"For me, it really is money in politics," he said. "Money in politics touches so many, if not every, issue that's out there. If you're taking their money, you've got to do their bidding."
Asked about independents planning to sit out November, Powell had a direct message for them: "Everybody has to vote. It is the one piece of power that you really have."
If Kiley wins in the newly-drawn CA-6, a district drawn to create a safely Democratic seat, the only independent in the House will have proven that the label can beat the gerrymander that created it.
Recent polling has Osborn +5 on the incumbent, with earlier polls showing him down 1. No poll shows the Republican pulling clear in a state Trump carried by 20 points.
"Thank God you're running as an independent. This place is deeply broken and it needs fixing." The people closest to the machinery, he says, know best how failed it is.
In New York City’s deepest-blue districts, Republicans are not a credible alternative—but coalition-minded independents could give voters the competition the closed primary system denies them.
With independent voters now a majority, former Republican rivals Allan Fung and Ken Block are betting Rhode Island’s political future belongs outside the two-party system.
In wake of Graham Platner's exit in Maine, former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison and Paul Rieckhoff get in a heated debate over the future of the Democratic Party, which Rieckhoff argues is run by a generation of "establishment leaders and grifters."
Luckily, there are organizations out there who are endorsing independent-minded candidates as well as candidates who support reforms key to unlocking independent political power.
Matt Shinners
Nathan Smolensky
Shawn Griffiths
Righteous Media
