New York’s rock star Democrat Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders will come to Kansas City, Kansas, next Friday to stump for 3rd District Democratic Socialist candidate Brent Welder.
Welder, a “Justice Democrat” like Ocasio-Cortez, is one of six Democrats hoping to face incumbent Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder in November. Welder told KMBC’s Mike Mahoney that he believes in Medicare for all, debt-free college, a $15 minimum wage, and getting the corrupting influence of big money out of the elections.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made the news recently by upsetting the incumbent Democrat congressman in her Queens, New York, district. Barring the unforeseen, she will win the general election in November. Socialist Sanders, of course, pushed the Democratic Party hard to the left in his surprisingly potent challenge to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primary.
Opposing Welder are five Democrats of various stripes, none quite the socialist that Welder is. The list includes school teacher Tom Niermann; Sharice Davids whose campaign promo shows her wearing a t-shirt that reads “strong, resilient, and indigenous” while boxing a man; Sylvia Williams, a financial services pro who will “represent all facets of our community”; Mike McCamon, a tech guy and moderate who hopes to “lead from the center”; 2016 nominee Jay Sidie who is waging war against “big money;” and labor lawyer Welder.
Welder did well to stake out the socialist end of the Democratic spectrum before Davids did. In leftist circles, a married white man with children does not have the instinctive appeal of a legitimate member of the Ho-Chunk nation whose well produced promo video tell us that she has had to fight her whole life, among other reasons, because of “who I love.” Viewers are invited to interpret that comment as they choose.
Welder last made the pages of the Sentinel when he impulsively blamed the NRA for the shooting death of two Wyandotte County deputies in Kansas City, Kansas, for which he later apologized.
The event at the Jack Reardon Center next Friday is free. How could a socialist pow-wow be anything but?