Bad Trump housing news, and some good election night results
The bad news: Civil rights advocates sued the Trump administration in May for suspending a hard-fought desegregation rule, known as the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule. The hearing was finally held this month, and they lost, with the federal judge deferring to HUD/Ben Carson’s decision. It’s a blow to integration, no question. I wrote about the decision and what’s next for The Intercept.
Some better news: Last week’s election night had some exciting wins. Readers of this newsletter may remember the story I co-authored in May on Jahana Hayes, the National Teacher of the Year running as an underdog for Congress in Connecticut.
Last Tuesday, Hayes won her Democratic primary in a landslide. Ryan Grim and I wrote about her election night win.
Also, though I’m biased toward reading articles, if you haven’t seen any of Hayes’s campaign ads, I’d definitely consider watching this one:
I’m really proud to share our brand-new campaign video.
Teachers are nation-builders. That's our job — to affect change, and to improve outcomes. But that's the job of Congress, too. So I'm running for Congress.
Watch, share, then join Team Hayes: https://t.co/F7MC8vcB3T pic.twitter.com/v13poBxBB4
I’m back in D.C. now, but before I left I also did a round-up of the Minnesota primary results with The Intercept’s Maryam Saleh. Lori Swanson, the attorney general I wrote about twice this month, lost terribly in the governor’s race. Some other big news from Minnesota is that Ilhan Omar will be going to Congress to fill Keith Ellison’s seat. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, is another new Democratic primary winner from Michigan headed to Congress, so with Omar and Tlaib, the number of Muslim women in the House of Representatives is expected to go from 0 to 2.
Here’s a bit more from Maryam on Omar’s win:
I started wearing hijab 16 years ago this month, and I’ve consistently seen Muslim women, and specifically those who wear hijab, villified since then. Until very recently, I didn’t think I’d ever see a hijabi in Congress. Ilhan Omar’s win is a game changer for young Muslim women.
August 15, 2018Thanks for reading. If you’d like to support this kind of journalism, please share the newsletter with others who might be interested, and/or consider signing up as a paid subscriber!