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bbcbreakingnews · 4 years

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GOP congressman calls AOC a ‘f***ing b***h’ in berating her for linking crime to unemployment

Republican Rep. Ted Yoho (pictured) called his Democratic colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a ‘f***ing b***h’ during a heated exchange at the Capitol on Monday

A Republican congressman issued a profanity-laced insult toward Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the Capitol, but the freshman congresswoman shot back in a tweet on Tuesday: ‘B*****s get stuff done.’

In a contentious exchange with the progressive congresswoman on the steps of the Capitol on Monday, Representative Ted Yoho, 65, was overheard by a reporter with The Hill calling Ocasio-Cortez, 30, a ‘f***ing b***h,’ according to a report published Tuesday.

The progressive New York City lawmaker was ascending the stairs to cast her vote on the same day the House stood in a moment of silence to honor the late Rep. John Lewis after he died Friday months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

‘You are out of your freaking mind,’ Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez in the brief interaction.

The Florida Republican also called AOC, as she was dubbed early on in her political career, ‘disgusting’ for recent comments where she said the spike in New York City crime in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic are due to increased levels of poverty and unemployment.

Ocasio-Cortez detailed to Yahoo News Tuesday that the representative put his finger in her face.

Yoho insisted to the Daily Caller that he did not use the vernacular outlined by The Hill.

Instead, he said he used the word ‘bulls**t,’ and said Ocasio-Cortez is trying to use the brief exchange for her personal benefit.

‘He did not call Rep. Ocasio-Cortez what has been reported in The Hill or any name for that matter,’ Yoho’s office told the right-leaning media outlet. ‘It sounds better for the Hill newspaper and gets more media attention to say he called her a name – which he did not do.’

‘It is unfortunate that Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is using this exchange to gain personal attention,’ his office added.

‘Instead,’ it insisted, ‘he made a brief comment to himself as he walked away summarizing what he believes her polices to be: bulls**t.’

‘He kept muttering insults at me as I was walking away, but I didn’t try to make it out,’ she explained. ‘I thought he had said something but didn’t assume that’s what he said.’

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the behavior ‘despicable’ and demanded Tuesday that Yoho make a personal amends as well as a speech on the House floor apologizing to Ocasio-Cortez.

The 65-year-old congressman’s office claimed he did not call the congresswoman names, but instead insulted her thoughts on crime being linked to unemployment as ‘bulls**t’

The progressive 30-year-old congresswoman said Yoho put his finger in her face as he called her ‘disgusting’ and ‘out of your freaking mind’ for linking a surge in crime in New York City on rising unemployment levels in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic

She also shot back on Twitter Tuesday, claiming, ‘B*****s get stuff done,’ and asserting she usually gets along with her GOP colleagues

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called on Yoho Tuesday to personally apologize to Ocasio-Cortez, and demanded he also make amends for comments in a speech on the House floor

‘Mr. Yoho owes not only the congresswoman an apology, but also an apology on the floor of the House of Representatives,’ Hoyer told reporters.

‘It was the act of a bully,’ the Maryland Democrat continued of Yoho. ‘Bottom line, I think it was despicable conduct. It needs to be sanctioned.’

Ocasio-Cortez told Yoho, who was joined by Texas Rep. Roger Williams on the Capitol stairs, that he was being ‘rude.’

As the two walked away from each other, Yoho said audibly: ‘F***ing b***h.’

She later expanded on her response on Twitter following the release of the report over the exchange.

‘I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday,’ the social-media active lawmaker posted Tuesday morning. ‘Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues.’

‘We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door,’ she asserted.

‘But hey, ‘b*tches’ get stuff done,’ Ocasio-Cortez quipped, adding a shrugging emoji.

The Hill reported that Williams was in ear-shot of the whole back-and-forth, but when approached about the specifics of the comments said he wasn’t paying attention to it at the time.

‘I was actually thinking, as I was walking down the stairs, I was thinking about some issues I’ve got in my district that need to get done,’ Williams said. ‘I don’t know what their topic was. There’s always a topic, isn’t there?’

Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t buying the excuse.

‘Gotta love Republican courage from Rep @RogerWilliamsTX: when he undeniably sees another man engaged in virulent harassment of a young woman, just pretend you never saw it in the most cartoonish manner possible and keep pushing,’ she tweeted, adding in a parentheses, ‘(He’s lying, by the way. He joined in w/ Yoho)’.

‘What’s wild to me @RogerWilliamsTX is why would you blatantly lie to a reporter who saw this exchange?’ she continued in calling out the Republican representative. ‘You were yelling at me too, about ‘throwing urine.’

Ocasio-Cortez explained the incident in more detail in a direct message with Yahoo News on Twitter.

‘When I pass other members on the steps, regardless of party, I usually nod or say hello if I’m able,’ the progressive lawmaker detailed. ‘Out of nowhere, Yoho comes up to me and puts his finger in my face and flies off in a rage.’

‘He started going off about shootings and bread and nonsense, calling me crazy, shameful, out of my mind, etc.,’ she continued.

‘At first I tried to talk to him, but that just made him yell over me more,’ she claimed.

‘Williams then started joining in, yelling things at me and said something about throwing urine — I don’t know what that was about,’ she added. ‘I said he was being rude and that this was unbelievable and started to walk away.’

She asserted that it was Yoho who called her ‘rude’ and not the other way around, and said following the interaction she ‘just kept walking to my vote.’

Texas Republican Rep. Roger Williams was accompanying Yoho down stairs on the east side of the Capitol after a vote when they confrontation occured. But he asserted he was not paying attention to the back-and-forth: ‘I was actually thinking, as I was walking down the stairs… I don’t know what their topic was’

Ocasio-Cortez didn’t buy Williams excuse, claiming he ‘joined in w/ Yoho’ in ‘harassing’ her

‘Why would you blatantly lie to a reporter who saw this exchange?’ she questioned of the Texas lawmaker, asserting he was yelling at her about ‘throwing urine’

Yoho has served in Congress since 2013, but in December 2019 the Florida lawmaker announced he will not seek reelection in November.

He has been married to his wife since he was 19-years-old, and hey have three children together – two daughters and one son.

His daughters – Laueen, 32, and Katie, 33 – are just a few years older than Ocasio-Cortez.

Yoho’s comments when confronting AOC were about remarks she made earlier this month during a virtual town hall where she defended the rise in crime in New York City as people ‘stealing bread to feed their children during record unemployment.’

