Four primary elections are happening today in the states of Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Vermont. In addition to seeing what transpires in some races key to who holds control of the US House and Senate, the American trans community's eyes will be on Vermont as another trans candidate attempts to make electoral history.
Back in 2000, the late Karen Kerin made history in the state by winning the Republican nomination for Vermont's US House seat. She subsequently got blown out in the general election by Bernie Sanders.
A conservative who was a perennial candidate in the Green Mountain State, Kerin was also the 2008 Republican candidate for attorney general, and lost Republican primary election races for the US House in 2002 and for attorney general in 2006.
In her last race in 2010, Kerin was making her second run as a Libertarian candidate for Vermont attorney general. She had previously run as a Libertarian for attorney general in the 2004 election cycle
Kerin passed away in 2014 at age 69.
Now as we fast forward to this crucial 2018 election cycle, another Vermont trans person in 62 year old Christine Hallquist has stepped up to run in the Vermont Democratic Party primary race for governor.
Her platform includes Medicare For All, access to better education and more high wage jobs.
The former energy executive is running against three other candidates in James Ehlers, Brenda Sigel and 14 year old high school student Ethan Sonneborn.
Sonneborn is eligible because Vermont does not require candidates to be of voting age.
If Hallquist wins the nomination, she would make electoral history on two fronts by becoming the first out trans person in the Green Mountain State to win a Democratic primary for any office.
She would also become the first out trans person nationally to win a major party nomination for governor
She would also take on the winner of the Republican gubernatorial primary race between incumbent Governor Phil Scott and Keith Stern.
Early voting has already occurred in Vermont, so it will be interesting to see what transpires when the polls close later this evening.
TransGriot Update: Hallquist did make history! She won the Democratic primary, and will take on the incumbent Republican governor Phil Scott in the fall.
This 2018 election cycle is shaping up as one in which Native American women will make potentially historic gains if things break right for them on November 6.
Paulette Jordan captured the Democratic nomination for Idaho governor. In New Mexico Deb Haaland won the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District seat by double digits back in June, and she is favored to win in the general election.
Now in Kansas we have Sharice Davids, who knocked off a Bernie backed candidate that he and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez controversially came west to campaign for.
Davids beat Brent Welder by over 2000 votes in the Kansas 3rd District race to capture the nomination.
Hillary Clinton won this district in 2016 by a single point over Trump 47%-46%
Davids will face off against incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder (R), a House Appropriations Committee member who has held this seat since 2011. Yoder won his GOP primary race with only 68% of the vote after casting votes for Obamacare repeal and the steep GOP tax cuts.
That primary performance was noted by the esteemed Cook Political Report, who moved this KS-3 race from Lean R into the Toss Up category
This is another race in which a woman has beaten a male candidate on the Democratic side, and now Davids gets a shot at sending Yoder back to Kansas while making some electoral history of her own.
If she wins on November 6, she would become one of two Native American women elected to Congress.
I've voted for her twice, in the March 6 and May 22 primaries, and now I'll get a chance to proudly vote for her on November 6.
Former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez made history last night by becoming the first Latina and first openly gay person to win a major party primary for Texas governor.
She captured 53.1% of the vote in beat Andrew White, the son of former Gov. Mark White who described himself as a conservative moderate Democrat.
Umm naw cuz, I'll pass on that.
"Tonight is a victory for all of us who are fighting for a stronger and fairer Texas. A tolerant and diverse Texas. A Texas where the everyday person has a voice and a fair shot -just as I had."
She stated her gubernatorial primary victory proved that no matter who you are, where you're from or who you love -- in this state you have a fighting chance.
Valdez now advances to take on incumbent governor Greg Abbott (R), who is sitting on a $40 million campaign war chest and a 24 year Republican winning streak that has to end sooner or later.
Asked about what is being considered an uphill battle to become the state's first Democratic governor since the legendary Ann Richards held the seat from 1990-1994, she said to supporters, "I am constantly hearing that this is an uphill battle - tell me when I didn't have an uphill battle. I'm getting darn good at uphill battles"
She had an uphill battle in becoming Dallas County sheriff, and eventually ended up serving four terms there.
Here's hoping Lupe Valdez shocks the world on November 6 as well.
We have never had in the history of the United States a Native American governor of a state.
