Mississippi Senate Runoff Today

Today the voters in Mississippi finish the last election of the 2018 midterms in this senate race between Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Confederacy) and her Democratic challenger in former congressman and agriculture secretary Mike Espy.

The runoff election has gotten a lot closer because Confederate Cindy's racist baggage has come tumbling out of the KKKloset to the point that Agent Orange had to fly to the Magnolia State to try to save her voting 100% for his agenda behind. 

A loss in this race means that the GOP only has a 52-48 edge in the US Senate despite a Senate map that favored them, and would be the icing on the cake for a blue tsunami in 2018 that flipped control of the US House and gave the Dems a 40 seat majority.

The Republicans are justifiably worried they are about to see a repeat of what happened in neighboring Alabama, and don't be surprised if that happens when the votes are counted later tonight.

Mississippi has a 32% Black population.  That's higher than Alabama's.  And if you think Mississippi's Black electorate won't bumrush the polls for an opportunity to smack down a racist and elect the first African American US senator to rep the state since 1877 at the same time, y'all are seriously naive and sleeping on the power and sophistication of the Black vote. 

Here's hoping that Espy pulls the upset 

TransGriot Update:  Confederate Cindy won, but only by a single digit percentage margin.

Trans America Has a Great 2018 Election Night

The political junkie in me was up late watching returns and election coverage until I finally called it a night at 3 AM.   While I was focused on Texas, local and some key national races, I also had a nervous eye cast in the direction of Massachusetts to see what was happening with Question 3.

After a trans non discrimination law was passed in 2016 with public accommodations language, the Axis of Anti-trans Evil in the Bay State gathered signatures to put it on the ballot.

It was the first time we'd had a trans rights law put on the ballot for potential repeal, and the stakes were high surrounding Question 3.  A loss using the same bathroom predator attacks in a blue state means that us red state folks would probably spend 2019 fighting a red tide of anti-trans referenda.  A win means our Massachusetts trans and GNC fam keep that hard fought for law.

The national trans community justifiably saw this as a must win referendum.  Laverne Cox, VA Del Danica Roem, Trans United Fund and other people went to the state to help the YES on 3 team get what turned out to be a huge win for American transkind as the Trump misadministration is preparing to ramp up anti-trans oppression.

Question 3 was a resounding win for the trans community  1.5 million Massachusetts voters, or 67.7 percent, voted YES to preserve the current anti-discrimination law and support transgender rights. About 700,000 people or 32.3 percent, voted NO.

While the Massachusetts Question 3 referendum was the big news for Trans Election Night 2018, we also had in New Hampshire two more trans women get elected to state legislatures.

Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker were elected to the New Hampshire House.  Cannon finished second in the Stafford County District 18 race.  Bunker will represent Rockingham County after she won in District 18, that includes the city of Exeter.

Brianna Titone's race in Colorado is too close to call at this moment.  She's trailing by 400 votes in the race for the open Arvada area HD-27 seat    In another open seat race in Montana's HD 52, Amelia Marquez is trailing Republican Rodney Garcia by just 205 votes

As for the other trans candidates in this cycle, Christine Hallquist's bid to become the first ever trans governor fell short in Vermont, but she got an impressive 40% of the vote. 

Martin Rawlings- Fein and Mia Satya fell short in their San Francisco school board races,

In my home state of Texas, Finnigan Jones got 44% of the vote, but lost to incumbent Republican Tony Tinderholt.    The Austin City Council races also didn't break Danielle Skidmore's or Jessica Cohen's way in their respective council district races.

So we trans Texans are still waiting for our first elected trans officeholder.

So while we had a great night, it definitely could have been a lot better.   These close races will eventually break our way and result in more trans people getting elected and #TransformingPolitics when we do so. 

But we did take more steps toward making that political day happening

It's Election Day, Family! Go Vote!

At 7 AM the polls will open in Texas and across the nation for a crucial election that will determine the course of this country.    If you haven't voted already, please do so.

Nah, scratch that.  That crucial election to our country was two years ago.  The one today will determine how fast and how much of the mess gets cleaned up from Agent Orange's disastrous mispresidency. 

As for how I feel at this moment?   I'm nervous, but a lot more confident we'll have some successes to celebrate later tonight than I was in the last days before the 2016 election..

I've already cast my ballot.   I did so on the first day of early voting, and was part of the massive early voting turnout in Harris County that saw over 855K of us heading to the polls nearly matching our 2016 presidential election numbers.   There were over 5 million Texans lining up to do so across the state as the last minute attack ad blitz and nonstop political ads had me frequently picking up my remote to hit the mute button.

