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With 89% of the ballots counted, Sanders has 60,0% of the vote to Clinton's 38.4% and the withdrawn Martin O'Malley's 0.2%.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.



 

Why Many Black Voters Aren't 'Feeling The Bern'

The New Hampshire primary election is happening as I write this post, and while the Sanders folks are gleeful about the expected win in this state that is 98% white and next door to Vermont, what the Sanders folks fail to acknowledge is that many Black voters, who are a critical election bloc in the series of election contests leading up to Super Tuesday on March 1, aren't 'Feeling The Bern'.

And as we saw in 2008, never count out a Clinton in New Hampshire. Texas is one of the Super Tuesday states, and we will start casting ballots for it when early voting starts next Tuesday.

While Black millennials may be 'feeling the Bern', the group of Black voters you have to convince to go to the polls for you is my Baby Boomer, Generation X and Generation Y group of voters who show up at every election.   Voters over 30 make up 67% of the electorate.

Black elders like myself who voted and supported Bill Clinton twice back in the 90's and reaped the benefits of the economic boom his policies ushered in aren't buying the attack lines the Sanders campaign is selling about the former Secretary of State.



We saw her as the First Lady in 1993 leading the charge to get universal single payer health care passed against tremendous Republican opposition.

The last time I decided to waste time watching that ongoing reality TV show called the 2016 GOP presidential debates, it didn't go unnoticed to me that the only person they were attacking on that clown car stage was Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders.

And naw, we Black voters haven't forgotten it was Bernie Sanders who called for a 2012 primary challenge of President Obama, which would have caused a civil war in the Democratic Party and probably led to the election of Mitt Romney as president.

He also has a problematic stance when it comes to guns in voting to give gun manufacturers legal immunity from mass shootings.

It's easy for white millennials to get hyped and think Sanders has a chance.  He did because the first two 2016 primary electoral contests were in Iowa, which is 90.2% white (vs 3.2% Black, 4.4% Latinx, and 2.6% Asian) and New Hampshire being 97% white and next door to Sanders' home state of Vermont.   And despite a late Sanders surge in Iowa, Hillary Clinton still won there, and New Hampshire's winner is yet to be determined.

But once these contests are over, the primaries head to states that have larger percentages of non-white voters like Nevada on February 20 (26% Latinx population)  and South Carolina on February 27 with Super Tuesday on March 1 looming.

South Carolina, where Black voters are 27% of the population and make up a sizable percentage of the electorate, is polling 62%-35%  for Clinton  

And in more bad news for Sanders supporters, the twelve states and territories conducting Super Tuesday primaries on March 1 in which 878 Democratic delegates will be up for grabs, six of them are in the South (TX, TN, GA, VA, AR, AL) and have sizable African-American populations.

And yes, I'm personally getting sick of the Berniebros sexist online dissing of women and belittling Black people who aren't feeling their candidate, and it's starting to push me and others out of the neutral camp to 'leaning Hillary'.   To Bernie's credit, recognizing the damage they are doing to his efforts to reach out to non-white voters, he also called them out.

Bernie's people and supporters have failed to realize it is Black voters who are the base that Democratic electoral majorities are built upon, and we must be wooed just like other liberal progressive blocs are.

As Houston United learned the hard way last year, you cannot come to my community hat in hand at the last minute and think you're going to win our support and our votes.

So if Sanders is going to win the Democratic nomination, he better solve the problem of why African-Americans aren't 'feeling the Bern' fast.

And The 2016 Iowa Caucus Winner Is...

Nobody yet.   It's still a razor thin race between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders with several precincts outstanding..

The first event of the 2016 presidential primary season happened last night in the Iowa Caucuses. In the 99 counties across the state, both Democratic and Republican voters headed to 1061 locations all over the state to support their respective candidate choices for their party's presidential nominations.


They started at 7 PM CST, and while the GOP one was over early with the junior senator from Alberta in Ted Cruz upsetting Donald Trump for the win.

As of this writing the Democratic contest between Clinton and Sanders is razor thin and has yet to be called.

