2016 DNC Convention Day 2 Recap

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.  

Day 2 of #DNCinPhilly completed, on to Day 3.

The 2016 Democratic Presidential Election Process Wasn't Rigged

It's become fashionable in the media, in Green Tea Party circles and with disgruntled Sandernistas ti loudly claim that Bernie was cheated out of the nomination because the process was 'rigged' in favor of Sec. Hillary Clinton.  They, the media and Donald Chump Trump have seized on a Wikileaks dump of documents on Friday before the opening of the DNC as 'proof' that the process was stacked against him.

Um no Bernie Boo Boo Kitties, it wasn't, and Moni's going to tell you why.

Let's get the obvious part of the way that Sanders was a DINO trying to execute a hostile takeover of our presidential primary.   Sanders also has a long history dating back to 1985 of demonizing the Democratic Party, called for President Obama to be primary challenged in 2012, and admitted he was only joining the Democratic Party to make it easier for him to run for president instead of doing so as an independent.

In Hillary Clinton, Sanders was going up against a woman that not only had 40 years of history and working relationships with the key constituent groups in the party, but has been the First Lady, a two time elected senator for New York, served as President Obama's Secretary of State, narrowly lost a contentious 2008 Democratic presidential primary race and worked to unify the party for the 2008 election campaign.

So  if one of your Democratic finalists is a long time Democrat with 40 years of history in the party versus a DINO attempting to execute a hostile takeover of your 2016 nomination process, who in Hades do you think they will support?

Clinton didn't win because the system was 'rigged'. she won because she soundly beat Bernie and used the tactics that beat her in 2008 against Sanders in 2016.

Bernie's support was with predominately white independents and young voters.  Non-white Democratic voters weren't 'Feeling The Bern' because we aren't looking for ideological purity in a candidate like many white far left people are, we're looking for Democratic candidates who can win elections and govern when they get there.

Non-white voters are political pragmatists, and in addition to Bernie's campaign not recognizing that point, they also failed to connect with non-white voters who they discovered far too late, would make or break his campaign.

#BlackVotersMatter in Democratic primaries, and there are three states, MO, KY and IL in which Black voters showed up and helped give Sec. Clinton narrow primary wins.

Bernie failed to explain how his pet issues could not only be accomplished, but how they would improve the everyday lives of non-white Democrats.  The disastrous New York Daily News interview was a glaring example of that.

And oh yeah, loudly saying 'Hillary Sucks' and repeating 25 year old discredited Republican lies about her is not a compelling argument for me to support you when you have done a piss poor job of articulating why I should vote for you.  Making excuses for your repeated failures to connect with non-white voters, claiming the system is corrupt, making specious charges of voter fraud and railing against 'The Establishment' also wasn't a good look for your campaign.

So let's do another reality check.  In the only poll that counts, more people voted for Hillary (16,847,075) than Bernie (13,168,214).  She won 34 contests, many in diverse states by in many cases blowout margins, while Sanders was winning 23 contest in predominately white states.   She has 2764 total delegates to his 1894.

On Tuesday night, she will make history by become the first female nominee of a major political party, and cement the fact that a majority of Democratic primary voters wanted her as our nominee.

So nope, the Democratic presidential election process wasn't rigged, it worked exactly as it was designed to do, to produce a nominee capable of winning a general election contest.   Bernie knew the DNC rules when he made the call to jump in our race, he lost and y'all Sandernistas need to get over it.

Something else that needs to happen is that the sour grapes cries of a 'rigged' process need to cease and desist.
.  

Hillary Clinton Taps Tim Kaine As VP Running Mate

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.

Hillary Clinton 2016 NAACP Convention Speech

Lost in all the news of the opening of the RNC convention is the fact that 250 miles away on the southern end of Ohio, the 107th NAACP National Convention is taking place at the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati.

As per tradition, both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates were invited to speak to the NAACP convention delegates, with Sec. Hillary Clinton accepting her invitation to do so while Donald Trump declined.

Then again, if I sucked as bad on issues of importance to African Americans, had been saying racist crap for decades and my presidential race poll numbers were worse than Romney's, I'd be finding any excuse NOT to speak to 'The Blacks' either or put myself in a position to be called on it.

