Voting Rights

Stopping the GOP Cheat to Win Strategy

by Betty Cracker| May 26, 202010:37 am| 77 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Right to Vote, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights

I oscillate regularly between optimism and pessimism about the upcoming election. If you’re on Team Don’t Drink Bleach, then Trump must go, of course, but the composition of Congress is everything too. Whether we get an opportunity to take a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to the orange shit-stain in the White House, pass legislation that will address galloping inequities in everything from justice, wealth, health, etc. — it all depends on a free and fair election.

Republicans showed in Wisconsin just how far they’re willing to go to deny people the franchise. Thanks to that state’s excellent party organization, Democrats beat back the GOP effort to rig a state supreme court election. Are parties in the other states prepared? Probably not, but now is the time to get ready.

We got some good news over the weekend in Florida:

TALLAHASSEE — A federal judge ruled Sunday that it is unconstitutional to prevent felons in Florida from voting because they can’t afford to pay back court fees, fines and restitution to victims, striking down parts of a law passed by Republican lawmakers and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.
Calling the law a “pay-to-vote system,” U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle’s 125-page ruling declares that court fees are a tax, and it creates a new process for determining whether felons are eligible to vote.

Poll tax, zapped. But the governor is a Trump toady, and he will surely appeal the decision, which may make it to the SCOTUS before the election. I don’t doubt for a second that the partisan Republican majority on the SCOTUS will reinstate the FL poll tax if they think it will help the party keep the Federalist Society conveyor belt running to deposit hard-right cranks onto the bench.

Trump has been bellowing about voter fraud on Twitter for ~~weeks~~ years and is at it again today, equating the same mail-in ballots he and the Third Lady use to ALL CAPS VOTER FRAUD. As we know, voter fraud isn’t really a thing in U.S. elections. In-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and the few cases of consequential fraud detected are almost always perpetrated by Republican operatives committing election fraud (like the NC 9th case) or the recent Florida kook whose party registration scheme imploded due to stupidity.

But reality is no obstacle to determined liars and cheats. So, we need to make this the question in each and every state: Why are Republicans trying to stop you from voting?

One persistent problem we have with our electorate is that too many regard the franchise as an act of performance art rather than a civic duty. Among that group, many are non-voters overcome with ennui because “both sides.” Well, here’s a clear contrast that will become clearer every day between now and the election: Republicans want to make it hard for you to vote. If voting becomes an act of defiance as it did in Wisconsin, maybe Republicans’ cheating to win strategy will blow up in their ugly faces again.

For this election cycle, I’m focusing 100% of my volunteer efforts on supporting voting rights nationwide and encouraging swing state Democrats to vote by mail. In the six swing states that will likely determine the election (AZ, FL, NC, MI, PA, WI), voters can already apply for a mail-in ballot, no excuse needed.

As we know to our sorrow and ruination, Republicans have an enduring structural advantage in the Electoral College. But we’ve already won the war on mail-in ballots in these crucial states, and since we can anticipate the levels of fuckery the GOP will throw at us and cannot know what wrinkles the pandemic will introduce in November, we need to press that advantage starting right now.

I’ve said this before and will probably continue to be a broken record on this for the next several months. I apologize in advance for that. But it’s super-important! There are many wonderful organizations out there already engaged in this fight. I’m a fan of VoteRiders and Postcards to Voters, but please feel free to share links to other outfits that are working on these issues in comments.

Open thread!

Stopping the GOP Cheat to Win StrategyPost + Comments (77)

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her Worth

by Anne Laurie| May 21, 20206:40 pm| 115 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Excellent Links, Post-racial America, Voting Rights

90,000 Americans are dead.
1,400,000 confirmed U.S. cases.
36,000,000+ unemployment claims filed.
Trump had plenty of warning, but he failed to act to slow the spread of the pandemic.@StaceyAbrams takes us back in time to explain Trump’s failed coronavirus response: pic.twitter.com/wbOODu1vB9
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) May 18, 2020

The Washington Post did an anodyne and extremely predictable beat-sweetener on “The Power of Stacey Abrams” last week, and it completely unhinged that portion of the Very Serious Commentariat which would predictably come unhinged at the very possibility that a voting-rights activist might be getting serious attention. Give Jen Rubin her due, she can hear the dog whistles:

There is now a whole genre of right-wing punditry declaring, in hysterical and angry tones, that Stacey Abrams would be the worst pick in the history of vice-presidential picks. No, really. The people who defend their vote for President Trump, who support the most unqualified Cabinet in history and who think political experience is overrated now see a catastrophe if the former minority leader of the Georgia state House, the founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count and a rising star in the Democratic Party is picked as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee…
Why all the venom? Let’s begin with the assumption that it is perfectly reasonable to argue she is not the best VP choice or that her lack of national experience would weaken the ticket. But the anger, the determination to ignore her accomplishments (she did found a voting rights group, deliver a response to the State of the Union and hold the minority leader position in her state for more than half a decade), the resentment over her insistence on calling out voter suppression as the reason for her loss and feigned offense at her ambition (horrors!) smack of racism. I suggest the tone of these voices — How dare she?! — would be far different if, say, Pete Buttigieg or Beto O’Rourke were promoting themselves for the job.
Abrams has committed the cardinal sin for an African American woman in the eyes of the right: She will not accept the legitimacy of elections won through voter suppression, and she will not be appropriately docile and humble. Unfortunately, I fear that this is just the beginning of the thinly disguised racism that we will see should former vice president Joe Biden select an African American as his running mate…

Abrams’ political style is “Person Who Is Never Afraid to Demand What Her Constituents Need”, which puts her squarely in the camp of such political stars as Shirley Chisholm (“If they won’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”), Bella Abzug, and Ann Richards, among others. The current Democratic quest for Biden’s VP gives her a space to advocate for her goals, and she’s out there doing the work.

