"You're Goddamn Right, I'm Antifa"

 

This guy, David Clayton -- I just learned from a poster on this site -- says he's running against Virginia Foxx next year in the 5th CD as an Independent (he doesn't mention that NC law requires signatures on a petition, completed by next June). I discovered he's got over a half-million followers on TikTok -- kind of eye-opening -- so the required petition to get on the ballot may be no big deal for him (but keep in mind that only residents of the 5th CD of NC can sign the petition of candidacy).

I'm not on TikTok, but I see things occasionally when they get shared. When I followed David Clayton to TikTok -- where he's "Official Empathy Tour" (@DavidBoomer) -- it was like a trap-door opened suddenly beneath me and I fell into a maze of dozens -- probably hundreds -- of short videos of David Clayton's talking head -- often shaded by the bill of a baseball cap -- often beginning with the little poem, "I'm not MAGA. Please don't scroll. I've got a moral compass and a soul." A sample:

Clayton has filed with the FEC. Reported raising $8,112.22. Cash-on-hand at filing: $3,888.06. He's been endorsed by the "blue" influencer Goods Unite Us, best known for tracing dirty money behind various corporate logos.

He's on Blue Sky as "Empathy Tour -- David Clayton," with frequent posting. I haven't found him on Twitter or on Facebook, except for a single reel (which is also a good introduction to his vibe and his message) -- https://www.facebook.com/reel/646712508314181. 

I haven't found the campaign website that I've seen him talk about, with all the biographical info I'm missing and would like to know. It would possibly take the rest of my life to look at all that TikTok material, but something of a biography might eventually be stitched together. One tiny bit: He's not a veteran, though you'd probably cast him as a tough Marine trained for hard duty, but he's an intellectual on what's happening to our nation. He might have gained early followers from actions he took to help homeless veterans "across 33 states" and four years of his life (he says), but that's as much detail as I've gleaned. (Perhaps that charity was the genesis of "Empathy Tour?"). 

Incidentally, he talks directly about the performance of Virginia Foxx. He doesn't pull punches.

The Berger-Page Republican Primary Got Ugly Fast

 

Check out the "Berger War Room" on X, billing itself as "the unofficial fan page and rapid response defender of NC Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and his reelection campaign." Whoever's writing it is making a career out of harassing rival candidate Sam Page, dogging him recently about the late filing of required reports about campaign money-raising -- "You got something to hide?" That was the taunt.

Pretty sinister, that. The fact is Sam Page has little to hide because he's raised so little campaign cash. He seems confident that what he has to offer the voters of Rockingham County is worth more than all Berger's million plus. What's he going to do with a big pile of money when everyone in Rockingham already knows him as a rock solid conservative and has known him for two decades in service as sheriff. If Page actually beats Berger for that NCSenate seat, it'll prove once again that you can't buy love.

The "Don't Say Vote" Bill in the General Assembly

 

[Democracy Docket] North Carolina Republicans have introduced a sweeping elections bill [H 958) that, among other steps, would bar election officials from encouraging or promoting voter turnout....

The proposed ban “raises real questions about what democracy means in North Carolina, who really holds the power, who government is answering to,” Andrew Garber, a counsel in the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program, told Democracy Docket.

Rep. Allison Dahle, the top Democrat on North Carolina’s House Elections committee, was blunter.

“I get the feeling that people don’t want democracy,” Dahle told Democracy Docket.

Andy Beshear, Drawing Attention

 

As Democrats fight over whether they paid a price for moving too far left on some social issues, Beshear is using his red-state experience to argue the party need not run away from those topics.

--Hannah Knowles 

Andy Beshear has got my attention. He has twice won the governership of Kentucky while Trump was taking the state by over 30 points. Beshear carried his reelection in 2023 by 5 points. He's a boyish man, with "zero coolness," his son jokes, but with the eyes of a killer Huck-Finn. I watched his lengthy interview with Kristen Welker recently on Meet the Press. He keeps a fixed pleasant face as he listens, inscrutable, but the concentrated eyes give away an alert intelligence. When he talks, two very prominent front incisors flash in the light!

