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7 Congressional Candidates Named in New Ben & Jerry’s Flavors as Part of Progressive Movement Campaign

Dec 03, 2018 12:40PM ● By Kevin
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, founders of Ben & Jerry’s, began a partnership with progressive advocacy group MoveOn to hold a contest to create ice cream flavors for seven candidates running for Congress in September. The contest results are in and the new flavors have been announced.

The candidates span seven states, including: Jess King (Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District); Lauren Underwood (Illinois’ 14th District); Aftab Pureval (Ohio’s 1st District); J. D. Scholten (Iowa’s 4th District); Ammar Campa-Najjar (California’s 50th District); Stephany Rose Spaulding (Colorado’s 5th District); and James Thompson (Kansas’ 4th District).

Some of the flavors are self-explanatory. King, a working mom, small business champion, and a leader in local economic development, is the face of the new “Jess’s Care-for-all Caramel.” Spaulding dons her “Rocky Mountain Rose,” which is symbolic of her home state of Colorado and her activism in her community.

The rest of the flavors are more tailored toward the candidate’s political and personal essences, with no allusion to the actual contents of the concoction. Underwood is coined with “Lauren’s Calling,” due to her vocation in the healthcare industry as a Registered Nurse. Pureval gets “Aftab’s Compassion Passion,” for his drive in achieving success in this country as a first-generation American. Scholten represents the “Joltin’ Sholten’s Grand Slam Homer,” paying homage to his baseball career. Campa Najjar constitutes the “American Dream,” as a part of a partially immigrant family. Finally, Thompson’s title is “Liberty, Justice, and James,” because of his status as a veteran of the U.S. Army.

After reading candidates’ bios, voters were encouraged to come up with a name and flavor for each. The flavors are not available in grocery stores. They are being raffled off in order to support the candidates.

“We need a Democratic majority to check President Trump’s unrestrained power,” Cohen and Greenfield wrote on the campaign website. “And we also need to send progressive champions to Congress who will fight for health care as a human right, protect clean air and water, and get big money out of politics.”

The site noted that the campaign was not affiliated with Ben & Jerry’s, the company, which has been under Unilever’s ownership for nearly 20 years.

For those who were unable to participate in the contest, there are still ways to get involved. By visiting moveon.org, interested volunteers can sign up to help end GOP control of Congress, which will enter them into the raffle to win their favorite pint.

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