Some samples: From the AP, Q&A: Stacey Abrams is ready to serve but not on top court

… AP: The pandemic has elevated calls for mail voting. Can states make the changes necessary for that by November?
ABRAMS: No-excuse absentee balloting has to become the law of the land. It’s so critical that the next (pandemic response bill from Congress) include the $4 billion or $3.6 billion to help every state scale (up their absentee mail balloting.) The reality is we cannot afford not to do this. We have no excuse not to comply and not to meet our responsibilities for democracy, and it’s absolutely possible if we scale it up.
AP: The president said recently that people “cheat” by mail voting. How do you compete with that given his platform?
ABRAMS: I would ask journalists to tell the truth, which is that voter fraud is almost nonexistent. Donald Trump voted by mail. It is actually the safest and most accessible way of voting. In 2017, Donald Trump convened a voter fraud task force. It was so impossible to prove rampant voter fraud that they disbanded the committee before they had to issue a report…
AP: Can you talk about black identity politics and what might seem to be a more accepting environment for “blackness” in politics today?
ABRAMS: Writ large, identity politics simply means I can see you, and I understand that there are barriers to your ability to access what is considered a general good.
I enter this space as a black woman with natural hair, who does not look like everyone else. That doesn’t diminish my capacity to be effective, but it heightens my responsibility to be vocal.
Going back to COVID-19, black people are dying at a higher rate here in Georgia: 32% of the population, 54% of the deaths. That’s directly tied to identity, and if we do not acknowledge it, we are never going to find the solutions to address it. And so I think identity politics is a necessary part of our politics, but it’s also not new.
This nation began with identity politics. White men who owned land were allowed to vote and no one else was. That is the most strident degree of identity politics I think you can imagine, and what makes America such an important country is that we evolve, we continue to expand who is a part of our narrative and who has access to leadership (and) access to opportunity.
AP: The bottom line for November – do you believe that 50 states will be able to put together a fair election, an accurate count of the public will?
ABRAMS: Yes, we can have a free and fair election if, one, we have federal investment in those state elections now. Because this is a matter not simply of will, but of capacity. What I want everyone to pay attention to is that as Democrats work to expand access to the right to vote for all Americans, Republicans are doing their level best to limit that access. Why would we want to limit access to our democracy? That should be a question every person asks.

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From the NYTimes, Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency:

… Traditionally, Democrats have sought a vice-presidential pick that appeals to swing voters, those suburban whites whose operative variable is not whether they show up to the polls, but whether they go blue or red upon arrival. Such a priority this year would elevate the appeal of a running mate like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
But there is another, oft-overlooked slice of the electorate that Ms. Abrams argues is equally crucial to the party’s success, voters who grapple with a different binary: voting Democratic, or not voting at all.
“The focus on persuasion has often been trying to persuade someone to shift from their conservative ideology to a more moderate or liberal ideology,” Ms. Abrams said in an interview. “But for voters of color, it isn’t about shifting ideology — it’s persuading them that voting actually will have an effect.”
These other swing voters, oscillating between voting Democratic or not at all, are the Americans — largely racial minorities and young people — whom Ms. Abrams has devoted her career to reaching. As she explains it, there are overt voter suppression tactics, and then there is this more insidious thread, often unwittingly perpetuated by her own party, that tells this segment of swing voters that they are less worthy of courting…
Since 2018, Fair Fight, along with its nonprofit arm, Fair Fight Action, has raised millions of dollars and funded teams at state Democratic parties across the country. In 2019, for example, Fair Fight helped Kentucky Democrats file a lawsuit that restored to the rolls some 175,000 voters who had been purged by the Republican governor. And amid the pandemic, the organization has shifted its focus to the expansion of voting by mail.
Ms. Abrams stressed that these efforts can matter little if citizens do not buy into the act of voting itself — in other words, if the barrier to participation is not so much a law or policy but a belief that the system has never valued one’s voice to begin with…

And a coda, from Georgia native Ed Kilgore, at NYMag — If 2020 Doesn’t Make Stacey Abrams Veep, It Could Propel Her to the Governorship of Her State:

… Kemp, whose coronavirus policies have been nearly as ignorantly erratic as the president’s, is presently in the midst of an extremely perilous gamble wherein he is risking a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and deaths due to premature reopening of Georgia businesses that managed to earn a rebuke from Trump. A recent Cygnal survey of Georgians commissioned by a Republican rival showed Kemp with an approval/disapproval rating of 43/52; 54 percent of respondents gave a thumbs-down to his handling of the pandemic. Kemp’s appointee as U.S. senator, Kelly Loeffler, appointed in no small part to fund Republican-coordinated campaigns this year and in 2022 (when Loeffler, in the unlikely case she wins the November special election, would be up for a full term), has been a human dumpster fire politically, generating constant negative media coverage (fanned by Republican as well as Democratic opponents) for apparent conflicts of interest involving her and her husband’s vast wealth and stock holdings.
It’s a long way until 2022, but you have to say Brian Kemp, who ran an abrasive, borderline-racist campaign in 2018 as a “politically incorrect conservative” who enjoyed offending people, doesn’t have the sort of personality that would lift him to a second term absent a strong performance as governor. And his dubious handling of COVID-19 has given Abrams all sorts of opportunities to gain local and national attention, completely aside from her veep aspirations. She’s taken advantage of it, too…
The political landscape in 2022 will certainly depend on what happens this November; if Abrams’s party loses, with or without her on the ticket, she’ll have the consolation of the midterm advantage the “out party” normally enjoys. She’ll also have had some more time to joust with Kemp and other Georgia Republicans over voter-registration rolls and other familiar issues, and figure out how to improve on her excellent 2018 turnout operation.
Any way you look at it, the immediate future looks challenging for Georgia, and promising for the politician who may become the first woman and African-American to serve as its governor — unless she happens to be otherwise occupied in Washington.

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her WorthPost + Comments (115)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Vaisakhi!

by Anne Laurie| April 13, 20207:29 am| 130 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Open Threads, Religion, Voting Rights

On this auspicious occasion, we wish a #HappyVaisakhi to sangat across the world.
This year, we'll miss our Nagar Kirtans and Vaisakhi programmes – but we each have to do our bit to protect the sangat we love, by staying home.#VaisakhiAtHome #Vaisakhi2020 #Vaisakhi pic.twitter.com/7b9mTyG4v1
— Sikh Tories (@SikhTories) April 13, 2020

It’s the traditional Sikh New Year, another Spring festival / solar new year I didn’t know until now. (And it’s the traditional Punjabi season for bhangra, if anyone’s looking for a way to recharge their lockdown exercise routine.)