Here is the video of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's Monday speech to the NAACP convention.

   

Two Trans Presidential Electors For The 2016 Cycle!

I keep pointing out the fact that trans people are integrated into the fabric of American society, despite the best efforts of our right wing opponents to demonize and falsely claim we aren't.

One of the ways that we trans people are part of the greater society is in terms of our participation in politics. During the upcoming Democratic National Convention we'll have so far 24 trans people from across the country who will be participating at the convention in Philadelphia, including two of my fellow Texans.

And I've been pleased and happy to discover that when the presidential electors handle the business in December of picking our next president after the November 8 election, if their states go blue, we will have the historic moment as a trans community of having two out trans people doing that job.

One of the 2016 trans electors is Jack Schuler of Iowa, who was chosen as an elector last month at the Iowa Democratic convention..   He is the first out trans elector in Iowa and in the nation.

"I really didn't realize in the moment how much attention I would be getting  I still kind of overwhelmed,"said Schuler.  "As surreal as some of this feels, I think it's a great opportunity for me to represent, and also a huge responsibility  I feel like now I can be someone who can be a representative of the trans community."

The second trans elector is from deep in the heart of Texas. (stop hating).

She's Joy Eleanor Parks, and became the elector for Senate District 16 after Katherine Savers McGovern, one of two people along with Zach Rudner who ran and won at the recent Texas Democratic Convention in San Antonio for an elector spot in SD16, was also selected as a delegate for the 2016 DNC convention.

McGovern decided to take the delegate spot to the DNC convention, and since Parks finished third in that elector voting, she got moved up to replace McGovern as an elector for SD 16.  By moving up to replace McGovern in that elector spot, Parks became the first out trans Texan and probably the first out trans feminine person nationally to be a presidential elector.

Since she's one of my FB friends, I asked Joy what her thoughts were about this trans history making moment.

"It's very humbling being the first. I wouldn't be where I am without trailblazers like yourself and Melanie Pruitt who helped mentor me when I was young enough for YFT,"said Parks. "I'm overwhelmed with the outpouring of support I received from those who voted for me as well as those who congratulated me. The video Omar Narvaez Adam Medrano and Philip Kingston made to congratulate me was especially touching. They were at the MLK memorial when they did it," 

"I'm overwhelmed by the amount of support I've received from not only young people and activists but local elected officials as well like them," Parks added

The caveat for both trans electors is they get to fulfill their duty in December in Des Moines and Austin only if their respective states turn blue in the election November 8

While that's a plausible possibility for Jack in Iowa, which has gone blue in the last two election cycles, has leaned Democratic since 1988 and is a battleground state, Texas on the other hand hasn't gone blue for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter did so in 1976.  But with Donald Trump only polling in the single digits here, this may be the year it happens.  Joy is certainly hoping that it does so she can make that trip to Austin and make some more history.

Congratulations to Jack and Joy, and here's hoping they are both casting electoral votes in December

It's Official! Hillary Clinton Makes History!

For the first time in US history, we got to watch as a woman  took the stage to claim victory in a major party primary.   Eight years ago Sec. Hillary Clinton came just short of the nomination. but remarked in her speech that '18 million cracks had been made in the glass ceiling'.

Tonight, that glass ceiling was shattered as she became the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party after wins in New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, and leading big in California.

Sen. Sanders kept to his usual pattern of taking caucuses in predominately white states when he won the North.Dakota caucus and the Montana primary.

As I was listening to her victory speech, had to think about the late Rep. Shirley Chisholm, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 and fell short of it while fighting the boys club in the party every step of the way.   Chisholm's run paved the way for Jesse Jackson, .and later Barack Obama to break through and become the current two term occupant of the Oval Office.

Now we may be witnessing history again as Clinton gets a step closer to becoming our nation's first woman president.   She was congratulated by President Obama for clinching the requisite delegates to lock down presumptive nominee status. .  

As for the big delegate prize of California, Clinton at the time of this writing was up by double digits in the Golden State with 39% of the vote counted.

