SNAP Notes

Dear SNAP Supporters,

On behalf of all of us at SNAP, congratulations and thank you for all your hard work and support! Tuesday, SNAP candidates across the country won exciting victories. Many of our candidates held on to their seats where they will be able to continue fighting for peace, economic and racial justice: Rep. Julia Carson from Indiana held her seat in a tight race and Senator Debbie Stabenow overcame many negative attacks to hold her Senate seat from Michigan.

Another batch of exciting SNAP candidates overcame great odds and won as challengers against powerful incumbents. We are so proud of the work of these candidates: Chris Murphy soundly defeated 24 year incumbent and major Bush supporter Nancy Johnson; Paul Hodes beat powerful 6-term incumbent Charlie Bass making him the first Democrat from the district in 15 years; and in a hard fought race in the ever-uncertain Ohio, Rep. Sherrod Brown took the Senate seat from Mike DeWine in a decisive victory for progressive economic values.

Two more constituencies sent clear messages about the need for change by electing Rep. Bernie Sanders to Senate in Vermont and Nick Lampson to the House in Texas. Rep. Sanders and Mr. Lampson fought hard to encourage voters to pick the road towards change when faced with empty seats in their districts. We are so excited to see these two disparate communities sending such clear messages about that need for change.

In the 2nd District of Connecticut and the 1st District of New Mexico, Joe Courtney and Patricia Madrid are in races still too close to call. Both candidates will represent important new paths when they replace long time incumbents in their districts. We are standing by them as the final votes are slowly counted (and a slow process is one way to ensure a fair one), confident that their teams’ hard work will pay off with declarations of victory in the next few days.

Finally, we are proud to have stood with Diane Farrell in the Connecticut 4th, Lois Murphy in the Pennsylvania 6th, Scott Kleeb in the Nebraska 3rd and Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Senate race in their bids to take these seats. All four candidates came much closer than anyone had anticipated, with many of these races being decided by literally the last votes counted. Their calls for change, for an end to the war in Iraq, for healthcare for all Americans, for economic justice in a country in which Americans are becoming increasingly economically insecure, were messages that resonated strongly in their districts, as evidenced by the closeness of all these races. We are excited to have been a part of their calls for change and are confident that the Republicans who won these seats will be forced to listen to the very loud message from their constituencies that business as usual will no longer be tolerated.

All these victories represent clear messages from electorates around the country that the time for change has come. We at SNAP are so proud to have stood with all our candidates over the last year and to have been a part of these victories. In many of these races, we know that SNAP students made the difference. We are even prouder of the work our interns and students have done during this time for these candidates. Our interns and students gave energy, time and talent to our candidates that helped make yesterday’s decisive change in the future of our country a reality.

We hope you keep in touch with us in the future and look for more from SNAP as we approach the 2008 elections and our country’s next opportunity to send a final message that enough is enough.

Thank you for all your work and support, we couldn’t be prouder! 

Marissa Levendis, Executive Director, and the SNAP PAC Team

marissa.levendis@snappac.org