Dianne Feinstein’s Replacement Is Here. Who Is She?: California governor Gavin Newsom selected EMILY’s List president, Laphonza Butler

California Democrats were already jockeying to run for Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat next year and Governor Gavin Newsom sidestepped the contenders by announcing he would appoint Laphonza Butler to the seat.

While Newsom made good on his vow to appoint a Black woman to the Senate, does Butler’s job offer come with a poison pill?

Guest: Alex Sammon, Slate politics writer.

A Kamala Harris candidacy is a test, and not just for the candidate

OPINION — Of course, a reporter asked Kamala Harris how she would describe her identity. The California senator, a new entry into a crowded and growing Democratic field to challenge Donald Trump next year, answered simply, “I describe myself as a proud American.”

It’s a question no other candidate has been asked, and one that Harris will no doubt be asked again before the long slog to November 2020 is completed.

It’s not just her competitors Harris will be confronting in the months until then (or until her campaign comes to an end). It’s also questions like that one, understandable in the coverage of her historic quest. But it’s the extra scrutiny that can be exhausting for anyone just trying to live as herself or himself while being seen as an “other” by so many.

A Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census: Why Is That a Big Deal?

It was announced this week by the Commerce Department that the 2020 Census would be changed to add a question about citizenship.
Already the state of California has sued, saying the question violates the Constitution; the New York Attorney General has said he will lead a multi-state lawsuit to preserve what he said was a fair and accurate Census.

Why does it matter, and what will it mean for North Carolina — and the country — economically and politically?

 

 

Kamala Harris: Focused on Job, Not SCOTUS

From advocating for health care reform to helping broker a settlement in the foreclosure crisis, California attorney general Kamala Harris has been as out-front on issues as she has in her vocal backing of Barack Obama. “I’ve been supporting the president for a long time; he’s been supporting me for a long time.”

A pioneer in her current position as well as in her previous post as district attorney of San Francisco, the Howard University graduate is the daughter of an Asian-Indian mother, a breast cancer specialist, and a Jamaican-American father, a Stanford economics professor. Harris said she grew up “surrounded by a bunch of adults who spent full time marching and shouting about this thing called justice.”

Harris spoke with The Root about issues, from prison reform to marriage equality.