Dan Grant

One of the most interesting people I met at YearlyKos was Dan Grant, who worked in Afghanistan and Iraq on democracy-building programs and is now running for congress in Texas' 10th congressional district. It's not the most liberal seat on the planet, but the GOP incumbent ran unopposed in 2004 and only got 55 percent of the vote in 2006, so given that the very softest of targets have almost all broken Democratic already and that the larger political climate continues to be very favorable to Democrats (see, e.g., this PDF from Democracy Corps).

Dan himself is both a cool guy and also has the kind of meaningful, detailed knowledge of US Middle East policy issues -- not just the right stance on the war, but real understanding of and engagement with what's happening -- that it seems to me the congress could use more of. He also has a good politician's voice, firm handshake, and ability to very earnestly say things like "the mortar shells didn't really care whether or not I was wearing a uniform when they blew up my office." At any rate, I don't think I really endorse candidates per se, but check out his website.

Photo courtesy of Dan Grant for Congress