38 year old Paulette Jordan is seeking to change that. She's a member of Idaho's Coeur d'Alene people, a member of its Tribal Council and an Idaho state representative. You can also call her a trailblazer.
Jordan beat in a landslide the candidate much of the Idaho business community and the Idaho Democratic Party backed in A.J. Balukoff, who had previously run for Idaho governor in 2014.
While Balukoff was campaigning as a pro-business candidate, he was also dogged by his controversial donations to Mitt Romney's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and ties to business groups.
Jordan was the favorite candidate of progressive groups, ran a populist campaign and called out his and the Idaho Republican Party's ties to big business groups.
She blew out Balukoff by nearly 20 points on May 15 to become the Democratic nominee for governor, but now faces the task of winning in a deep red state that Dolt 45 won by 30 points two years ago as she challenges Idaho Lt. Governor Brad Little (R) to replace the retiring Gov. Brad Otter (R).
If a Medicaid expansion gets placed on the ballot, it might help Jordan's chances of pulling off that upset.
If she does, she would become not only the first ever Native American governor of any US state, she would also become the first female governor of Idaho.
Another interesting race that will be on my radar this November 6, and definitely hope it goes Jordan's way.
Since we're less than 30 days from the start of our Texas Lege Special Oppression Session, time to start doing our homework and preparation for when we finally get to the Pink Dome and see the folks who are really on our side and who are a waste of our valuable time to talk to.
The Texas Tribune recently compiled a left to right political analysis of the Texas House and Texas Senate to find who are our most liberal and conservative legislators in both parties.
It's an analysis that will come in quite handy if you're planning to lobby under the Pink Dome this summer during the upcoming Special Oppression Session that starts July18.
It'll help you peeps who haven't been paying close attention to who these peeps are or where their politics fall. It also give some of you planning to run for the state House or Senate the ammo you need or confirmation enough of their political orientation to run against some of those Texas legislative and senate peeps in 2018.
In our 31 member senate that has a 20-11 GOP majority, the most liberal member was state Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston), and the most conservafool, oops conservative was Sen. Van Taylor (R-Plano)
The most conservative Democratic senator was drum roll please, Sen Eddie Lucio, Jr (DINO-Brownsville) and the least conservative Republican one was Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo)
In our 150 member Texas House that has a 94-56 GOP Majority, Rep. Lina Ortega (D-El Paso is the most liberal House member, and the most conservative House member is a tie between Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), Jonathan Stickland (R-Bedford) and not surprising (Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving)
All three are members of the twelve member Texas Oppression Freedom Caucus that caused so much trouble in the latter days of the 2017 regular session.
The most conservative Democratic House legislators was a tie between Rep Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) and Ryan Guillen (D-Rio Grande City) and the least conservative state rep was Rep. Sarah Davis (R-Houston)
Davis still pissed off a lot of people in her liberal leaning district with that affirmative SB 4 vote
And it also illustrates why the Republican caucus had some entertaining and contentious intra-party squabbles during that last session, because in effect, they are basically split into two groups, the Centrist Conservatives and the Tea Klux Klan-Movement Conservatives.
So hope this post was helpful in getting you to understand where the legislative and senate players stand ideologically in advance of July 18.
She surprisingly bested three candidates, Steve Jansen, Andrew Adams and Mansimran Kahlon in the Democratic primary for the Virginia House of Delegates District 13 race to become the first out trans candidate in Virginia to win a primary race.
She now gets to take on the transphobic and homophobic Republican incumbent, Del. Bob Marshall in the general election that takes place on November 7.
Marshall has been in office since 1992 and has a long uganti-LGBTQ legislative history in the state. He authored the Marshall-Newman Amendment to the Virginia constitution that banned same sex marriage in the Commonwealth of Virginia until it was overturned by a federal judge in 2014.
Marshall also tried to pass unjust legislation similar to North carolina's HB 2 that would bar trans Virginians from using bathrooms in state owned government building consistent with their gender identity and presentation, but that bill was quickly killed by his fellow Republicans
Demographics in this 13th District in Prince William County and Manassas Park have increasingly been leaning more the Democrats way, and Hillary Clinton won this district last November by a 55%-40% margin.
So does she have a chance of making history and becoming the first elected out transgender state legislator and the first transperson elected to serve in a state legislature since Althea Garrison did so in Massachusetts in 1992?