Love this video! It’s currently doing the rounds on Whatsapp #Vaisakhi #Sikh #LookASingh pic.twitter.com/Zn6y9dTxR1
— Look! A Singh! (@LookASingh) April 13, 2020

Other uplifting news:

Ok so a reporter called my collaborators and boss and made a story and I’m crying, cause loveeeee…
The woman leading COVID-19 vaccine trials is ‘not your average pocket-protector scientist’ https://t.co/plLyZYyUcg via @nbcnews
— KizzyPhD (@KizzyPhD) April 12, 2020

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam makes Election Day a holiday and expands early voting https://t.co/zreCzHgRCa pic.twitter.com/Q9YUDAMnRv
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 12, 2020

BREAKING: Democratic presidential candidate and former South Bend, Indiana mayor @PeteButtigieg is joining our new virtual series, #FrontRowSeat! Join our host committee and grab your seats today: https://t.co/gUsAAzKilC pic.twitter.com/gvMPwPGl6S
— Run for Something (@runforsomething) April 11, 2020

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Vaisakhi!Post + Comments (130)

Wisconsin Needs Our Help

by Adam L Silverman| April 7, 202012:25 am| 81 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, America, Civil Rights, Covid-19 & National Security, COVID-19 Coronavirus, Domestic Politics, Election Year, Goddamned Traitors, Open Threads, Political Action, Politics, Right to Vote, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voter Suppression, Voting Rights

(Iron Brigade Forward – 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Led By General John Reynolds – Battle Of Gettysburg painting by Mark Maritato)

Earlier today the US Supreme Court, which has cancelled oral arguments for the first time since the 1918 FT Riley flu pandemic and can’t figure out how to use Zoom, Google hangouts, or the secure system that the Intel Community is using to telework, ruled 5-4 that Wisconsin would not be allowed to extend the deadline for absentee/vote by mail votes to be returned. The 5 Republican appointed justices overruled two lower Federal court rulings. In conjunction with the partisan 4-2 ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court that Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers does not have the power to unilaterally move tomorrow’s presidential primary, as well as state judicial, other state and local elections, this means that Wisconsin’s elections will go on as schedule tomorrow. No matter how deadly that may be. And no matter how many voters might be disenfranchised because they are either too scared to go out and risk infection to vote or because election officials have had to close the vast majority of Wisconsin’s polling places.

Wiscon needs our help. Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party has been doing yeoman’s work for months to prevent the created by an egregious partisan gerrymander Republican majority state legislature and state Supreme Court from screwing around with the elections for Republican partisan purposes. Both the presidential primary and state and local elections tomorrow and the general election in November. Wikler has put out an appeal for help. And you don’t have to live in Wisconsin to heed his call.

If you are ready to commit yourself to the fight for local offices—especially state legislative races and judgeships—here are three things you can do right now:
Give, if you can: https://t.co/GjN0ea1bEN
Make calls: https://t.co/E4Tyl4sbEl
Text voters: https://t.co/h9n09eXent
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) April 7, 2020

So if you have some time tomorrow and are willing to make some calls or texts, go to the links below and help out. The earlier the better would probably be most helpful.

This shouldn’t be partisan, but the Wisconsin Republican majority state legislature, the Republican state supreme court justices, and the Republican appointees on the US Supreme Court have decided that they, to quote President Lincoln from his Cooper Union speech, are only interest in ruling or ruining.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.

To make phone calls, use this link.

To send texts, use this link.

What Wikler wants everyone to do who can make calls and/or texts is to tell Wisconsin voters:

If you have an absentee ballot in Wisconsin, you have to either put it in the mail so that it’s postmarked tomorrow, Tuesday 4/7, or drop it off in person by 8pm at your clerk’s office. It must arrive by Monday, 4/13.

Open thread!

Wisconsin Needs Our HelpPost + Comments (81)

Election Year Open Thread: Good for Mike Bloomberg

by Anne Laurie| January 9, 20201:32 am| 24 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election Year, Open Threads, Voting Rights

Mike Bloomberg will join Stacey Abrams in Georgia on Friday for her voting rights’ summit. Bloomberg donated $500k to her gubernatorial race in 2018 and $5M to her org Fair Fight in Dec. 2019.
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) January 8, 2020

She’s been speculated to be a top pick for VP for others and her ability to connect with communities of
color is unmatched. Although not an endorsement, the optics of even standing next to Abrams is a huge get for any Dem presidential candidate.
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) January 8, 2020

Stacey Abrams will not be Bloomberg’s VP, if only because his chances for the nomination are vanishingly small. But if her local paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is correct, Bloomberg was responsible for about a third of the funds Fair Fight raised to fight voter suppression during the second half of 2019. For that money, not to mention the money he’ll be expected to donate in the future (and that his support will produce from other donors), she’s willing to give him a spot at her invite-only summit. Who knows, he might learn some important leassons… as might the reporters who’ll follow Bloomberg, who wouldn’t have shown up otherwise.

It’s purely transactional, on both their parts. I’m sure this is actually comforting to Mike — he’s a self-proclaimed Data Guy, for whom transactional is easy, unlike all that grip’n’grin stuff natural politicians find fulfilling.

Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial run and subsequent fight against voter suppression has made her a Democratic darling who’s now one of the most sought after surrogates for the party's 2020 contenders. More on @axios https://t.co/ydUXNIlPgu
— Alexi McCammond (@alexi) January 8, 2020

Election Year Open Thread: Good for Mike BloombergPost + Comments (24)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Excellent Choice, Ms. Abrams!

by Anne Laurie| August 14, 20194:58 am| 137 Comments

This post is in: Don't Mourn, Organize, Election Year, Excellent Links, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Racial Justice, Voting Rights

I am excited to announce the launch of #FairFight2020, a comprehensive initiative to staff, fund, and train voter protection teams on-the-ground in battleground states across the country.
Join our fight to protect the vote at https://t.co/kwO6JZ0kHE. pic.twitter.com/ymf3rSf5GD
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 13, 2019

Per the Washington Post:

… Abrams, speaking at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Las Vegas, announced a 20-state voter protection initiative, using her experience challenging voting laws during her gubernatorial campaign last year in Georgia, which included widespread irregularities.
“We’re going to have a fair fight in 2020 because my mission is to make certain that no one has to go through in 2020 what we went through in 2018,” Abrams said…
The effort, expected to cost between $4 million and $5 million, will target 20 states, most of them battlegrounds in the Midwest and Southeast, and three states with gubernatorial elections this year: Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi…
In past election cycles, campaigns and state parties tended to wait until the start of general election campaigning to put together voter protection programs, which were often dismantled after elections. But with ongoing efforts by Republican state lawmakers to pass more restrictive voting laws, Groh-Wargo said, it was important that Democrats start working now to be ready to help voters navigate potential hurdles. Similarly, some states, such as Michigan and Nevada, have recently passed laws to expand access to voting, and party leaders and activists in those states need to make sure voters can take advantage of the changes…
The majority of the program will be run by Fair Fight PAC. Depending on the campaign finance laws of individual states, Fair Fight will make direct cash donations or will help groups raise money to hire staff, set up voter hotlines and develop public information campaigns…

Read the whole thing — it’s really uplifting!

