U.S. Senate
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Angelo Alsobrooks and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester achieved historic firsts on Election Day with the pair becoming the first women and first Black women in their respective seats to win U.S. Senate seats. This would mark the first time that two Black women are serving in the Senate chamber at the same time.
Angela Alsobrooks, currently the County Executive for Prince George’s County in Maryland, faced former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in a race that most expected Alsobrooks to win in the heavily blue-leaning state. Hogan spent plenty in Maryland to flip Sen. Ben Cardin’s open seat but Alsobrooks ran a sharp campaign and banked on her strong record as a known elected official in one of the larger counties.
Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a congresswoman representing Delaware’s at-large district in the state, has been in politics since the 1990s. She served as deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services in 1993 and secretary of the Department of Labor in 1998 under the exiting Delaware Sen. Tom Carper during his time as governor of the state.
Alsobrooks and Blunt Rochester will bring the number of Black senators in the chamber to six. They are also just the fourth and fifth Black women to be elected to the Senate.
The pair follow a great path that was first laid by Sen. Carol Mosley Braun, who was the first Black woman elected to the Senate in 1992. Vice President Kamala Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016. Sen Laphonza Butler, who will vacate the seat at the end of her current term, was appointed to the seat to serve out the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s term which ends this coming January.
The excitement of the news of Senator-Elect Angela Alsobrooks and Senator-Elect Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester is spreading. We’ve got reactions from X below.
Thank you, Maryland! pic.twitter.com/fUl9HGdmaU
— Angela Alsobrooks (@AlsobrooksForMD) November 6, 2024
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From the bottom of my heart, Delaware, thank you 💙 pic.twitter.com/UI9GtzqYBJ
— Lisa Blunt Rochester (@LisaBRochester) November 6, 2024
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Sen. John Fetterman found himself trending on the X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuesday morning (September 19) in the wake of the uproar over the Pennsylvanian’s casual style of dress despite it not harming a soul. Sen. Fetterman, savvy on social media, has been waving off the potshots from conservative talking heads and his GOP counterparts in elected office with ease.
Sen. John Fetterman was the target of a Fox News report regarding his style of dress, which includes hoodies, unbuttoned and untucked shirts, and basketball shorts, none of which hindered his ability to serve the people of his home state.
Quoting the tweet from Fox News, Fetterman wrote, “I figure if I take up vaping and grabbing the hog during a live musical, they’ll make me a folk hero.”
This was in reference to Rep. Lauren Boebert vaping during a Beetlejuice musical in Denver, Colo.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene then used X to fire a shot at Fetterman, of course neglecting her own gaffes and stances while doing so.
“The Senate no longer enforcing a dress code for Senators to appease Fetterman is disgraceful,” she writes. “Dress code is one of society’s standards that set etiquette and respect for our institutions. Stop lowering the bar!”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, he of tumbling poll numbers in his bid to win the White House back for the GOP, took shots at Fetterman’s clothing while on the campaign trail in Jacksonville on Monday (September 18), you know, hard-hitting policy talk that the American people care about.
“So he would campaign in that, which is your prerogative, right? I mean, if that’s what you want to do, but to show up in the United States Senate with that, and not have the decency to put on proper attire. I think it’s disrespectful to the body,” DeSantis said.
Quoting a video of Gov. DeSantis’ stump speech, Fetterman wrote, “I dress like he campaigns,” shutting it all down.
Adding to all of this are MAGA tinfoil types who think that recent appearances of Sen. Fetterman is that of a body double and he’s handling those doofs with the same smoothness as well.
Salute to Sen. John Fetterman. Keep scrolling to check out the reactions and chatter from all sides below.
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Photo: Tom Williams / Getty
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Source: Scott Olson / Getty / Hill Harper
Author, and actor, Hill Harper is no stranger to the world of politics, and now he is looking to make a big splash in Michigan’s 2024 senate race.
The New York Times reports Harper hopes to add US Senator to his list of accomplishments after throwing his name in a Democratic Primary that will have plenty of people closely monitoring it.
Harper has pledged to run as progressive and hopes that will be enough to convince Michigan voters to choose him over Moderate Democrat Elissa Slotkin.
The actor best known for his roles on CSI: NY and The Good Doctor and now a first-time candidate is running on a campaign that will work towards expanding social security, making sure the people he hopes to represent will have access to affordable healthcare, addressing income inequality and tackling student debt.
He spoke about his campaign in an interview shared by the New York Times:
“It became clear to me that folks across Michigan don’t feel like they are being represented in Washington, D.C.,” he said, describing his conversations with people at farmers’ markets and union halls as he weighed his decision to run. The state’s Democratic leadership, which holds the governor’s office and both chambers of the Michigan Statehouse, he added, has “done a lot to move the state forward, but Washington is still broken.”
Harper Has Worked With Former President Barack Obama
Unlike some other celebrities, the 57-year-old actor isn’t new to politics. Harper was good friends with former President Barack Obama. The two men befriended each other while attending Harvard while playing basketball.
Obama would later appoint his friend to his President’s Cancer Panel in 2012, which worked alongside the National Institute of Health (NIH) that made recommendations to the Obama administration about cancer healthcare policies.
Hill Harper Isn’t Getting The Warm Announcement He Hoped He Would
Harper’s announcement is being met with a mixed reception. Some point to him misgendering Zaya Wade on her birthday while trying to push his book or for allegedly being transphobic.
Some people point out the Iowa native, who moved to Detroit in 2018, but barely stays in his home.