Police data shows that shootings in the city last month were up 130 per cent this year – from 89 shootings last year to 205 this year.

But Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of Queens and The Bronx, questioned: ‘Do we think this has to do with the fact that there’s record unemployment in the United States right now?’

‘Maybe this has to do with the fact that people aren’t paying their rent and are scared to pay their rent,’ she continued. ‘And so they go out, and they need to feed their child and they don’t have money so they feel like they either need to shoplift some bread or go hungry.’

The comments were widely chastised by Republicans, who pointed to the rise in violent crime rather than shoplifting or petty theft.

‘That kind of confrontation hasn’t ever happened to me — ever,’ Ocasio-Cortez, who is often criticized publicly by GOP lawmakers, told The Hill of the in-person interaction. ‘I’ve never had that kind of abrupt, disgusting kind of disrespect levied at me.’

Yoho, however, had ‘no comment’ on the matter.

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healthyfreshrecipes · 4 years

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Maryland Congressional Delegation Announces New COVID-19 Emergency Nutrition Assistance For Students Missing Free or Reduced-Price Lunches at School | thebaynet.com | TheBayNet.com WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) and the full Maryland Congressional Delegation, including Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Congressmen Dutch Ruppersberger, John P.

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years

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The Trailer: The ‘squad’ gears up for two tough primaries

DETROIT – The day after her 44th birthday, Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) gathered supporters and volunteers at a juice bar in her district for a socially distanced party. Rashida-for-Congress sanitary wipes shared table space with birthday cake. A tracker snuck in and was quickly ushered out by the congresswoman herself. When it came time to speak, Tlaib choked up, reflecting on how her district had come together to protest police brutality and stand with Black Lives Matter.

“This is the only place that ever truly embraced everything about me, including that little edge, and that little rawness that I have,” Tlaib said. “All the different colors of rainbow are out there, marching, and saying black lives matter. And they know that it’s not only about who killed George Floyd, and police brutality; it’s about the systems that set up George Floyd to be killed in that way.”

In nine days, Tlaib will defend her seat against Brenda Jones, the Detroit City Council president she defeated by just 900 votes in the 2018 primary. Last time, the district’s mostly black electorate splintered behind other candidates. This time, her opponents united behind one opponent.

One week later, fellow squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) of Minnesota will face challenger Antone Melton-Meaux, who rocketed from obscurity to raise $3.7 million by arguing that the congresswoman is too “divisive” to represent Minneapolis. Omar, who won easily in 2018, is feeling the backlash from comments she made about pro-Israel donor influence and from a trio of campaign finance controversies, all of it thrown back at her in millions of dollars of ads.

In the first primaries of this year, as the presidential contest wound down, the resurgent left that elected Tlaib and Omar was mostly focused on expansion. Campaign organizations that had helped elect the “squad” – Tlaib, Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) – ousted more conservative Democratic incumbents in Illinois and New York. There are a few more targets on the calendar, such as activist Cori Bush’s rematch with Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri, and a challenge to House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal in western Massachusetts.

But for the next few weeks, the squad is playing defense. Seven hundred miles apart, Jones and Melton-Meaux make roughly the same argument about the incumbents: That they are too abrasive and too famous, that their cities would be better off with representatives who could work across the aisle and make less news. In an interview, Jones repeatedly cited the comments Tlaib made on her first day in Congress, promising to impeach the president, and referring to him with an unprintable epithet.

“How often have you, as a reporter, heard someone speak like that?” Jones asked. “Even when you disagree with someone, there is a professional manner of disagreeing with them. I am a professional legislator. I am a professional worker. And I think that professionalism is important in doing the job of representing the people.”

Jones did represent the district briefly, at the end of 2018. The resignation of Rep. John Conyers Jr. created a special primary election to fill his seat the same day as the primary for a two-year term. Tlaib won the six-way primary, while Jones won the four-way special. That put Jones in the House for a few weeks, and her campaign’s advertising asks voters to “return” Jones to the seat. In advertising from Concerned Citizens of Michigan, a pro-Jones PAC, black voters are told that “the 13th belongs to us” and that it’s time to “take our seat back.”

Tlaib’s rebuttal has been her record. When she mentions impeachment, it’s typically to say that the same president she voted to impeach has signed her legislation; when asked about that, Jones points out that the Republican Senate hasn’t taken up some of Tlaib’s work, such as an amendment to spend billions of dollars replacing lead water pipes.

Local Democrats long expected Jones to run, pointing to the results from 2018, when nearly two-thirds of Detroiters backed one of Tlaib’s rivals. “I think it’s about numbers,” said Ian Conyers, a former state senator and grandnephew of the former congressman. Like the three other candidates who ran behind Tlaib and Jones two years ago, he has endorsed Jones: “If there had been a runoff in 2018, Brenda Jones would have won. It almost feels like Rashida has an opinion and a prescription that the people of the district themselves have not asked for.”

Tlaib does hold some advantages. The city council president did not officially announce she was running until March 25, a week into the state’s stay-at-home order. Eight days later, Jones tested positive for the coronavirus and has made only limited public appearances since. Tlaib has raised more than $3 million, double what she spent to win the seat in the first place; Jones has raised less than $140,000, less than half of what she spent in the crowded 2018 race.

It’s another story in Minnesota, where the official Democratic Farmer-Labor Party has rallied behind Omar, but her challenger is set to outspend her in the final stretch. Melton-Meaux, an attorney who’d never run for office, trailed in fundraising until the last few months before the primary. But he established himself a credible competitor. Since March, Melton-Meaux has brought in millions of dollars, most of it from Minnesotans, and nearly half a million of it bundled by the pro-Israel NORPAC and Pro-Israel America PAC.

The money has funded a steady stream of direct mail and TV ads against Omar. The ads don’t focus on the incumbent’s position on Israel. Instead, they portray Omar as “aggressive” and corrupt, emphasizing some fundraising controversies that made as much news in national conservative media as they did in Minnesota. One involves a misuse of funds for travel, which Omar paid a 2019 fine to settle; one is more personal, accusing her of funneling campaign money to her husband’s firm.

On Saturday, Omar defended her use of E Street, which played the same role in her successful 2018 campaign before she married the firm’s co-founder Tim Mynett. “They’ve contracted vendors for us to not only run ads, digital ads, but also to do all of our mailers, and online fundraising,” Omar said of Mynett’s firm. “They are a one-stop shop.” (The firm’s other founder has also defended Omar.)