Maybe some super-rich Democrats could consider funding @staceyabrams 's national effort to protect voting rights at the level it deserves. I discuss: https://t.co/Mypg3NhrOl
— Paul Waldman (@paulwaldman1) August 13, 2019

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Excellent Choice, Ms. Abrams!Post + Comments (137)

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Good News Out of Georgia

by Anne Laurie| May 30, 201910:57 pm| 47 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, local races 2019/2020, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights

Full props to Stacey Abrams!

NEW: A sweeping lawsuit against Georgia alleging racial discrimination in the administration of the 2018 election can move forward, a federal judge ruled today. The lawsuit was filed by the Stacey Abrams org @fairfightaction #gapol
— Johnny Kauffman (@JohnnyIK) May 30, 2019

Lawyers representing the office of Republican SoS Brad Raffensperger had asked for the case to be dismissed. This is a large case, and the judge appears to have basically ruled in favor of @fairfightaction across the board, except on one technicality. #gapol
— Johnny Kauffman (@JohnnyIK) May 30, 2019

Quick story here: https://t.co/GhlW6rX1tf
— Johnny Kauffman (@JohnnyIK) May 30, 2019

Which reminded me, I hadn’t yet found a chance to post this great Washington Post profile, “Stacey Abrams: Being a black woman in politics isn’t ‘some fatal diagnosis’”:

…In your book you describe just showing up to a [Spelman College] board of trustees meeting [while a student there]. Why did you crash it, and what did they make of you?
I did not understand why my tuition had to go up every year. I did not understand why financial aid did not keep pace with tuition. So I showed up to the meeting. When [Spelman president Johnnetta Cole] allowed me in, the person I sat beside was a partner at an investment firm. I didn’t know what an investment firm was. But he was very kind. Everyone was. He let me sit beside him and shifted his notebook over to me. And I’m looking at all of these numbers; I had no idea what I was looking at. And he leaned over and started explaining financial statements to me.
Then there was the highest-ranking woman at Coca-Cola. She started telling me things. And the president of Ben & Jerry’s. They saw it as an opportunity to educate me, and I was just so hungry for information. I was listening and learning so much so that over time, they forgot that I sort of barged in. They started telling me when the meetings were. And I eventually got my own notebook.
Sitting in those board meetings was incredibly eye-opening. It showed me that these things weren’t impossible to know. And you didn’t have to be “to the manner born” to learn. You just had to work harder…

To quote the great Shirley Chisholm: If there’s not a seat for you at the table, bring a folding chair!

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Good News Out of GeorgiaPost + Comments (47)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Democrats Are Pro-Voters; Repubs Are Not

by Anne Laurie| March 9, 20196:04 am| 30 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Voting Rights, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Fuck Yeah!

BREAKING: the House just passed legislation to get big money out of our politics, expand voting rights, and hold our elected officials to a higher ethical standard. Let’s get this passed in the Senate. #ForThePeople
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) March 8, 2019

The House did its job, and now it's the Senate's turn.
We have the opportunity to come together and pass sweeping voting rights legislation to expand and protect voters' access to the ballot box.
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) March 8, 2019

The Washington Post, paper of record in the company town where national politics is the monopoly industry, has a good explainer:

The House approved a far-reaching elections and ethics bill Friday — one that would change the way congressional elections are funded, impose new voter-access mandates on states and, in one of several provisions targeting President Trump, force disclosure of presidential candidates’ tax returns.
Democrats dubbed the bill H.R. 1, a designation meant to signal its place as a centerpiece of their congressional agenda. The measure, which has more than 500 pages, contains dozens of provisions favored by liberal advocacy groups, labor unions and other Democratic allies.
“It’s a power grab, a power grab on behalf of the people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at an event on the Capitol steps ahead of the planned vote.
The bill is headed for a brick wall in the Republican-controlled Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made clear it will not get a vote. However, Democrats and their allies said the bill’s passage would build momentum for action in coming years if and when Democrats solidify control in Washington.
“If Mitch McConnell is the immovable object, H.R. 1 is the unstoppable force,” said Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), the lead author of the bill. “We’ll keep pushing on it.”…

Read the whole thing for a full list of the bill’s (excellent!) provisions.

This is about instilling the confidence of the American people in the political process, in what happens in government, that it is the people’s interests that are being served. So yes: it’s a power grab, a power grab on behalf of the people. -NP https://t.co/1RlH7JhgB1
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) March 8, 2019

Ed Kilgore, at NYMag:

… Aside from its scope, what’s most remarkable about HR1 is that every single House Democrat voted for it… And every Republicans voted against it, which means the GOP is determined to use barriers to full participation in elections — along with related abuses like partisan gerrymandering and unregulated campaign spending — to maintain its competitive position, regardless of public opinion….
The vote on HR1 should also provide something of a counterargument to all the recent “Democrats in disarray” story lines stemming from intraparty debates over socialism or Israel. No, the bill won’t even get a hearing in the Senate, where Mitch McConnell has denounced it as the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.” Mitch has a point: It might well help Democrats in the long run, for the rather honorable reason that they are defending rather than resisting the full expression of the popular will.

