Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, launched a new campaign aimed at flipping seven Congressional districts across the country. The effort, known as "Ben and Jerry (the people, not the corporation) Take Back Congress, Flavor by Flavor," is a contest the two launched on MoveOn.org.
"We’re teaming up with MoveOn to help 7 of the best progressive candidates running for Congress. We need a Democratic majority to check President Trump’s unrestrained power," the contest on MoveOn.org said. "And we also need to send progressive champions to Congress who will fix our health care system with Medicare for All, protect clean air and water, and get big money out of politics."
Average Americans have the opportunity to create seven flavors and names that "capture the essence of what each candidate stands for."
The duo plans to make a limited, homemade batch of the winning flavors and raffle off the pints to supporters, similar to what they did for Bernie Sanders during the 2016 election, POLITICO reported.
The seven chosen candidates include:
• Jess King who's challenging Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11)
• Ammar Campa-Najjar, who's challenging Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA-50)
• Lauren Underwood, who’s challenging Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
• Aftab Pureval, who's challenging Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-01)
• J.D. Scholten, who's challenging Rep. Steve King in (IA-04)
• James Thompson, who's challenging Rep. Ron Estes (KS-04)
• Stephany Rose Spaulding, who’s challenging Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-05)
The candidates were chosen because they were "long shots, up and comers and candidates who might not be given a chance by institutional actors,” Edward Erikson, a consultant who’s working with Cohen and Greenfield, told POLITICO. “They’re all in difficult seats to win, but we want to spread out the map. This is our way of honoring some of the best up-and-coming progressive champions across the country."
When a person gives their suggestion they are prompted to fill in a response to the following set of questions:
What flavor name do you suggest?
Tell us more. What would be in this flavor? Why do you connect it with the candidate? What do you love about this candidate and your flavor recommendation?
The contest runs until Sept. 28 at 11:59 p.m.