January 16, Saturday, Noon-2pm
KCDP HQ, 9 E. Vine St., Mount Vernon

Sign Our City Council Democratic Candidate Petitions.  One of our most important objectives for the coming year is to recruit and elect Democrats in Knox County. We hope to have several candidates run for Mount Vernon City Council this year, but they need your help to get on the ballot. Every candidate must have 50+ signatures on their petitions in order to get their name on the ballot for the spring primary.

You can help us with a one-stop petition-signing event THIS SATURDAY, January 16, noon-2pm, at the KCDP HQ, 9 E. Vine St., Mount Vernon. (Candidates! Let us know you’ll be there!) We will have space available for candidates to collect signatures in a COVID-safe placement of tables in the office. We require all to wear masks. If you forget yours, we will have masks on hand.

Sign Our Petition Calling for Representative Bob Gibbs’ Resignation

Bob Gibbs has recently proven he is not qualified to represent Ohio’s 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. A group of the 7th District’s citizens are calling for his resignation. We believe unity is not possible without accountability, and Rep. Gibbs needs to own his part in last week’s insurrection. We hope you’ll join us. You can sign the petition here.

On January 4, 2021, Mr. Gibbs announced his intention to vote against the acceptance of Electoral College votes from certain other states during the congressional certification process. Mr. Gibbs said — with absolutely no evidence and despite more than 60 lost court cases — that “I believe state judiciaries and state executive offices overstepped their authority in a handful of states.”

In refusing to acknowledge the real winner of the election, Mr. Gibbs threw more fuel on the fire started by President Trump’s lies about a fraudulent election, riling up their base of QAnon and radical far right groups who attacked the Capitol on January 6. Not only that, Mr. Gibbs actually voted to object to the certification of votes from Pennsylvania and Arizona following that terrorist attack. He voted as such, even as he knew that President Trump had incited that insurrection through his continual lies about stolen and “rigged” elections.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Gibbs swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Mr Gibbs has violated the 14th Amendment, the one that prohibits anyone who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States, “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” from serving in Congress.

Jan 11, 2021
Meg Galipault, Chair of KCDP

“An elected institution that opposes elections is inviting its own overthrow.” These words by
Timothy Snyder in the New York Times have stuck with me for several days. They speak to truth
and consequences. The fatal lie told by political leaders and believed by millions—that our
election was “rigged” and that Donald Trump is the true winner—will have devastating
consequences for us all: the loss of democracy. This lie fed the discontent that led to last week’s
deadly insurrection.
The country indulged Trump’s lie for two months. He took it upon himself to challenge the votes
only in those swing states he lost, spending much of November and December engaged in more
than 60 lawsuits contesting the results. He lost every single suit. Not a single piece of evidence
convinced any judge, including judges appointed by Trump, to overturn the results. All the
while, Trump heralded the lie that he won the election in a “landslide.” He fed Americans with
provably false information about fraud.
Had our Republican leaders done what legislators have done in elections past for centuries—
accept and acknowledge the winner—perhaps no storm would have descended on the Capitol to
disrupt the Congressional certification of the election last Wednesday. Instead, legislators, like
our own Representative Bob Gibbs (OH-07), perpetuated the lie, riled up their base of QAnon
and radical far right groups, and encouraged them to “Stop the Steal.”
As of this morning (Jan. 11), Rep. Gibbs still has not issued a public statement denouncing the
violence. But I’m not surprised. Gibbs was, after all, one of the 100+ U.S. Representatives who
voted on January 6, AFTER the insurrection, to oppose certification of the Electoral College for
“certain states.”
In voting to reject the certification, Bob Gibbs willfully lied to his constituents. He knows how
elections work; he’s been running for various offices for two decades. He knows how votes are
counted and by whom and how rare it is to find fraud. He knows how vote totals are released
throughout the night and sometimes into the days following an election. He knows our system
allows for ballots from overseas U.S. service people. He knows what provisional ballots are. He
knows the role of the Secretary of State in certifying elections. He is not some rube.
Hence, he lied last week. He continues to lie by not acknowledging Joe Biden as president-elect.
And in letting this lie stand and fester, he is every bit as culpable for the Capitol insurrection as
Donald Trump. If he had half a conscience, if he mourned those five deaths, he would resign.
We, the voters of the 7th U.S. Congressional District, deserve better.