Feel-good update: Meet a candidate & her sheep
Maybe our favorite story of the summer.
Good morning on a rainy Monday. So excited to start this week by sharing what is maybe my favorite story of the summer… Meet Brittney Johnson, a Run for Something candidate for state legislature in Minnesota — and a farmer. Read this story, watch the video, and enjoy the solid 15 seconds of footage of a sheep with its head in a bucket.
Some other good stories this week:
— In Texas, folks are talking about how the “reverse coattails effect” is going to come into play this fall. The large number of incredible candidates running for local office is going to help boost turn-out for the top of the ticket.
— We talked with the NYT for their deep-dive into the challenges faced by people of color running for the office — including the inherently problematic nature of using fundraising as the primary metric to determine viability. This is worth a read.
The Districts Are Mostly White. The Candidates Are Not.
NORTH AURORA, Ill. - Most of the room's occupants looked nothing like Lauren Underwood, but no one seemed to care. Ms…www.nytimes.com
— In the Boston Globe: “Throughout Massachusetts, young people are taking up the gauntlet to run for office, many for the first time. Some are even daring to challenge incumbents, a move once thought taboo. They are flexing their political muscle and doing the work needed to compete.”
— A record number of Muslim Americans are running for office, including folks like Abraham Aiyash, a Run for Something candidate: “I never had any intentions to run for office, actually. I was supposed to go to medical school,” Michigan state Senate candidate Abraham Aiyash told ThinkProgress. But years of corruption in the state legislature, coupled with Trump’s xenophobia, motivated Aiyash to throw his hat in the ring.”
Record number of Muslim Americans running for office
A record number of American Muslims are running for Congress, state, and local office this election cycle, motivated…thinkprogress.org
— In New Hampshire, the GOP state legislature & governor have passed what is essentially a poll tax on college students. If Democrats can win locally there this fall, we can stop it from going into effect.
— In not-quite-RFS news-but-definitely-related: Youth voter registration went up 41% in Florida after the Parkland shooting. What makes it related: When young passionate progressive candidates run for office and do the work, younger voters show up to vote for them.
Thanks for making all this possible.
Catch up on last week’s update…
Feel-good update: 44 new candidates to fall in love with
Plus: Two videos you need to watch ASAP.medium.com