Tag: Office

Women take over ballots First they marched, now they’re running. Female candidates dominated in the first multi-state Democratic congressional primaries of the 2018 midterms. Out of 20 open primaries with women on the ballot on Tuesday night, voters selected a female nominee in 17 of them. Emily’s List, a women’s candidacy advocacy group reported a more than 20-fold increase in inquiries from women interested in running after Trump’s election. A number of women also stood for Republican nominations on Tuesday but they did not fare as well as Democratic women, winning less than half the seats they competed for. House races aren’t the only places women are making huge imprints on the ballot. Haspel hearing harangued The Senate confirmation hearing for CIA director nominee, Gina Haspel, was interrupted multiple times by demonstrators upset about her connection to the torture of foreign detainees. Another group of Code Pink activists were removed before the proceedings began, and several were dragged out by authorities as they yelled about torture. One of the protesters removed from the chamber was Ray McGovern, a former CIA operative turned activist who has been highly visible in criticizing the agency, especially on torture, since the mid 1990s. An exile in Brooklyn these days, after several years in the UK following her ousting from Iran in 2009, Alinejad is a face of the resistance on both sides of the ocean.

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—In what some experts are calling an unprecedented use of military force, Donald J. Trump on Tuesday ordered four thousand National Guard troops to protect the midtown Manhattan offices of his accountant. According to those familiar with the National Guard’s deployment, the troops will secure the corridors and elevator banks in the vicinity of the accounting firm that prepares Trump’s taxes. The troops, whose mission is being called “Operation Safe Returns,” are expected to arrive on Wednesday, after making the two-thousand-mile journey from the Mexican border. At the White House, Trump defended his decision to use the nation’s military to protect his accountant’s offices. “Yesterday our country was attacked,” he said. “Never again.” Trump’s unilateral decision to invade Manhattan drew a muted response in diplomatic circles around the world, with many allies taking a cautious “wait and see” attitude. In North Korea, Kim Jong Un said that he still planned to have a May summit with the U.S. President, “whoever that is by then.”

But while it’s her job to recruit, train and fundraise for female Republican candidates she finds herself telling many women to not run — at least not this year. “A lot of good moderate Republican women who want to run for office, our advice is ‘You’re a good candidate, you would probably win in any other year, let’s wait’”. Female Republican candidates are having a harder time than usual in 2018. “It’s always been hard, but this year all the reasons it’s been tough make it even tougher.” According to the Center for American Women in Politics, the number of Democratic women running for House seats this year increased 146 percent over 2016 (to 351), while the number of Republican women running for the House increased just 35 percent (to 99); on the other side of the Capitol there are only 14 Republican women running for Senate compared to 27 Democratic women. In part this is because there have always been fewer Republican women in high office than Democratic women. And the reason for that, candidates and strategists say, is the reason for so many other phenomena in politics at the moment – Donald Trump. Women are expected to have a stand on Trump, on #MeToo, and men aren’t even asked the question. Texas has not sent a freshman woman to Congress in 22 years, “meaning an entire generation of young Texans has never seen a woman elected” to that job, so while her gender got her a bit of attention, not all of it was good. Blackburn, who proudly aligns herself with the president, is considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination in that race, and she sent her staff to call Corker out. Republican women though have slowed down” their expected timeline, waiting to see if the landscape shifts.

Hillary Clinton speaks with Ruth Mandel, Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, talking about politics, American democracy, her career and women’s role in the political movement at the Rutgers Athletic Center Staff Video/Bob Karp PISCATAWAY — Hillary Rodham Clinton had a clear message for voters during a talk she gave at Rutgers on Thursday: vote in the midterm elections and encourage more women to get politically involved. Clinton, the former Democratic presidential candidate, praised the Women’s March and March for Our Lives national movements, as well as the surge in the number of women running for office, as positive signs that voters are engaged and taking a stand for what matters to them. The university paid Clinton $25,000 for her appearance from an endowment fund, which is not funded by tuition or public funds, a university spokesperson said. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, who has represented the 11th district for 12 terms, decided not to seek reelection earlier this year. Continues under video Throughout her talk, Clinton highlighted this growing movement and pressed the importance of voting. “It’s not easy because most people don’t vote and most people don’t show up and most people don’t see it as the powerful tool that it is,” the former U.S. senator said. She talked about the hardships of being criticized by the media and being called “shrill” or teased for over-preparing for a presidential debate. “And we should be very clear that we still don’t have enough women in politics, and we still don’t have enough women in elected office, but it’s about time that women were allowed to be themselves the way men are allowed to be themselves.” Since President Donald Trump took office, there has been a reported surge in women seeking political office as part of the women’s movement. The organization, she said, also supports women running for public office. “The numbers of women who are running in these midterm elections and special elections that we’ve seen in the last couple of months is very encouraging to me," she said.

Seth Meyers' monologue from Monday, January 15. » Subscribe to Late Night: http://bit.ly/LateNightSeth » Get more Late Night with Seth Meyers: http://www.nbc.com/late-night-with-seth-meyers/ » Watch Late Night with Seth Meyers Weeknights 12:35/11:35c on NBC. LATE NIGHT ON SOCIAL Follow Late Night…