This is only thinking on my part, but it seems that rather than having Al Sharpton running of prez, which it looks like he’s going to, have him run for Lindsey Gramm’s seat.
We don’t have much of a chance at this seat anyway, he may be a bit of a maverick, but they still like their repubs down in SC. What Sharpton has is the angle, he’d be running for the seat once held by the man who owned his ancestors. It would generate plenty of media attention and would certainly give him a better chance than any of the sacrificial lambs the SC legislature would throw out at him. Now, I know what many of you are thinking “he’d be too controversial, he’d galvanize the republicans.” Hillary Clinton wouldn’t do that? Even if he did galvanize the republicans, their electoral votes are in their court (maybe not if Edwards is the nom, but he probably won’t be) as are both senate seats, both houses of the legislature, (by wide margins in the house) and all but two of their congressman. Even if Sharpton did Galvanize the right, it wouldn’t do much, and it might even be off set by an increased surge in the African American vote. At the very least, it keep him out of the presidential race and prevents splitting the African American vote harming Obama. No offense to Sharpton, but if you’re going to run for president, GET ELECTED TO SOMETHING ELSE FIRST! That’s why the republicans didn’t back Steve Forbes or Keyes.
We don’t have much of a shot at that seat anyway. If nothing else, it would be quite entertaining.
. . . change his residency pronto. But, other than that, you make a good point! South Carolina is already in the Republicans’ bag (even if Edwards were the nominee– remember how socially conservative that state is. Just because someone was born there, doesn’t mean they’ll support him. I mean, look at Gore in Tennessee in ’00). So, yeah, we’d have nothing to lose, and everything to gain in terms of attention from the press and bringing out the black vote. Sharpton for Senate in SC, indeed! I’m all for it!
Id love to see him run. It would be amazing if he got 42% of the vote or higher.
I created a little website to try to draft Rev Al for the SC senate race. I’m not that proficient with websites, so it might be a little crude and I don’t know how to get signatures, but feel free to check it out and help out.
why this isn’t a good idea.
I think the downticket effect might be serious enough to risk us losing John Spratt’s seat.