We probably won't know until tomorrow who won the state, but the trendlines so.far favor Clinton.

But what we do know is that with the wins, Clinton has not only scooped up a majority in pledged delegates, she will have won more states, have more votes over her rival with the final contest in DC happening on June 14.

And while we wait for Sen. Sanders to concede, she and her team can focus on bringing the party together and focusing on defeating Donald Trump..
. .

Why The Superdelegates Aren't Going To Switch To Bernie

There is this persistent fantasy being pushed in Bernie World that Sanders will get the superdelegates to massively switch to him and give him the nomination because 'it happened to Hillary in 2008'. .

Yeah right.  That has as much chance of happening as moi walking the runway of the next Victoria's Secret runway show.

Let's approach this logically shall we?

First, let's talk about exactly who the superdelegates are.  438 of them are Democratic National Committee members with 434 votes.  They also include the chairs and vice chairs of all 50 state Democratic parties.

20 are distinguished party leaders (DPL).  That means current and former presidents and vice presidents, former congressional leaders and former DNC chairs.   That DPL list of supers includes President Obama, Vice President Biden, former president Jimmy Carter, and former vice president Al Gore for example.  

The 193 Democratic members of the US House of Representatives (including DC and the US territories like the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico American Samoa and Guam)

The 47 US Senate Democrats and the two DC shadow Senators, and the 21 Democratic governors.

Now that we know who the supers are, let's start breaking down why Sanders attempt to get superdelegates to switch will ultimately fail.

This is 2016, not 2008.  Just as wars are not fought with the same tactics you used in a previous one, neither are political campaigns.  The events that happened in presidential campaign 2008 while instructive and you can learn lessons from them, are not guaranteed to repeat themselves in the next campaign.

Let's get it out there the first dirty secret of the Sanders campaign.  Bernie only joined the Democratic Party last year and admitted he did so only to go after the Democratic nomination and stated it would be harder for him to run for president as an independent. . He is not a Democrat, he is a DINO.

Bernie also has a long history of demonizing the Democratic party going back to 1985. He also called for the primary challenge of President Obama, which means he is not going to be successful in getting President Obama's superdelegate vote, much less many Black superdelegates who haven't forgotted Sanders dissing southern Black Democratic voters.   They also haven't forgotten many of you Berners racistly dissed Rep John Lewis (a superdelegate BTW) and Black voters consistently rejected Bernie at at 86-14% clip. .

Bernie does slightly better with Latinos, being rejected by them by a 75-25% clip. They have issues with Bernie as well, which means he won't be getting many Latino superdelegates to switch either, especially after he accused the Puerto Rico Democratic Party of 'fraud' and the Berners dissing of Latina civil rights icon Dolores Huerta early in the campaign.. And like Black voters, a majority of Latinx voters aren't feeling the Bern either as was demonstrated on Sunday in Puerto Rico. 

And note that out of all his senate colleagues who are superdelegates, only Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon supports him. That speaks volumes 
Sanders acting like a vanillacentric privileged spoiled brat and blaming everyone but himself for his various primary losses is also not endearing him to the superdelegates.

Contrary to what the Sanders campaign is telling you, Sanders is not the better candidate against Trump. He wasn't really vetted and his dirty laundry wasn't given a proper airing. The Repblicans are praying we'll be stupid enough to nominate a candidate they desperately want to run against and paint his 'Democratic Socialist' behind as the second coming of Marx and Lenin.  Trump would spank that behind once they unleash all the unvetted hell on him that Hillary didn't do. 
Then there's the fact that Hillary has 40 years of Democratic Party history, was the First Lady in her husband Bill's administration, elected twice as the US senator from New York and the former secretary of state serving under President Obama .  Being she was on the losing end of a tighter presidential race in 2008 and hadled it with dignity and clas , female Democratic leaders, and especially seasoned Democratic female leaders see this as the best chance of their lifetime to make their presidential dream come true and they aren't throwing away this opportunity for a DINO.   .

Attacking Sen. Barbara Boxer (another superdelegate) in addition to the sexist and nasty commentary that has been aimed at Hillary Clinton in this campaign, in addition to stating you will continue to attack her will only ossify their support for Clinton.

