West Orange, New Jersey — Larry Poster ended his campaign for Congress Tuesday night when the returns came in the way his campaign began, with a whimper. In between it was an amazing journey, and he had a lot to say.
But before saying anything else, and far more important, he would like to personally thank his thousands of voters – and all voters who participated in the electoral process this Primary season and cast their vote.
During his campaign process, which was launched collecting signatures sufficient to make it onto the ballot during a brutally cold winter, to campaigning once on the ballot, Larry personally met and had conversations with several hundred voters and others in NJ’s 10th Congressional District. Even though most of those conversations were brief (some nonetheless quite impassioned), it was his overarching takeaways that impressed Larry the most and which he will never forget:
- That fully a third of all people Larry met didn’t give a “fig” about politics. Quite a few more couldn’t yet vote. Of the latter, a few were on their way to citizenship and hoped to vote “soon.” A former felon Larry met didn’t know he had the right to vote. Larry told him in New Jersey as a former felon that his voting rights had been fully restored, that he absolutely had the right to vote and how to begin the registration process. He had no idea. When Larry met him, he and his girlfriend or spouse were enjoying an outdoor event together with others. His girlfriend or spouse beamed. To Larry, they both appeared thrilled, stunned – and proud. To Larry, he had made their day.
- A few MAGA types were former Democrats, but whether former Democrats or not, all MAGA’s he met would never forgive Democrats for “ruining” America.
- A few disgusted, former MAGA voters, though still not fully convinced nor re-embracing the Democratic Party, nonetheless overwhelmingly indicated they’d likely vote Democrat, at least for coming election cycle.
- Surprising or not, the vast majority of people Larry met had no idea who any candidate running in the Primary was – for any office; nearly 100% did not know any down-ballot candidates.
Perhaps Larry’s most important takeaway was that by merely looking he couldn’t tell what category of political persuasion someone was (other than two or three people who literally wore it on their sleeves). Until engaging the person in front of him, Larry could not tell whether she or he was liberal, conservative, in-between or something else. But once engaged, except for MAGA’s, almost everyone, Democrats especially, Larry discovered were middle-of-the-roaders.
One more very important takeaway: that communities, local, county, and state governments do next to nothing, or nothing at all, to promote elections.
Want public enthusiasm? As a Government entity, create hoopla. Want greater participation in democracy and voting? Saturate airwaves with public interest messaging for mail-in voting, early voting and especially, Election Day voting. Flood mail. Put up signage, banners, even balloons (when possible), everywhere. Make every polling place widely known. Draw attention. Strike up the band. Make elections fun. Teach civics and the importance of elections in school. Larry discovered that even when he was searching for polling locations, even knowing their addresses, until one is on top of them, and sometimes not even then, that they are nearly invisible.
In his campaign, Larry broadly ran as a centrist, but on social issues he ran as a progressive with a tinge of realism. He also ran stressing his fiscal prudence, and as an internationalist in what he believed to be in the mainstream American and Democratic tradition.
Through his website, www.PosterforCongress.com and more than a half-dozen News Releases, his entry on Ballotpedia, his responses to questions on NJ Spotlight News and in personally distributing his platform to Democrats in three Counties in NJ’s 10th Congressional District, Larry shared his positions on more than 20 consequential issues, including, but not only, the economy and affordability, democracy, immigration and security, rights, tax policy, social programs, AI, the Middle East and American International Leadership.
He proposed a potentially more practical path than the one we are on currently for vastly improving healthcare in America; for solving our gerrymandering dilemma; for incorporating Real ID with additional protections into election, immigration, healthcare and firearms control systems in order to introduce greater safety into and to reduce fraud and abuse from these critical systems of our country, and to radically improve implementation and use of them; and to building a green NYC Port Authority Bus Terminal / Northern NJ Bus System before it’s too late.
Larry welcomes discussing any of his proposals for solving national and local problems with the News Media.
Larry wishes LaMonica McIver all his very best in her re-election as Representative in the 10th Congressional District of the great State of New Jersey.
About Larry Poster for Congress
Lawrence D. Poster is a business leader, volunteer and mentor and lifelong Democrat. He is Founder of Catalyx Group, a Strategy & Executive Search Firm focused on high technology, biotechnology and medtech.
“My purpose in running for Congress is to fight for the soul of America. To fight for America and to fight for you. You are my political boss. Growth is imperative. But I’m here to grow America – fairly. I’m here to champion the working class and middle class.”
For more details about Larry Poster’s Campaign for Congress use the link or QR code below to visit his website: https://www.posterforcongress.com/.