So who did I vote for?   Damned sure wasn't my Texas Republican oppressors.  I had plenty of great Democratic candidates to vote for up and down the ballot. 

In Harris County, I got the pleasure of voting for the 19 Black women who are seeking to sprinkle their sorely needed Black Girl Magic, Black Excellence and diversity all over our Harris County court system.    Good luck to you, ladies.

We have trans candidates on the ballot across the country seeking to transform politics and make history in their respective states.   Christine Hallquist is running for governor of Vermont.  Brianna Titone and Amelia Marquez are seeking to become state legislators in Colorado and Montana.
Martin Rawlings-Fein and Mia Satya are running for positions on the San Francisco school board.

And in the Lone Star State, Danielle Skidmore, Jessica Cohen and Finnigan Jones are running for the Austin City Council and Texas Legislature.

I'll be casting an nervous eye toward Massachusetts to see if Question 3 either passed to protect the human rights of trans Bay Staters or enough transphobic Massholes voted NO to gut the just passed trans rights law.

I'll also be looking at Georgia, Florida and Maryland to see if all three states elected their first Black governors in Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum and Ben Jealous.

To avoid the nerve wracking anxiety of watching the clock and trying to resist the temptation to watch MSNBC and CNN until the polls close, I'll definitely be relying on my DVD movie collection and Netflix subscription to distract me.   

When the polls finally do close,  if I don't attend somebody's watch party,  I'll be at home hitting the laptop going to the Harris County elections website and yelling "Fire Stan Stanart" as our election returns get released at a snail's pace.

Remember, voting is like driving a car.   If you want society to move forward, you vote 'D'.  If you want society to move backwards, you vote 'R'

 Once again, it's Election Day!  Handle your electoral business and go vote.

Arizona Family Calls Out Their Racist Congressional Brother

Many of us in POC America have been saying for years now that progressive white people need to call their racist relatives and family members out instead of ignoring them in silence.

That call for our white allies to call out their racist kin has taken an even more urgent tone as the bigots have come out to play in the wake of Dolt 45's election. 

We have an interesting example of how to call out your racist relatives coming from Arizona.

Paul Gosar (R) is a far right wing nut congressman who has repped Arizona's 4th Congressional District since 2013.    Gosar has claimed that the infamous Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA was planned and executed by 'The Left', defended British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, attacked "disgusting and depraved" Muslim immigrants at a speech in London in July, and in a Vice News interview, called billionaire George Soros a Nazi sympathizer.

His six siblings, horrified and disgusted by his long list of far right peccadilloes, all signed a letter printed in the Kingman Daily Miner stating: "It is extremely upsetting to have to call you out on this, Paul, but you've forced our hand with your deceit and anti-Semitic dog whistle."

The Gosar siblings haven't stopped there.  They are now taking the step of endorsing his Democratic opponent, Dr. David Brill  in the upcoming November election because they don't want him repping the 4th Congressional District any longer. 

To make that happen, Tim, David, Jennifer, Grace, Gaston, and Joan Gosar also cut a brutal ad that called their racist brother out.




Brill 's campaign s considered a longshot to unseat Gosar, but when your own family is willing to go on camera to say that you shouldn't be in Congress, that's gotta hurt you big time politically.

We'll find out how effective the ad was on November 6.   

Alexandra Chandler Is Running For Congress

One of the other election results I'll be paying close attention to in Massachusetts on September 4 besides the Republican gubernatorial primary featuring incumbent  Gov. Charlie Baker versus the reprehensible LGBT hatemonger Scott Lively is the US House District 3 race Democratic primary.

The Question 3 referendum on the statewide trans rights law will happen in the general election on November 6. 

Rep. Nikki Tsongas (D) decided to retire, setting off a nine candidate scramble to replace her on the Democratic side of the ballot. 

One of those candidates is Alexandra Chandler, a Navy veteran and former intelligence analyst who is another one of the wave of qualified and unapologetically trans candidates #TransformingPolitics.



She is endorsed by Trans United Fund, other organizations, and various politicians in the 3rd Congressional District.

Should she win her primary race, she'll not only make Massachusetts political history as the first trans person in the Bay State to win a congressional primary, it will put her one step closer to becoming the first out trans person elected to the US Congress,

We've had a few people since Amanda Simpson became the first out trans person to win a Democratic congressional primary race in Arizona back in 2004 who have come close to achieving that milestone of getting elected to Congress. 