In 1984, Gary Hart tried the same tactic that Bernie Sanders is about o attempt in flipping superdelegates that committed to Walter Mondale before the convention and failed miserably.

We know the stakes of the election this November and see the big picture.  Many of the Bernie or bust people tragically don't.

So good luck with that quixotic doomed to failure attempt to flip the superdelegates.
 

Hillary Clinton Calls Out Trump In San Diego Speech

"He's not just unprepared-- he's temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility."
--Sec. Hillary Clinton 

For those of you who wondered why I endorsed Hillary Clinton back in February and said she was the best qualified person for the job of replacing President Obama, yesterday in calling Donald Chump Trump out  in a San Diego campaign speech unqualified for the job on national TV, she justified my confidence in her to be the next POTUS.

But hey TransGriot readers, see it for yourself if you missed it.

Tamron Hall Calls Out The Berner NV Bad Behavior

One of the many reasons I love my Texas homegirl Tamron Hall is because she's a no BS journalist who doesn't let peeps on either side of the political spectrum weasel out of tough questions.

Here's the recent interview in which she asks some tough question of Sanders surrogate Nina Turner in the wake of the Green Tea Partiers showed their nekulturny selves during last weekend's Nevada Democratic meeting

Watch as Tamron doesn't allow Turner to spin her way out of the mess the Benrers made in Nevada.

Enjoy.

 

Transphobic Ted Cruz Suspends Campaign!

Aww yeah!   Got an early birthday present when I got to watch Damien Thorn the junior senator from Alberta suspend his campaign after getting his azz whipped in the Indiana GOP primary by Donald Trump.

Y'all know as a Texan I have no love for Ted Cruz, and his flinging transphobia on the campaign trail in a desperate attempt to stay relevant in this GOP presidential nomination race has made me like his behind even less.

While  Donald Trump being the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is a WTF inducing prospect in its own right, the one candidate that gave me nightmares out of all the 2016 GOP presidential candidates was Cruz

So hearing the words 'I'm suspending my campaign" coming out of his transphobic mouth was wonderful to hear and a happy dance inducing great start to my birthday celebration..

Now liberal-progressive Texans, can we work on kicking him out of his senate seat in 2018?.

Clinton Wins AZ In A Blowout

Three Western states were on the election agenda in last night's Democratic Party presidential primary contest slates in Arizona, Idaho and Utah.    Idaho has 27 delegates available and Utah offers 37 delegates in its caucuses while the big prize of Arizona was a primary election state with 85 delegates available..  

Both sides spent a lot of time and money in the Grand Canyon State courting voters, and when the votes were counted, while Sanders continued his pattern of winning states with overwhelmingly white populations like Utah and Idaho, but failing in a more diverse population state like Arizona.

And once again, the big diverse state prize eluded them as Hillary Clinton won Arizona in a blowout, thus negating the two Sanders caucus wins in Idaho and Utah and and once again to their frustration, not even making a dent in Clinton's 300+ delegate lead be`cause of the YUGE win in Arizona that offsets Sanders twin caucus wins..

Next up on Saturday are three caucuses in Alaska (20 delegates) Hawaii (35 delegates) and Washington with 118 delegates before the primary calendar flips to April and the critical April 5 primary in Wisconsin

But Sec.Clinton to the chagrin of Sanders supporters is getting closer to securing the Democratic nomination that eluded her in 2008, and is doing unto Sanders what was done to her by now President Obama...      

Three More 2016 Dem Primary Contests Today

After a Clinton sweep of five primary contests that included blowout wins in Florida, North Carolina and Ohio and narrow wins in her home state of Illinois and Missouri, the 2016 Democratic nomination contest head to the western part of the country with caucuses in Idaho and Utah and a primary election in Arizona.

As a result of that five state sweep last week, the Clinton delegate lead swelled to a 300+ one not factoring in the superdelegates that are still overwhelmingly supporting Sec. Clinton over Sen. Sanders and keeps picking up endorsements like Oregon Governor Kate Brown.

