Mike Honda won his bid for reelection to represent Silicon Valley, but it did not happen without a battle for the soul of the Democratic party. Democracy for America (DFA) and the Democratic party stood by Honda, supporting him in GOTV, social media, and endorsements. Honda, true to his character, ran a positive campaign on his progressive record and achievements until the last two weeks when he slammed Khanna in a revealing and compelling TV commercial. His opponent had no such record to run on, and instead of remaining true to his earlier stated, more liberal ideology, ran a campaign that garnered the support of Republicans and Super Pac money. His supporters fiercely defended him as his campaign carried out an ageist attack on Mike Honda characterizing him as worn out, incompetent and tired.
Honda Campaign staff and supporters had been told not to engage in the negativity on twitter and in the comment threads of the local newspapers. Under attack on social media and with every local editorial board against him, there was no push back to refute the negative and distorted commentary. Except for Josh Richman of the San Jose Mercury News who became a trusted source, reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and San Jose Metro wrote biased articles at the expense of accuracy and journalistic integrity in favor of Ro Khanna.
Silicon Valley Kos was in a unique position to push back and bring truth to CA17, and it gave a needed morale boost as Honda supporters began fighting back. Join me below the Silicon Valley widget to find out how a working class family found their power in a hostile and uncertain political landscape.
Beginning in August, Glen invited Kossacks and Daily Kos readers to our first meet up. Since then, Silicon Valley Kos has written 27 diaries supporting Mike Honda and exposing the truth about his opponent. Some of our diaries were posted on Mike Honda for Congress Facebook page, and diaries by slowbutsure and Glen The Plumber were cross posted at The Left Hook. We also had diaries shared by local activists and politicians. We organized a Day of Action in mid October for Daily Kos readers, and a four day GOTV event promotion that didn't end until after the sun went down on election day.
We shared and tweeted our diaries on Facebook and Twitter. Unbeknownst to us, we joined what had become the #CA17 twitter stream's "twitter war." (Note that Ro Khanna's campaign was run by Jeremy Bird and 270 Strategies, the consulting firm who led the "Obama organization" to victory, twice). During these three months, my family's priorities shifted to allow time to write more diaries and attend to social media. TheLittleOne (TLO) did her homework, studied, continued with most of her extra curricular activities but skipped out on dance classes for a couple weeks to go canvassing instead. She wrote a GOTV diary and went canvassing 6 times on the weekends and after school.
What began as a father and daughter tag team of knocking on doors became a personal journey for each of them, reaching out to voters from beyond the security of having the other stand with him or her at the foot of the door step. TLO and her dad eventually separated, allowing Glen to reach more voters on his own, and for TLO to coach a novice canvasser, Glen's child hood friend and business partner, Todd The Plumber. TLO's GOTV diary was seen by other Kossacks who thought that if a ten year old could canvass, so could they. We then had the pleasure of meeting jusjtim35 and DancinMan at the Day of Action. But building on confidence was never higher than when she stood at the door of a voter who asked to be convinced to vote for Mike Honda. True to her conviction that Climate Change is the most important issue of our time and for her future, she talked about Mike Honda being the number eight Climate Hawk in the country. Here was our future speaking and reaching the heart of a likely voter. Well done, TLO!
That night at dinner, Glen had another canvassing story to share as he unfolded a tin foil wrapped dish given to him by a working class mother who identified with Glen's portrayal of being a working class plumber. Always humbled by other's graciousness toward him, he measured the value of giving and receiving food with the importance of sharing this mother's dedication to voting with her college age daughter. One voter feeds a family of voters who feeds a community of voters, which can inspire a movement that carries the progressive values of equality in income, education and civil rights forward.
To some extent, the twitter war consumed us. No tweet was left unread or unrefuted, and many led to late nights researching and to writing a diary exposing the truth of the opponents attacks and misrepresentations. It was clear we were sparring with campaign staff and had gotten under their skin. They tweeted unsubstantiated accusations and attacked Honda's character, while we focused on Honda's accomplishments and uncovered the venture capitalist and Texas billionaire money that was pouring into Khanna's campaign just when it came out he had no more money left in his war chest.
On election night, we were invited to a party at the South Bay Labor Council and to Mike Honda's election party. This after a full day of school, work, homework, canvassing, and take out dinner. As results started to come in, Honda took off to an early lead. He continued his lead into the morning and the trend would continue this way until Friday. Even though everyone was confident Honda had won, the race would not be called until one candidate declared victory, and the other conceded.
Finally, on Friday morning, Mike Honda gave a press conference announcing his victory. The #CA17 twitter stream illuminated with congratulatory tweets. But then Khanna supporters began to tweet their anger. It became clear that many of his supporters were disillusioned and truly mourning their candidates loss. Not unlike the shock at FOX news when Romney lost, Khanna supporters began expressing their disappointment and loyalty to Khanna. Some continued to fling disparaging tweets about Honda's acceptance speech, and some Honda supporters rubbed salt in their wounds. This was clearly a divided community in need of closure and healing.
I left for work, but not before grocery shopping so we could have a family celebration at dinner. The three of us put our lives into this, at the expense of other important things. TLO still managed to learn her state capitals and we flew to Pennsylvania for her cousin's Bat Mitzvah. But, we were short one party dress, and still had no costume the week of Halloween.
After work, I picked my daughter up from her grandparents and was home in time to listen to Ro Khanna's concession speech. Glen was hovering at the kitchen counter with lap top in hand while I was dusting a cod fillet with flour, egg, and panko, when we heard this:
"And I even want to thank some of Congressman Honda's ardent supporters for their conviction. I became accustomed to reading the daily barbs directed at me even when I disagreed --whether tweets from Glenn the Plumber or DFA. The type of open debate and marketplace of ideas that this Congressional race fostered is precisely what makes our democracy strong and our nation the most competitive."
Speechless.
Floored.
Did we really just hear that? Had my husband's voice filtered through the wall of big money donors to bring out the human side of a candidate willing to acknowledge the efforts of real citizen grassroots? Our efforts validated, we high fived one another scattering flour around our unkept kitchen.
It was a discouraging election for Democrats across the country as we lost the senate, congressional seats, and governorships. But, progressives, such as Mike Honda, held their seats while blue dog Democrats lost.
It's pretty clear that Ro Khanna supporters want him to run again and unseat Mike Honda believing he is the change that Washington needs. But we know the real change that Washington needs is a movement of informed voters willing to devote a part of their lives for the sake of their communities. Battles like CA17 did just that.