She's captured the Democratic Party nomination, so she's halfway there. As for will we be calling her Delegate-elect Roem on November 7, we'll see in a few months.
My home county, Harris County is the largest by population in the Lone Star State and provides 22% of the vote totals in any statewide election It is also one of the most diverse counties in the state thanks to its county seat of Houston
We just had the pleasure of watching it turn blue in the 2016 election cycle and want to solidify those Democratic gains in 2018 and other future elections
Despite that success in turning Harris County from purple to blue, Lane Lewis, who has served ats the HCDP chair since 2011 resigned in February and today at HCDP party headquarters the precinct chairs will gather to select his replacement
Two favorites have emerged so far in Lillie Schechter, who was endorsed by the Houston LGBT Caucus, Eartha Johnson and Dominique Davis, who is active in the HCDP leadership ranks and is garnering an increasing number of supporters for her to get the job.
One of them is me.
Unlike some of the other candidates, Dominique actually reached out to me and asked for my support.
I attended a listening session she held yesterday,in Southeast Houston with a diverse group of precinct chairs and was impressed with her knowledge of the party operations, her willingness to listen to the concerns of the precinct chairs, solicit their ideas for making the HCDP better and also after it was done, ask me what can be done to increase and have sustained representation of trans people in the Harris County Democratic Party ranks
I believe Dominique Davis would be the perfect choice to succeed Lane Lewis as HCDP chair,. I'm not only enthusiastically endorsing her for HDCP chair, I'm urging people to make that happen at today County Executive Committee meeting..
Thee meeting at HCDP headquarters is open to the general public, but only the precinct chairs will be allowed to vote for our next Harris County Democratic Party leader.
It is running from 3-6 PM and will take place at the IBEW Union hall next door to HCDP headquarters at 1445 North Loop West Fwy.
And yes, I'll be in the house to watch it..
TransGriot Update: Lillie Schechter ended up getting elected as HCDP chair with 190 votes over Eartha Johnson with 118. Dominique received 21 votes.
Our sis and Hawaii Human Rights Commissioner Kim Coco Iwamoto was in a three way Democratic primary race for a state senate seat that came open with the retirement of longtime Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland (D).
The primary election was held on August 13, and the voters of Senate District 13 have spoken. After all the ballots in the race were cast and counted, they chose Karl Rhoads to be the Democratic Party nominee for the Senate District 13 seat.
Rhoads will take on Republican nominee Rod Tam, who was unopposed in his race and Libertarian Harry Ozols on November 8 for the Hawaii Senate District 13 seat.
Rhoads got 3,605 votes, or 41.8% of the votes cast to Iwamoto's 2,530 votes, or 29.4% of the votes cast by Senate District 13 Democratic primary voters. Keone Nakoa polled 1,865 votes, or 21.6%.
While this is disappointing news, hopefully this is just a temporary setback and there is a bigger, better electoral office in Kim Coco's future .
Another one of the outstanding speeches of this just concluded DNC convention in Philly was delivered by a man that I had the pleasure of meeting while I was living in Louisville, and got reconnected with him during the 2015 LGBT Media Journalists Convening when he was our keynote speaker for the event.
I'm talking about the Rev Dr. William Barber II, the president of the North Carolina NAACP and a fierce social justice warrior. Thursday night America got to witness what many of us who have had the opportunity to hear him speak already know. This is a man who is an unapologetic truth teller who has no problem speaking truth to power and tellin' it like it T-I-S is.
I was handling some TTNS business and unfortunately missed it live, but when I found out he had spoken to the DNC, when I got some downtime I checked it out.
Here's Dr. Barber's DNC speech for those of you who missed it.
Hillary Clinton wasn't the only woman making history last night at the Wells Fargo Center . When Sarah McBride stepped to the podium on the DNC convention stage, she became the first out trans person to deliver a speech at a major party political convention
It's apropos that she is making this history as we showed up at #DNCinPhilly with a record trans contingent of 28 people..
Srah standing on that stage helped fulfill something I was hoping along with the rest of the American trans community would happen, and emphatically points out that the Democratic party is the one what supports the humanity and human rights of trans Americans.