Here's hoping that Chandler breaks through and makes it happen. 

But the first step to getting to the November 6 general election is winning the MA-3 primary on September 4   

Historic 2018 LGBT Slate Of Gubernatorial Candidates

With the historic win of Christine Hallquist last night, it not only points out the building Rainbow wave in this upcoming 2018 election cycle, but also completed an interesting political footnote.

For the first time ever, we have candidates representing different parts of the LGBT acronym running in the same election cycle for governor in their respective states.

In my home state of Texas, we're proudly providing the 'L' in Lupe Valdez, the former longtime Dallas County sheriff who is running for governor against the incumbent Greg Abbott (R).

We go to Colorado for the 'G' in Jared Polis, the current US congressman representing Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, who is running to succeed Democratic governor John Hickenlooper.

The 'B' is Oregon's incumbent governor Kate Brown, who is fighting off a challenge from Republican gubernatorial nominee Knute Buehler.

And as you're aware of by now, the 'T' is provided by Vermont's Christine Hallquist, who is challenging incumbent Republican governor Phil Scott.

This is a year in which we have had over 400 LGBT candidates run for office and who were motivated in large part because of Republican legislative attacks on the TBLGQ community.

There are according to the Victory Fund, 500 LGBT elected officials in the US, and that's only .01 % of the total number of elected officials nationwide, so there is much room for growth. 

Yes, it's clear by the GOP attacks on LGBT rights people from this community must be represented in the halls of governmental power at every level of government, and the sooner, the better. 

Having members of our community wielding the power of the gubernatorial pen to sign executive orders, approve good legislation or veto bad bills is now more than ever even more crucial to our ability as a community to defend ourselves against legislation hostile to us.

The Democratic Party gubernatorial nominations are only the first step in the process. In order to see them sworn in as governors of Colorado, Oregon, Texas and Vermont in January, we're going to have to bumrush the polls and vote for them on November 6.
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Dayna Smith Running For South Carolina Senate Seat

There's a special election happening in South Carolina today that will also get my undivided attention when the polls close this evening.

Dayna Smith is running for the SC State Senate District 20 seat that covers Lexington and Richland counties and the cities of Columbia, Irmo, Lake Murray, Seven Oaks and St. Andrews.

She's also the first out trans person to run for office in South Carolina

The special election is happening because longtime state Senator John Courson (R) resigned and vacated the seat after pleading guilty to official misconduct in June.    The seat has been held by the GOP since 1984, and South Carolina has a 28-18 GOP state Senate majority that the SC Democrats would love to begin the process of flipping by flipping this senate seat..

Smith is one of three Democrats competing for the seat, and faces off against Dick Harpootlian, the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party and Kyle Lacio for the Democratic nomination. 
Four Republicans are running in their primary. 

If no one gets over 50% in their primary, there will be a runoff election scheduled for August 28.    The primary winners will face off in the November 6 general election for the District 20 seat .

Good luck to Dayna and hope she makes some South Carolina political history later tonight.

Hawaii 2018 Primary Election Today

The Hawaii primary election is taking place today, and one of the races I have my eye on in the Aloha State is the lieutenant governor's one.

Current Lt Governor Doug Chin (D) decided to run for the 1st Congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D), who decided to primary challenge incumbent Gov. David Ige (D).

Kim Coco Iwamoto, who served two terms on the Hawaii State Board of Education in 2006 and 2010 and was subsequently appointed to the Hawaii Human Rights Commission, is running in this crowded five candidate Democratic primary race for Lt. Governor.

She has been surging in the latest polls, but will she get enough support from Aloha State voters to win this statewide race and the Democratic  lieutenant governor's nomination? 

She has been endorsed by one of the major labor unions in Hawaii and Trans United Fund

If she does, she'll get one step closer to making more electoral history by becoming the first out trans person to win a major party lieutenant governor primary in the US. 

However, we won't find out the results of today's Hawaii primary election until all the ballots are cast, counted and the totals revealed in the early morning hours of Sunday our time.

You know I'm hoping for that trans electoral history to happens for her.

 

Sharice Davids Wins Kansas 3rd District Dem Congressional Primary!

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.

Here's hoping that happens for her in 91 days. 
 

Anchorage Anti-Trans Proposition 1 Defeated!

While many of us were heading to bed in the Lower 48, the citizens of Anchorage, Alaska were counting ballots in the latest trans rights battleground.

