Will Kim Coco Make More Electoral History This Saturday?

Kim Coco Iwamoto is no stranger to making electoral history in her home state of Hawaii.

She was twice elected to the Hawaii State Board of Education in 2006 and 2010, becoming the first out trans person to be elected to a statewide office.   Now the former member of the Hawaiian Human Rights Commission is attempting to become the lieutenant governor of the Aloha State

She has a contested Democratic Party primary election that she has to get through first that takes place on August 11.   There are four other Democratic candidates besides Iwamoto in the lieutenant governor's race, and should she win this still tight race that is up for grabs, that will put her one step closer to becoming Hawaii's lieutenant governor.

Iwamoto has been endorsed by the UNITE HERE Local 5 union that reps over 11,000 Hawaiian hospitality, health and food service workers and the Maui Times.    The Local 5 endorsement is considered a major one in Hawaiian politics, and she has been surging in the polls in the runup to the election with a lot of people still trying to make up their minds about who will be their next lieutenant governor. 

Here's hoping that happens for Kim Coco and for our community.   We'll find out if it does this Saturday.

Trudie's Historic Run For Navajo Nation President Continues

The Year of the Trans Candidate also extends to the Navajo Nation, which is conducting its presidential election this year.   The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American reservation in the United States, covering portions of three states and a territory the size of West Virginia. .

There are a record 19 candidates running for the presidency of the Navajo Nation, and one of them is Trudie Jackson.   She is one of three female candidates that made it onto the primary ballot when nominations closed on May 30.

Now we'll have to watch what happens as we get closer to the August 28 primary election date for the Navajo Nation presidential primary.   The top two vote getters choose their vice presidential running mates, and move on to the November 6 general election.

Two Navajo Nation presidential forys have already taken place, with a third happening on July 27

Here's hoping that Trudie continues on the path of making trailblazing history with her people and for our trans community as well.

LaDon Henry's Nevada Legislative Bid Falls Short

I wrote a post back in April in which I talked about Ladon Henry's attempt to become the first ever trans state legislator in Nevada and the first ever trans masculine one in any state legislature..

He was seeking the District 42 state assembly seat, which is in the Las Vegas area and a undeniably blue one with a 2-1 Democratic registration advantage. 

Henry and the other candidates in the race for the Democratic nomination in this district were seeking to replace retiring Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams (D) who declined to seek a fourth two year term.  The winner of the primary would become the next representative of this district because no Republican filed to run for it.

The Nevada primary election was held on June 12, and unfortunately Henry didn't win.   Alexander Assefa captured 55.32% of the vote (1399)  to become the next District 42 representative with Kathleen Lauckner getting 34.12%  (863) of the cast ballots.

Henry did get a respectable 10.52 % (267) of the ballots cast in this race, but I'm sure he'll tell you he would have rather won this race.

Will he run again two years from now?   That's a question only Henry can answer.   

Lupe Makes Texas History!

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.

Paulette Jordan Wins Idaho Democratic Governor's Race Primary

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. 

Texas Primary Runoff Election Starts Today

Early voting for the Texas party primary runoff elections start today and runs until Friday for the May 22 runoff election date

The race that is getting much statewide attention is the Democratic gubernatorial runoff between Lupe Valdez and Andrew White, but there are other candidates trying to get to represent their party in the fall.

There are several races we are watching in the Houston area.   One is the state Senate District 17 race in which Fran Watson is seeking to become only the third Black woman in Texas history to be elected to the state senate. 

Who were the previous two?   Barbara Jordan (1966) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (1986

But to make that trailblazing history, she has to get past Rita Lucido in a district that covers parts of Harris, eastern Fort Bend and Brazoria counties. 

If Fran is successful in advancing from the runoff, she'll then take on the incumbent transphobic Sen. Joan Huffman (R). 

The US House District 7 race is another one Houston area political junkies are watching between Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and Laura Moser.   This race started with six candidates vying for the Democratic nomination in this race to take on Rep. John Culberson (R) 

Depending on who you support (and I'm supporting Moser), voters are pissed at the two surviving candidates for one reason or another.   But only one will survive to take on Culberson in the fall.

The other local race I'm watch is the District 29 Republican one between Carmen Maria Montiel and Philip Aronoff in which the winner will take on Sen. Sylvia Garcia (D), who beat six candidates back in March to secure her spot on the fall ballot

Aronoff has my undivided attention because of the transphobia he unleashed to get into this GOP runoff, and you know I want him to go down in flames.   But then again Texas GOP primary voters have repeatedly shown their racist tendencies when an Anglo candidate goes up against a Latinx one.

