Posts by amstrat

In the battle for women’s suffrage, the racial divide of the past is prologue to today’s struggles. Society does not move forward without facing difficult truths and learning hard lessons. With more than a year to go to the 100th anniversary of American women earning the right to vote, it already is clear that one theme…

WASHINGTON – After historic midterms, when they helped Democrats recapture the House of Representatives, women of color are moving fast to leverage their newfound political clout for the 2020 presidential election. They’re hosting a presidential forum – in a bold move to get national candidates to recognize their influence – while ramping up get-out-the-vote efforts and preparing more women to run for Congress. “There’s…

Thanks to her HBCU connections, the California senator is well positioned in the key early state of South Carolina. Read more at Politico.com

Kamala Harris becomes first African-American to enter 2020 race Watch at MSNBC.com

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., has already made history. And with the launch of her 2020 presidential campaign, she pays homage to a political trailblazer who came before her — almost exactly 47 years ago this week. Her logo pays tribute to Shirley Chisholm, the first black candidate who vied for a major party’s presidential nomination…

Second-term Commissioner Kari Steele was elected earlier this month as the new president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, replacing outgoing President Mariyana Spyropoulos, who had served in the role for the past four years. Spyropoulos nominated Steele for the position, and MWRD’s board voted unanimously in Steele’s favor. Steele will now…

Democrats had many incredible wins during the 2018 election cycle. There were also a few devastating losses—one of which was the very high-profile gubernatorial race in Georgia in which Republican Brian Kemp managed to cheat and steal votes away from Democrat Stacey Abrams in order to become the winner. For her part, Abrams never conceded the race. She ended her bid for…

Twitter can be a toxic place. In recent years, trolling and harassment on the site have made it an extremely unpleasant and upsetting experience for many people, particularly women and minorities. But automatically identifying and stopping such abuse is difficult to do accurately and reliably. This is because, for all the recent progress in AI, machines generally still…

It didn’t take long for Katie Porter to collide with the reality of serving in Congress as a single mother of three. First the newly-elected Democrat from California had to scramble to line up babysitting so she could make it cross-country for freshman orientation. Then, within hours of arriving in D.C., two sessions were scheduled…

Potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates in the early stages of assembling campaign staffs are running into an uncomfortable truth: Among the already small pool of capable operatives, there’s an even smaller pool of nonwhite campaign managers and senior advisers. Read more at Politico