We're now past Day 1 and Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia as we rush toward the historic Thursday night that Sec Hillary Clinton will make her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination. But before we get to that historic day, we have to get through Day 3 of the #DNCinPhilly
Day 3 kicked off with now 14 year old Sebastien De La Cruz singing the national anthem to start the #DNCinPhilly proceedings day. If you don't remember my fellow Texan, several years ago during the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat his then 11 year old self got hated on by bigoted ignorati on Twitter after singing the national anthem. It prompted the Spurs to issue another invitation for the 'Little Mariachi' to sing the national anthem during the Finals.
Since then De La Cruz has appeared in an episode of Telenovela, since Eva Longoria is a big fan of his along with President Obama, Longoria also produced the documentary for ESPN about the incident. He sang his way into the semifinals of America's Got Talent, and back in March sang the national anthem before the Clinton-Sanders debate in Miami.
The big business of the day was the vice presidential nomination, which was formally done by acclamation for Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) which he accepted in his speech later that evening.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee showed off his Spanish language skills as he whacked Trump on his fitness for office..
There was also the enjoyable takedown of the Trumpenfuhrer by former New York mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who called him out as a 'dangerous demagogue' and on his shady business practices.
It was also nice to see Vice President Joe Biden's speech tonight He reminded everyone of the stakes in this election and also talked about our presidential nominee in comparison to the opposition..
Texas bragging moment alert. We're showing up and showing out at this DNC event. Eva Longoria, Sebastien De La Cruz, Cecile Richards, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Ilyse Hogue...
And that's before I start talking about my fellow Texans who are there repping the Lone Star State in the Texas DNC delegation like Ashton Woods, Melissa Vivanco, Kim Frederick, Lou Weaver, Brad Pritchett and countless others. Also cool to know that my H-town homegirl Yesenia Chavez, who is working down I-95 in our nation's capital is in the DNC house
I'm enjoying your FB and other photos your're posting of the convention action and the celebs you're running into. Makes me feel less bummed about being there.
I enjoyed seeing the various Democratic legislative leadership caucuses like the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific Islander Caucus on stage reminding people that we not only have some amazing leaders in our party, but some up and coming young ones like Georgia state Rep. Park Cannon.
As each of those groups took the DNC stage, they reminded everyone to not stop at the top of the ticket, but finish the job and vote for every race on your November 8 ballot . We have a great shot of flipping the US Senate back to Democratic control, and a longer one at getting control of the US House back
But the big speech of Day 3 was given by President Obama. Kinda obvious he's the second best speechmaker in that family, but he succinctly laid out the case for supporting Sec Hillary Clinton and making sure she's taking the oath of office January 20 as our 45th president.
Day 1 of #DNCinPhilly was contentious at times, but this was the day that eluded Hillary Clinton eight years ago and that sound you heard was the glass ceiling finally shattering.
Move over boys, Hillary Clinton has now made history as the first woman to be nominated for president by a major party . It was a long road to get to this point in American history with many women trying to do so but ultimately falling short of making that history.
Somewhere Ann Richards, Shirley Chisholm and Barbara Jordan are smiling because that glass ceiling she put 16 million cracks in back in 2008 has finally been broken.
After Hillary Clinton narrowly missed the big prize in 2008, she finally made it happen in 2016. Now if we can just get her to the point in November of calling her 'Madame President' instead of 'Madame Secretary'.
The LGBT Caucus happened today, and one of the highlights of it was Barbra casbar Siperstein presenting the Jane Fee Award to Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA).
While some of the Bernie Sanders supporters are still upset about the fact that you can officially stop calling Clinton the presumptive nominee, the efforts continue in this convention space and beyond to get those folks who see the big picture of what needs to happen on November 8 to be totally on board with her instead of 'I guess I'm with her.'
Some of the highlights of Day Two of the DNC besides the Roll Call of the States were speeches by the Mothers of the Movement to the shouts in the Wells Fargo Center hall of 'Black Lives Matter'
They pointed out that they trust Hillary Clinton , not Donald Trump to reduce racial tensions between police and the Black community because of her longtime commitment to social justice and urged people to vote for her.,
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright also took the stage to point out Trump's problematic fawning over authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong-un, who recently endorsed him.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D-VA) also repeated something I've been concerned about as a Kennedy baby who grew up during the Cold War and had to do duck and cover nuke attack drills in elementary school until 3rd grade.