Tlaib and Omar arrived in Congress with similar profiles on the issue of Israel, and both opposed a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Asked why donors had rallied behind Omar’s opponent, but not Tlaib’s, Michigan Democrats speculated that Tlaib’s district would likely be broken by redistricting in 2022 anyway. Any map in Minnesota is likely to keep Omar’s 5th District, which covers Minneapolis and its closest suburbs, largely intact. But a simpler reason is that of two immigrants who came up through local activism, Omar has been more combative.

In this race, Omar has questioned Melton-Meaux’s résumé as an attorney with an emphasis in workplace mediation whose old law firm helped companies fight union drives. “There’s no evidence that this mediation is something that’s ever been deployed in bringing people together in our community,” Omar said. “On the contrary, I have a track record of being a coalition builder.” Asked about his legal work, Melton-Meaux said that he had no role in anti-union work at a “multinational firm that does a lot of different things.”

She has also tried to paint Melton-Meaux’s backers as Wall Street cronies and Republicans, like telecom executive and Trump donor Howard Jonas. “Look at the sheer amount of money that is coming from people who funded Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell,” Omar said in an interview, recalling the cries to “send her back,” an insult directed at the two Muslim members of Congress who were born outside the United States; in Omar’s case, arriving here as a refugee. “They’re giving to a man who agrees with the sentiment that we shouldn’t be in Minnesota, that we shouldn’t have representation in Congress, that our voices and visibility in the halls of Congress is an inconvenience.”

But Melton-Meaux has pushed back. “The support we’ve got from PACs is from nonpartisan organizations that have given to Democrats and Republicans, including Democrats like Senator [Tina] Smith and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and even, yes, Joe Biden,” Melton-Meaux said in an interview. “What’s really happening here is that the congresswoman does not want people to know just how much strength we have here in the district.”

As incumbents, she and Tlaib benefit from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s rule that contractors who work for challengers to Democratic incumbents can’t work with DCCC candidates; Melton-Meaux has criticized that rule. “It’s a decision that I think, frankly, is trying to chill the democratic process. I have a constitutional right to run for this office,” he said.

But Melton-Meaux has less than three weeks to convince Minneapolis to ditch Omar, and Jones has less than two weeks to win over Detroit. Meanwhile, Omar’s campaign has activated her national supporters, bringing both Tlaib and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont together for a virtual “day of action” on Sunday. At Tlaib’s Saturday party, Angela Gallegos, 34, recalled how she met the future congresswoman at a protest, more than a decade ago, before either of them were involved in electoral politics.

“When I see the opponent’s sign, that’s almost equivalent of a Trump sign to me,” Gallegos said. “Like, why are you doing that to my girl? It’s Rashida. Everyone knows her. We should get her back.”

Reading list

Inside the futile quest for a big MAGA party in Jacksonville.

What it’s like to run for office and watch a post office throw the election.

The next stage of the fight with Xi Jinping.

One of 2020’s left-wing underdogs is on the ropes.

The backstory of how Portland’s endless protests became a focus for the White House.

The simple, fixable and politically fraught reason behind hours of long lines.

How the end of traditional campaigning also means the end of tracking and gaffe-catching.

In the states

After New York’s primary debacle, which has left tens of thousands of votes uncounted and more in limbo, the Democratic-controlled legislature in Albany passed another reform of the absentee ballot process. Instead of being processed 30 days before an election, voters’ requests for absentee ballots will be processed as soon as they’re received. Like voters in states that previously implemented expansive mail voting, New Yorkers will be informed of their ballot status and get chances to “cure” it — ie, to fix an error that left the ballot uncounted by election officials. Connecticut, one of the few remaining Democratic-run states that requires an excuse for requesting absentee ballots, took a step closer to nixing that with a broad, bipartisan vote in the state House of Representatives.

In Illinois, the first state where Kanye West obtained signatures to petition onto the ballot, five voters have challenged his filing. While West only needs 2,500 signatures to appear as a presidential candidate — he did not file the name of a running mate — he filed around 3,200 total signatures. That’s in the danger zone for a successful challenge, as scrutiny can sometimes remove 20 to 30 percent of the names on petitions, if voters’ identities cannot be verified. (In weekend tweet, West suggested he could “beat Joe Biden off write-ins,” though only 10 states and the District of Columbia count write-in votes for candidates who have not filed for official status.)

West may have missed the deadline to make the ballot in Maine, where petitioning ended on Saturday. Meanwhile, the state’s Republicans are continuing their effort to end the state’s ranked-choice voting system, after a petition drive to put it on the ballot for November failed. A new federal lawsuit argues that ranked-choice voting disenfranchises those who don’t want to rank more than one candidate; if successful, the lawsuit could change calculations about the state’s presidential and Senate contests, where third parties and independents currently pose no “spoiler” risk to either party. (While Democratic Rep. Jared Golden won his 2018 race thanks to second-choice voters who’d supported a left-wing challenger, there is no third party in his race this year.)

Ad watch

Ilhan Omar, “Ballot Box.” The Minnesota congresswoman waited until this week to run ads ahead of her Aug. 11 primary. This one boils down a longer campaign video into a message about activism in which she only sometimes appears, wearing a mask and casting a vote. “We can translate our cries for justice into legislation, and that’s the fight we’ve been leading in Congress,” says Omar, whose voice is the only one in the spot.

Americans for Tomorrow’s Future, “Self-Dealing.” The super PAC has mostly played in Omar’s race with harsh direct mail; its first ad compiles a series of financial controversies into a story of the congresswoman benefiting from her role. “She’s paid her new husband’s business over $1 million in campaign funds,” a narrator says. That’s the only cash total mentioned in the spot, as the civil fine Omar paid for a long-running expenses scandal was just $500.

Rashida Tlaib, “Rooted.” The main ad in rotation for Tlaib’s campaign, it combines quick flashes of her legislative record (“Rep. Tlaib secures $1.5 billion for access to water for families”) to the kind of high-profile stances her opponent, Brenda Jones, has pegged as too distracting from her job (“Deny ICE its request for more funding, abolish it.”).

