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Democrat Stacey Abrams Ends Bid For Georgia Governor


UPDATE 11/16/18: Democrat Stacey Abrams ended her campaign to become the next governor of Georgia Friday, which would have made her the first black woman in American history to lead a state. After a 10-day standoff, Abrams recognized in a fiery speech that Republican Brian Kemp will assume the position.

“I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election,” Abrams said. “But to watch an elected official who claims to represent the people in this state baldly pin his hopes for election on suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote has been truly appalling.”

Abrams also made it clear her speech wasn’t one of concession, saying she plans to file a federal lawsuit to challenge the “gross mismanagement” of Georgia elections.

“In the coming days, we will be filing a major federal lawsuit against the state of Georgia for the gross mismanagement of this election and to protect future elections.”

Abrams made the announcement late Friday afternoon, which—according to reports—was the earliest state officials could certify the results after a court-ordered review of absentee, provisional and other uncounted ballots.

11/ 7/18: The fight isn’t over yet for Stacey Abrams, who is refusing to step down in her quest to become the first black woman governor of Georgia. On Election Night the Democratic nominee announced in a fiery speech that she would not concede the race until every single vote is counted, a rallying call that concluded a night of voting challenges for Georgia residents.

“There are voices remaining to be heard,” she told the crowd of supporters early Wednesday morning. “We believe our chance for a stronger Georgia is just within reach.”

Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia General Assembly and the first black woman to lead in the House of Representatives, is up against the Republican candidate, Brian Kemp. Kemp, who is currently Georgia’s sitting Secretary of State, was endorsed by President Donald Trump during the campaign. Over the summer Trump said Kemp was “tough on crime, strong on the border and illegal immigration.”

Here’s where things get a little tricky. Right now Abrams has about 48.7 percent of the vote, with 1,907,212 votes. Kemp currently has the lead with 50.4 percent and 1,971,831 votes, according to the Associated Press. This means less than 65,000 votes separate the two candidates. And those numbers really could mean something as Georgia has an odd law that states a gubernatorial candidate must win a majority of votes (more than 50 percent) to win the election. If neither candidate takes home a majority, it triggers a run-off election. Both parties would meet again for a December 4 vote. It would mark the first general election race for governor to require a runoff, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Abrams’ campaign team believes there are at least 97,000 early votes and mail-in ballots that have not been tallied, AP reports. The team believes she needs just 25,000 of those votes to be in her favor to trigger a runoff. However, Kemp disagrees.

“There are votes left to count, but…make no mistake, the math is on our side to win this election,” he said Tuesday evening, according to the AP. Still, Abrams is willing to wait.

Kemp famously played into the President’s racist rhetoric with a primary campaign ad where he said he’d “round up illegals and bring them back myself.” He ran on a platform that included increasing teacher pay, capping state spending, lowering health care premiums, and ending sanctuary cities. Abrams focused her platform on strengthening environmental protections, supporting a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, opposing further abortion restrictions, the decriminalization of marijuana in Georgia, universal background checks, and supporting educational scholarship funding for all.

Abrams was well-aware that she wasn’t liked by everyone on the campaign trail, but chose to focus her attention on empowering sideline supporters instead.

“My approach is this,” Abrams shared with Rolling Stone about her campaign. “I’m not going to spend a disproportionate share of our resources trying to convert Republican-leaning voters when we can invest in lifting up the voices of those who share our values. Because here’s the thing: I think our values are the right ones. And I think these values that are shared actually are going to be victorious on their own.”

Abrams also had some serious star power supporting her campaign. Just prior to the election, Oprah Winfrey flew to Georgia to campaign for Abrams, even going door-to-door to garner more support for the candidate.

“Nobody paid for me to come here. Nobody even asked for me to come here. I paid for myself and I approve this message,” Oprah shared during a campaign rally for Abrams.

If Abrams gets her way, and every vote is tallied, it looks like Oprah may have to return to the Peach State soon.

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Everything You Need To Know About Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, The Millennial Who Just Beat Top Democrat Joe Crowley


In a stunning political victory on Tuesday night, 28-year-old first-time candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term Democrat Joe Crowley in their party’s congressional primary in New York.

Ocasio-Cortez seized 57.5 percent of the votes in New York’s 14th District, which includes the Bronx and Queens. The upset came as a shock to those who hadn’t predicted Ocasio-Cortez could beat Crowley, the fourth-ranking House Democrat positioned to possibly assume leadership as Speaker of the House.