I don't want Donald Trump's paws and thin skinned behind near the US nuclear launch codes, and McAuliffe echoed my thoughts in terms of cautioning the nation about giving control of the nuclear launch codes to a man who praises Putin and Saddam Hussein
The speech by former Attorney General Eric Holder debunked the lies that Trump has been telling, and pointed out that violent crime has gone down since President Obama took office.
He went on to passionately endorse Hillary Clinton for president.,
The big speech of the night was given by our Democratic presidential nominees' husband, who happens to have been the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
Bill talked about his wife, how they met and her lifetime of fighting for liberal progressive causes as his daughter Chelsea looked on from the arena box seats.
It was a side of her that many people, haven't heard in terms of her undercover work in Alabama on behalf of Marian Wright Edelman to spike the tax exemptions for the racist private academies that sprang up across the South in order for white parents to avoid sending their kids to integrated schools.
It was nice hearing from Bill about how they got married before he launched into his case as to why she should become our 45th president.
And yeah, not only has the music been better at this convention, ,so has the star power.
For those of you who didn't get to witness it live, First Lady Michelle Obama took to the DNC 2016 stage last night and delivered a speech for the ages that reminded me at times of the one her hubby dropped at the 2004 DNC event in Boston.
This #DNCinPhilly convention is tuning out to be even more historic for trans kind than I anticipated. In addition to having a record 27 trans delegates attending the event and the American trans community eagerly awaiting Sarah McBride's Thursday podium speech, there's more news cementing this Philadephia DNC convention as one of the most trans friendly events in American political history.
Longtime Nashville based trans advocate Marisa Richmond has been active in Democratic Party politics for years and has been a delegate to several DNC conventions including the 2008 one in which she witnessed history in then Sen. Barack Obama's historic nomination.
She'll have a lot closer seats than she did in 2008 to witness another historic nomination this time, like on the convention stage.
Marisa's task as the convention's official timekeeper is to keep all the speakers on schedule and within their allotted time limits. Through her roles with Trans United For Hillary and the Democratic Party's LGBT advisory board she was contacted and subsequently offered the position.
"It's a personal honor and privilege to be up there on the stage," said Richmond in an interview with The Tennessean. "I'll be just a few feet away from all of the speakers all four nights. it's literally one of the best seats there."
"It shows that this is easily the most trans friendly convention ever, " she said. "It shows that this party has really made progress in terms of inclusion and diversity."
Speaking of seats, if you're looking for her, during the television telecasts, where the arrow is in the photo by Mara Keisling is where Marisa will be sitting and doing her timekeeping duties during the convention.
The Tennessee Democratic Party was also pleased about Richmond being chosen as the 2016 DNC convention timekeeper, and Tennessee State Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini said she was thrilled by her selection.
Mancini noted that Richmond, the former chair of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, has been one of the strongest LGBTQ advocates in Tennessee and across the country for many years."
And yes, I'll definitely cosign that sentiment. I've had the pleasure of knowing her trailblazing self since the late 90's, and I'm proud of her for getting this amazing honor.
What a first day for the #DNCinPhilly Debbie Wasserman Schultz gets called out at the Florida delegation breakfast and subsequently resigns as chair of the DNC because of the drama stirred up by the Wikileaks hack. Donna Brazile as a result becomes the interim chair of the DNC.
The Berners showing their assess in the Wells Fargo Center convention hall by booing Rep. Marcia Fudge, & Rep. Elijah Cummings, which isn't sitting too well right now with the Ohio and Maryland delegations and Black Democrats like myself, and only adds to the pissivity we feel about Sanders supporters.
The Sandernistas were ranting on social media (and probably still are) claiming that Bernie was cheated out of the Democratic presidential nomination because the process was 'rigged'.
Naw Bernie boo boo kitties, Hillary beat him, and he lost because he and his campaign team forgot that in Democratic Party primaries, #BlackVotersMatter. Even your own peeps are admitting that the process wasn't rigged.
They got mad at me on social media because I called them out about the #DNCinPhilly bigotry eruptions aimed at women and POC speakers. Don't care if you don't like it and my block game on Twitter is strong once I get tired of playing with y'all. Not happy about you dissing Black Democrats as y'all have done during this entire Democratic primary process, and gonna call out the Green Tea Party bigotry when I see it.