One of the other results from tonight is that former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley suspended his campaign after his poor showing in the Democratic caucus, and Mike Suckabee Huckabee finally exited the GOP race after his poor showing in the GOP one.

With 97% of the precincts reporting, Clinton is up by a razor thin 49.8% (22 delegates) to Sanders 46.6% (21 delegates) with O'Malley capturing just 0.6% of the vote percentages.  

The 2016 race to the White House is now in the vote casting stage and the next battle in which actual ballots will be cast will be next Tuesday, February 9 in the first in the nation primary in New Hampshire.   There will be a crucial Democratic debate moderated by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Thursday which should be fun to watch.

We'll know who won this on the Democratic side in a few hours.

TransGriot Update: The winner is Hillary Clinton.  But doing so, she made history by becoming the first woman to win the Iowa caucus.   Hopefully she'll be making more history as this continues.

Eyes On The 2016 White House Prize, People

In a few days we'll officially be in the year 2016 and the vote casting stretch of the presidential election will start.  The Iowa caucuses will happen February 1, followed by the New hampshire Primary on February 8

On the Democratic side of the contest to succeed President Barack Obama are former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

As far as I'm concerned, any of these candidates would be ready to handle the nation's business on January 20, 2017 far moreso than any of the Cirque de GOP ones competing for their party's nomination.

And my vote, like the votes of many African-Americans are up for grabs in this 2016 Democratic Presidential primary after having our once in a lifetime pleasure of voting for a POTUS who looks like us twice and having our faith in his abilities rewarded.

In this 2016 cycle, I'm leaning toward Hillary Clinton.  I'm not feeling the Bern or sold on Bernie Sanders yet.   I still have questions about Martin O'Malley that many of the Maryland peeps who had him as their governor can answer for me.   But the bottom line is that push come to shove, I would rather have Clinton, Sanders or even O'Malley in the White House than ANY GOP anti-human rights chickenhawk warmonger.

So hearing you vanillacentric privileged Sanders peeps say like petulant children that you'll sit out the election if he doesn't get the nomination is not only childish, but mindbogglingly stupid and alarming to me as a non-white trans American.

The quality of my life for the next four years depends on a Democrat getting elected to succeed President Obama in November, and I really don't give a rat's anus which one it is.
 
It is non-white Americans whose human rights will take the brunt of the suffering if we have a GOP candidate get elected to POTUS in November 2016.   You folks who benefit from white privilege can take the cavalier position of  'both parties are the same' (which is BS to any non-white person) because no matter what happens, the policies that come out of those administrations will primarily benefit you as white Americans.

But non-white Americans don't have that luxury.  We know the predominately conservative white male Republicans hate us and have been building their popularity in GOP primary circles by attacking and demonizing us.   We also realize that because of the 'hate on non-white Americans' rhetoric they are spewing, their policies will not benefit us or our communities, but be punitive towards us while continuing to enrich the 1% superbillionaires that fund their campaigns.  

So it's why we'll be voting for the Democratic presidential nominee and Democratic candidates on November 8 by a nearly 3-1 margin.
  

Y'all need to focus on the big picture and the White House prize.  The Republicans are desperate to win in 2016 because if they don't, they are staring at 12, and potentially 16 years of not having a Republican head the executive branch of government, and that is more than enough time for a President Clinton, Sanders or O'Malley to build on Obama's eight year legacy after cleaning up the mess that George W. Bush left domestically and internationally and continuing the liberal progressive policy shift at the executive branch level.      

The next president will select at least 4 Supreme Court justices and either continue the progress of cleaning up the federal judiciary started under President Obama or lock us into a 7-2 conservative majority that will make our lives miserable for the next 25-30 years.
 
I'm not down with the Supreme Court for the rest of my life being under a conservative majority so they can finish the job of eviscerating and rolling back all of the progressive legislation that was passed in the 20th century.  I'd rather have a 6-3 or 7-2 LIBERAL SCOTUS majority, and that ain't happening under a President Trump.