He also has some people excited about his Senate run. Actor Mark Ruffalo and Michael Skolnick both hit Twitter to support Mr. Harper’s run for the Senate.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Scott Olson / Getty
1. The Incredible Hulk approves
7. Well damn
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Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is currently hospitalized and receiving treatment for clinical depression, a week after being briefly hospitalized for another issue.
According to reports, Fetterman’s office confirmed on Thursday (Feb. 16) that the Democrat had gone to the hospital. “Last night, Senator John Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to receive treatment for clinical depression. While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” his office related in a statement.
While the statement didn’t elaborate on what prompted his decision to seek help, the senator had been hospitalized briefly at the George Washington University Hospital last week after experiencing a period of feeling lightheaded. Test results showed that there were no signs of a seizure or stroke suffered. The statement mentioned that he would undergo voluntary inpatient treatment.
The 53-year-old freshman senator has been through a particularly rough time up until now. Then lieutenant-governor, Fetterman suffered a severe stroke days before the primary election in Pennsylvania in May 2022. He would recover, staying off the campaign trail but winning the Democratic nomination. He still grappled with auditory processing and was transparent about his struggles. Fetterman would be voted into the Senate in resounding fashion over doctor-turned-TV host Mehmet Oz, who was the Republican candidate.
Depression is commonplace after a stroke, many doctors observed. Dr. Eric Lenze, head of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, remarked to the Associated Press that Fetterman is “interesting and heroic” for being transparent “instead of saying they’re hospitalized for exhaustion or trying to hide it.”
Fetterman’s health issues and honesty about them have sparked a new conversation within the congressional body about mental health and the need to do more for those suffering. “We’re living in a time of extraordinary stress and crisis,” Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said in an interview. The congressman is undergoing cancer treatment and lost his son days before the January 6th insurrection. “We’ve come through a plague, we’ve had tremendous mental and emotional health problems.”
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Congressman Ruben Gallego has officially announced that he will run for Senator in Arizona, challenging current Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
On Monday (Jan. 23rd), the Democratic member of the House of Representatives announced that he intends to run for Senator in the state of Arizona in 2024. Gallego released a video of himself addressing a group of veterans in the town of Guadalupe, saying: “You’re the first group of people that are hearing this besides my family. I will be challenging Kyrsten Sinema for the United States Senate, and I need all of your support.”
Gallego, who is of Colombian and Mexican descent, released an announcement video in English and Spanish afterward. “As a Marine, I never back down from a fight and in the Senate, I’ll fight to make sure every Arizonan has the same chance that I had at the American Dream,” he said. He was first elected to the House from his Phoenix-area district in 2014 and has been a fierce critic of Sinema over the past few months which led many to anticipate his announcement.
The announcement adds more drama to a Senate race that is gaining national attention due to Sinema’s surprising exit from the Democratic Party in December, declaring herself as an independent. Gallego and others have criticized her for her centrist approach which led her to support Republicans on issues concerning voting and blocking legislation last year. Sinema has been tied to Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia. “The problem isn’t that Senator Sinema abandoned the Democratic Party — it’s that she’s abandoned Arizona. She’s repeatedly broken her promises and fought for the interests of big pharma and Wall Street at our expense,” Gallego said in his statement.
While there is some uncertainty if other Arizona Democrats will join Gallego in challenging Sinema for her seat, former GOP gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson has stated that she’s considering a run. Blake Masters, who lost his Senate challenge to Mark Kelly last November and was an election denier in support of former President Donald Trump, has also expressed interest in running. The most prominent & controversial GOP candidate, Kari Lake, reportedly is “very invested in the legal battle” she has against Katie Hobbs, who defeated her for governor in the midterms. Lake, a serial election denier, has refused to concede her loss.
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The Department of Justice is now moving to right a historic wrong by instructing prosecutors to eliminate racial disparities in drug cases at the behest of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
On Friday (Dec. 16), Garland issued directives to federal prosecutors to pursue the same charges and establish equivalent sentencing for both cocaine powder and crack cocaine. The current law sees people who are convicted of possessing 28 grams of crack cocaine receive a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. That same sentence is only given to those who are convicted of possessing nearly twenty times that amount in the powdered form of cocaine. The previous situation highlighted how Black and Latinx defendants were unfairly given heavier sentences under those guidelines which began under President Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs” in 1986.
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Garland’s move to step in and issue these new guidelines comes after the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act, or EQUAL Act, was passed by the Democratic-led House of Representatives last year with Republican support. But despite 11 GOP Senators backing it, the bill was ultimately stalled once it was presented to the Senate for a vote due to lacking the 60 votes needed for its advancement. The ratio at the heart of the act was lowered in 2009 from 100-to-1 under the Fair Sentencing Act which was passed by Congress while President Barack Obama was in office in 2010.
The attorney general sent out his directives in a memo. “In such cases, prosecutors should consider supporting a downward departure or variance,” Mr. Garland wrote. The memo also outlines that these new guidelines should also cover sentences that result from plea agreements. Individual prosecutors still have the leeway to use discretion on this matter from case to case.
The directive prompted some concern from Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa who claimed in a statement that “it undermines legislative efforts to address this sentencing disparity.” He continued: “That hard-won compromise has been jeopardized because the attorney general inappropriately took lawmaking into his own hands.”
The move is something that President Joe Biden and his administration have been agitating for since entering office. Garland had issued a memo early last year stating that attorney general’s offices across the country should expect new guidelines to be released. The timing of the move is significant as well, as Congress is in a lame-duck session before the Republicans regain control of the House next year while the Democrats have a firmer control of the Senate.
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