“We beat a machine with a movement, and that is what we have done today,” Ocasio-Cortez said to her supporters on Tuesday night. “Working-class Americans want a clear champion and there is nothing radical about moral clarity in 2018.”

Now that Ocasio-Cortez has become a household name, here’s everything you need to know about the woman being hailed the progressive world’s newest star.

She’s A Proud, Working-Class Latina From the Bronx

Ocasio-Cortez has spoken at length about her working-class roots: Her Puerto Rican mother cleaned houses and her father, a South Bronx native, ran a struggling small business. Up until last year, Ocasio-Cortez helped her family make ends meet by working in restaurants and bartending. “I was shoulder to shoulder with undocumented people in the back of house,” she told the culture website Remezcla. She attended Boston University and worked for Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

A photo of her working behind the bar just this November has been retweeted more than 25,000 times.

She Ran On A Progressive, Socialist Platform

The community organizer and educator, who had volunteered on Bernie Sanders’ campaign in 2016, was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America. Her proposals include abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reforming the criminal justice system, guaranteeing federal jobs, instituting Medicare for all, and establishing tuition-free college. Just before the primary race, Ocasio-Cortez had spent time protesting the separation of immigrant families at the Tornillo-Guadalupe Port of Entry in Texas.

She Refused Corporate Donations

Ocasio-Cortez ran a grassroots campaign without corporate donors. Jezebel points out that according to the Center for Responsive Politics, Ocasio-Cortez raised more than $300,000 entirely on contributions of $200 or less, with an average campaign contribution of $18.

Crowley, meanwhile, had raised millions of dollars, which cast some doubts on Ocasio-Cortez as a threat. In fact, Crowley skipped two debates with Ocasio-Cortez, which he was called out on by the New York Times editorial board. Ocasio-Cortez’s bid was the first time he had been challenged in a primary race for 14 years.

Her May Campaign Ad Went Viral

A campaign video that she released in May exploded on the Internet, garnering 300,000 views on its first day posted. “Women like me aren’t supposed to run for office. I wasn’t born to a wealthy or powerful family,” she says in the video, adding later, “I’ve worked with expectant mothers, I’ve waited tables, and led classrooms, and going into politics wasn’t in the plan. But after 20 years of the same representation, we have to ask: Who has New York been changing for?”

She Could Be The Youngest Woman Elected To Congress—Ever

She’ll run against Republican candidate Anthony Pappas in the November mid-terms. If she wins, she could be the youngest ever woman elected to Congress. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among several women making strides toward political history in recent primary elections.

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Democrat Doug Moore Won Alabama and Twitter Is Thanking the Real Heroes—Black Women


I don’t think I ever could have guessed I’d be so deeply invested in an Alabama special election, but this is 2017. So last night I settled in to watch the results in the race for Jeff Sessions’ vacated Senate seat between Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore who has battled an onslaught of allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls. When the allegations first emerged, many Republicans distanced themselves from Moore, but in recent weeks he regained the support of the RNC and President Donald Trump.

Polls were all over the place leading up to Tuesday, and many had resigned themselves to the fact that an alleged child molester was going to become a United States Senator. Then something happened—that New York Times needle that measures likelihood of winning (and is the most anxiety-inducing thing I’ve ever seen on the internet) started to shift toward Jones, with the major urban areas of Alabama (typically Democratic strongholds) yet to report.

The major news outlets started calling the election for Jones a little before 10:30 PM and while Moore is spouting off about a recount, the numbers don’t look to be in his favor.

In his victory speech, Jones made sure to thank the African-American community and he was so very right to do so, because they won him the election. According to Washington Post exit polling, 96% of African Americans supported Jones. By comparison, only 30% of white voters were Jones voters. Very quickly this graphic from the Post started making its way around social media.

PHOTO: Washington Post

As you can see, white women voted at an alarming rate for a alleged child molester, which is even more mind-boggling than the already hard-to-explain 53% who cast their ballots for Donald Trump, in spite of his misogynistic speech and sexual harassment allegations. It was the black community, especially women, who turned out—and turned this election. Many pundits will see this as a major turning point in the rejection of Trumpism heading into the 2018 midterms and all credit should go where it’s due.

Twitter totally agreed.

White women, rightfully, did not fare so well:

Crucial lessons can be learned from Alabama as we head into 2018, so let’s please never forget how this election was won. And to my fellow white women: Please get it together. This is embarrassing.





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