Are grateful to our host at netwo nation and at roots nation. We will be taking questions from the room or online for you can can tweet at us. This panel has been about interactivity. We do not do any speeches or presentations, we are going to aboutuick introductions who we are and we will get to your questions. We think army progresses with information about there responsible for candidate endorsement program, which i am sure will come up in the panel. The team is involved in helping us choose who we decide to support and who we feel we should ask our community to support. On the panel, david. He has been writing with the team since 2015. His specialty is international elections. He is one of the main writers on our Monthly International elections digest. It is a great tool. It is a great toward if you want to learn about democracies around the world. To my left is jeff, he is a senior writer. He has been with the team since 2013. Jeff is the guy responsible for calculating the president ial everylection results for Congressional District and we are in the process of calculating it for every legislative district. Ry time you see someone Hillary Clinton 150 , the reason why you and we know that is because of deaths efforts of jeffs efforts. [applause] yes, i think it deserves a response. Number joins us as a new as a new member of our team. There are so many thousands of legislative races that knowing about them and knowing who to support and which seeks to target in which chambers to target, it is difficult information for normal civilians to combine. Two combine to come by. We will talk about it because legislators who create the district affect the house. The jury members the gary errymanders is g important. She writes her own newsletter. It covers the goings on of the legislature and the government threat the country. To her right is daniel donner. He is from portland, oregon. Is maps, charts, and graphs of all kinds. He likes to visualize the data. He has been working on the visualizations of the special election we have seen since trump was elected where democrats have been outperforming trends. I am sure he will want to talk about it later today. Finally, david german is an instructional designer from seattle, washington. With the been working team since 2008. Among his many specialties, he loves to take deep dives into he is looking at the role education plays in defining the electorate in 2016 and what it will mean going forward. That is enough for us. We will turn it over to you your it looks like have a microphone here. If you cannot get up, it is fine. Just stand up and speak loudly. I will repeat the questions. I wanted to ask a question on a topic i am ashamed i do not look up very much or look up. Omaha, what happened to the candidate in omaha . What happened . The question is about the election in omaha. I presume you are talking about the omaha mayoral race. It happened earlier this year. This was a difficult situation that daily kos found itself in. Legislatorate in the race we did not do the divisional do the Due Diligence we should have. He had a record on abortion we felt was not accessible for progressive communities. I want to be clear we did not say we thought democrats should not support him that he should not run. For daily kos, we have to begin choosing be selective about the endorsements we make. Were not as, we selective as we should of it. When we learned about his record on abortion, we chose to withdraw the endorsement. E do not attack them publicly we stayed are reasons for the withdrawal. We moved on. He wound up losing to the republican candidate. There are folks who have said he lost because of what happened with the endorsement. Other organizations and folks were unhappy about his abortion stance. Happy people were making an issue. The math seemed fairly simple. It was a two round election. In the first round, the incumbent mayor was the republican, he was separated about two or three points. cspanwj the problem was there was a third candidate running in the race. Three points. There was awas third candidate running the race. Ultimately, it is the margin that she prevailed by. I am sure it did not help the campaign. The electorate in 2017 was to republican for him to overcome. Next question . Feel free to answer the first if it is not permissible. Alabamas special senate mysteriousny the Robert Kennedy . He might have some outside shot. Candidate recruitment in new island1 in the staten district. The first few announcements seem do dish, any possible more reputable people . We appreciate short to the point questions. The question is about what is going on in the Alabama Senate and what is going with the permit based on the recruitment on Staten Island. For the Alabama Senate race, the primary is this tuesday. And nobody gets 50 , there will be a runoff between the top two candidates. It is alabama at the top. Nobody will deny it. We have a democrat, jeff jones. He has connections. And if hengs strikes is in the right place in the right time he has a few people running against him including Robert F Kennedy jr. ,. He is not related to the kennedy family. No law saying you cannot run if you are not a real kennedy. It is a low energy race. The worry is democratic voters will vote for the name they recognize, even if he is not the Robert F Kennedy jr. The last two days, we have seen some endorse jones. Nobody is spending much money. We are going to see on tuesday how things look. Maybe well have a runoff. Hopefully, kennedy will not win outright. It goes. Ave to see how the democrats are aware it is a problem. We are putting effort into it. Do want to grab 11 to . 