The anti-trans hate group the Alaska Family Council had managed to get a proposition on the ballot that if it had passed, would have stripped the trans protetctions from the city's LGBTQ rights law passed in 2015 by the Anchorage Assembly.   Proposition 1 would have also barred transgender people from using the facilities and locker rooms that matched their gender presentation, even if they had changed their identity documents.

Translation:  The Alaska Family Council haters were trying to pass a nastier Last Frontier version of North Carolina's HB 2. 

It was also going to be the first time that the city of Anchorage would attempt to use a mail-in ballot for a civic election, and turnout was expected to be high.   Anchorage is also the largest city in the state of Alaska .

The Yes on 1 IForces of Intolerance rolled out the usual anti-trans playbook of anti-trans lies and fear mongering but were outgunned by Fair Anchorage, the coalition group working to defeat the unjust Proposition 1   

The Yes on 1 haters raised $128,000 to spend on their scampaign to $800,000 for the Fair Anchorage coalition.   Fair Anchorage not only had more money, they learned the lessons from the failed HERO defense fight here in H-town and attacked the bathroom predator myth head on.

Meanwhile the Yes on 1 side was committing the cardinal sin in Alaskan politics of using a non-Alaskan in their commercials. 

In addition to ads from Alaska' native community, who have felt the sting of discrimination themselves, advocating for their trans neighbors and urging a NO vote,  Fair Anchorage also had local trans people in their commercials and engaged in their coalition of groups fighting this latest trans rights battle.



That predictably deployed trans predator lie by the YES on 1 trans oppressors was also blown up not only in this ad featuring an APD officer, but  a statement from the Fair Anchorage campaign that quoted firefighters, former state reps and a former police spokesperson. 

It also pointed out that a YES vote would be bad for Anchorage.

“While backers of Prop 1 claim they're advocating for public safety, nothing could be further from the truth," Mike Stumbaugh, president of Anchorage Firefighters Union Local 1264, said, according to the press release issued by Kati Ward, Fair Anchorage campaign manager. "And in the 200-plus cities and 18 states with laws nearly identical to Anchorage's nondiscrimination law, the results have been the same: Protecting transgender people is not a threat to public safety — here in Anchorage or anywhere else in the country."

Over 40 Anchorage based businesses also opposed the passage of Proposition 1 as bad for business and the city reputation. 

Fair Anchorage not only aggressively tackled and demolished the predator myth, they also took on and demolished another of the right wing's favorite lies in claiming that by letting transgender women poop and pee in women's restrooms, cisgender women's safety was compromised.



And here's one of the NO on 1 ads that featured a trans person and their parent




35,054 ballots (17.4% of the city's voters) had already been returned before the April 3 deadline.  With all the ballots counted, Proposition 1 was defeated by a 53%-46% margin.

Congrats to the Fair Anchorage coalition for decisively beating the Alaska Family Council haters.
That's wonderful news considering Massachusetts is facing its own looming trans rights election this November. 

It also lends credence to what I have been saying in terms of transphobia becoming less of a winning issue for Republicans and the conservative movement 

Is The Long Predicted Texas Blue Wave Finally Happening?

Looks like we have the Texas Republican party's attention after years of running roughshod over the Texans who don't look like them or share their politics.

Early voting for the March 6 Texas primary election ends this Friday, and in the 15 largest Texas counties by population (including my home county of Harris County), Democratic Party primary turnout is outpacing Republican turnout.

In Harris County, in the first three days of early voting we passed the total number of Democrats who voted during the entire 2014 early voting period. 

Meanwhile the Republican primary early voting number are just barely over the 2014 pace.

Gov Abbott sent the warning in a fundraising e-mail on Monday.   The Texas Republican Party is 'scurred' right now and they need to be   Texans, and especially non-white Texans and Texans who are part of marginalized groups are tired of having their human rights messed with.   The 2017 regular and Special Oppression Sessions are a major reason why we have  had a record number of Texas TBLGQ people step up to run for office .

The reason the Texas GOP is so concerned about this is it's not just about their own political hides.  Texas is the linchpin for their control of national politics in Washington. 

The gerrymandering of Texas congressional districts adds an estimated 4 seats to their national US House majority.  Texas' 38 electoral votes are the basis of all Republican electoral vote calculations when they run for POTUS.

A purple or blue Texas makes it much harder for them to elect a Republican to the White House

Texas Republicans are also keenly aware of the fact that since 2009, non white Texans outnumber white Texans population wise, which is why they passed voter ID  voter suppression laws that targeted the Black and Latinx community along with young voters .