But back to today's primary contest news.

The Utah caucus has 37 delegates up for grabs and Idaho offers up another 27 delegates with the big prize tonight being Arizona with 85 delegates.

bad news for you Sanders folks in that it not only is a closed primary, but also in terms of the demographics of the state that skew more toward seniors and more Latino.  It's also an early voting state, and there have been over 300,000 ballots cast in advance of Election Day.

The attention of both campaigns have been focused in the Grand Canyon State in the runup to today.  And yes, may I remind you it's proportional splitting of those available delegates.

The Sanders folks are confident they will do well out there, but we heard that last week, too..All I have to say is the only poll that counts is the one at the ballot box.

We'll see what happens when the polls start closing at 8 PM CDT.  But if you live in those states, hope you vote today and make your voice heard.

BernieBros, You Aren't The Democratic Base, Black Voters Are

Been amused by the Bernie Bros getting their draws in knots about the fact their Democratic socialist candidate who is trying to hijack the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination is so far getting his political azz whipped by Sec. Hillary Clinton.

They are shocked this is happening, and are lashing out in nekulturny ways at everyone who doesn't share their love of St. Bernard of Sanders, the progressive lord and political savior of all and sole arbiter of who is or isn't progressive enough in his eyes who will lead us to the promised land of free college, universal single payer healthcare and a grand era of American unity and harmonious race relations.

With Clinton having a 300+ delegate lead, they are bristling at calls for Bernie to drop out of the race by claiming they are the base and they haven't spoken yet, California primary is coming, and all the other spin line they say to themselves and online to keep hope alive.

That 84-16% gap among Black voters is the reality check smacking them in the face why Bernie is losing. He realized too late along with his team that #BlackVotersMatter, and because he has failed to make his case to the unacknowledged and far too often ignored base of the Democratic Party in Black voters.

Clinton rolled through the South like Sherman and Grant piling up blowout wins because of a relationship she and her husband have cultivated with Black Democrats since 1972, and it is that history as a Democrat that has her on the path to the Democratic presidential nomination..

That Black voter advantage is a major reason why she pulled out narrow wins in her home state of Illinois last week and in Missouri in addition to winning 11 Southern states and Ohio in blowout margins . Black voters matter, especially in Democratic primaries because they are the base of the Democratic party.  

Let me repeat that for you once again, and follow the bouncing Hillary logo.  Black voters are the base of the Democratic Party

Black voters have been the most loyal constituent group of the party since the modern era 1964 shift of Black voters becoming unapologetic Democratic Party members and massive bloc voters for Democratic candidates at ll level of government.

It is also our population clustered in critical presidential battleground states like Florida, Virginia and Ohio just to name a few is why we have political clout beyond the 13% of the US population we make up.

While some of you Bernie Bros were voting third party and railing about how much you hate the two party system, we Black voters were getting busy for five decades not only voting in long lines for Democratic Party candidates without fail, but working from the precinct to the DNC level to sustain and grow the party and elect the viable Democratic party candidates that would advance our political and economic interests.

The fact that Bernie has disparaged the party and called for the highly popular President Obama to be primary challenged in 2011 is a major reason why he is getting the collective thumbs down from a clear majority of African-American voters.  Bernie Bros disrespecting Rep. John Lewis and racistly commenting as Sen. Sanders was getting trounced in the South also didn't help.

And when you Bernie Bros or your candidate disses the diverse Democratic Party we helped build with our decades of effort, votes and sweat equity, it is an indirect slap at the Black voters who want a Democrat to get the Democratic presidential nomination, and not some johnny come lately who admitted he only joined because he thought it would give him a better chance to win the presidency.

With America becoming a more diverse place, it has been Black voters fueling Democratic presidential wins, and especially Black women. Our share of the vote has been in creasing, not decreasing, which is why the Republicans have been hellbent on passing voter suppression laws in a desperate attempt to squash Black voter turnout. ..

So no Bernie Bros, you aren't the base of the Democratic Party, Black voters are, and it's time you you and America to recognize that fact.

