Joe F Spaulding 🦉

The first mayor in the US to be elected using Ranked Choice Voting was Ann Arbor's Al Wheeler, the first Black tenured professor at University of Michigan. Dr. Wheeler formed the NAACP Ann Arbor Chapter and wrote the bill that became MI's Civil Rights Department. He helped create some of the first housing protection ordinances in the country. In a racist backlash against his victory, Ann Arbor repealed Ranked Choice Voting in a low turnout election that happened to have record Republican turnout. Now, election deniers in Michigan tied to Cleta Mitchell (a woman who once chased a garbage truck down the street to try to prove the 2020 election was stolen from Trump), are once again pushing to suppress Ranked Choice Voting, but that's not all. They are also trying to purge the voter rolls of any ethnic sounding names. We know this because "Pure Integrity Michigan Elections" outed themselves to oppose @RankMIVote's petition to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Michigan Elections. *All* of their plans for voter suppression in Michigan in 2026 are in their rumble videos. These moves are so transparently racist, MI Election Deniers like Patrice Johnson are openly *celebrating* what took place in Ann Arbor in the 1970s. Mayor Wheeler's story is just a moment in the history of Ranked Choice Voting and, unfortunately, racist voter suppression in this country, but it still a powerful reminder of what's at stake in our politics *today*. You can help get the word out about Dr. Al Wheeler and help Rank MI Vote bring Ranked Choice Voting back to not just Ann Arbor, but all of Michigan. You can find all original sources for this video at AnnArborRCV dot com.

This seems like a really straightforward and sensible idea, until you realize one of the consequences will be no one studying to be a teacher will be eligible for a federal student loan anymore.

@RachelAzzara There's a needle that progressives can thread here with straight ticket voting, but it involves making less than 20% of your speeches about how much you hate the Democratic Party. And the district and precinct math must be carefully strategized at a granular and holistic level.

An aspect of the Michigan primaries that doesn’t get talked about much is the downballot effect of running too far left at the top of the ticket. Truth is, state leg has more impact for Michiganders than federal seats. Sacrificing downballot wins is counterproductive to progress.

@swingleft I don't think I've ever seen an account on this platform as throttled this this one. I think the campaign side of Mus k's program is aware of what you are doing and unhappy about it. People will suddenly realize how big of an ROI field has this year around November 10.

Another successful Ground Truth canvass listening to voters! This time, volunteers took on Easton in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, a Must-Flip race for Democrats to win the House.🚪

@nwarikoo This is something no one should give a fuck about unless they are operating exclusively on hero worship. Some Abdul stan is going to reply to this with a reason why someone should care about this. They will be wrong too.

Rep. Stevens said “sic it to ‘em,” not “stick it to ‘em.” Media outlets and her own campaign are saying she said the latter, but if you listen carefully, she said “sic.” Stevens awkwardly combined two phrases once used: “Stick it to ‘em!” and “sic ‘em!”

@umichvoter Kalamazoo is much more likely to be parallel with Washtenaw than Ottawa or Allegan County would have been. My eyes remain unstabbed on this one

the most important thing for Abdul is keeping Wayne county within 6-8 points the coalition below is a win

@JoshuaSchriver Name the white guy you think he's replacing.

my heart

I’m the only statewide elected software engineer in America. I know exactly what's at stake when it comes to protecting our data from Trump and MAGA Republicans. My opponent will blindly obey whatever Trump demands, no questions asked. I’ll fight back.

@Press4BC @umichvoter @WWFerguson2 I know you're smart enough to understand that didn't happen organically on its ownsome. Do you know about "Chesterton's fence"?

@beyond_process @umichvoter @WWFerguson2 Scholten’s district is left trending and significantly bluer than the one I live in

Crowd of 2700 in Grand Rapids for Abdul El-Sayed In the heart of Hillary Scholten's district, who's endorsed Haley Stevens

@stevegrubershow x.com/i/status/20790…

I infiltrated an AOC and Bernie Sanders event for Abdul El-Sayed. "The People v. The Powerful " tour at the Lansing Center in Michigan. IMAGINE THAT ONLY 1000 SHOWED UP?! 🤣

@Press4BC @umichvoter @WWFerguson2 The Michigan Republican Party thanks you for taking up their fight while they're busy fighting themselves. Maybe if you're going to be lining up a circular firing squad over somebody who's in the house but not progressive enough, you look in your own backyard.

@umichvoter @WWFerguson2 If Abdul wins this thing he should back a challenger to Scholten in 2028

LGBTQ people taking ownership of the word "pride" really fucked with one of the very few slogans white supremacists had the bandwidth to remember

@MrHand57353 @krishformi @RunWithRunestad Full story, Anon

@beyond_process @krishformi @RunWithRunestad That’s rich coming from your cowardly ass

Had a great conversation with @RunWithRunestad today. We both agree: I haven’t broken a single bylaw. In fact, I’m doing everything right. I’m grateful for his support and appreciate him taking the time to discuss the facts. When supporting the Trump-Endorsed America First Congressman is your biggest sin, you’re doing something right. Onward! 🇺🇸

@BenGardner87 Looking to Greenwald for respectable action is a mistake

Look man, I am voting for Abdul El-Sayed, but can we please not uplift Kalshi Politics as a legitimate source of anything related to our elections? Sweet merciful Christ.

@Oklahoma_Brave That's because you're soft.

The latest cope: "tHeY oNlY hAvE a LiTtLe ScReEn TiMe!!!1" I don't care. They profane the film with their presence. They offend me.

@JamesWarRoom Guess which person in that photo has been accused by their sister of assaulting her when she was a toddler in that disgusting way...

Who spent $30m to defeat Trump? Who has a company called Perry Johnson Outsourcing? Who outsources jobs to China and India? Whose company leaked millions of people’s private data?

Fool

@EndWokeness You have my sympathies that listening to this made the grilled cheese you are eating taste too spicy.

AOC turns on the Latino accent button mid-sentence:

Listen to her specific words. She's not going through a long memorized repetition of Bernie talking points. She and William are working their asses off to build a durable coalition that's going to deliver long-term progressive change.

@themeasuredtake Weird argument. Why would you want to validate everybody that is saying Abdul should run for house first?

FYI haley stevens is already in office as rep for MI-11. there’s nothing she’s promising in her campaign that couldn’t have been done in her current role. if she can’t deliver in the house, why should we trust she’ll be able to deliver in the senate?

The window for stopping Democrats from moving to the right on immigration specifically was while the right wing was cherry picking anti-immigrant stories running up to the 2024 election. Nobody stepped up to stop it. Certainly not Bernie Sanders, who ran to the right on immigration to get elected Senator in Vermont, laughing it up with Lou Dobbs about immigrants coming on H-1B visas to be lifeguards or teachers. The attack on immigration as an issue was strategically predictable for people who had been following politics for even a moderate amount of time. Not just the issue, but the methodology of pretending an individual immigrant criminal is representative of the entire immigrant body. No, Jeremy and Gage are correct, the Overton window certainly did shift to the right immigration, but it's as much a failure of the progressive left as it is the Democrats they love throwing rocks at. I know my Mexican ass would be a fool to think Bernie was on my side on immigration after watching what he said to get elected and reelected in Vermont.