I stumbled on this video of Governor Beshear and his wife Brittany doing a funny comedy bit titled "Mean Tweets" in which the two of them read aloud both the praise and the insults that flew at them in 2024. I like the Beshear in this video, who both humorously confirms his nerd-dom and displays quick timing and a genuine chemistry with his wife:

Beshear and Brittany have been doing the "Mean Tweets" act since at least 2020 (check YouTube), and the governor has cemented himself as a self-deprecating good fellow who doesn't have any difficulty hearing the insults. He's achieved what looks to me like the "good dad" vibe of the wise family man who can take the slings and arrows without losing his balance. He bespeaks resilience. One tweet in the 2024 roundup said Beshear "sounded like a goober" and is "the goober that America needs." I'm aware that could be true, so I need to know more about the man.

Beshear just spent some time in South Carolina, ostensibly to present the keynote address for the annual AFL-CIO state convention in Greenville, but he made several other stops that were clearly self-interested in nature, since South Carolina is a very early presidential primary state. Such a visit as Beshear's is a de facto admission of presidential ambition, and he was full of helpful advice for Democrats. Democratic candidates should "talk like normal human beings,” Beshear said, eliminate the jargon of the Left, and "show voters that Democrats are focused on bread-and-butter issues." It seems to work for him in deep-red Kentucky. Democrats can “win everywhere” with good governance and a determination to be “the party of common sense, common ground and getting things done.” Emphasis on common sense.

Hannah Knowles, the WashPost embed with the Beshear expedition into South Carolina, provides color:

Beshear rose in Kentucky politics as the son of a former governor, aided by voters familiar with the family name. Nationally, he isn’t as well-known as other Democratic governors such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was also in South Carolina last week. And his message, as a red-state governor used to working with Republicans, is not as fiery and combative as some in the party are seeking.

Beshear rebuked Trump and the GOP during his stops — calling the president’s agenda a “punch in the face” to the rural communities that voted for him — but also talked about creating “the grace and the space for people to disagree” on hot-button issues....

Beshear leaned into Kentucky’s similarities with South Carolina, telling crowds that as a southerner, “I know if you say ‘bless your heart,’ it’s ain’t good.” ... He urged Democrats to stop using wonky terms such as “substance abuse disorder” and “justice-involved populations” — a phrase that prompted members of one audience to wrinkle their faces and exclaim, “What?”

"Stop picking on those kids!" was Beshear's defiant veto message to Kentucky Republicans about their House Bill 495, an LGBTQ+ bill which he vetoed that aimed to reverse the governor's executive order banning conversion therapy for minors and restricting Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care. “I vetoed it because it was the right thing to do,” he said. “I said my faith teaches me that all children are children of God, and I didn’t want people picking on those kids.”

Phil Berger, Fundraising Himself Right Out of the Senate?

 

Rockingham Co. Sheriff Sam Page

There's a North Carolina campaign report deadline next week, but Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger didn't wait. He was too proud to report a 6-month haul of $1.7 million in campaign cash. He's likely going to need a lot of that to get past Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page's primary challenge.

“Clearly he’s behaving as if he’s feeling pressure,” said Chris Cooper, a Western Carolina University political scientist who specializes in North Carolina politics. “He’s announcing endorsements well over a year before the primary. He’s been aggressive on social media going after Sam Page. He wouldn’t be doing that if Sam Page wasn't a threat.”

Meanwhile, Sheriff Page, who likes to sport a cowboy hat, has only a few thousand dollars in his campaign account and appears quite relaxed about it. Page is probably right about this: 

"This Senate race will not be won by the millions of dollars from big donors," he said. "Instead this Senate race will be won by the personal relationships that have been established for my more than 27 years while serving my community and my country as the Sheriff of Rockingham County."

If indeed Phil Berger's power palace in Raleigh has caused him to lose touch with his constituents, Sheriff Page's decades-long popularity in office will be a huge boost and perhaps enough to make Berger's millions a liability.

When the President of the United States Practices Revenge

 

It appears to be common knowledge that Trump's animas for public TV dates back to 1988 when Sesame Street parodied him as "Ronald Grump" the garbage can developer. Here's a compilation of that and several other satiric depictions of Trump that appeared on Sesame Street:

Okay, the man can't stand to be made fun of on a kid's TV show, but why the direct assault on National Public Radio? I cannot for the life of me even fantasize an image of Trump listening to NPR, like we know he watches TV. (I hardly ever watch broadcast TV, so very rarely PBS. I know. My loss.) But I do listen to WETS which is based on the campus of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Listen to. The radio in my office is permanently tuned to 89.5 FM. If I'm sleepless in the wee hours, I can hear the BBC's World Service, until 5 a.m., when Morning Edition comes on and lasts through 7 a.m. (and then the whole program repeats 7-9). I can't do without Morning Edition for the way it breaks down news to the meat and potatoes of the way the world is working and why people do what they do. 