11 too . Staten island is the early part of york city that trump won. Thatn from a district obama did well. The republican incumbent, dan ottoman, he is the former Staten Island district attorney. He did not indict the Police Officers who killed their gardener. It was a big controversy. N easily. It is a cut district. Staten islands is protrump territory. We had a candidate who stepped up. He is an army veteran. Escaping me at the moment. He is a purple heart veteran. It is a good profile, but a tough district. New york is the most expensive place to air tv ads in, except for parts of new jersey. It is a district where we should compete. If we are talking about this district, it is a good sign for democratic. Thank you. Is kathleen name allen and i am running for the house of representatives in georgias district. I am a progressive iand my platform is prohealth. We need to move to single payer. I would lose my job and i am ok with that. Prolife. Career, which is and proprogress. We need to make progress on issues in our nation. More that needs to be done before they vote on issues. My question to you is how early in the process do you endorse a progressive candidate. You it until after qualifying . Do you wait until after the primary . Do you do first come, first serve . The question to us the question to us is how we go to our endorsement process. It is a terrific process. I am in the works of a lengthier post explaining it. I will try to answer in brief. Generally speaking, daily kos avoids endorsing in the primaries. It is not a hard and fast rule. We do not want to be perceived as the big National Group telling people who to vote for when local folks can do an excellent job of picking candidates. Typically, we wait until after primaries or until a deadline. Not wait onwill our endorsements well probably wait on our endorsements until 2018. I could go on for far too long on this question. There are so many criteria and factors. The what i would mention is generally speaking, we tried to get involved in races we are not going to get huge amount of attention from organizations. The reason we do it is if you are a toptier candidate running in a race, they will come in with money for you. Even if we could raise 100,000 from donations, the bang for the buck is going to be smaller than a lower tier race are there is less money involved. In the event there is a big wave we have a chance to capitalize on, we can help expand the field. If they claim seats, we want to claim the next. We can afford to take the risks. Our community is very open to backing candidates who are longer shots. I have always been very proud of it. Sometimes, the longer shots win. Thank you. I do work with the dmo. I am looking anyone on any hot races. They are mostly nonpartisan. We have 22,000 missiles up this year. Anything that is not 22,000 municipals up this year. The question is about which municipal races are below the radar since they are so many of them that progressives should get involved in. One was in san antonio. Included the, they most republican part of san antonio, the democrats were able to win. In terms of the 22,000 races, it is difficult for us to cover those races, just as a reality of the number people in the races involved. I think there are some great blogs. Great i would you been on one specific race. The detroit city race has come on our radar. Did he get through . Yes. In detroit, there have been voting problems for a number of years. A young, rising star. It is a race that has come across our radar because of the importance of election administration. These are races that tend to get ignored. On a bigger level, the secretary of state races. These are also important. On the minutes of paul level, we probably be 10 times of the amount of people. We try to Pay Attentions to the notes and Pay Attention to the nuts and bolts. Thank you. I would like to add the level of excitement i have seen on the , underegislative level most people radar, a Record Number of candidates are running in virginia. Up to run are sucking all over the country. We will see the level of excitement manifest itself. I am really excited. It sounds like i am trying to dump you, but i do not know what is going on in the races. Election intate mississippi. I have not been able to determine with certainty who the democrat is. Beenobscurely, i have heartened by the virginia races. I saw one dropped out. I was wondering if you had any insight if there is a replacement in the race . The question is there is a virginia legislative race for the democrat dropped out. Do we have an insight to a replacement . The answer is yes. On tuesday, there is a local seat. To replace the it brings the total of women hillaryin seats clinton one from 10 to 11 she won 17 of the current seats. There held our republicans and house of delegates in virginia. I am excited about what is happening in virginia this year. Mississippi, you make a good point. Really speciala animal when it comes to state legislative elections. The you know the state legislator can turn over the results . They are difficult to track because of who is whats down there. It is a unique system. We are keeping an i on it. An eye on it. On thethe folks watching livestream, you can tweet us. Get a robotn on robacher. Ana there has been talk about the multiple democrats could screw us over and have to republicans advance. About danation is rohrabacher. Is wherestrict arrested developed is set so [laughter] the question is whether if democrats are concerned about not being able to get to the november development election. Dailykos endorsed as a result . It would require remarkable circumstances of the second republican candidate whose name is alluding me is eluding me. Same situation in the San Bernardino see it. Bernadino seat. Republicans split the democratic chair as well. Possible, but i would not overly sweat it. I cannot talk about the endorsement process. I do not think we will endorse until after the primary, which may be too late. Is a sorting process that one of the democrats developed a stronger profile whether it is through veterans through fundraising or a natural campaign. We will wait and see. The next question . My name is jim i am running for congress in new jerseys fourth district. [applause] thank you. You may recall when governor christie screamed at the guide to sit down and shut up. That was me. [laughter] [applause] that is my lyrical calling card in new jersey. Most people know me as