Primary Colors

This summer has seen a GREAT set of diversity and inclusion candidates win their primary races, and get all of us inspired for this fall!  Victories by Sharice Davids, Keith Ellison, Christine Hallquist, Jahana Hayes, Lucy McBath, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib show that voters are looking for people like them- like US- to lead. Here’s a roundup of some promising new faces:

CONNECTICUT: JAHANA HAYES https://www.facebook.com/jahanahayesct/won the Democratic nomination to represent the solidly Democratic 5thDistrict, with 62% of the vote. If she wins in November, she would be the first African-American Democrat elected to Congress from Connecticut. The 2016 National Teacher of the Year, she was endorsed by the Working Families Party, the Congressional Black Caucus, the state AFL-CIO and Sen. Kamala Harris.  During the campaign, she talked about growing up in poverty, and supported single-payer healthcare.

GEORGIA: LUCY MCBATH: “In Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District, which saw the first stirrings of the 2017 resistance when newcomer Jon Ossoff almost won a seat that hadn’t gone to Democrats since the 1970s, Moms Demand Action champion and racial-justice crusader Lucy McBath won her runoff against South African immigrant businessman Kevin Abel.” Check out this detailed analysis of Georgia’s critical races in The Nation.

KANSAS: SHARICE DAVIDS won the Democratic nomination from the 3rdHouse district. If elected in November, she would be the first gay Native American elected to Congress and the first openly LGBT person to represent Kansas in Federal office.

MICHIGAN: RASHIDA TLAIB, who is Muslim, beat a crowd of opponents to win the Democratic nomination for the 13thCongressional District. There is no Republican running for this strongly Democratic seat.

MINNESOTA: 

ILHAN OMAR won the Democratic nomination to represent the 5thDistrict, which is heavily Democratic. Currently a state House representative elected in 2016 who is Somali-American and Muslim, her website casts her as the potential first refugee in Congress.

VERMONT: CHRISTINE HALLQUIST, a former energy executive, became the first transgender person nominated by a major party for governor in the country.

Against this backdrop, record numbers of women have won primaries this year, mostly Democrats. There are 71 congresswomen running for re-election, and in all nearly 50 African-American women have run for Congress this year.