Montiel is a former Miss Venezuela who emigrated to the US.  Even if she beats the odds and winds May 22, Garcia will be a formidable opponent. 

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Early voting starts today and runs through May 18.   If you don't handle your electoral business this week, you'll have to wait until May 22 to do so. 

But whether you do it this week on on May 22, just do it.   Exercise your right to vote.       

Texas 2018 Democratic Gubernatorial Debate

I missed this when it happened on Friday because I was traveling to Dallas.   Now that I've found the video for it I'm posting it for you peeps who are trying to make up your minds which person you wish to see take on Greg Abbott in November.

This is the one and done debate between Lupe Valdez and Andrew White that occurred on Friday evening in Austin.  It was moderated by Dallas Morning News reporter Gromer Jeffers, and as you probably suspected, got testy at times, especially since early voting for the May 22 runoff election starts today and runs through May 18 

So who am I supporting in this race?   I voted for Valdez in the primary in large part because I didn't like White's donation to the Kentucky Republican Party and his self description as a 'conservative moderate Democrat.' and I will be voting for her again in this runoff.

We need real Democrats, not Democrats-lite in these Trumpian times. 

 So handle your electoral business.

It's TX Primary Election Day!

It's Texas Primary Election Day!    Unlike early voting where you can go to any early voting center, today you'll have to go to your precinct, and you'll have to get there before 7 PM.

The polls opened a few hours ago at 7 AM.   If you're in line when the polls close at 7 PM, stay in line.   They cannot close the location until all persons in line have voted.

This is the first step to choosing candidates for the general election for governor, lieutenant governor, the state legislature, state judicial seats, and county offices. that happens in November in both the Democratic and Republican Parties.   

If you don't get 51% of the ballots cast in your race, you move on to a runoff election that will take place on May 22.

If you aren't registered to vote, now would be a good time to do that so you can help choose who will be on the ballot this November 6..  The deadline to be registered to vote for the runoff elections is April 5.

Thanks to everyone who has stepped up to the next level of public service and who have offered to run for office.   You are exceptional people just for doing so, and may your runs for office be successful ones.

If they aren't, better luck next time.   Hope you learned some things that will help you if you decided to run again that will help you turn this defeat into political victory the next time.

Good luck everyone and we'll see what transpires in the next several hours.

You'll Have To Wait Until Tuesday To Vote In The Texas Primary

The Early Voting period is now over for the Texas primary elections , but if you missed the opportunity to cast your vote during that period, you have a final opportunity to make your voice heard and weigh in on who should be on the general election ballot on March 6, which is primary  Election Day.

And Texas Democrats are feeling giddy as that day approaches.  There were according to the Texas Secretary of State's office 885, 574 Texans in the Lone Star State's 15 largest counties who participated in early voting  either by mail or in person.   That smashed the record for a non presidential election cycle.

The increase in Democratic turnout is fueling hopes that this may translate to a blue Democratic wave of voting in November.   

That new participation record was powered largely by a huge surge in Democratic voters, who doubled their participation numbers from the dismal 2014 cycle.   465,245 Democrats had voted during the early voting phase vs just 420, 329 Republicans.   Republican turnout was up 15%, but was dwarfed by the 50% increase of Democrats.

The early voting numbers would probably be even higher if the Republicans hadn't cut out the last weekend of early voting before Election Day.

Here's are my TransGriot endorsements to help you out along with the endorsements of other organizations like the Houston GLBT Caucus,  to help you cast an informed Democratic primary vote. 

I'm not a fan of the Republican Party in large part because of the rabod transphobia, anti-woman attitudes and anti-Blackness , and that's why I don't do endorsements for GOP candidates.

These elections will determine who is on the ballot for you to vote for this fall.  so go handle your business.   Make sure you have the YELLOW texas voter registration card with you along with some ID when you go to your regular precinct location to cast your ballot

Polls open at 7 AM and close at 7 PM    If you are in line at 7 PM to vote, DO NOT get out of line. The polling place must stay open until all persons in line have cast their ballots.

Good luck to all my endorsed candidates, and hope you make it to the November ballot.

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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.

2018 GLBT Caucus Endorsement Meeting

As a proud member of the Houston GLBT Caucus, spent the day at the 2018 Houston GLBT Caucus Endorsement Meeting that started at 11 AM CSI and ended at 5 PM.