Secretary Clinton Breaks Out the Victory Broom

The voters in five states spread out from the South to the Midwest went to the polls yesterday for Democratic presidential primary elections.  There were 793 delegates at stake with the big symbolic prizes being Florida (246 delegates at stake), Sec. Clinton's home state of Illinois (182 delegates) and Ohio with 160 delegates.   North Carolina  had 121 delegates at stake and Missouri with 84.

Within minutes of polls closing in Florida and North Carolina came the first indication it would be a YUGE night for Secretary Clinton.   The network calls of Clinton wins in Florida and North Carolina came swiftly, with the call for Ohio coming an hour later.

The Ohio win for Clinton was a disappointment for Sanders, who had predicted he would win the state after the shocking upset win in Michigan last week.

Illinois and Missouri took longer to decide, with Clinton taking her home state of Illinois and eked out a narrow win in the Show Me State late thanks to the voters in Kansas City and St Louis.

#BlackVotersMatter  

Told you Bernie supporters that losing the Black vote would cost him the nomination. Clinton's massive 84-16% support with African-American voters was critical to fueling her sweep of all five primary states.

Thanks to the sweep, Sec. Clinton has opened up a 300+ delegate lead on Sanders and effectively ended the talking point among Sanders supporters that Clinton could only win in Southern states.

Next up are caucuses in Utah and Idaho and the primary election in Arizona on March 22.  Arizona is the big prize with 85 total delegates..

While Sec. Clinton is not the 2016 presumptive Democratic nominee yet, she took another huge step toward making history as the first woman to win a major party presidential nomination.

The obese opera singer may not be singing yet in this Democratic contest, but is definitely beginning to warm up to sing the aria.

Five More States Vote Today

Five more Democratic primary elections happen today in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.  They are all delegate rich, which Florida being the big prize of the night with 246 delegates

Illinois has 182 available, Missouri 84, North Carolina 121 and Ohio will also be another critical state with 160 delegates and Sec. Clinton is favored in all five states.

And bad news Sanders supporters, two more Southern states with large Black populations are voting today

We'll see what transpires later tonight after the votes are cast and the polls close. .

Another Split Decision In The March 8 Democratic Primary Contests

There were two primary contests Tuesday in Mississippi and Michigan that were favored to go in Sec. Hillary Clinton's direction on this International Women's Day.

Once again, the Black vote mattered as she stomped Sanders in Mississippi in another electoral blowout by an 83-17% margin.  Michigan however turned out to be a Sanders upset as the white independent and crossover Republicans vote helped Sanders as he eked out an upset victory that for now, has the Sanders peeps crowing until Saturday.   

A little reality check for sanders folks.  He's still trailing in the all important delegate count and in fact because of the Clinton blowout in Mississippi LOST ground because of the proportional allocation rules.

Clinton finished the night with 88 delegates while Sanders picked up 70,and she's now up 761 to 547 not including the superdelegates which Sanders still massively trails in.

On to the March 15 contests in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio.

Split Decision In Saturday Democratic Primary Contests

It was a split decision in Saturday's contests for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. 

There were two caucuses in Kansas and Nebraska, and a primary election in Louisiana.  While Sanders won the two Democratic caucuses in once again, predominately white states, Clinton won the Louisiana primary handily fueled by once again, the African-American vote.

The end result was that Sanders lost ground to Clinton despite the two caucus wins.  Blowout win in primary state worth 51 delegates trumps (pun not intended) two caucus wins in state worth combined 55 delegates split proportionately.

Lets look at the math.  Sanders won 37 delegates in Kansas and Nebraska to Clinton's 22.  but because he lost in Louisiana, Sanders only received 12 delegates while Clinton gained 39 delegates

Sanders total delegates add up to 49, Clinton received 61 which means that she increased her lead by another 11 delegates last night.   

Drip, Drip Drip.  And while that was happening, she continued to add to that massive superdelegate lead, with more commitments coming her way in the runup to a critical week of contests starting on Tuesday.

Tuesday's contests will talk place in Michigan (130 delegates), Mississippi (36 delegates) and the Democratic caucus in Maine in which 25 delegates will be available.

And FYI,  Michigan and Mississippi have large Black populations, Maine doesn't.