the should out as the sit down and shut up guy. I am running on a very progressive campaign. I appreciate the fact you hold on not endorsing until primaries are over. I understand the difficult nature of it. Give it, have 11 months until it happens. What would your the top three suggestions to someone like myself to engage the community . I write somewhat regularly. Are there things you would say to help raise my profile within the community and get the support im going to need to win the race . That is an excellent question. What should a candidate who is interested in and endorsement in an endorsement to get an endorsement get in an endorsement from dailykos . You mentioned you wrote on the site. That is the number one way to do it. If you do not already, straight an account. I recommend you say for congress so that they know you are running for congress. The thing that people are familiar with, it is a very big sites. There is a lot of content churning through. Not everything you write is going to get through. That happens every once in a while for us. Most of the time, it moves on. Try to not get discouraged. Keep posting. Also, responding comments to users. It will have questions even if they do not have questions, engage with them. That is how you will find supporters you probably will have in your district or straight. They will want to volunteer. Those are the best way. Also, share the stuff you write on social media. Supportersth your directly on your a list. Having your supporters come to daily kos is a good thing. Not all of them will be to familiar will be familiar with it. You do not want to say, everyone, sign up and say how awesome i am. You wanted to be organic. Those are things i would emphasize. When the Community Gets excited about someone, that factors into our opinions. Connectiondraw the which is what you are doing and what the topic of the post this. That is the way to build yourself as a member of the community. Not just being the guy who is sort of their two ways attention for himself. E david said, everything is sort of there to raise attention for himself. By david said, everything involves engagement. And analyst, i am not running for congress. [laughter] i have a question about democratic over performance in some of the special elections. We are in a moment where democratic enthusiasm is high. Democraticic high turnout is high. My concern is the affect went overall turnout is low. Havewondering if you guys looked at democratic over performance versus turnout . As you have been telling the special elections and looking at it . We have seen democratic over performance in the special elections, but how much of it has to do with turnout in general for the special elections is lower . It . We been i analyzing i have taken a look at special elections going back to 2004. This trying to answer that question among others. I believe the special election in a midterm year or a president ial year are pretty good guides for what is going to happen during the general election. It is a row concern. Is it just low turnout when the other side is not bothering to come out . We seen for a better than 2008 elections go. One measure i have been working on. If we had a general election this year, id be pretty excited. Next can happen in the year. Especially given the sort of countrye have in this now. Keep your fingers and toes crossed. A were going to take question here from online. From joe. What are the key states for in 2018 . Legislatures well. Glad you asked. A lot ground to make up in state legislation. We have a target rich is shaping upat to be a very good year. Wetly special elections that spoke of, state special elections. Majority have been further down the ballot. Inflipped two seats oklahoma. [applause] for 2018, lets not get ahead of 2017. There are elections happening year as well. Virginia house of delegates is democrats in a pretty severe minority there. 17 seats down. Chance to make inroads there. That impact things Like Committee make up. Democrats will have a lot more power. 2018, include places like minnesota house. In New Hampshire, senate. E this november we have a chance to pick up in Washington State senate with a special election there. If for some reason we dont, for 2018. Op target if we do it will be a narrow one seat majority. To solidify up more that. The Colorado State senate has a one seat republican majority. Flip that. 2018 shaping up to be good year to do that. In light of which seats on the ballot. Thoughts on two cycle targets . Two cycle targets includes the michigan house. One of the most gerrymander chambers in the country. Democrat keep winning more votes for the state wide for the state house there. It is a multicycle opportunity. Keep up the Democratic Energy were seeing for 2018 and 2020. Targetslticycle includes Florida State senate. Are not great but not terrible. Given that florida is pretty 5050 state. They have a real chance there. Be huge in terms of redisstricting. Wisconsin state senate is multicyclesible opportunity. Dont sleep on iowa either. Seems tos to be it be turning more republican. Or so said that a decade as well. That back. An flip taba one for 2018, you mentioned North Carolina . State house. Lina forgot the i would never state the new york senate. 2018. Situation. Funny hah hah in North Carolina. There will be new elections on in state legislative maps North Carolina. House and senate in 2018. We dont know what the maps look like. They might not be much better than now. They cant be much worse. To break thence republican supermajority at the state house. That would help the democratic governor a lot. Carolinaep on north either. Question. Nancy jones. That imtell you little overwhelmed depth and expertise analytics on this panel. I appreciate you. Lot. Ead you a most of what i know about outside where i live. Come from you guys. Question that ive been wondering about. All about inou follow your work. Goingf the races that are. N have been nationalized for instance, tulsa. And others. Not Getting National attention. Dig what i see, i