It was a packed house at St Stephen's Episcopal Church for much of the day as candidates were there to compete for one of the Houston Big Four political endorsements for liberal-progressive candidates. 

It was contentious at times, and some results i questioned along with others in the room,  but in the end the Caucus  endorsement process worked.

Congrats to the folks who received their endorsement! .

Democratic Primary

U.S. Senator - Beto O’Rourke
U.S. Congressional District #2 - Todd Litton
U.S. Congressional District #7 - No endorsement
U.S. Congressional District #10 - Madeline K. Eden
U.S. Congressional District #14 - Adrienne Bell
U.S. Congressional District #18 - Sheila Jackson Lee
U.S. Congressional District #22 - Sri Preston Kulkarni
U.S. Congressional District #29 - Sylvia R. Garcia
U.S. Congressional District #36 - Dayna Steele
Governor - Andrew White
Lieutenant Governor - Mike Collier
GLO Commissioner - Tex Morgan
State Board of Education #4 - Steven A. Chambers
TX State Senate #15 - John Whitmire
TX State Senate #17 - Fran Watson
TX State House #27 - Ron Reynolds
TX State House #28 - Meghan Scoggins
TX State House #29 - Dylan Forbis
TX State House #126 - Natali Hurtado
TX State House #133 - Sandra G. Moore
TX State House #134 - Allison Sawyer
TX State House #138 - Adam Milasincic
TX State House #139 - Randy Bates
TX State House #142 - Harold V. Dutton Jr.
TX State House #146 - Shawn Nicole Thierry
TX State House #147 - Garnet Coleman
TX 14th Court of Appeals, #3 - Jerry Zimmerer
TX 14th Court of Appeals, #8 - Margaret “Meg” Poissant
55th Civil District Court - Paul Simon
113th Civil District Court - Rabeea Collier
185th Civil District Court - Jason Luong
188th Civil District Court - Scot “Dolli” Dollinger
234th Civil District Court - Lauren Reeder
269th Civil District Court - Cory Sepolio
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 - Michael Galligan
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

Republican Primary

U.S. Senator - Mary Miller

Now go handle your business and vote for them in the upcoming Texas primary elections February 20-March 2 (Early Voting) or on March 6  (Election Day) 

Dylan and Finn Make Their Texas Lege Races Official

Today is the last day you can file to run for office for the upcoming Texas primary elections in March 2018.  Over the weekend people were either signing their paperwork to run for office or starting to hold events to get their name out there in advance of the primaries

In the wake of many Texas trans people (myself included) being majorly pissed off about the Republican legislative attack on us that we stopped in the 2017 regular and Special Oppression Session, it has motivated many of us to either seriously think about running for office or actually do so.

Finn Jones and Dylan Forbis are two of the Texas trans people who are running for the Texas Legislature in the 2018 cycle.   Dylan and Finn have made it official in signing their paperwork and paying the filing fees in order to officially run for office.

As a reminder ,Jones is running in HD 94 in north Texas against incumber Republican Tony.Tinderholt, and on this end of I-45 Forbis is running in HD 29 against Republican incumbent Ed Thompson.

Forbis has a contested Democratic HB 29 primary to navigate before he can take on Thompson and as of yet haven't found out if Jones has the same situation

But the most important thing is that both men are running for office, and with support from the voter of those respective districts, they will win and #TransformPolitics in Texas. 

Lupe Valdez Is Running For Texas Governor!

We finally have a major Texas Democratic Party player running for governor in 2018!  That person is former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez.

She's the former sheriff because she resigned a position that she's held since 2004 to run for the governor's chair.   She'll continue to serve as the Dallas County sheriff until the Dallas County Commissioners meet to select her replacement on December 19.

It's a crowded field on the Democratic side to see who will take on the incumbent governor  Greg Abbott.    She also a trailblazer as the first openly gay Latina sheriff in the United States.

Will be interesting to see how this campaign shakes out.

I'm also looking forward to voting for her when the primary election happens in March.

Danica Roem Wins VA Dem Primary!

Danica Roem made a little political history in Virginia tonight.

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.

Kim Coco Iwamoto Falls Short In Hawaii Senate Primary Election

A little electoral bad news out of Hawaii.

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 .

Is Open Trans Hate Becoming A Political Liability?

Another piece of political news I was gleefully doing the happy dance about was hearing about two trans hating Republican politicians in Colorado and South Carolina losing their reelection bids.