Concerned Citizens of Michigan, “Take Our Seat Back.” A PAC created to help Jones, CCM’s TV ad argues that the legacy of the late John Conyers can be filled by Jones. It never says outright that Jones can represent the district better because she’s black. But the only white politician seen in the ad is former House speaker Paul Ryan, from 2018, swearing in Jones to fill the final weeks of Conyers’s expired term. “The 13th belongs to us,” a narrator says.

You are reading The Trailer, the newsletter that brings the campaign trail to your inbox.

Poll watch

There are just 100 days left until the general election, and fewer days until early and absentee voting starts across most of the country. The calendar was enough of a hook for multiple news outlets to conduct swing state polls, with some wide variances but one consistency: Democrats are holding a lead, with the president trailing Joe Biden when voters are asked who is best able to handle the pandemic and social unrest.

Here’s a poll-by-poll look.

Michigan Joe Biden: 49% Donald Trump: 40% (-1)

Minnesota Joe Biden: 51% Donald Trump: 38%

Pennsylvania Joe Biden: 50% Donald Trump: 39% (-3)

The two of these states won by the president four years ago were last polled in April, not long into the coronavirus pandemic. Minnesota, narrowly lost by Donald Trump in 2016, is polled for the first time this cycle, with no evidence that the protests that began there at the end of May have altered the state’s defining trend: suburbanites moving toward the Democrats, and “greater Minnesota” voters in rural counties moving toward the GOP.

Joe Biden: 50% (+3) Donald Trump: 45% (-1)

Since March, the last time NBC/Marist polled the state, the positions of both the president and Gov. Doug Ducey have deteriorated. Just half of Arizonans now approve of Ducey, and just as many as say that the pandemic is getting worse. President Trump’s disapproval rating has jumped to 53 percent, with his personal unfavorable rating even higher, at 58 percent. That has opened up the race for Biden, who just 41 percent of voters view favorably. That was Hillary Clinton’s rating in 2016, when she narrowly lost the state. What’s changed? Just 50 percent of voters have a negative view of Biden, compared to 57 percent for Clinton, and Clinton and Trump entered Election Day with the same favorable rating.

Arizona Joe Biden: 49% Donald Trump: 45%

Florida Joe Biden: 51% Donald Trump: 46%

Michigan Joe Biden: 52% Donald Trump: 40%

Here and in the CBS numbers below, Biden has gained and down-ballot Democratic candidates have inched ahead. In Arizona’s Senate race, Democrat Mark Kelly leads by 7, while in Michigan, Democratic Sen. Gary Peters leads by 16. Both of their opponents have plenty of money and have been on the air for months, but nothing has clicked, and while Michigan challenger James is black, he’s losing nonwhite voters by the same 50-point margin as the president.

Michigan Joe Biden: 48% Donald Trump: 25%

Ohio Donald Trump: 46% Joe Biden: 45%

The best set of polls for the president this weekend still show him losing; he’s just holding onto more white voters, and his support from black voters is a bit higher than 2016. (He gets 9 percent of the black vote in Michigan and Ohio; four years ago he got 6 percent and 8 percent of the black vote in those states, respectively.

These are the only polls this weekend that suggest a strength for the president: job creation. A majority of voters in both states think Trump would do more than Biden in creating manufacturing jobs, and a plurality of voters think his reductions in environmental regulations have helped the economy. While the Trump campaign has obsessed over policing in its recent ads, there’s an opening there for its anti-NAFTA attacks on Biden. The caveat: In both states, more than two-thirds of voters say they dislike how Trump “handles himself personally,” and in both, only half say that of Biden, who has been appearing in public, at most, for a few hours each week.

Candidate tracker

President Trump stayed off the campaign trail this week, marking a month since what may have been his last traditional rally of the campaign season, in Tulsa. Since Thursday’s White House briefing, when he canceled the Republican convention in Jacksonville, Fla., Trump has only fitfully engaged in the campaign. Still, with little fanfare, he continued his run of announcements and executive orders with an order that would force Medicare to pay lower prices for prescription drugs.

“As a result of the orders I’m signing today, the heads of the major drug companies have requested a meeting to discuss how we can quickly and significantly lower drug prices and out-of-pocket expenses for Americans,” Trump said on Friday. “They want to do what’s right. Look, they’re going to do what’s right. Look, I think it’s so important what they’re doing on therapeutics and vaccines. And we’re going to see them on Tuesday. We’ll see if we can do something here.”

Joe Biden had no public events after the middle of the week, but he participated in a virtual Friday fundraiser that focused on Latino issues, co-hosted by actress Eva Longoria.

“Day 1, Dreamers are staying, period. They’re more Americans than most Americans are,” Biden said. “The idea of having to worry if you go to get tested or you go to get help for COVID that you can be deported? No. Not in my country. Not in my country, not going to happen.”

On Saturday, Biden marked one year since a failed effort to grant temporary status to Venezuelans fleeing the country — a point of contention with some in the party’s left. “The people of Venezuela and Hispanics across our country deserve a real ally who will stand up for what is right, and not just pay lip service to the suffering of the Venezuelan people,” Biden said in a statement.

Countdown

… nine days until primaries in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington … 11 days until primaries in Tennessee … 13 days until primaries in Hawaii … 16 days until primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin … 22 days until the Democratic National Convention … 32 days until the Republican National Convention … 40 days until some absentee ballots start going out … 100 days until the general election

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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Elijah Cummings Is Remembered as a ‘Master of the House’ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/24/us/politics/elijah-cummings.html

His voice could shake mountains’: Cummings lies in state at U.S. Capitol

By Jenna Portnoy and Ovetta Wiggins | Published October 24 at 1:00 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 24, 2019 |

Longtime congressman Elijah E. Cummings was remembered Thursday as the moral backbone of Congress, a leader who — like the prophet whose name he shared — “saw wrongdoing and spent his life working to banish it from our land.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a fellow Maryland Democrat, made the biblical comparison as hundreds of current and former members of the House and Senate gathered in Statuary Hall in the Capitol to honor their friend and colleague.

Leaders from both chambers, and both sides of the aisle, lauded Cummings as a public servant who always prioritized the constituents who elected him.

“Elijah Cummings did not just represent Baltimore, he embodied it,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), recalling the Democrat’s efforts to calm rioting after the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a young unarmed black man, of injuries sustained in police custody.

“Let’s go home. Let’s all go home,” McConnell recalled Cummings saying to protesters. “Now our distinguished colleague truly has gone home, home to his father’s house,” McConnell continued. “And we pray that our God will now reward the service Elijah Cummings gave in life, with the peace of God which surpasses all understanding.”

Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Cummings was “universally respected and admired in a divided time,” with power that came not from his booming baritone, but from his moral force.

“He was strong, very strong when necessary, but also kind and caring and honorable,” Schumer said. “ His voice could shake mountains, stir the most cynical hearts, inspiring us all to better.”

Cummings is the first African American lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol. Two other African Americans have received the honor, known as lying “in honor” for nonelected officials: Civil rights icon Rosa Parks, in 2005, and Capitol Police Officer Jacob J. Chestnut Jr., who was killed in 1998 by a gunman who had burst into the Capitol.

Cummings (D), who chaired of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, died Oct. 17, at age 68.

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will be among those delivering remarks at his funeral Friday at New Psalmist Baptist Church in West Baltimore, where Cummings worshiped for decades.

Late Thursday morning, lawmakers and guests stood silently as the flag-draped coffin was slowly rolled into a packed Statuary Hall, followed by Cummings’ widow, Maryland Democratic Party chair Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, and other family members.

Two military guards stood at attention at either end of the coffin.

Current and former members of Congress crowded together against velvet ropes, wearing dark suits and dresses. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton was seated between Reps. John Lewis and Maxine Waters, also Democrats. Former congressman Jim Moran stood with Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) and freshman Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.).

After the “arrival ceremony,” the coffin was moved to the entrance of the House chamber, where members of the public may pay their respects until 7 pm.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the coffin was placed atop the same catafalque that held the remains of Abraham Lincoln. She described Cummings as a mentor to generations of young political leaders, quoting his frequent refrain that children are “the messages to a future we will never see.”

“Elijah was truly a master of the house. He respected its history, and in it he helped shape America’s future,” Pelosi said.

When committee assignments were made, Pelosi recalled, Cummings wanted as many freshmen as possible in his committee. “I love their potential and I want to help them realize it,” he said, according to Pelosi.

Cummings was a regular on television news panels and a leading figure in the Trump impeachment inquiry.

But mourners at a day-long celebration in his honor Wednesday at Morgan State University in Baltimore, where Cummings served on the board of regents, said they would remember him as a man who always fought for his city and its people.

“He spoke for the forgotten,” said Emanuel J. Stanley, grand master of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Maryland, a national fraternal organization to which Cummings belonged. “Now he is dancing with the angels.”

Noreen Wright, 59, a home health-care nurse, brought her 9- and 12-year-old grandsons to the historically black research university, saying she wanted them to witness history.

“He’s an icon,” Wright said of Cummings, who she called a modern-day civil rights leader. “He’s someone that the next generation can look at to see how it’s supposed to be done.”

More than two dozen speakers took turns at a lectern directly behind the casket , which was guarded by Prince Hall Freemasons. Local, state and federal elected officials praised Cummings as a champion who expanded health care access, protected the right to vote and fought for educational opportunities for children.

Many also shared personal stories about how he mentored them in their careers and family lives.

“He wasn’t about the people, he was the people,” said Del. Nick J. Mosby (D-Baltimore City). Alluding to Cummings’s dignified response when President Trump insulted him and Baltimore this summer, Mosby said: “He governed with emotion but never allowed emotions to govern him.”

Mosby said he and his wife, Marilyn J. Mosby, who is the state’s attorney for Baltimore, will miss their double dates with the late congressman and his wife.

Former senator Barbara A. Mikulski, who retired in 2016 as the nation’s longest-serving female senator, said Cummings could “investigate, legislate and agitate” and inspired a feeling of connection with every man and woman in his beloved city.

“I’m back!” she told the crowd. “I’m back for Elijah. And Elijah always had my back, and Elijah always had your back, too.”

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Making Capitol History, Cummings Is Remembered as a ‘Master of the House’

Representative Elijah E. Cummings, who died last week, became the first African-American elected official to lie in state in the Capitol on Thursday.

By Sheryl Gay Solberg | Published

October 24, 2019 Updated 2:47 PM ET | New York Times | Posted October 24, 2019 |

WASHINGTON — The late Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the powerful Democrat whose booming baritone and impassioned cries for decency reverberated through the halls of Congress for more than two decades, made history one final time on Thursday, as the first African-American elected official to lie in state in the United States Capitol.

A son of sharecroppers who rose to the chairmanship of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which gave him a towering perch from which to investigate President Trump, Mr. Cummings, 68, who died last week after a series of health challenges, was memorialized by congressional leaders in both parties as a man of faith and dignity, and a dedicated public servant, but also as a friend.

“Perhaps this place and this country would be better served with a few more unexpected friendships,” said a teary-eyed Representative Mark Meadows, the conservative North Carolina Republican whose close friendship with Mr. Cummings, despite their strong political differences, was well known in the Capitol. “I know I’ve been blessed by one.”

Political luminaries and lawmakers — including Mr. Cummings’ fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, many wearing African kente cloth scarves — poured into the Capitol to witness his coffin draped with an American flag ascend its marble steps, carried by a military honor guard. The Rev. Al Sharpton came. So did the former House speaker, Paul D. Ryan.

One luminary not in attendance was President Trump, whose fractious relationship with Mr. Cummings hit a low point over the summer, when the president attacked Mr. Cummings as a “racist” and described the congressman’s home city of Baltimore as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” Mr. Cummings responded by urging the president to visit.

Vice President Mike Pence, however, was expected to come to to the Capitol early Thursday afternoon, when the coffin was moved to a spot in front of the House chamber so the public could come to pay respects.

Mr. Cummings’ loss was a profound one inside the Capitol, especially among freshmen, whom Mr. Cummings took care to mentor. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him a “master of the House” and a “mentor of the House,” and described how Mr. Cummings asked to have as many freshmen as possible on his committee because he saw in them so much energy and potential.

Two Democratic freshmen — Representatives Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts and Lauren Underwood of Illinois, both black women whose own elections made history last year — walked out of Thursday’s ceremony with tears streaming down their cheeks.

“Elijah would continually remind us when we came short of our goals and ideals: We are better than this,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, the Democratic leader and Mr. Cummings’ fellow Marylander. “That was his answer when confronted with the differences between America’s promise and its reality.”