While we can be happy about these developments, we still have a lot of work to do.  We're still a long way from November 6.   To start turning Texas back to blue, we must on the liberal progressive side be on our A+ political game and keep grinding to #FireTheTexasGOP. . 

Is the long predicted Texas blue wave finally happening?   I sure hope so.

TransGriot Houston Area Texas Primary Endorsements

Early voting for the Texas primary elections starts on Monday and runs until March 2, with the primary election itself on March 6.    To help you TransGriot Texas readers out, it's time for me to announce the folks that I am endorsing for various races in the Democratic primary

I went through the Big 4 endorsements, plus my own observations about some of the candidates to come up with this list.   May be adding to it over the next few days until the start of early voting.     

Governor- Lupe Valdez 
Lt Governor- Mike Collier

US Senate- Beto O'Rourke
US House District 2- Todd Litton 
US House District 7- Laura Moser 
US House District 10- Madeline K. Eden
US House District 14- Adrienne Bell
US House District 18- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee 
US House District 22- Sri Preston Kulkami
US House District 29- Sen. Sylvia R. Garcia  
US House District 36- Dayna Steele

GLO Commissioner- Tex Morgan
State Board of Education #4  Lawrence Allen 

TX State Senate 15- Sen. John Whitmire
TX State Senate 17- Fran Watson 

TX House 27- Rep. Ron Reynolds
TX House 28- Megan Scoggins
TX House 29- Dylan Forbis
TX House 126-Natali Hurtado
TX House 133- Sandra G. Moore 
TX House 134- Allison Sawyer
TX House 138- Adam Milasincic
TX House 139- Randy Bates
TX House 142- No Endorsement
TX House 146- Rep. Shawn Nicole Thierry
TX House 147- Rep. Garnet Coleman

TX 14th Court of Appeal #3 - Jerry Zimmerer 

TX 14th Court of Appeals #8-  Margaret Meg' Poissant
55th Civil District Court- Latosha Lewis Payne 
113th Civil District Court- Rabeea Collier
185th Civil District Court- Jason Luong

188th Civil District Court - Scot 'Doll' Dollinger
234th Civil District Court - Lauren Reeder
269th Civil District Court- Shampa Mukerji
281st Civil District Court- George Arnold

246th Family District Court - Angela Graves-Harrington
280th Family District Court - Barbara J. Stalder
309th Family District Court - Linda Marie Dunson
313th Family District Court - Natalia Oakes
County Criminal Court #2 - Harold J. Landreneau
County Criminal Court #5 - David M. Fleischer
County Criminal Court #7 - Andrew A. Wright
County Criminal Court #11 - Gus Saper
County Criminal Court #12 - Juan J. Aguirre
County Criminal Court #13 - Raul Rodriguez
County Criminal Court #15 - Kris Ougrah
County Probate Court #2 - Jim L. Peacock
County Probate Court #4 - James Horwitz
County Civil Court at Law #2 - Jim Kovach
Harris County District Clerk - Marilyn Burgess
Harris County Clerk - Diane Trautman
County Treasurer - Dylan Osborne
Harris County Commissioner #2 - Adrian Garcia
Harris County Commissioner #4 - Penny Shaw
Harris County Justice of the Peace Pr 3, #2 - Don Coffey
Harris County Justice of the Peace Pr 7, #2 - Audrie Lawton
County School Trustee At Large #3 - Elvonte Patton
County School Trustee Pos 6, Pct 1 - Danyahel (Danny) Norris

Other Texas Democratic Primary races I'm endorsing
US House District 27-Vanessa Edwards Foster 
TX House 62- Valerie Hefner    
TX House 75- Rep. Mary Gonzalez
TX House 94- Finnigan Jones   
TX House 123-  Rep. Diego Bernal

Texas Supreme Court Place #2- Steve Kirkland
116th Civil District Court- Tonya Parker
Williamson County Justice of the Peace Pct 4  Stacy Hackenberg

Fran Watson Endorsed By Victory Fund

This blog has been tracking the trailblazing awesomeness of Fran Watson for a few years.  The first Black female president of the Houston GLBT Caucus.  The second Black woman elected as a Houston Pride Grand Marshal

Now Fran is running for the Texas Senate and making a bid to become only the third Black woman elected to the body since Eddie Bernice Johnson was serving in the senate from the Dallas area District 23 from 1987-93.