Colorado state Rep. and faux faith based transphobe Gordon Klingenschmitt lost his reelection bid for a third term last night in the GOP primary.   He was blown out by his primary challenger Bob Gardner, a former state representative who won with 62% of vote to represent Colorado Springs in the state Senate.

Gardner is considered more moderate than 'Dr. Chaps', who will not be missed in the state senate, especially by the Colorado TBLG community.

He wasn't alone in tasting electoral defeat last night. South Carolina state senator Lee Bright, who sponsored the failed anti-trans legislation in the Palmetto State, lost his bid for a third term as a South Carolina senator.

He lost his runoff race to former state Rep. Scott Talley, a candidate backed by SC Gov. Nikki Haley (R) who once again, was considered more moderate than Bright..

With Sen. Ted Cruz attempting to deploy transphobia in his last ditch effort to keep Donald Trump from becoming the GOP nominee, spectacularly failing in the Indiana primary and dropping out of the presidential race the next day, are the losses of anti-trans politicians a coincidence or a sign that open hatred of transgender people is a political liability?

Both Klingenschmitt and Bright were unpopular and had committed other unforgivable sins in their party besides being unrepentant transphobes that led to their political demise, but I sure hope so.

As I have pointed out, trans people are at least 1% to 3% of our population, and we are just as diverse as the US population.

Some of those adult trans folks are not only Republican, but some of our trans kids have parents who are members of that party like Debi Jackson, Kimberly Shappley and Rep Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) .

Those parents and their allies are increasingly becoming fed up with the demonization of their children and trans family members and seeing member of the party they support propose legislation and dehumanizing policies to make their kids third class citizens and are retaliating at the polls..

We'll find out if the nascent political hypothesis I'm pondering about transphobia for fun and GOP political gain becoming a liability is valid if North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R) falls on November 8 to his Democratic gubernatorial challenger Roy Cooper  

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Gov. Greg Abbott and AG Ken Paxton, assuming he isn't convicted or in jail by then we won't find out about until they face the voters in 2018.

Hopefully by that time the Texas voter suppression law will be dead.

But I'm hopeful that the pattern of politicians gleefully and openly hating trans people for political gain goes the way of hanging chads on punchcard ballots.

Trans Candidates Notch Historic Wins In US Senate And US House Primaries!

The cool thing about being a trans person in this amazing moment in time is that if every day you wake up and simply do your best to be the best person you can be and live your life, you may find yourself making history as a result.

I've been asking in the wake of Geraldine Roman's historic win in the Philippines as their first trans congress member when we were going to see it happen in the United States?  

Well, the answer to my question is it may be as soon as November 8.

On that day, trans voters in Utah and neighboring Colorado will have candidates like us in Misty K. Snow and Misty Plowright on their ballots in this critical national election for the US House and the US Senate.

Last night in a historic upset, 30 year old Utah native Misty K. Snow made some trans political history by handily beating her heavily favored Democratic opponent Jonathan Swinton 59.5%-40.5%.

Snow jumped into the race just before the deadline, wishing to offer an alternative to the center-right leaning Swinton.  At the Utah Democratic Convention Swinton had earned 55% of the delegates votes to Snow's 45%, but she got enough support at the convention to force the runoff, then built on that by aggressively campaigning throughout the Beehive State by touting her working class background and being an unabashed progressive Democrat.

It wasn't close.  Snow garnered in unofficial returns 26,668 votes to just 18,182 for Swinton with all counties reporting..

"Today we have scored a major victory, We have shown that voters will turn out in numbers to support progressive candidates that take strong stands on issues," said Snow in a press release.

"I want to thank all the wonderful people of Utah who supported me in the Democratic primary; without your support none of this would be possible," she added..  

The upset win made Snow the first ever out trans person to earn a major party nomination for the US Senate, and earned her a shot against her as she called him 'loathsome' incumbent Republican senator Mike Lee.    Lee is one of the most conservative senators in the nation and was unopposed in the Utah Republican primary for his second six year term.

As of right now, she's trailing 51%-37% to Lee, but she feels she's in a great starting position seeing that most voters don't know her yet and she has time to introduce herself to the Beehive State's electorate.  If Snow's campaign catches fire, there's the possibility that the DSCC will kick some funds to her if she gets within striking distance of knocking him off in a year in a presidential election year in which bright red leaning Utah might be in play.

Next door in Colorado, more trans political history was being made in another Democratic primary race, this time for a US House seat.   In the 5th Congressional District Democratic primary, 33 year old  Misty Plowright won her primary race to face off in the fall against Rep. Doug Lamborn (R), who is running for his sixth term in Congress.