It's worth noting how, despite @SenateMajLdr clearly doesn't want either #HR1 *or* the Green New Deal to pass, he'll allow a vote on the latter but not the former.
He thinks he can lie and scare people out of supporting the GND. But he's scared of #HR1 even being debated at all. https://t.co/CXMWaB4GJ4
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) March 8, 2019

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Democrats Are Pro-Voters; Repubs Are NotPost + Comments (30)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Selma Sunday

by Anne Laurie| March 4, 20193:49 am| 104 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Readership Capture, Voting Rights, Daydream Believers

Hillary Clinton at the Selma Breakfast calls for a "21st Century civil rights movement devoted to claiming, enforcing, and defending the right to vote once and for all." pic.twitter.com/H9KQVabgoD
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 3, 2019

Good Morning from Selma, Alabama where @hillaryclinton is receiving the 2019 Unity Award & being inducted into the National Voting Rights Museum’s Women’s Hall of Fame. #SelmaJubilee
— Opal Vadhan (@OpalVadhan) March 3, 2019

"We aren't going to win every fight," says Clinton. "Take that from me. But history teaches us that the times when the struggle feels the hardest are the times when marching forward is most important."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 3, 2019

Matt Viser, at the Washington Post:

Several Democratic presidential hopefuls came here to a resonant remembrance of one of the bloodiest moments of the civil rights movement on Sunday, with Sen. Cory Booker talking emotionally about being a descendant of slaves and others urging a renewed defense of voting rights…
Booker hinted at the words of Martin Luther King Jr. to draw attention to what he depicted as a resurgence of racial animosity.
“The dream is under attack. The dreamers are in danger,” Booker said. “And we need each other more than we realize in this country.”
Selma has become an annual pilgrimage site for Democratic politicians, culminating with a walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where on March 7, 1965, marchers advocating for voting rights were attacked by police in a day that has become known as Bloody Sunday. The Voting Rights Act was signed the same year. This year, the events marking one of the most searing moments of the civil rights movement took place over four days, including a Jubilee Golf Tournament on Friday and a “battle of the bands” on Saturday.
The main event, Sunday’s march across the bridge with linked arms, call-and-response, and gospel songs, was nearly derailed by thunderstorms. But the weather cleared enough for thousands to make the walk.
A trio of potential presidential candidates — Sanders of Vermont and Booker of New Jersey, who have announced their campaigns, and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is considering a bid — were here along with Clinton during the day’s events…
Sunday’s events provided a forum for the belief among many African American leaders that the GOP has been launching a renewed fight against voting rights, with such measures as voter ID laws and the curtailment of early voting.
“Make no mistake: We are living through a full-fledged crisis in our democracy,” Clinton said. “There may not be, thank God, tanks in the streets. But what’s happening goes to the heart of who we are as a nation.”…
Brown, who told reporters that he will decide on a presidential bid by the end of March, also circulated among the mostly African American attendees, asking about their lives.
Asked how he could compete in a diverse field of candidates, and with an increasingly diverse electorate, Brown said he would let his record speak for itself.
“If I run, I’ll be the only Democrat on that stage who voted against the Iraq War. I’ll be the only Democrat on that stage who supported marriage equality 20 years ago. I’ll be the only person on that stage who has a longtime F from the NRA,” Brown said. He pointed to his face. “I can change a lot of things, but I can’t change this part of me, right?”

I don’t think Sherrod Brown will end up as our Democratic nominee (although plenty of people on twitter have suggested he’d be a great vp for Kamala Harris), but I am very interested in seeing what he’ll be saying over the next few months!

Monday Morning Open Thread: Selma SundayPost + Comments (104)

Election Fraud Open Thread: A Re-Run in North Carolina

by Anne Laurie| February 25, 20199:15 am| 43 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, local races 2019/2020, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Repubs in Disarray!, Voting Rights, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

Democrat Dan McCready announces that he’s running for Congress again in the NC-09 special election.
“Our right to vote is our most sacred freedom as Americans … I am running in the special election to represent the people of the 9th District.” Via ABC pic.twitter.com/CzkSuT04Ym
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 22, 2019

Great news! Thanks to your efforts, @McCreadyForNC blasted through 50K followers — a day ahead of schedule! If you haven’t followed Dan yet, please do so now. And if you have some money to spare, please donate to his campaign and help the Democrats pick up another House seat!
— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) February 24, 2019

Per the local Charlotte Observer:

The new campaign in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District kicked off Friday with a rally by Democrat Dan McCready, hints from several would-be GOP candidates and silence from Republican Mark Harris.
The flurry of action came a day after the North Carolina State Board of Elections ordered a new election following a hearing that detailed election fraud in Bladen County.
It made its decision after Harris stunned the hearing with his own call for a new election, after insisting for weeks that he won the vote last fall and should be certified…
The primary campaign would be relatively short. Though no schedule has been set, elections officials said one scenario would be for a May primary, a June runoff if needed and an October general election. The same officials have proposed a May 14 primary in the 3rd District, vacant since the death of Republican U.S. Rep. Walter Jones…
Former Mecklenburg County commissioner Matthew Ridenhour, a Charlotte Republican who lost his seat in November, said he’s received texts and emails since Thursday urging him to run. He expects to decide within a few days. And Republican legislators could run for Congress in a special election without fear of losing their seats, which are not up until 2020.
Despite McCready’s headstart, the 9th District still leans Republican. No Democrat has represented it for decades and President Donald Trump carried the district by 11 points. But some Republicans said the election fraud and Harris’ ties to Dowless have hurt the party’s label in the 9th.
“We have some work to do to repair our brand, and I’m not sure the current folks in leadership know exactly how to do that,” said Shaheen. “In my opinion party leadership in Raleigh made a fatal mistake by jumping out in front and being so supportive when they didn’t have the whole story.”…

Between the messy failure of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity and the new State Court ruling on ‘racial gerrymandering’, it seems the GOP party leadership had a pretty good outline of the whole story — and since their guys were using those stolen votes to ‘win’ elections, they were just fine with that!

