I know Misty, as it happens. She is one of the most dark-horse candidates I've heard of in quite a while. You see, this is the first office of ANY sort she's run for; she has had no experience before this year in the sphere of politics.

This isn't a bad thing.

Her day job for some time has been checking groceries at a local, locally-owned and -based, market. I was therefor rather startled to see her handing out her own, home-made, self-designed fliers at our county convention. While I liked her from interactions we'd had before, I thought it rather over-ambitious of her to make such a big leap.

I was wrong.

In her speech before the delegates, she spoke with passion and earnestness, rough still but with the strength of her convictions and the clarity of her message. She out-did her opponent, a well-practiced, experienced state politico with lots of connections in the local and state parties. By comparison, he was, whilst saying the right key phrases, pale and bland, lacking in the fire that would be necessary to carry the battle against the repugnant, republican incumbent, the very dishonorable Mike Lee, who enjoys strong support outside the more progressive urban and suburban areas of Salt Lake, Summit, Cache, and Davis counties, four of the six major population concentrations in the state. Lee has a fair bit of support in those places as well, but not so much, nor so entrenched as the more rural areas. Misty's opponent for the nomination just lacked the fire needed to carry an attempt against such an established foe; Misty did have it, unpolished and just barely glinting from the rough skin of a neophyte, but there.

It would just grow brighter.

After carrying the nomination from the county convention, and from many others, she and her opponent were in a dead heat going into the state convention. There, I got to see the effects of several weeks on campaign.

It was beyond amazing.

While there were still some rough edges, they were much fewer, there was more polish where many had been knocked off and worn away. Her fire was now impossible to mistake, the passion shining through her more clearly expressed speaking, her more sharply defined narrative. She moved among the delegates with confidence and poise, visibly more sure of herself, and determined to win that fight so she could then turn to the next, bigger one. She seemed hungry for the chance.

Then came the voting.

We delegates cast our ballots, and attended various meetings and events, had lunch, and then gathered to hear the results. We got a strong candidate to challenge our governor, a raft of challengers with strong cases with which to challenge house seats in the congress and the legislature, mayors and council members. We nominated Mr. Sanders for the presidency. Then it came time to announce our senate candidate.

But the results were too close.

By the state party rules, common to many others around the country, if a nomination ballot is within a certain margin, the candidates for the nomination are automatically set to a runoff vote. There was much grumbling, but many of us waited it out, cast our pebbles in the amphorae, and baited our metaphoric breath till the new results were announced.

Misty won.

It wasn't just a marginal win, either, but a clear final decision by our state party to stand for principles too often given only lip service here. It was and is a huge risk; Misty has, as mentioned before, never held nor even sought ANY office, and had no significant money of her own to invest in an expensive national-office campaign.

None of that has stopped her.

As time has passed since the state convention, I have watched her grow as a candidate and a stateswoman, seen her overcome her fundraising disadvantage, and fight through the unthinkingly submissive culture of the state. She has led a hard fight, and it isn't over yet. If I'm being realistic, there's a high likelihood that Lee will still win the general election; Utah is one of the reddest of the red states, with few exceptions, due in no small part to the mormon churches here, and their inculcation of absolute blind accession as a herd to authority in their members. That is a high hurdle.

Misty has on her jumping shoes.

She's fighting, tooth and nail, to win where no democrat has in decades. She is calling on people's desire for fairness and hope. And she just keeps getting better at doing it. It may be a high hurdle, but it IS surmountable, and by god, she's going to try. And even if she doesn't clear the obstacle, that's just this time. I have a feeling that if that happens, this won't be the last we'll hear of Misty. The thing about fires is that they tend to grow, given the opportunity, and she has that fire.

Look out Utah, Misty's a'comin', and she's not going to be ignored.