The service, featuring remarks by leaders of both parties, took place in National Statuary Hall, which served as the House chamber before 1850. Mr. Cummings’ coffin lay just feet from the statue of civil rights leader Rosa Parks, who in 2005 became the first African-American to lie in honor (the title reserved for private citizens) in the Capitol.

Mr. Cummings’ ascent in American politics was, in his own view, something of a miracle. A lawyer and former state legislator, he was the first African-American in Maryland history to be named speaker pro tem. He once spoke of his bringing his father to his first swearing-in after he was elected to Congress.

“He said, ‘Isn’t this the place where they used to call us slaves?’” Mr. Cummings said, recounting their conversation. “I said, ‘Yes sir.’ He said, ‘Isn’t this the place where they used to call us three-fifths a man?’ I said, ‘Yes sir.’ ‘And isn’t this the place they used to call us chattel?’ I said, ‘Yes, yes sir.’”

The congressman said he would never forget his father’s next sentence: “When I think about you being sworn in today, now I see what I could have been if I’d had the opportunity.”

Lola Fadulu contributed reporting.

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Elijah Cummings lies in state in Capitol Building today(VIDEO)

Published October 24, 2019 9:02 AM

Updated October 24, 2019 12:08 PM | CBS News | Posted October 24, 2019 |

The late longtime Maryland congressman Elijah Cummings, who died last week at the age of 68, is lying in state Thursday in the U.S. Capitol. There was a formal ceremony in the morning open to lawmakers, Cummings' family and invited guests. The public viewing is taking place after the memorial service.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke at the ceremony and referred to Cummings, who was deeply respected by both Democrats and Republicans, as the "North Star" of the House. Pelosi said that Cummings was "truly a master of the House."

"God truly honored America with the life and legacy of Elijah Cummings," Pelosi said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at the ceremony that Cummings was "universally respected and admired in a divided time."

Republican Congressman Mark Meadows spoke about his "unexpected" friendship with Cummings.

"This place and this country would be better served with a few more unexpected friendships. I know I've been blessed by one," Meadows.

Cummings' wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who is the chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, has said her husband worked until the end of his life because of his belief that "our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation's diversity was our promise, not our problem."

Cummings, the House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman and a 23-year House veteran, was a key figure in the impeachment inquiry into President Trump and a recent target of intense criticism by the president. He led multiple investigations of Mr. Trump's dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to the president's family members serving in the White House.

The president responded by criticizing Cummings' district as a "rodent-infested mess" where "no human being would want to live." The comments came weeks after Mr. Trump drew bipartisan condemnation following his calls for Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. "right now" and go back to their "broken and crime-infested" places of origin.

A sharecropper's son, Cummings was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his black-majority district, which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore as well as more well-to-do suburbs.

After Mr. Trump's criticism, Cummings replied that government officials must stop making "hateful, incendiary comments" that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy.

"Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior," Cummings said in a speech at the National Press Club.

Throughout his career, Cummings used his fiery voice to highlight the struggles and needs of inner-city residents. He was a firm believer in some much-debated approaches to help the poor and addicted, such as needle exchange programs as a way to reduce the spread of AIDS. Cummings was very popular in his district, where he was a key member of the community.

Cummings said in an interview with "60 Minutes" in January that he was one of the few members of Congress who lived in an inner city environment.

"I like to be among my constituents," he said. "Let me tell you something man, if I don't do well in this block I'm in trouble. I mean, if you wanna take a poll, if I lost in this block I might as well go — I might as well stay home."

*********

Rep. Elijah Cummings hailed as a guiding light for Democrats

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other congressional leaders spoke at the arrival ceremony.

WASHINGTON — The late Rep. Elijah Cummings was hailed as the "North Star" for fellow House Democrats as congressional leaders and colleagues paid tribute to him at a Capitol ceremony Thursday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a close personal and political ally, said that not only was Cummings a guiding light, "Elijah was truly a master of the House."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recalled Cummings' efforts to calm his native Baltimore amid violent 2015 protests following the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, in police custody. Cummings' involvement, taking to the streets with a bullhorn, helped quiet the disturbances.

By day, Cummings was at the Capitol in the halls of power, McConnell said, but at night he returned to Baltimore to encourage unity.

"Let's go home. Let's all go home," McConnell recalled Cummings saying at the time. "Now our distinguished colleague truly has gone home."

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said that like Cummings' namesake, the Prophet Elijah, the congressman "saw wrongdoing and spent his life working to banish it from our land."

Hoyer also recalled the 2015 Baltimore protests and said Cummings was "a calming influence in a sea of rage."

The son of sharecroppers, Cummings rose to become a civil rights champion and chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, where he was a leader of an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

Cummings died Oct. 17 after complications from long-standing health problems.

Hoyer and other speakers remembered a frequent Cummings lament when events went awry or politicians acted badly: "We are better than this," Cummings would thunder to all who would listen.

Rep. Karen Bass, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Cummings was respected and revered in the caucus, "a quiet giant" whose words were heeded.

"He pulled no punches. He was authentic to the core and a champion of our democracy," Bass said.

Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican who frequently sparred with Cummings on the Oversight and Reform Committee, called Cummings a close friend whose "smile would consume his whole face."

But Cummings "also had eyes that would pierce through anybody that was standing in his way," Meadows recalled. Bowing his head, Meadows sad he was blessed to know Cummings, adding: "Perhaps this place and this country would be better served with a few more unexpected friendships."

The public was to have the chance to pay respects to Cummings later Thursday in Statuary Hall. Cummings is just the third African American to lie in honor at the Capitol and the first black lawmaker.

A wake and funeral are planned Friday in Baltimore.

As a tribute to Cummings, no votes were scheduled Thursday in the House.

*********

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democratsunited-blog · 6 years

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Democratic congressman says party leaders' rising ages are a 'problem'

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=8054

Democratic congressman says party leaders' rising ages are a 'problem'

Elise Viebeck, The Washington Post

Published 1:28 pm PDT, Friday, August 17, 2018

The leader of a centrist bloc of Democratic lawmakers expressed concern Friday that the party’s top three House leaders are in their late 70s, joining a chorus of younger Democrats questioning older leaders’ ability to overcome the party’s “generational gap.”

Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, told CNN that party leaders’ rising ages are a “problem” and declined to say whether he would support House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for speaker if Democrats take control of the House in the midterm elections.

“I have not made up a decision because I don’t know who’s running, so you’re not going to get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ out of me today,” Himes told the network.