As for what network I'm watching for my DNC coverage, I'm predominately watching C-SPAN. I got tired of the incessant CNN and MSNBC chatter about e-mails and Hillary's 'likeability' and flipped it to C-SPAN at 3 PM CDT.
They cover everything with no commercial interruptions and no talking heads commentary.
It was also cool seeing my New York homegirl Melissa Sklarz on stage with the rest of the New York delegation as they took to the stage to express their support for Sec. Clinton, who was their former junior US senator from 2001-2009
But once the speakers starting hitting the stage, the beautiful diversity of our party revealed itself.
We had more lesbian and gay peeps on stage in the first three hours of DNC 2016 once it was gaveled into session by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake than the Republicans had in their entire four day run in Cleveland. We still have my trans sister Sarah McBride's historic speech coming on Thursday. She been getting a lot of media attention as this Time.com profile story attests to.
Congrats Marisa on this honor. Will be paying closer attention to the podium for the rest of the DNC Convention
Loved the speech by my Texas homegirl Eva Longoria before she introduced Sen. Cory Booker to the stage.
She is a longtime Democratic Party activist, and was asked a few years ago to consider running for the US Senate in the Lone Star State which she declined for now.
Longoria had a few mic drop line of her own she talked about herself being a 9th generation Texan, and stated during her remarks 'we didn't cross the border, the border crossed us.'
#NoLieDetected in that comment. Also keeping up with all my Texas homies and homettes via their Facebook pages concerning their experiences at #DNCinPhilly
The 2016 Democratic National Convention gets started in Philadelphia today with the opening gavel in the Wells Fargo Arena scheduled at 3 PM CDT. Should be much better than the Klan rally masquerading as the Republican convention in Cleveland last week even with the drama of Debbie Wasserman Schultz's resignation
The featured speakers lineup for today is First Lady Michelle Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).
Looking forward to once again seeing a Democratic convention hall that looks like America, and I'm exceedingly proud of the fact trans Democrats will be in the hall in full effect. There will be a record 28 person DNC trans delegation and they and Trans World will witness a historic Thursday speech by Sarah McBride from the convention stage..
I'm taking a moment to give a TransGriot shout to my Houston home peeps who are part of the Texas DNC delegation. Like I've said before, we have some amazing advocates repping H-town at the DNC, and those Texas delegation meetings at your host hotel should be a lot of fun.
Wish I could be there with you for this historic convention which will witness the first woman to be nominated as a major party presidential candidate but have another commitment I made I must fulfill. But definitely will be with y'all in spirit.
Also sending love to my Kentucky peeps who made it to #DNCinPHL and all the peeps on my FB pages and Twitter feeds who will be in the house with their various state delegations.
Already enjoying reading your Facebook statuses and tweets, and anticipating the pics and posts I'll see as the DNC is gaveled into session later today and it winds to its climax of Sec. Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech on the 28th..
Hope y'all have fun, handle your business, get to spend a little time enjoying the city and make some amazing memories while you're in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.
Presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton finally made her choice for her vice presidential running mate, and she tapped Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) to be that person.
While I liked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) , Sen Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and HUD secretary Julian Castro as possible veep picks, the problem with the three senators favored by many people in liberal political circles is that had Sec. Clinton chosen then, they would have been replaced with picks by Republican governors in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Ohio and made our push to get a Democratic Senate a little harder.
Kaine has served as mayor of Richmond, VA, as Virginia's governor, and now as its junior senator. He speaks fluent Spanish because of his time as a missionary in Honduras.
So this pick made sense from that a political standpoint even if elements of the Green Tea Party wing hates it.
'"Sen. Tim Kaine is everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence is not," said Clinton. "He is qualified to step into this job and lead on Day 1. And he is a progressive who likes to get things done."
The Democratic running mates appeared together for the first time at an event in Miami yesterday. and here's the video of the rally
This 2016 election will be critically to the future of our country, and it looks as thought Sec. Clinton with the selection of Kaine, has made another wise decision that underscores how prepared she is to be POTUS.
Now as we fast forward to this crucial 2018 election cycle, another Vermont trans person in 62 year old Christine Hallquist has stepped up to run in the Vermont Democratic Party primary race for governor.
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