“You caught me cheating so let’s have a do-over” isn’t really the way this is supposed to work. Harris should withdraw himself entirely. https://t.co/nCAWsulqsx
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) February 21, 2019

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In three days I’ve gone from thinking that Mark Harris should have known better to thinking there’s reason to believe he may have been actively directing the vote-buying scheme. https://t.co/gNFwtWxcMf
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) February 21, 2019

And too many of the Media Village Idiots are treating the whole shameless theft as some kind of quaint Suthron folk saga — practically Absalom, Absalom!, but with fewer run-on sentences. The Washington Post, which should know better:

… It was a heart-wrenching drama between an evangelical minister, who badly wanted to serve in Congress, and his lawyer son, who came forward with evidence that contradicted his father’s testimony.
Republicans and Democrats agreed that something went right compared with how partisan conflict often plays out in the country’s hyper-polarized political environment…
The hearing had taken a dramatic turn the previous day, when Harris’s 29-year-old son John, an assistant U.S. attorney in Raleigh, took the stand and described conversations and emails with his father in 2017 in which he warned the elder Harris against hiring Dowless. John Harris believed Dowless had broken the law in a previous election.
Harris parried confidently about his son’s testimony, explaining that he hadn’t taken the advice seriously. “My son was still my son — 27 years old,” he said.
What Harris did not say is that he had told another son, Matthew, on the eve of John’s testimony that he did not think his emails with John would come up in the hearing. He did not know that John Harris had already turned over the emails. More important, it was a sign that his campaign may not have fully complied with the state board’s subpoena for documents and communications related to Dowless…
Harris faced potential legal jeopardy and a brutal cross-examination from Elias, a prominent and aggressive Democratic lawyer from Washington. The board’s lawyers asked Elias whether he would let Harris go if Harris also agreed to say that a new election was warranted.
Freedman mentioned Harris’s health problems — he was still recovering from a serious infection that had led to sepsis and two strokes. Freedman added that Harris’s medications had affected his memory on the stand…

Republican politicians have for years railed against the threat of voter fraud in the U.S.
But when a North Carolina election was overturned this week because of election fraud by a Republican political operative, the GOP was largely muted in its responsehttps://t.co/jMqft7w9uS
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 23, 2019

The US Attorney in NC’s Eastern District was tipped off about the absentee ballot fraud scheme in #NC09 in 2017. He’s focused instead on rooting out extremely rare, usually mistaken instances of non-citizen voting. My story on Bobby Higdon: https://t.co/RVKFU4l1i8
— Allegra Kirkland (@allegrakirkland) February 22, 2019

Election Fraud Open Thread: A Re-Run in North CarolinaPost + Comments (43)

Election Fraud, not Voter Fraud

by download my app in the app store mistermix| December 4, 201810:57 am| 31 Comments

This post is in: Voter Suppression, Voting Rights

The irregularities in North Carolina voting are being called “voter fraud” (here’s one example from a good media outlet), but as far as I can tell, they’re not. It sounds like some group of persons was collecting mail-in ballots, or sending mail-in ballots to people who had never requested them. In other words, someone between the voter and the ballot collected it and apparently voted it Republican. That’s election fraud – the voters didn’t perpetrate it.

It may seem like a small distinction, but it’s important because the way that the GOP markets “voter fraud” is some person or persons going to different precincts and voting multiple times. That doesn’t happen, and if it did, it would be incredibly expensive and inefficient. Fucking the system by faking ballots and sending them in, or tampering with election machines, is far more likely. Yet little or no effort is made to secure that part of the voting chain, because better ballot and machine security isn’t going to keep Democrats from voting.

In a few weeks when the dust has settled in North Carolina, look for Fox and the rest of the usual suspects justifying more bullshit ID legislation on the backs of this event.

(The only time I’ve ever seen an election irregularity was many years ago when a volunteer collecting absentee ballots from the elderly was overly suggestive about how they should vote. When another campaign worker found out, he was immediately reported and ejected from the campaign. I was doing the same job, and old and frail people often asked me how to vote when I gathered their ballot. It was a tight election and the temptation was there.)

Election Fraud, not Voter FraudPost + Comments (31)

Open Thread: Gauntlet, Thrown!

by Anne Laurie| November 17, 20188:36 am| 116 Comments

This post is in: Because of wow., I'm With Her, NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

This is what we need! Democrats fighting for our rights! pic.twitter.com/KE4t4V8iAW
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) November 16, 2018

If it were to become law, the bill would:
1. Establish automatic voter registration
2. Reinvigorate the Voting Rights Act (gutted by SCOTUS in 2013)
3. End partisan gerrymandering in favor of an independent redistricting commission@highbrow_nobrow https://t.co/iu4iQsCKGz
— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) November 16, 2018

Of course the Repubs will do their best to strangle this vital young bill, but — at the very least, we’ll get them on the record, and let them defend their stance in the 2020 campaigns.

And not coincidentally, doesn’t this make the #FiveWhiteGuys and their fellow anti-Pelosi ratfvckers look like the two-bit schemers they are?

Open Thread: Gauntlet, Thrown!Post + Comments (116)

Native American Voters, Still Fighting for Their Rights

by Anne Laurie| November 4, 20186:04 pm| 110 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Republican Venality, Voting Rights

Good news in North Dakota thanks to dedicated activists. https://t.co/U1TkN4sN8g
— ACLU ?? (@ACLU) November 1, 2018

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Efforts by American Indian tribes in North Dakota to provide free identification with street addresses to thousands of members in advance of Tuesday’s election are cutting into the number of Native Americans who could potentially be turned away at the polls for lack of a proper ID under recently tightened state rules.
The free programs launched with the help of groups including the Lakota People’s Law Project and the Four Directions nonprofit so far have provided more than 2,000 voters on four reservations with the proper credentials. The effort to ensure a strong Native American vote comes amid uproar over what some believe is an attempt to suppress their votes.
“We’re at our best in crisis,” said Phyllis Young, an organizer on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation for the Lakota People’s Law Project, adding that the issue “is only making us more aware of our rights, more energized, and more likely to vote this November.”…
Changes to North Dakota’s voter ID laws came just months after Heitkamp’s win by fewer than 3,000 votes with the help of Native Americans in 2012, though Republicans say that had nothing to do with updates aimed at guarding against voter fraud. American Indians make up about 5 percent of North Dakota’s population.
The Turtle Mountain Chippewa, Standing Rock Sioux, Spirit Lake Sioux and Three Affiliated Tribes all have launched programs to provide free IDs with street address to tribal members in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
As of Tuesday, the programs had provided 1,050 IDs on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, more than 380 on the Spirit Lake Sioux Reservation and 440 on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. The Three Affiliated Tribes had provided only 140, but the program had just been launched the day before…
The effort is largely being financed through donations. The Native American Rights Fund has given the four tribes a total of $50,000, and a GoFundMe site set up by the Standing Rock Sioux had raised more than $200,000 from more than 4,300 donors as of mid-day Wednesday.
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Alexis Davis, 19, chairwoman of the Turtle Mountain Youth Council, has an ID with a residential street address but said many of her friends do not. The voter ID issue has made them more resolved to be a part of the election process, she said.

