February 2, 2016

Meet the Only Jeb Bush Supporter at His Caucus

Jeb Bush supporter Kramer Howell, left, and John Kasich supporter Collin Stephens. After voting for Bush and Kasich at a caucus at Drake University in Des Moines, the two headed over to Hillary Clinton's rally on the campus.Pema Levy/Mother Jones

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Kramer Howell was the only voter in his precinct to caucus for Jeb Bush Monday night.  

“I’m the lone Jeb supporter,” said Howell, a senior at Drake University who voted in Republican precinct caucus 45, located on his campus in Des Moines, Iowa. “I was the only one.”

That means the woman who spoke on Jeb’s behalf did not even vote for him. “Her pitch was basically, ‘He’s a good guy,'” Howell said. “It was like the least rousing speech I’ve ever heard.” No one even spoke on behalf of Trump or Kasich.

In all, 47 voters showed up at this caucus, with Marco Rubio dominating and Ted Cruz coming in second.

Oddly, the person who spoke on behalf of Ben Carson kept referring to him as Bernie Sanders. “He went on this really incoherent tangent about gay marriage,” said Howell. “He didn’t seem like the brightest guy.”

 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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