All in all, this felt like a pretty good week, don’t you think? Here’s some of the good news that I found this week!
Good News
Democrats secured big election wins on Tuesday — The GOP lost the mayoral races in conservative strongholds Jacksonville & Colorado Springs, and the Dems won a special election legislative seat that maintains their 1 seat majority in the state House
The two biggest candidates DeSantis endorsed in the Tuesday elections both lost their races
The Supreme Court left in place (for now) Illinois’s new ban on the purchase and sale of AR-15s
Trump unexpectedly gave the Dems a messaging gift for the 2024 election: In both a social media post and in an interview on NewsMax, he unequivocally stated, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade”
Unemployment was 6.3% when Joe Biden took office but now unemployment sits at a 50+ year low at 3.4%
The unemployment rate for Black workers fell to a record low 4.7% in April — this is still above the national average, but below 5% for the first time in Labor Department records, which began in 1972
Thanks to Biden’s judicial activity, Democratic appointed judges have majorities on 7 of the 13 Circuit Courts, (Republicans have 5, and one is tied)
The National Archives informed Trump that it handed over to special counsel Jack Smith 16 records which demonstrate Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) went on record against Trump’s re-election campaign: “We need to come up with an alternative. I think President Trump’s time has passed him by and what’s the most important thing to me is we have a candidate who can actually win.”
Tucker Carlson also took a swipe at Trump in a recent interview: “I mean, he couldn’t build a border wall in 4 years. So, you know, there is a gap between promises and delivery.”
Call to Action
Remember last year when Kansas shocked the country by voting against a constitutional amendment that would have banned abortion? Well, we have an opportunity to help another red state with the same thing. Here’s what’s going on in Ohio:
Democrats want to put an initiative on the ballot in November 2024 to codify abortion rights in the state. This would allow the voters to vote directly on the right, instead of having to rely on a majority Republican legislature (thank you, gerrymandering.) They would just need a simple majority (so 50% + 1) to win. So what are the Republicans in the state doing?
They’re having a special election THIS August to ask voters to raise the threshold of ballot initiatives from a simple majority, up to 60%. There is no reason to do this, other than polling indicating that codifying abortion rights is hovering at about 58% in the state right now. So, what we all need to do is spread the word to any friends we have in Ohio to vote NO on that initiative in August.
Here’s a website to share with your friends and on social media: Ohio, Vote NO in August!
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Floridians have also created a ballot initiative to put abortion on te 2024 ballot. Sponsored by groups, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters and Women’s Voices of Southwest FL. No law shall restrict abortions before viability and to protect the patient’s health WHERE the patient’s health shall be determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. More info may be found at the FloridiansProtectingFreedom.com.
Thanks for the heads up!
One addendum to Ohio’s attempt to ban abortion by raising the bar for ballot measures from 50% to 60% … at the same time, they have also made it harder to vote! It used to be that to vote by mail, one needed to provide either a driver’s license number or social security number, but now we must have a state-issued photo I.D. that can only be obtained by visiting a Bureau of Motor Vehicles office. Easy enough for some maybe, but not for a disable or elderly person who doesn’t drive and is largely house-bound!
Excellent point. We will need to mobilize and get the vote out.
The republican’s march against voting and personal rights is right out of the Nazi playbook. Thanks for giving us good news and avenues to helping to stop these atrocities.
Happy to do so. And thanks for reading!