It's been an even longer drought for Black female representation in the Texas Senate from the Houston area.  The last Houston area Black woman to be elected to the Texas Senate was the first Black woman ever elected to that body, the legendary political trailblazer Barbara Jordan back in 1967. 

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the dean of the Texas House who has served in that body since 1968, was the most recent Houston area woman to try and unfortunately fail to break that streak.

Thompson ran for the Texas Senate District 13 seat vacated by Rodney Ellis, who is now a Harris County commissioner after serving 26 years in the chamber, but was defeated by Borris Miles for it.. 

Fran Watson is running for the Senate District 17 seat that covers much of southwest and west Houston, Bellaire, and parts of Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties currently held by Joan Huffman (R).     

Watson's campaign is picking up momentum and this Victory Fund endorsement is only the latest evidence of it.    Will we see history made this November? 

We have a few months until we get to that point, but that endorsement is a major boost to her campaign.  .     

Congratulations To New Caucus Prez Mike Webb!

It was a packed January meeting for the Houston GLBT Caucus to start this 2018 political season which had a dual purpose tonight.

In addition to the many Houston area candidates seeking the prized Caucus endorsements in their state legislative, congressional and state judicial races, the Caucus membership was also meeting to elect a new president and board.

A long list of speakers that snaked around the Montrose Center room took turns getting one minute to explain why they were seeking the Caucus endorsements for their various races.

One candidate I was shocked to see walk through that door was Demetria Smith.  She had a failed run for the District D council seat in 2013 and for Houston mayor in 2015.  She's now running for the Democratic nomination for Texas governor.. 

She was also a transphobic HERO opponent during that failed 2015 mayoral run, but was allowed to come to the mic and address the crowd.  She had a meltdown after her time expired and is now trying to claim she was 'excluded' from the event.

Did Demetria Smith really think the Houston TBLGQ community would forget she opposed HERO and dissed the trans community while doing so? 

Naw boo boo kitty, we didn't.   And Moni is an unapologetic part of the trans community you dissed to oppose HERO.  I damned sure haven't forgotten who my enemies are from the 2015 HERO repeal fight.

Smith had the nerve to come ask for the Houston GLBT Caucus endorsement tonight in her doomed Democratic governor's primary race, and act a fool when her one minute ran out with a line of speakers snaking around the crowded room patiently waiting their turn to do so. 

FYI- 25% of the vote in a Texas statewide election comes from the Houston area.   The other fact is that if you're seeking to win a Democratic primary, the endorsement of the Houston GLBT Caucus (of which I am a member BTW) is a major Houston area political step towards making that happen. 

So have several sections of seats at Toyota Center.  I didn't forget you were anti-HERO and you hated on the Houston trans community while doing so.  And yeah, she's a SUF award nominee.

But back to the post.   Once the speeches were over, it was on to the main business of the night.

Caucus VP Mike Webb was elected as the organization's new president to succeed Frances Valdez,it's first ever Latina one.   Valdez decided not to seek a full term of her own, and was finishing the remainder of Fran Watson's term after she resigned to run for the Texas Senate.

Congrats Mike!  The Caucus leaders once again is in good hands.

Sweet Win In Alabama!

'I'm betting on Black Alabamians shocking the world despite every GOP attempt to suppress their votes and hopefully carrying Doug Jones to victory.'
-TransGriot,  December 12, 2017


Told y'all.  Congrats to US Senator-elect Doug Jones   You can never go wrong betting on the Black vote, and especially Black women voters.  When properly motivated and turned out, they are the most reliable voting bloc in the liberal-progressive coalition and power Democratic election wins. 

They proved it in Virginia last month and now in Alabama.   Black women voted at a 98% clip for Jones, and Black men in the state were just behind them at 92%   

And where were white women?   Voting for the GOP pedophile at a 65% clip

So let me say this louder for the fauxgressives in the back who seem to be confused about who is the undisputed base voter of the Democratic Party that will lead us to 2018 victory.

It is undeniably Black women.   So time to get in formation in 2018 and let Black women lead you to victory in 2018 and beyond

So when are you Democratic Party going to invest in maximizing turnout of Black voters, ending voter suppression, and stop wasting your time on lukewarm independents who ain't loyal to you?

Anyway, that's a subject for another post, but tonight is one for celebrating this huge win and witnessing the first Democrat to be elected as a US senator repping Alabama in 25 years.

Here's Senator-elect Doug Jones' victory speech