“It’s like, oh you want to make this harder for me? Oh, you want to take away my rights?” she said. “It’s like, no, now I’m going to fight that, and I’m going to be more resilient, and I’m going to make sure that I’m going to go vote.”

In the Washington Post, Jamie Azure, tribal chairman for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians — “North Dakota’s voter-ID law aimed to silence Native American voters. Instead, it rallied my tribe”:

… The state has a voting-eligible population of 580,000, and about 70,000 lack the right kind of ID. The law requires that these IDs have street addresses printed on them and specifically bans using a P.O. Box. This was clearly designed to target Native Americans. Most tribal IDs don’t have this information. In fact, many tribal citizens don’t have residential mailing addresses — the U.S. Postal Service does not provide residential delivery to their rural communities…
Members of the Turtle Mountain Band were key to fighting North Dakota’s law in the courts. At the same time, our tribal council made contingency plans so that when the Supreme Court declined to intervene to protect our voting rights last month, we sprang into reaction mode. Our tribal motor vehicle department, which issues IDs, had already arranged with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get access to its database of street addresses so we could print that information on the new cards. (Members of other tribes have not been so fortunate. Some have reported that their county officials have been unavailable, or even issued incorrect addresses.) Through some finagling, we secured a new ID machine for each of our four polling sites on Election Day, to ensure that all eligible citizens can get an ID and vote when they show up. We have also waived the processing fee. For a single mother with three kids, that $15 could buy milk for a week. Our community has a nearly 15 percent poverty rate and a 59 percent unemployment rate. We don’t want people to have to make that choice.
Three generations ago, until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Native Americans didn’t have the right to vote at the federal, state and local levels and still maintain tribal citizenship. This new law is intended to disenfranchise our population and hold us down. Ironically, it may have only served to rally the Turtle Mountain people and tribes across North Dakota. In 2016, our voter turnout was an all-time low. But a month ago, when we first opened the office to distribute free IDs to first-time applicants, hundreds of people showed up. The machine got so hot that it started to melt the cards. Then, at this week’s nonpartisan “Stand-N-Vote” rally — starring actor Mark Ruffalo and musician Billy Ray Cyrus, and with an ID machine at the ready — close to 1,400 tribal members filled the auditorium of our community college. The energy was electric…

Crowdpac fund here: Take Back the Senate in 2018 by getting Native Americans to the Polls

What's happening right now in North Dakota is just a disgrace, a totally open effort to prevent the state's American Indian population from voting. Watch this. pic.twitter.com/bCw268iKPK
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) November 2, 2018

This election will mark 70 years since the last de jure ban on voting by Native Americans. Miguel Trujillo, a Pueblo from New Mexico, should be in the history books for challenging his state's illegal ban on Indian voting.https://t.co/TwW1HgYR8X
— All Saints Dia De Los Muertos Hat (@NonWhiteHat) November 2, 2018

Native American Voters, Still Fighting for Their RightsPost + Comments (110)

Stacey Abrams vs. the Revanchist Racist

by Anne Laurie| October 21, 201810:25 am| 110 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights, All Too Normal

Retweet this to remind everyone in Georgia that their vote counts. pic.twitter.com/bD53MuFifN
— ???Black Aziz aNANsi??? (@Freeyourmindkid) October 19, 2018

Wim Laven arrived to his Georgia polling site unsure of voter suppression allegations. Then he waited 2 hours in the sun; saw one person in line treated for heat exhaustion; watched a 2nd collapse, yet refuse to be taken to the hospital so he could vote.https://t.co/T1OrO4NxZ4
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 19, 2018

… “I have a hard time imagining this is anything but an intentional effort,” said Mr. Laven, who teaches political science at Kennesaw State University. “I can’t imagine this is just pure incompetence. Everyone knew how serious people have been around here about getting out the vote.”…
Georgia ranks 43rd out of 50 in election integrity, according to one of Mr. Shufeldt’s measures, which grades things like state election administration and expert opinion surveys.
That ranking is emblematic of almost a decade of fights between election rights groups and Mr. Kemp. Questions have long swirled around Mr. Kemp’s office about issues including voter data security and whether Georgia’s voting machines were fit for modern elections…

From The Root, “Neither Voter Suppression Nor Being Called ‘Coon’ and the N-Word Will Stop Black Georgia From Voting”:

Waynesboro, Georgia—Sarah Jenkins has long had to deal with simmering community tensions. She owns a small business in a white part of town that caters to senior citizens and people with mental disabilities, an arrangement many of her neighbors frown upon.
But since “Ms. Jenkins,” as folks like to call her, became a big supporter of Stacey Abrams—who is trying to become the first black woman to become governor anywhere in the nation—those tensions have boiled over. They’ve grown especially ugly since Abrams won the Democratic nomination in her quest to lead Georgia.
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The Abrams campaign signs Jenkins placed on her lawn were frequently stolen; she would replace them. But then came the one-word, handwritten messages on white pieces of paper that started showing up in her mailbox.

“Coon,” some of them said…

Still, Jenkins was among the throng of Abrams supporters, maybe a hundred or so, who gathered to listen to the gubernatorial candidate deliver her stump speech in a church parking lot in Waynesboro, Ga., on Wednesday afternoon.

It will be choices such as the one Jenkins is making—remaining steadfast in the face of intimidation in a state where charges of voter suppression have increased the past few weeks—that will likely decide what polling data says is a close race between Abrams and her Republican challenger, Brian Kemp.

Georgia made national headlines recently after the Associated Press found that 70 percent of the voter registration applications being held up by Kemp, who is also Georgia’s secretary of state, are African American. (Georgia is 32 percent black.)

Like the tension in Jenkins’s neighborhood, Kemp’s dual role as Abrams’ opponent, as well as the man in charge of voter registration, has become a prominent feature of this election cycle. Kemp has justified his decision to hold up so many applications because of the “exact match” policy that can invalidate an application if something as simple as a hyphen on a last name of a license is missing on the form. Most civil rights groups consider it a voter suppression tactic. While those whose applications are among the 53,000 can still show up to vote with the proper identification, many black Georgians see this as a 1960s-era attempt to scare them away from the polls.

