tuesday May 7th at 1 pm EST / 10am PST.

Busy week for winning the middle! On Monday, we released a brief snapshot of the NY-1 race - including two ads we are running in support of John Avlon, the Democrat Who Can Win. On Wednesday, we released an endorsement of Janelle Stelson, the ex-Republican who won the Democratic nomination to challenge House Freedom Caucus Chair Scott Perry in PA-10.

And I’m hoping you’ll join me this coming Tuesday May 7th at 1pm EST for a conversation with another MAGA Slayer, who we endorsed last month. Rebecca Cooke is challenging Derrick Van Orden, the January 6th participant representing Wisconsin’s 3rd congressional district who earns headlines like “The Congressman Who Yelled “Lies” During the State of the Union Has a History of Crazy Outbursts“.

In December, we launched our Win The Middle slate with a post calling on you to make high-value contributions as a community to the candidates we’ve vetted as overperforming MAGA slayers. And so many of you responded that we knew we had to get people together with these dynamic candidates. So please join me via Zoom with Welcome-endorsed Democrat Rebecca Cooke this Tuesday May 7th at 1 pm EST / 10am PST.

For more on Rebecca Cooke, check out our endorsement from last month. But now, meet John Avlon in NY-1.

The Democrat Who Can Win

The political ratings agencies say New York’s 1st Congressional District, where Trump won by 1.8% in 2020, is “Likely Republican”. Center-right districts like this one are systematically underfunded, as we saw in 2022 when Welcome candidates like Will Rollins and Adam Frisch won over more swing voters than any other Democratic challengers but narrowly lost due to a lack of national investment.

WelcomePAC focuses on those underfunded center-right districts because voters in NY-1 deserve a competitive election, and it just may decide the House.

And we focus on the candidates who can win them. Like John Avlon.

As a journalist, Avlon persuasively communicated the problems posed by growing political polarization. He literally wrote the book a decade ago on our extremist problem:

Wingnuts exist on the extreme edges of the political spectrum. They're the professional polarizers and the unhinged activists, the hardcore haters and the paranoid conspiracy theorists. They're people who always try to divide us instead of unite us. And at a time when the fringe is blurring with the base, they've hijacked American politics.

Wingnuts echo earlier fear-fueled movements in American history. But bolstered by the rise of hyper-partisan media, the Wingnut echo chamber is more influential than ever before and it has led directly to the division and dysfunction in Congress. Avlon asserts that the time has come for the moderate majority of Americans to straighten their civic backbone and hold the extremes accountable while restoring a sense of perspective to our politics.

Avlon is also prepared to deliver the solution: practicing democracy, by empathetically engaging those in the middle.

Avlon’s primary opponent was the Democratic nominee in 2020, losing by 10 points in a district that Biden only lost by 4 points on the same ballot. This district needs a candidate who will win over swing voters, not lose them.

Luckily, Democratic primary voters largely want the same thing swing voters want: pragmatic candidates who can clearly communicate shared values to win the middle.

We announced two new ads in support of John Avlon in NY-1, check out Liam’s post in full here.

Hope to see you Tuesday!