midterms 2018
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Florida Is on Course to Restore Voting Rights to Residents Convicted of Felonies
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Marissa Alexander knows politics. No political race—judgeship, state representative, national—nor proposed amendment escapes her notice. That’s why during this midterm election season, she has sat down her 18-year-old twins at the dinner table to go over everything—the amendments and candidates that voters must choose from on Tuesday so that her children will be fully…
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Andrew Gillum Is Winning by Being His Natural, Black Self
JACKSONVILLE, Fla.—Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum isn’t afraid to tell you he is a proud black man. The political implications of being “too black,” long a concern for black candidates running for statewide or higher office throughout U.S. history, don’t scare him. He embraces his blackness because he believes in himself and knows black candidates before…
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White Nationalist Who Threatened Stacey Abrams' Campaign Poses for Picture With Brian Kemp
In late September, The Root ran a story about a campaign event held by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams in Augusta, Ga. Here’s what we wrote at the time. This is a pretty smart campaign stop—she’s tied with Secretary of State and Republican nominee Brian Kemp less than two months from Election Day and African-American…
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Voter Suppression Is Real and It Really Affects Black People
I think we all can agree that the 2018 midterm elections are critical. This means that our votes matter more now than ever. But what happens when you’ve registered and are ready to participate in this good ol’ democracy but can’t? Let’s talk about voter suppression. Voter suppression is simple—it’s a set of tactics used…
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Black Senior Citizens in Georgia Ordered Off Bus Taking Them to Vote
On Monday, the first day of in-person early voting in Georgia, dozens of black senior citizens were ordered off a bus taking them to a nearby polling station to cast their ballots. A county clerk for Jefferson County, Ga., had ordered a senior center to take about 40 of its residents—all of whom are black—off…
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Why the Democratic Party Hasn’t Canceled Keith Ellison—For Now
Less than a month after Al Franken was accused of groping a woman, the U.S. senator from Minnesota resigned from his seat under pressure from his Democratic colleagues. Two months have passed since Rep. Keith Ellison, also a Democrat from Minnesota, was accused of assaulting a woman. He is still deputy chairman of the Democratic…