Picking Up Steam…
People are beginning to take notice of our race, and Tommy has gained a great deal of recognition from the national and state press:
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March 9th, 2010
"Sowers’ support for term limits is unconventional, if only because he belongs to the party that controls Congress.
But Sowers traces his support for term limits to his reading of the intent of the Constitution’s framers, discussions with Members of Congress and the strong anti-incumbent sentiment that he has witnessed across the economically struggling district he seeks to represent. Sowers proposes term limits as one of several prescriptions to ridding Congress of what he calls the “cancer of incumbency.”
“It’s worked at the presidential level. It’s worked at a lot of state legislative levels,” Sowers said. “And more than that, I know a lot of people in the 8th Congressional district who sort of implicitly understand that the deck is stacked against challengers and getting new blood into Congress. Term limits solve that problem.”
Sowers is the only major Democratic candidate who is promoting term limits. It would seem that future term-limits pledges would come mostly, if not exclusively, from Republicans because they are the out-of-power party."
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March 3rd, 2010
"Tommy Sowers is a man’s man, a 34-year-old unmarried dude who served in Iraq and Kosovo and whose frat brother from Duke is running his congressional campaign.
Challenging a seven-term incumbent in southeast Missouri, the former Green Beret just completed a 28-day “boots on the ground” tour of every county in his rural district, mostly shunning hotels and crashing at voters’ houses instead. He worked a different job every day, from frying chicken to working in a dairy to tending bar to helping out at company that manufactures ball caps.
The ever-energetic military man — who also has taught politics to West Point cadets — said during an interview at a Washington, D.C., coffee shop that the four-week exploration of his home turf was “exhilarating.”
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Associated Content: Missouri Politics: Local Newcomer Making a Big Splash with Social Media
March 3rd, 2010
"In Missouri's 8th Congressional District, young candidate Tommy Sowers may have taken his cue from the socially savvy 08 presidential campaign and is pursuing 14 year incumbent Jo Ann Emerson by taking his baby kissing virtual. Flooding Facebook fans with tales of his heroism as a soldier, teacher anecdotes, and other life experiences, Sowers has built a strong following both on Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, posting video and blog entries chronicling his "I'm one of you" series entitled "Boots On The Ground" has proven to be a very effective campaign strategy. "I am continually amazed by the folks that I meet for the first time that tell me they have already been following the campaign on Twitter and Facebook", says Sowers. "People love the Boots on the Ground site, which we had some local students build at a fraction of the cost of traditional political web designers. We're already working on a few new ideas.""
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CQ Politics: Sowers Seeks D.C. Support For Bid Against Emerson
March 1st, 2010
"Tommy Sowers (D), a
Missouri educator and military veteran, was in the nation's capital on
Monday to build support for his upset-minded campaign against Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R). Sowers told CQ Politics that he recently finished up a 28-day,
28-county campaign in Missouri's 8th, a mostly rural, economically
struggling and culturally conservative area area of southeastern
Missouri. He said he worked alongside district residents and listened
to their concerns.
"The anti-incumbent sentiment," he said, "is there, and specific." "People are frustrated and they're angry, and frankly, they should be," Sowers said."
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Hardball: Governor Dean on Missouri’s Eighth - A Race to Watch
March 1st, 2010
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Springfield News-Leader: Candidates for office filing in big numbers
February 24th, 2010
"Tommy Sowers spent his 24th, 29th and 30th birthdays deployed overseas in Kosovo and Iraq as a soldier.
On Tuesday, he spent his 34th birthday on a new mission to serve his country -- in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The
Rolla native is pursuing the 8th District congressional seat as a
Democrat, billing himself as "a guy with a truck and a dog taking on an
entrenched D.C. insider."
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Huffington Post Op-Ed: The Cancer of Incumbency
February 22nd, 2010
"I spent the last 28 days conducting "Boots on the Ground", living, working and listening one day and night in each of Missouri's 8th Congressional District's 28 counties. Across one of the poorest districts in America, voters here in Missouri reflect the record national anti-incumbent mood, a deep anger at all things Washington.
One of the thousands of voters I spoke to -- an old man named Charles -- leaned in close, looked me in the eyes, and said, "I don't have too much longer to live. But what I want to see before I die is legislative reform. If you are the challenger, you have my vote. 'Cause this year, if you are an incumbent, you are out."
Despite this broad and deep sentiment, as a challenger facing an entrenched DC incumbent, I face long odds. A cancer of incumbency infects our nation. This disease has all but killed the citizen legislators our Founders envisioned. At the root of this disease sits our current Congress, the longest serving in history."
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February 17th, 2010
Over the past month, Democratic candidate Tommy Sowers has logged more than 3,000 miles in his Dodge pickup, crisscrossing southeastern Missouri on an odyssey dubbed "Boots on the Ground."
"Jobs are gone. But it's more than that. A whole generation is gone. I'd ask people where their kids live, and I almost always got the same response: Not here. People want to live and work in towns where you know your neighbors and you have a five-minute commute and property costs are low, but they're finding it increasingly difficult to do it. Part of the reason I got out of the military after 11.5 years is I believe we're at a tipping point in rural Missouri. The last days confirmed that."
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