“I come from the generation where we had to march to be able to vote,” Evelyn Ellis, 72, of Augusta, said after Abrams spoke. “I’m the last of that generation who can tell that story. It was a terrible thing my generation had to go through. For there to be any kind of suppression is just awful. So I am hoping and praying that even though that effort is out there that we will still be able to overcome it.”…

Must-read @pemalevy profile of Brian Kemp, who's dedicated his career to preventing people of color from voting & whose voter suppression policies could tip GA governor's race in his favor https://t.co/Bacw92fMSO
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) October 19, 2018

If any member of the GOP had even the tattered vestiges of decency left, they’d be publicly shunning Kemp just for his clumsiness. But in Trump’s America, being a Repub means never having to apologize for being shamelessly racist.

Stacey Abrams vs. the Revanchist RacistPost + Comments (110)

Positive News: Native Americans Fight Back Against GOP Voter Suppression

by Anne Laurie| October 18, 201810:30 pm| 53 Comments

This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Election 2018, Post-racial America, Voting Rights

BREAKING: Native Americans push back on North Dakota voter ID rule, announcing in a new statement they will issue street address documents at polling locations to members who need them. pic.twitter.com/tukNkgrV18
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) October 18, 2018

With North Dakota's voter ID law in place for the election, Standing Rock Sioux leaders say they're in crisis mode trying to get tribal members what they need for November 6. https://t.co/1zr5QnU4eQ
— KMOT-TV (@KMOT_TV) October 16, 2018

… With three weeks to election day tribal leaders have scheduled a forum to help people find their addresses, and get them new tribal IDs. Chairman Mike Faith thinks this won’t suppress the vote.
“I think it’s going to be a positive because it’s upsetting people to the point of wanting to go to the polls,” said Faith.
“People who’ve never had IDs will have IDs for the first time and so that’s a real plus,” said Young.
In the last 4 presidential elections, voter turnout in Sioux county has ranged from 1,100 to 1,300.
If you are a tribal member with question, there is a meeting in Sioux County about the voter IDs. For more information, call 701-854-8500.
The Secretary of State website has a link for ID questions here: https://vip.sos.nd.gov/civics101.aspx?ptlhPKID=126&ptlPKID=7

A series of amazing possible firsts (governor, Congress, lt. gov…) for Native American women candidates seeking historic wins in November across the country from @joeheim https://t.co/A7UMzE7ZIO #standingrock #nativevote18
— Arelis R. Hernández (@arelisrhdz) October 15, 2018

Deb Haaland has known a lot of firsts in her rise through New Mexico’s Democratic Party ranks. In 2014, she was the first Native American woman from a major party to run for statewide office here when she sought to be lieutenant governor. After that bid failed, she became the first Native American woman in the country to lead a state political party. On Nov. 6, barring a shocking upset, the 57-year-old member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe, could become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Congress…
Haaland’s bid for Congress, in the strongly Democratic 1st District, has soaked up most of the attention, but 2018 has been a breakout political year for Native American women across the country with “far more than ever running,” according to Mark Trahant, editor of Indian Country Today, who has been tracking races. Another Native American woman, Kansas Democrat Sharice Davids, is also running for a House seat. More than a hundred women elsewhere have taken part in races at local and state levels, an unprecedented level of participation that has produced hashtags — #SheRepresents, #NativeVote18 — and a wide range of candidates that include Democrats and Republicans, but also Green Party, Independent and Libertarian candidates.
Though the emergence of so many Native American women running for office has seemed to come out of the blue, it is in many ways the result of seeds planted over the past decade at the community and regional levels.
“The narrative had been that Native Americans were gone, that we’re invisible, that we’re part of history,” said Jodi Gillette, a member of the Standing Rock Tribe who served as special adviser for Native American issues to President Obama. “Well, we’ve been here all along trying to be seen and trying to be relevant and trying to find ways to address our issues. I rejoice in the fact that we’ve got the visibility and are positioned to help lead and not just be seen, but to represent.”…

Kansas GOP official lashes out at Democratic congressional candidate Sharice Davids: “your radical socialist kick boxing lesbian Indian will be sent back packing to the reservation” https://t.co/3iHSDoAk3P
— Ruth H. Hopkins (@RuthHHopkins) October 9, 2018

Sharice Davids by 8 with poll nearing completion https://t.co/NmC5nN6mN1 pic.twitter.com/U6VWhkeAVX
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 18, 2018

Positive News: Native Americans Fight Back Against GOP Voter SuppressionPost + Comments (53)

trollhattan on A Thorough Depiction of My Current Mood (Jun 1, 2020 @ 3:54pm)

Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) on Buckle Up, Buttercups (Jun 1, 2020 @ 3:53pm)

trollhattan on A Thorough Depiction of My Current Mood (Jun 1, 2020 @ 3:52pm)

Mike in NC on Buckle Up, Buttercups (Jun 1, 2020 @ 3:50pm)

Martin on Buckle Up, Buttercups (Jun 1, 2020 @ 3:50pm)

We Survived Breitbartpocalypse!

Consistently wrong since 2002

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Too inconsequential to be sued

Naturally gregarious and alpha

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Also, too.

I personally stopped the public option…

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

How has Obama failed you today?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.

Nevertheless, she persisted

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

Wetsuit optional.

Reality always wins in the end.

Shocking, but not surprising.

Militantly superior in their own minds…

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Mission Accomplished!

This is a big f—–g deal.

We have all the best words.

Stopping the GOP Cheat to Win Strategy

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her Worth

Monday Morning Open Thread: Happy Vaisakhi!

Wisconsin Needs Our Help

Election Year Open Thread: Good for Mike Bloomberg

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Excellent Choice, Ms. Abrams!

Proud to Be A Democrat Open Thread: Good News Out of Georgia

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Democrats Are Pro-Voters; Repubs Are Not

Monday Morning Open Thread: Selma Sunday

Election Fraud Open Thread: A Re-Run in North Carolina

Election Fraud, not Voter Fraud

Open Thread: Gauntlet, Thrown!

Native American Voters, Still Fighting for Their Rights

Stacey Abrams vs. the Revanchist Racist

Positive News: Native Americans Fight Back Against GOP Voter Suppression