John Courage in DC: Day 1

Today was our first day in DC. We met more people and walked more than I could have imagined possible in one day.

We started the day early with 21^st Century Democrats. The meeting was great and she was supportive of John’s hopeful message of changing the face of national and Texas politics. Kelly Young, the Executive Director, talked about the new direction that the party must take to stay viable and how John fits that.

21^st Century Democrats will focus their efforts on campaigns that will lead the way, not simply follow the lead.

We drove with Kelly to the DCCC. It was a nice way to have a frank discussion of the beltway mind-set. Something that was very interesting to me, since I had never been here before.

The DCCC was great. Emily Lobe greeted us. She is the regional political director for the state of Texas and Nebraska. She introduced us to Andy Yoakam, the regional finance director, and Adrienne Elrod, the regional press secretary. Emily and Adrienne are native Texans and it is always nice to see friendly Texans so far from home.

Andy agrees we are on the right track and we have more meetings with the DCCC while we are here.

While we were there we also received a call about a profile piece by the Austin American Statesman and Express News on the VetPAC events tomorrow.

Once we were done with the party stuff we meet with the AFL-CIO and Amalgamated Transit Union. The ATU endorsed the campaign and will be making a substantial donation to the campaign. ATU thinks that this is a race that could very easily shock the nation. The AFL-CIO was simply excited by the race and the endorsements by the San Antonio, Austin, and Texas AFL-CIO and the CLC.

The day was great. We are about to grab some food, debrief the day, and get ready for our early start tomorrow. We will be catching up with Shane Sklar, Dave Harris, and the rest of the 52 Democratic Veterans tomorrow.

I have some pictures, but I don’t have the cord to upload them from my Treo… so stay tuned for that tomorrow. We will also have some pictures from our meeting with Max Cleeland and Wes Clark tomorrow.

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