Yup. Those rich fucks who tried to game a primary by forcing her out immediately after propping her up so that their handpicked independent could stand unopposed will hopefully never try that again.

Goddamn right. Alani won her primary on an explicit promise to Montana voters that she would not step aside in favor of a hand-picked 'independent' no matter what, and going back on that would be a betrayal of her supporters for a slim chance at a Manchin rebrand.

If the brand is poison, fine, go tell Democratic voters that and ask them to stand down or to vote for a candidate that will drop out. But the voters deserve to be able to decide in the primary process.

She had no control over that money whatsoever, and also, they never said they were going to pull it the second she won the nomination, so how could she have?

The good of the stand isn’t her vote result in this election. It’s that the next PAC that thinks about buying a primary for a disposable nominee to rob the American public of the democratic process now knows the nominee might not be disposable and that their ruse won't work.

This has nothing to do with "feelings." A few rich people tried to pull a bait and switch on the democratic process and voters. Alani Bankhead refused to be the prop in that scheme. Bankhead refusing to play that game is the only thing that prevents this kind of corruption from happening again.

Remember, everyone, this isn't happening. Democrats are not campaigning against trans people. It's not happening.

It isn’t spite to defend a primary from people who spent millions to rig it. They bought her the nomination with concealed moeny specifically to force her out and take away the choice from voters. They assumed she’d go quietly, and she didn't. She's standing up for Democracy and I'm proud of her.

They did so fully expecting Bankhead to drop out when they yanked their support, because they felt Bankhead was more likely to drop out than Reilly Neill. But when they did it, she said fuck that and stayed. and I'm proud of her for doing so.

Not sure if you're unaware of what happened. But a segment of megawealthy donors aligned with Tester came out of nowhere to prop up Bankhead with tons of money, and the second she won, dropped all support, with some of the same funding streams now going to Bodnar.

And that is why I am fucking proud of Bankhead, despite her not being my choice in the primaries. She's standing up to those people who tried to buy out a primary with the full intent of removing that choice from the primary voters. Democracy is more important than a single seat.

Nobody says a nominee can never quit. Platner quit. The problem is the corrupt donors spending millions to hand voters a nominee intended to removed. THAT is subversion of democracy plain and simple. The voters’ choice was never real. It was a prop. And that is what we cannot stand for.

Voters picking nominees matters more than any one seat. Even this one. "We had to override Democracy for the greater good" is the exact logic we spend every day condemning the other side for. Bankhead wasn’t my first choice in the primary. Democracy still is, and the people's vote matters.

Yup. You adjust by making it clear that we will not just go quietly to this kind of bullshit, you take the L, and you make it so the donors never try this again as a result.

Yup. The corrupt donors and consultants should have never pulled this bullshit, and now we all suffer.

If the donors involved in this particular round of bullshit were not so corrupt, this never would have happened. I hope it teaches them a lesson. The corruption behind trying to put a prop candidate through the Dem nomination cycle and pull support was heinous.

Democrats will never learn.

Sherrod Brown's new response to an anti-trans ad is remarkably different from many other dems. Instead of accepting bigotry towards trans people, he pivots and links his Republican opponent to the Epstein files. It is notably different from his earlier ads. Subscribe to support our journalism.