This is the lead in to the five Democratic primary contests in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio in which 691 delegates will be up for grabs and once again, Sanders supporters, Black voters will have a major say in who wins those states.

And FYI, just another reminder that early voting is happening in Florida right now..

Clinton is inching closer to that magic number of 2.383 delegates, and we'll have a better idea how close she is to the prize that eluded her in 2008 after this weekend.

The Democratic Super Tuesday Big Winner Is...

Hillary Clinton!

To the consternation of Sanders supporters, the momentum continued for Sec. Clinton as she captured seven states and the American Samoa caucus while Sanders won his home state of Vermont as expected, Oklahoma, and the caucus states of Colorado and Minnesota.

Just as in South Carolina, the power of the Black vote asserted itself as Clinton not only captured the big delegate prizes Tuesday night of Georgia (117) and my home state of Texas (252), she took Massachusetts out of Bernie's backyard.

Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia also went for Sec. Clinton, and her wins during her Super Tuesday victory march through the South and elsewhere have been fueled by overwhelming Black voter support.  Black voter support kept her close in Oklahoma.

Next up on the Democratic Party primary schedule are March 5 contests in Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska, March 6 in Maine, and March 8 in Michigan and Mississippi.

There were also local primary races in the various Super Tuesday states for state legislature, judicial and other seats I'm still waiting for results on.

One result I very happy about was that state Rep. Jessica Farrar curb stomped homobigot Dave Wilson in the TX 148 Democratic primary race.

The shocker of the night locally was transphobic state Rep Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball), who pushed two anti-trans bills in the 2015 session we killed, was beaten in her TX 150 GOP primary race by Valoree Swanson for being in her opponent's words, "Not conservative enough'.

Karma is not only a you know what Rep Riddle, it wears a dress and stiletto heels.

But in some trans political news, Jenifer Rene Pool is handily beating her opponent in the Harris County Precinct 3 Democratic primary race.

I'll have a better idea when the rest of our Harris County results come in and I get a chance to peruse them in the morning

It's Super Tuesday!

In a few hours the polls are opening across eleven states for people to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary battle between Sec Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

After posting her own blowout win in South Carolina, Sec. Clinton is seeking to keep that momentum going in the Super Tuesday states and collect the lion's share of the 1017 delegates up for grabs with the help of the Black vote.

Voters in America Samoa, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and my home state of Texas will be headed to polling places and caucuses.

We'll see when the polls start closing at 7 PM ET which way the Democratic contest goes after voters in the 12 primarily Southern states have their say in who should be the person who gets our party's nomination in not only the presidential contests, but a long list of state and local races and judicial seats.

If early voting was available in your Super Tuesday state and you didn't get the opportunity to participate in it, hope you take the time to do so today.

In Texas. polls will be open from 7 AM-7 PM and I hope you exercise your right to vote.

Sanders Wins NH Primary In Blowout

I expected this to happen, and it did in terms of Bernie Sanders getting a big win in the New Hampshire primary.

With 89% of the ballots counted, Sanders has 60,0% of the vote to Clinton's 38.4% and the withdrawn Martin O'Malley's 0.2%. Sanders also made some history tonight by being the first Jewish candidate to win a presidential election primary contest and picked up 13 delegates to 9 for Clinton.

Since Bernie people like to try to make comparisons to 2008, remember the second place finisher in the New Hampshire Democratic side went on to win the nomination.

But Sanders realizes that this 2016 contest is not even close to being over, and the race now moves from two states with overwhelmingly white populations in Iowa and New Hampshire and favorable turf for him to more diverse primary states in Nevada (26% Latinx population) and South Carolina (27% African-American population) who so far are not 'Feeling The Bern' like white millennials are.

And Black voters, who are the base of the party, aren't Feeling the Bern' for many reasons, including the major one that he called for a primary challenge of President Obama back in 2012.

These next two contests on February 20 in Nevada and February 27 in South Carolina are must wins for Bernie to prove that he actually can get non-white Democratic support with the March 1 Super Tuesday contests looming.

We'll see how those contests play out over the rest of this month.