Acknowledging he is a “huge admirer of Nancy Pelosi’s operational ability,” Himes, 52, said Democrats will soon need leaders who can communicate effectively with younger voters.

“The fact that our top three leaders are in their late 70s – I don’t care who those leaders are – that is, in fact, a problem,” he said.

“We are at a moment in time where young people are involved as they never have been before,” he said. “I don’t care how good you are – there is a generational gap.”

Pelosi, 78, has said she intends to run for speaker if Democrats claim the House majority in November. Her deputies, Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., and Assistant Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., are 79 and 78, respectively.

Clyburn made waves this month when he said he would be willing to serve as a “transitional” speaker should Pelosi not secure enough votes to win the speakership. “I’m very much up for it,” Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, told McClatchy in an interview.

At least 45 Democratic lawmakers and congressional candidates have said they will not support Pelosi for speaker, according to a tally by The Washington Post. Several others, like Himes, have declined to give their view until after the election.

In response to criticism, Pelosi has defended her progressive credentials and noted her status as one of the country’s top female political leaders.

The issue has become a theme in House races around the country, as a growing number of progressive candidates distance themselves from the caucus’s longtime leader.

This week, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s Republican-leaning 13th congressional district said in a new television ad that she would not support Pelosi for speaker.

“I’ll vote against Nancy Pelosi for speaker, support term limits from party leaders, and I won’t take a dime of corporate PAC money,” Kathy Manning said in the ad.

Read full story here

#Democrats

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andrewjennyve · 7 years

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LGBTQ Women Balance Opportunity, Possible Extinction in Congress

LGBTQ Women Balance Opportunity, Possible Extinction in Congress By Nathan L. Gonzales

It’s been almost 20 years since Tammy Baldwin’s historic election, yet just one woman has followed her through the LGBTQ glass ceiling. And if both women lose competitive races in 2018, the next Congress could be without any LGBTQ women.

While the lack of LGBTQ women in Congress is inextricably linked to the dearth of women on Capitol Hill, the story of lesbian candidates includes some close calls, quixotic races, and a movement still evolving to position more qualified LGBTQ women to run for higher office.

“We have to figure out the secret sauce of how Tammy did it,” said Aisha Moodie-Mills, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. In 1998, the Wisconsin Democrat became the first openly gay nonincumbent elected to Congress, with help from the Human Rights Campaign, the Victory Fund, and others.

But in the intervening two decades, Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who identifies as bisexual, is the only other openly LGBTQ woman elected to Congress, meaning LGBTQ women currently make up less than half of one percent of the lawmakers in Congress — 1 out of 435 in the House and 1 out of 100 in the Senate. (In 2012, Baldwin became the first openly gay elected senator.)

If Sinema leaves her 9th District seat to run for the Senate, the 116th Congress could be without any LGBTQ women in the House. According to Gallup, 4 percent of Americans identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (a majority of whom are women). But if Sinema runs for the Senate and loses and Baldwin loses a competitive re-election race, elected LGBTQ women on Capitol Hill could dip into obscurity.

“It’s pathetic,” said LPAC Executive Director Beth Shipp. “It shows that there is more work to be done to have more equity and parity in Congress.”

Close calls Baldwin came close to having company in Congress in the years before Sinema’s arrival in 2013.

In Baldwin’s victorious cycle, San Diego city Councilmember Christine Kehoe lost to GOP Rep. Brian P. Bilbray by just 2 points, 49 percent to 47 percent, in California’s 49th District. Two other LGBTQ women also ran that cycle, but lost by larger margins: Retired Army National Guard Col. Grethe Cammermeyer of Washington (who became an LGBTQ hero when she was discharged in 1992 after disclosing that she was gay, and was later played by Glenn Close in a TV movie) and state Rep. Susan Tracy of Massachusetts.

Two years later, Democrat Gerrie Schipske lost a close race to GOP Rep. Steve Horn, 48.5 percent to 47.5 percent, in California’s 38th District.

In the 2002 cycle, two of the most established lesbian candidates to ever run for Congress fell short. State Sen. Cheryl Jacques finished second in the 2001 Democratic primary in the Massachusetts special election won by now-Rep. Stephen F. Lynch. State Sen. Susan Longley lost by 4 points (31-27 percent) to state Sen. Michael H. Michaud in the Democratic primary in Maine’s 2nd District. Michaud, who won the seat in the general election, publicly came out as gay before running for governor in 2014.

Atlanta City Council President Cathy Woolard lost a Democratic primary in Georgia’s 4th District in 2004 and businesswoman Linda Ketner lost a close race to GOP Rep. Henry E. Brown Jr. in South Carolina’s 1st District four years later.

From 2002 to 2016, 21 LGBTQ women ran for Congress compared to 110 gay men, according to unofficial numbers by a Democratic strategist who tracks LGBTQ candidates. That disparity could help explain why there are five openly gay men in Congress: Jared Polis of Colorado, David Cicilline of Rhode Island, Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, Mark Takano of California, and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, who won Baldwin’s 2nd District when she was elected to the Senate.

“Lesbians don’t seem to run for office,” said Schipske, who also lost a 2002 race to GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher but was subsequently elected to the Long Beach City Council. “[It’s] the same thing that stops all women: Politics is still seen as a male profession.”

“We have to mentor and encourage women to seek public office,” she added. But sometimes, even when LGBTQ women run and win a majority of the vote, it’s not enough.

Last cycle in Minnesota, two LGBTQ women split 53 percent of the vote in the 2nd District: former St. Jude Medical executive Angie Craig, who is gay, took 45 percent, while Independence Party nominee Paula Overby, a transgender woman, won 8 percent. Republican Jason Lewis won the open seat with a plurality, the remaining 47 percent of the vote. Craig, who would have been the first gay mother in Congress, is running again in 2018.

Beyond moral victories One way to boost the number of lesbians in Congress is to identify candidates in more Democratic districts.

Baldwin and Sinema’s victories both aligned with Democratic presidential victories. Baldwin was initially elected in 1998 to a House seat that Bill Clinton carried by 22 points two years earlier. She was elected to the Senate in 2012 when Barack Obama won Wisconsin by 7 points. Sinema, similarly, was elected while Obama was carrying her district by 4 points. Polis, Takano, Cicilline, and Pocan were also elected from Democratic districts. Trump narrowly carried Maloney’s district in 2016, but Obama took it by 4 points the year the congressman was first elected.