All day with NPR is a much better day than being without NPR. Trump took away a big chunk of funding for little NPR stations serving rural areas. Out of hateful spite.

What powerful person uses the powers of their office to put pure personal revenge on the approved to-do list? What Republic allows that? A minority of our particular Republic set revenge above honor -- severe punishments meted out to target groups. They've seized the moment of Trump's control to purge their ranks of "soft" Republicans who don't practice revenge enough, like those Republican members of local boards of election in Harnett, Randolph, and Craven counties (article in The Assembly) who've been kicked off because they were considered "soft."

Yes, We Know Your Heart, Congresswoman

 

Danielle Battaglia gives us what is most often missing in any coverage of the legislative career of Madam Virginia Foxx -- some eye-witness reading of body language. Those of us who knew Foxx back in the day when she was an assistant dean at AppState already recognize the bullying personality, paired with the odd ability to impersonate tears on cue. I always noted that her eyes were never wet in those displays. Considering her reputation for brusque rudeness, she's brittle and avoids direct confrontation with people angry about her politics. I've seen her literally break into a sprint to escape the microphone of a reporter.

No doubt she's more formidable now. Also oddly weak, having sold out any claim to the moral high ground by literally mortgaging her morals to a strong man.

Battaglia was there in the hearing room for the Rules Committee Monday night, with Rep. Foxx chairing the meeting, when the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jim McGovern, of Massachusetts, proposed an amendment to a bill on cryptocurrency that forced the committee’s Republicans to decide whether the Trump administration must release the Epstein files. Battaglia watched Foxx's reaction:

Rep. Virginia Foxx sat at the front Monday night and smiled slowly before her face stiffened. She pinched her thumb against her pointer and middle fingers and rubbed them together.

She started to speak, just for a moment, but instead clenched her jaw. 

The first amendment failed in a 5-6 vote, with Rep. Ralph Norman, a Republican from South Carolina, agreeing to the release. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, withheld his vote. 

McGovern tried a second related amendment to the Epstein files, including releasing whether any files had been destroyed. The vote failed again, this time 8-4. 

“You, with your vote, will be preventing even the consideration of the release of the Epstein files,” Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democrat from New Mexico, told the Republicans before the vote. “You will be voting against the release of the Epstein files. You have the power, let’s see how you vote.” 

It was that statement that caused Foxx to tense up. She narrowed her gaze on Leger Fernandez and said, “None of us like to be told why we are voting a certain way .... You don’t know our minds. You don’t know our hearts.”

Make Trust the Issue of 2026

 

Pat Dennis

"The disgraced financier [Jeffrey Epstein], who died in federal jail in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking, traveled in powerful circles for many years. The public understandably wants to know why Trump is backtracking on his administration’s promises to release material that might shed more light on his crimes."

--Pat Dennis 

So of course I'm going out of my way to read an article titled "Democrats Finally Found an Anti-Trump Argument That Works" in the WashPost, by Pat Dennis, who is the president of American Bridge 21st Century:

American Bridge PAC is a liberal American Super PAC and opposition research group that supports Democratic candidates and opposes Republican candidates. Founded by David Brock in 2010 and associated with Media Matters for America, the organization is one of the largest networks of liberal donors in the U.S. (Wikipedia)

Dennis's Twitter profile is much more revealing and much more hilarious: "Used to do campaigns. Oppo guy. Scrappy coder. College dropout. I like building and winning." So he's someone I want to hear political practicalities from. He starts where any campaign operative would start: What's the current (and highly specific) polling RE Epstein?

An Economist-YouGov survey conducted July 11 to 14 found that 81 percent of Harris voters and 59 percent of Trump voters believe the government is covering up Epstein evidence.... A CNN-SSRS poll collected July 10 to 13 shows 56 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of independents and even 40 percent of Republicans are dissatisfied with how little information Washington [Trump] has released.

