by David Caplan via abcnews.com
Senator-elect Doug Jones, the Democrat from Alabama who beat Republican Roy Moore in last month’s special Senate election, has tapped former Department of Transportation staffer Dana Gresham as his chief of staff, making him the only African-American chief of staff for a Senate Democrat.
“I would like to welcome Alabama native & former Asst. Secretary for Governmental Affairs at @USDOT Dana Gresham, who will be joining our team as Chief of Staff,” Jones tweeted Tuesday.
Prior to working at the Department of Transportation under President Barack Obama, Gresham worked for Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., and Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala. The appointment follows pressure from several organizations representing various communities of color that asked Jones last month to hire at least one minority to a senior-level position.
Two Republican senators, though, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Jerry Moran of Kansas, reportedly have black chiefs of staff.
Seventeen organizations, including the NAACP, National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials and the National Urban League, wrote a letter to Jones in December suggesting he hire a person of color in light of the lack of diversity among Senate staff. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies organized the effort and drafted the letter.
“As a new Member of the U.S. Senate, you have an opportunity to show your constituents that not only do their voices matter, but that their experiences and skills are vital to the work that you do to represent them,” the groups wrote in the Dec. 19 letter to Jones. “Ensuring racial diversity among your staff would enhance the deliberation, innovation, legitimacy, and outcomes of your office and of the Senate as a whole. Hiring at least one person of color to your senior staff in Washington would speak loudly, and we ask that you do so among the qualified applicants that you will receive.”
News of Gresham’s hire was applauded across the Twittersphere.
“Great News! Birmingham’s own stand out Dana Gresham chosen to be Chief of Staff to Alabama’s Senator Doug Jones!” tweeted Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala. “Looking forward to working with them to move Alabama forward!! @GDouglasJones.”
Amanda Brown Lierman, political and organizing director for the Democratic National Committee tweeted, “Snaps for @GDouglasJones naming Dana Gresham as his Chief of Staff! #DougJones will be the ONLY #Senate #Democrat to have a black COS.”
And Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity tweeted, “Congratulations to Brother Dana Gresham [Mu Lambda ’97] for being appointed as Chief of Staff for Alabama Senator-elect, Doug Jones, who will be the only member of the Democratic caucus to have a Black/African-American chief of staff.”
To see original post, go to: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doug-jones-hires-senate-democrats-african-american-chief/story?id=52109446
Posts tagged as “U.S. Senate”
by Marie Solis via newsweek.com
Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore in Tuesday’s Alabama Senate race with the overwhelming support of black women voters, 98 percent of whom cast their ballots for the Democrat. According to CNN’s exit polls, only 34 percent of white women voted for Jones, with 63 percent of that voter bloc offering their support to Moore instead. The Republican has been accused of pursuing inappropriate relationships with teen girls as an adult.
“Doug Jones would not have won today without the turnout we saw from African-American voters,” Symone Sanders, a Democratic strategist, told Newsweek. “Black women have been absolutely clear in their support for Democratic policies and Democratic candidates. It’s high time for Democrats…to invest in that effort.”
Sanders said it was the grassroots, on-the-ground efforts of Jones’s African-American supporters that helped bring black voters to the ballot box on Tuesday and push him across the finish line. But if Democrats want to carry their 2017 successes into the 2018 midterms, they can’t count on black women alone to carry the party.
“Black women have been attempting to save America since the dawn of time,” Sanders said. “That doesn’t mean we should allow the fate of America to be laid at the feet of black women. It has to be a multicultural effort.”
Still, others couldn’t help but notice the poetic justice of a Democrat with an upstanding record on civil rights winning in deep-red Alabama. “It’s no coincidence that Selma, where blood was shed in the struggle for voting rights for Black people, pushed Doug Jones ahead for good,” Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, tweeted following Jones’s win. Selma, Alabama—the site of 1965’s “Bloody Sunday”—was one of the Democratic candidate’s strong spots with black voters.
The Jones camp had tried to leverage the candidate’s civil rights record to appeal to African-American voters in the state. When he served as a prosecutor, Jones was responsible for convicting members of the Ku Klux Klan who bombed a Birmingham, Alabama, Baptist church, killing four young girls. “I’m very humbled and honored to have played a part in the civil rights saga, if you will, many years after the fact,” Jones said during a campaign rally in Montgomery, Alabama, another famous site for the civil rights movement.
article by Gina Mei via elle.com
Former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto made history on Tuesday night when she became the first Latina to be elected to the Senate in U.S. history—and she’s already making it very clear she’s more than willing to go head-to-head with Donald Trump once she arrives in Washington, D.C.
“Our government is built on a system of checks and balances, and I will promise you this: I will be one hell of a check and balance on him,” she said during her victory speech on Wednesday. “Tonight we start our fight together…. The diversity here is our strength and we will continue to be strong.”
“It’s not my voice I’m taking to Washington, it’s all of yours,” she added.
Cortez Masto beat out Republican Rep. Joe Heck to become the first woman to represent Nevada in the Senate on Tuesday, ultimately winning 47 percent of votes. She is the proud granddaughter of a Mexican immigrant, and strongly supports “comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship.”
After her victory on Tuesday, Cortez Masto took to Twitter to thank her supporters and voice her willingness to fight hard for the rights of all Americans.
To read more, go to: http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a40705/first-latina-senator-catherine-cortez-masto-check-and-balance-donald-trump/
article by John Myers via latimes.com
California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris was declared the top vote-getter Tuesday night in the state’s open race for the U.S. Senate, as a bevy of primary candidates competed for the other spot on the fall ballot.
With 13% of precincts reporting, the Associated Press called the race for Harris, 51, who was long seen as the front-runner in a crowded field of 34 candidates.
The most prominent challenger, Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange, is a Democrat like Harris. Should they finish in the top two spots once all the votes are counted, it would mark the first time in a statewide election in which a Republican failed to make the November ballot.
Sanchez was second in early returns, followed by a trio of Republicans: former state GOP chairman Duf Sundheim, attorney Phil Wyman, and former GOP chairman Tom Del Beccaro.
To read more, go to: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-primary-kamala-harris-declared-the-winner-of-1465359023-htmlstory.html