That’s a stark contrast to 2016, when Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau lost her House bid while Clinton lost the state by 20 points. Transgender women Misty Snow and Misty Plowright ran and lost to Republican Sen. Mike Lee in Utah and Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn in a Colorado Springs-area district, respectively, — two of the most conservative areas of the country — and Kristen Beck primaried House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer and was crushed 76 percent to 12 percent.

Prior to 2016, other Democratic LGBTQ women have taken on Republicans in Idaho and Utah too. And Republican Karen Kerin, a transgender woman, took on then-Rep. Bernie Sanders in 2000 in Vermont and lost by 51 points.

Developing the pipeline An important step in getting more lesbians (or any particular demographic) elected to Congress is to build a political bench.

“Tammy didn’t just come out of nowhere. She worked her way through the pipeline,” said JoDee Winterhof, senior vice president of policy and political affairs for the Human Rights Campaign.

Baldwin and Sinema both took fairly typical routes to higher office. Baldwin was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1986, elected to the state Legislature six years later and elected to Congress in 1998. Sinema, who lost her first state House race in 2002, rose through the ranks of the Legislature after getting elected in 2004.

There are at least 450 LGBTQ elected officials at the state and local level, 40 percent of whom are women, according to data of known LGBTQ elected officials compiled by the Victory Fund. And of LGBTQ officials exclusively at the state level, women actually outnumber men (92-89).

LGBTQ women have made history outside of Washington. In 2016, Oregon Democrat Kate Brown, who is bisexual, became the first openly LGBTQ person elected governor. Three-term Houston Mayor Annise Parker, a lesbian, was the first and only LGBTQ person elected in one of the country’s ten most populous cities.

The number of LGBTQ female lawmakers in Congress could grow considering the dramatic uptick in women interested in running for office (15,000 this cycle compared to 920 in the 2016 cycle).

“When women run, they win, even if they have to take more bites out of the apple,” Moodie-Mills said. New York Times columnist Frank Bruni struck an optimistic tone for lesbians in a July column “Voters Love Lesbians,” pointing to the 70 percent success rate of LGBTQ women supported by the Victory Fund, compared to 61 percent of LGBTQ men, up and down the ballot.

The ask(s) Getting lesbians to progress from interested in running to filing for candidacy might be the toughest task of all, and the lack of congressional representation has some activists asking privately, “Are we doing everything we should to foster women running for office?”

Baldwin didn’t need any convincing to run for county supervisor but didn’t see herself moving up the political ladder. Then her state representative, David Clarenbach, ran for Congress and privately told Baldwin he wanted her to run for his seat.

“Are you kidding me?” Baldwin recalled recently. “I was excited and a little intimidated by it.”

Clarenbach, now openly gay, is the son of National Organization for Women co-founder Kay Clarenbach and was speaker pro tempore at the time.

“That was the nudge I needed,” Baldwin said.

But everyone’s threshold to run is different.

“If a typical heterosexual woman has to be asked seven times, I dare to say a lesbian or queer woman has to be asked more,” said Shipp, who believes LGBTQ women need specific plans and training to address unique fears and trepidation.

Women, LGBTQ people and people of color “don’t inherently assume we are the most qualified,” Moodie-Mills said.

“Women are aware of the bloodiness of running,” said Ketner, the 2008 House candidate from South Carolina. “Lesbians know it would be worse for them.”

“It’s a double-bind of being a woman and being queer,” Moodie-Mills added.

The social network The lack of elected officials practically forces lesbian candidates into outsider status, but it also means they could struggle to match the financial and political resources of better-connected foes. “Being able to leverage a powerful network is the most daunting,” according to Moodie-Mills.

“At a time when politicians are held in low regard, sexual orientation and gender identity can be a huge asset,” Baldwin said. “Because anyone who remembers civil rights history doesn’t think it was easy.” But without a political network, candidates must rely on their own money or rely on outside groups for fundraising support.

“You have to look at the economic inequality issue between gay men versus lesbian and queer women,” Shipp said. “There’s a different mindset because they are economically disadvantaged.”

Gay men have a higher average income compared to lesbians ($56,936 vs. $45,606), according to a May 2016 survey by Prudential Financial, and the poverty rate for lesbian couples is 7.9 percent compared to 6.6 percent for different-sex couples, according to a 2015 University of Washington study.

Polis spent nearly $6 million of his own money (and raised another $1.2 million) in his initial race. Maloney raised $2.2 million with pre-established networks after working for President Bill Clinton and two governors.

Craig raised and spent nearly $4.8 million (including almost $1 million of her own money) in her Minnesota 2nd District race last cycle, placing her in the top-tier of Democratic candidates anywhere in the country. But her financial blueprint will be difficult for any candidate to replicate. In addition, some of Craig’s allies believe the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee made a strategic error in nationalizing her race in a district Trump ended up carrying.

Ketner’s problem wasn’t the DCCC’s message, but getting the committee’s attention at all.

“First, they wrote off the South. Then I was a woman and a Democrat,” Ketner recalled recently. “And, oh my God, I’m an out lesbian.” She described DCCC strategists as unenthusiastic until the final couple of weeks when the polls tightened. Then-DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel sent her a cake and some last-minute money. Ketner lost 52 percent to 48 percent.

Crossing the finish line Lesbian candidates have an opportunity to raise money from groups focused on boosting women or LGBTQ candidates, but there is certain tension between seeking diversity in Congress and and not emphasizing an issue on the campaign trail that isn’t a priority for voters.

“It always boils down to all politics is local, having a ground game and connecting with voters,” Moodie-Mills said.

“Always be able to answer ‘Why are you running?’ It has to come from fire in the belly,” Baldwin advised.

“We as a community need to stand up and be more supportive,” Shipp said.

But the burden is also on the some of the women protesting Trump in the streets to shift gears to a congressional run. For those thinking about a campaign of their own, Baldwin has more advice.

“Gain experience in prior work that demystifies the process,” said the Wisconsin senator, who interned and worked for a governor and volunteered for activist groups and local campaigns before becoming a candidate. “Take early time to get some extra training.”

And Baldwin said, “If at first you don’t succeed, run, run again.”

View Article at Inside Elections

http://ift.tt/2hlYWVJ

#LGBTQ Women Balance Opportunity #Possible Extinction in Congress

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kevinbowman70060bxj · 7 years