Williams Paints Thune as Trumpist out of Step with South Dakota Values

The Federal Election Commission shows that Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Jay Williams has raised $36,631 during the five months of his campaign, spent $12,700, and has on hand $23,930. In the current election cycle, Republican Senator John Thune has raised $3,373,619, spent $1,487,217, and has on hand $11,985,283.

X-Wing versus Death Star—where’s the thermal exhaust port?

Williams says his two proton torpedoes are social media (working on that yesterday with his Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session) and South Dakota values:

When asked how he plans to win in a heavily conservative state, Williams said he’ll play off of voter discontent with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“My strategy is to appeal to regular South Dakota voters who I expect are appalled by the Republican presidential nominee who is a greedy, racist, self interested rich guy,” he wrote. “I believe that our state will stand with good people everywhere and send the Republican party a message that it needs to reform and become a responsible party that wants to move our country forward” [Dana Ferguson, “Jay Williams Says Social Media Will Be Campaign’s ‘Great Equalizer’,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2016.07.18].

Thune is trying to distance himself from his party’s top-of-the-ticket disaster by skipping the Republican National Convention (a decision he didn’t announce until yesterday), but his steady pro-Trump patter feeds directly into the narrative Williams is hoping to sell, that the Party of Trump (GOP goes to POT?) is for greedy, racist, selfish rich guys. Now raise some more money, Jay, so you don’t have to wait for Dana Ferguson to send that message!