Rep. Lamborn was forced into a runoff against Calandra Vargas, who beat him at the Republican assembly.  Lamborn flipped the results to beat her 68.3%-31.7% in the primary.

Plowright's primary race wasn't close either.  With one county (El Paso) still out according to the Colorado Secretary of State website, she was beating Donald Martinez by 16 points, 58%-42% in her historic primary win,  Plowright garnered 13.373 votes to Martinez's 9,639 and local media is calling the race for her.

Plowright also faces an uphill challenge because her central Colorado district south of Denver is considered one of the most conservative in the state.  It encompasses the city of Colorado Springs and its suburbs, Cimarron Hills and Fort Carson.  Since its creation in 1973, the district has never been represented by a Democrat, although El Paso County's increasingly diversifying population gives Democrats hope they can change that dismal electoral history.

The city of Colorado Springs is the county seat of El Paso County and the home of the anti-TBLG organization Focus on the Family and hate pastor James Dobson.  It would be oh so sweet if she upset Lamborn and give Dobson a coronary if she ended up representing the 5th Congressional District

We'll see what happens in November.  If the Mistys both shock the political world once again and make it to Washington DC to get inaugurated on January 3, 2017 for the start of the 115th US Congress, they will have earned those seats.

In the meantime, you may want to chip in some t-bills to help both Misty's campaigns get to the House and Senate.

TransGriot Note.  Plowright is not the first out trans person to get a major party nomination in a US House race.  That distinction goes to the late Karen Kerin, who in 2000 ran and lost as a Republican in Vermont to Bernie Sanders.

Plowright still made history as the first in the Democratic Party, and the first in Colorado. 

Clinton Wins DC Primary

As expected Sec. Hillary Clinton closed out the 2016 Democratic nomination contests with another victory as she clobbered Sen. Bernie Sanders in the DC primary.
 
The huge win once again fit the pattern that has been established since March in Clinton taking diverse primary electorates, and solidifies her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

And which DC having a large African-American population, the group of Democratic voters that has overwhelmingly supported her in this primary season, basically made the point that in Democratic Party politics, Black voters matter.

As she was capturing this last primary, she and Sanders were meeting at the Capital Hilton to sort out the terms of his exit from the presidential race so she can pivot to attacking Donald Trump full time.

And we need her to start clobbering Trump sooner and not later.

Split Decision In The Kentucky and Oregon Democratic Primaries

Hillary Clinton will not go 0-for May to th chagrin of the Sanders camp..

While Sanders won Oregon as expected to continue the pattern of winning overwhelmingly white states, Clinton took the Bluegrass State in a tight contest that my homies and homettes in Louisville cast the deciding votes for

Yep Bernie supporters, once again it was ongoing failure of the Sanders campaign to get Black Democratic voter support that cost him this state.  

It also put Clinton just 99 delegates away from clinching the Democratic nomination with the June 7 contests looming.

And once again, the obese opera singer's doing sound checks in preparation for singing the 'It's Over' aria.

You Can Call Her Representative-Elect Scott!

One of the other races that had my attention besides the contentious race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was the 41st District race between longtime incumbent Rep. Tom Riner and former Louisville metro Councilmember Attica Woodson Scott.

Riner had occupied that seat since 1982, but was increasingly out of touch with this overwhelmingly Democratic district.   It didn't help his admission he hadn't caucused with the Democrats since the 90's and he introduced Kim Davis to the Liberty Counsel.

Scott was attempting to become the first African-American woman since 2000 from the Louisville area to be elected to the Kentucky General Assembly.

The race wasn't even close.  Scott amassed an overwhelming victory, taking 59% of the vote in the district to 23% for Riner.  Phil Baker, the third candidate in the race received 19%.  

Since there will be no Republican candidate for the District 41 seat in the fall, you can call her Representative-elect Scott.

She will be headed to Frankfort when the 2017 session starts, and becomes the first African-American woman elected to the house from Louisville since Rep. Eleanor Jordan left to take on then US Rep. Anne Northup. .

Congratulations Representative-elect Scott!  How apropos you won this race four months after the first ever Kentucky African-American legislator in Sen. Georgia Davis Powers has joined the ancestors.

Now let's hope that the Democrats can hold their majority in the House on November 8.

I have no doubts that you will do a wonderful job for your constituents in the 41st District and they will get the representation they have been lacking recently.    .