Dennis notices those cracks in MAGA, and he sees the obvious path (by thinking out of the box): Democrats need to take MAGA's side, demand the truth no matter who it hurts and stand on that principle. Dennis can imagine the Democratic candidate who might riff on trust and draw supporters. Dennis can almost hear the voice, rising in volume and certitude: "If Trump will break our trust to protect whatever is in the Epstein files, don't you start to wonder whether he's been lying about other things, and why? To protect his powerful and wealthy friends. Who benefits from massive tax cuts? Who is really paying the cost of Trump’s tariffs? Who will face the pain of Medicaid cuts? Who is responsible for rising inflation?" The litany on trust.

Dennis sez to Democrats:

We need to say, loudly: “You gave him a shot as an outsider, but he cut your community’s health care, took his eye off the ball on prices and focused on tax cuts for billionaires — while he tried to shut up everyone, including his own supporters, who wanted to talk about elite billionaire sexual predators.”

Deja Foxx: A Generational Change Agent

Deja Foxx, revving her supporters, June 2, 2025

There's a Democratic primary today in Arizona's 7th Congressional District that could produce an upset -- indicative of the temperature on the Left for a radical changing of the guard. Fox News said this special election (to fill the remaining few months of Congressman Raul Grijalva's term) would provide "a barometer of where the Democratic Party is headed as the party deals with longstanding divisions between its establishment and its outsiders...."

There are five candidates on the ballot, including Raul Grijalva's own daughter, who has the backing of the Democratic establishment, and one big, powerful outsider -- Deja Foxx -- who's suddenly surged in the polls and set off a media storm of attention. Foxx, who is now 25, learned early at the ripe age of 16 to make herself heard, to use her own narrative of homeless struggle to enlighten, galvanize, and motivate an audience. At the age of 16 she went viral in a confrontation with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake over his vote to cut off Federal funding of Planned Parenthood -- at a packed town-hall (memorialized in this video).  She learned the power of commanding an audience, of speaking truth and being wildly applauded for it. She became in short order a well-known political activist and outspoken advocate for women's rights. 

Her own story of poverty, of learning "code switching" between the world of all-white public schools and the spiraling environment created by her single mom, who got into drugs and bad company. (Foxx's mom eventually turned her life around and is now Deja's Number One door-knocker for this campaign). Young Deja says she was forced at age 15 to take the extraordinary step of emancipating herself from her mother. And thus becoming functionally homeless, a kind of camper who depended on the kindness of friends to give her a temporary bedspace. She was for years part of what she calls "the hidden homeless," particularly young people who move from friend to friend to relative and back to friend. 

She learned the power of sharing her story and soon went to Capitol Hill as a teenager to do lobbying work for Planned Parenthood. It was a natural step from there to motivational speaker and social media content producer before she was 20. According to Politico, she's of a class that is peculiar to the 21st Century, savvy young people -- some smart, some beautiful, some both -- like Deja Foxx --finding a voice and building a presence that can become little digital empires with a history of forcing change. "Influencers," indeed.

Her 10-minute campaign autobiography tells it best. It's a compelling story of a survivor who learns her power as a wise narrator of life. I commend it as an authentic story of American struggle and American achievement. 

Foxx has gained nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok and over 245,000 followers on Instagram. "She’s become a real figure in the Democratic Party’s online firmament," doing social media for Kamala Harris’ failed 2020 presidential campaign, appearing at the 2024 Democratic National Convention and helping host the Hotties for Harris party at the convention.

So not surprisingly Foxx has surged in polling. She's attracted a good deal of attention as another AOC. Media attention drives polling (though Deja Foxx is being compared to her, both AOC and Bernie Saunders have endorsed Adelita Grijalva as the birthright candidate). David Hogg has campaigned for Foxx (and damn the Democratic Party establishment that ran that kid off!). Hogg recently stepped down from his position as a Democratic National Committee vice chair after upsetting party leaders for his efforts backing primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" older, longtime incumbents in safe, blue districts (Fox News). His campaigning for Foxx sends a clear message that the rebellion will continue.

Brad Elkins, a longtime Democratic consultant who is advising Foxx’s campaign, marveled that even before the campaign started its advertising, the 25-year-old candidate “couldn’t go anywhere without people recognizing her.”

I'll be looking for those Arizona returns late tonight.

UPDATE

Polling was wrong or at least misleading, and generational change will have to wait in the 7th Congressional Dist. of Arizona. Adelita Grijalva won easily and going away, 60% against four other candidates including Deja Foxx (21%), Grijalva's closest competitor. Will Foxx stay in politics and continue to build a base of Gen Z?