It's not just the Supreme Court that is in the balance. We are on the verge of flipping many of the US circuit courts districts like the 5th Circuit to progressive control because the conservative judges appointed by Reagan and Daddy Bush are hitting retirement age.

That is critical to those of us stuck with oppressive GOP state governments and clueless Republican governors in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and elsewhere in circuits covering other GOP ruled states to at least have the federal court system as a backstop to roll back their unjust, unconstitutional and fascist laws and executive orders. 
You want universal health care?  An end to the attacks on a woman's right to choose?  Election Day being a national holiday and the end of voter suppression laws?  More federal funding for public transit, rail and rebuilding our infrastructure?   Increased funding for STEM education and public schools?  That won't happen under a GOP administration.

And y'all need to realize you can't get liberal-progressive policies under a conservative government, so you need to vote for progressive candidates all the way to the end of the ballot.

So eyes on the big 2016 White House prize people.

Down Goes Cantor! Down Goes Cantor!

As you longtime TransGriot readers know I can't stand conservafools, and never liked Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) the House Majority Leader. 

That dislike of Cantor goes back to August 2009 when Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) referred to him (and McCarthy and Ryan) as 'Great White Hope leaders' in the wake of their loss of the White House to then Senator Barack Obama.

So you know I was doing the happy dance when the breaking news came onscreen as I was watching MSNBC about Cantor losing his House primary race to Teapublican challenger Dave Brat.   

And it wasn't a narrow loss either.  Cantor got spanked by 12 percentage points and lost to a guy he outspent by a 25-1 margin.   Hey, as the POTUS proved in 2012, Koch Brothers money can't buy everything and in many cases, it IS about the candidate. 

Cantor made some history with this political earthquake of a loss.   He is the first sitting House majority leader to not even survive his party's primary. 

In case you're wondering, there is a Democratic candidate in the Virginia 7th Congressional District race in college professor Jack Trammell, who ironically works at the same college as Brat.

Now we need to send some cash to Trammel and help him win that seat. 

Bye bye, Eric.   Not sorry to see you go.

Early Voting For Texas Primary Runoff Elections Begins Today

Lone Star State voters, early voting for the primary runoff elections begins today and runs through Friday.  If you don't get it done this week at a location of your choice and wait until July 31, on that date you'll have to go to your precinct location to cast your ballot.

Remember all you'll need to cast your ballot is your yellow voter registration card, the Texas Voter Suppression law is NOT in effect.  

For those of you who live in State Board of Indoctrination Education Districts 2, 10 or 12, you may have an SBOE runoff race on your ballot.   Very important considering the GOP controlled SBOE majority in the last five years censored what students will learn in their history classes, rejected established science and ignored the recommendations of teachers and respected scholars while doing so.

Since redistricting happened in 2011, all 15 seats on the SBOE were up for reelection this year.

In addition to the Sate Bord of Education, there are other local races in your area that require your attention.  The candidates involved would like for you and need you to do your civic duty and participate in the process.

So handle your electoral business and use your ballot power before the Republicans take it away from you.

Texas Primary Early Voting Ends May 25

For my Lone Star State TransGriot readers, you peeps are already aware of the fact based on all the political ads running on TV and radio the early voting phase of our state's delayed primary elections are happening.  In case you haven't done your civic duty you have until May 25 to get your vote on if you wish to do so before the May 29 election day.

Remember, thanks to the Department of Justice the Texas Voter Suppression Law is NOT in effect, so all you will need to cast your ballot is your voter registration card.

The cool thing about early voting is that you get to choose the location you vote at and it fits your schedule.   If you wait until May 29 to vote, you can only do so at your regular precinct location.

For you Harris County TransGriot readers, here's the 37 locations you can choose from to exercise your right to vote for the people who will be Democratic or that other party's candidates in November.

The Texas NAACP is watching for any voter irregularities and BS designed to suppress voter turnout in our communities, so if you happen to witness or experience it, give the Texas NAACP a call.

Once again peeps, you have until May 25 to participate in early voting, and to find out where you can hit you local county website for the locations.