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This Election Isn’t Just About the Presidency: Control of 12 State Governorships Is Also at Stake

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Is Your State One of Them?

This year’s election contests aren’t just going to be a big day for the presidential race. There are numerous state and local officers up for election. Because we know just how important – perhaps even more so – these down-ballot races can be, we here at The New Civil rights Movement are breaking down the other races and what initiatives progressives should be paying attention to as they head to the ballot box on Tuesday. 

In this article we look at the 12 states that have governor races.

Keep in mind, Republican governors currently control 34 states and territories, Democratic governors only 18.

North Carolina 

There’s a good chance you know the names Pat McCrory and Roy Cooper.

McCrory is the incumbent, Republican governor who’s responsible for pushing and signing into law the horribly anti-LGBTQ (and more specifically, anti-trans) “bathroom bill” HB2 in one day. He’s lost his state hundreds of millions of dollars and recent polling puts him at a slight – not not major – disadvantage to his Democratic opponent, Roy Cooper.

Roy Cooper, for his part, has spoken against HB2 numerous times and has refused to defend it in court.  

Indiana

If there’s any good to come from a Donald Trump candidacy, it was his choice of Indiana’s governor as a running mate, which got Mike Pence out of the office. Pence is the guy who helped push through Indiana’s so-called “religious liberty”/RFRA bill that enabled discrimination against LGBTQ people, among others. He also used HIV-research money for converstion therapy programs and more than a few other hits to the LGBTQ community. Suffice it to say he’s no ally.

Running to replace him are Democrat John Gregg and Republican Eric Holcomb. Gregg has branded himself as the LGBTQ-friendly alternative to Holcomb, though even his own record of acceptance is a bit rocky. However, Holcomb has long been branded as a close ally of Pence’s and has aligned himself with Pence’s old conservative allies.

Missouri 

Republican Eric Greitens, a former Navy Seal, is on the ballot against Democrat Chris Koster, the sitting Missouri Attorney General. This past year Missouri debated a very far-reaching “religious freedom”/bathroom bill. Both candidates oppose that bill, but in very different ways. 

Greitens has said “people of faith are under attack in America” but also says bathroom access should be “handled by schools and families.” He has, however, repeated the oft-told lie that allowing transgender people to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity would allow “grown men into little girls’ bathrooms.”

Koster, for his part, has been very vocal on his support for LGBTQ people and families. 

Delaware

Congressman John Carney (Democrat) and State Senator Colin Bonini (Republican) are vying for the business-centric state’s executive office. Carney endorsed marriage equality as a congressman back in 2013 while Bonini voted against it as a state legislator. The state is expected to remain solidly Democrat.

Montana 

Democrat Steve Bullock is seeking re-election and is challenged by Republican Greg Gianforte. Gianforte hasn’t been very vocal about LGBTQ rights but Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden uncovered past lobby efforts against LGBTQ rights and his foundation has donated more than $1.1 million to organizations that oppose LGBTQ rights. The latest polls have Bullock just about 2 points ahead of Gianforte.

New Hampshire

Colin Van Ostern (Democrat), Chris Sununu (Republican) are joined by a libertarian and two independents in the race for governor. Van Ostern has been vocal in his support for LGBTQ rights while Sununu has been noticeably silent.

North Dakota

Marvin Nelson, the Democratic former state legislator, is one of the few candidates we’ve seen in any governor’s race to explicitly state they are anti-discrimination on their campaign website. His opponent, Republican businessman Doug Burgum, describes himself as a small-government conservative. He’s also made it a point to say he’s not running on social issues.

When discussing the oil pipeline at Standing Rock, Nelson expressed sympathy with the Sioux Tribe while Burgum said the issue has presented a new opportunity for “dialogue.”

Oregon 

Democrats have controlled the state since 1987 and it seems this cylce will be no exception. Kate Brown, the incumbment, became governor about a year ago when her predecessor resigned. She’s the first openly bisexual governor in the US and has put non-discrimination and equality at the center of her campaign. Her opponent, Republican Bud Pierce, has stayed notably silent on LGBTQ rights, but he was forced to apologize after an offensive gaffe during a discussion of domestic violence during a recent debate.

Utah

Republican incumbent Gary Herbert is currently polling at 63% against Democract Mike Weinholtz virtually guaranteeing that only something drastic could endanger his chances of a clear win on Tuesday. For what it’s worth, Weinholtz has been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ equality.

Vermont 

Both candidates, Sue Minter (D) and Phil Scott (R), have been noticeably silent on LGBTQ rights, though the state does have a legacy of equality and inclusion.

Washington

Jay Inslee, the current Democractic governor, is endorsed by numerous LGBTQ groups for his history of working for LGBTQ equality. His opponent, Republican Bill Bryant, has said LGBTQ people deserve protection from discrimination but inclusive bathroom laws “put the rights of one group over another.”  Inslee is currently polling at 50% against Bryant’s 40%. 

West Virginia

The race to be the next govenor of West Viriginia may well be the strangest in the nation. Democrat Jim Justice is a billionaire coal baron who “promises to shake up the establishment.” He’s self-funded his campaign to the tune of $2.2 million dollars, but none of that seems to matter as West Virginia is one of Trump’s strongest states. His opponent, Republican Bill Cole, is currently up 44% to Justice’s 33%.

Cole has gone on record saying he’s against marriage equality while Justice says “the Supreme Court’s decision should be respected,” though he’s “for religious freedom without government intervention”.

  

Coming Saturday: A look at some of the key US Senate races to watch.

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News

‘Restore My Account Immediately’: Marjorie Taylor Greene Cries After Twitter Suspends Her Over Anti-Trans Tweets

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is lashing out at Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk after the social media company, she says, suspended her official government account for seven days for posting apparently anti-transgender tweets. At least four of her tweets appear to have been deleted.

Rep. Greene appears to have been promoting an unverified claim that “Antifa” and transgender activists are planning a “Trans Day of Vengeance.” Fox News is also claiming there is a “Trans Day of Vengeance,” and a website the report links to says it will be on April 1.

“My Congressional account was suspended for 7 days for exposing Antifa, who are organizing a call for violence called ‘Trans Day of Vengeance.’ The day after the mass murder of children by a trans shooter. Restore my account immediately,” Greene demanded, tagging Musk, Twitter Safety, and the head of Twitter Safety, Ella Irwin.

There is no evidence that “Antifa” which is not an actual group, has anything to do with the alleged Trans Day of Vengeance.

The Independent adds Greene made “unfounded” claims “about the Nashville school shooting being a product of ‘Antifa’ and ‘trans-terrorism.'”

According to The Hill, Congresswoman Greene tweeted a poster of the alleged event, and Twitter removed the post, so she repeatedly reposted it, only to have Twitter remove it.

Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, tweeted: “We had to automatically sweep our platform and remove >5000 tweets /retweets of this poster. We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them. ‘Vengeance’ does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok.”

On her personal Twitter account, Greene also promoted a similar, baseless claim:

“In the wake of a transgender shooter targeting a Christian school and murdering kids, every American should know the threat of Antifa driven trans-terrorism. Twitter should not whitewash the incitement of politically motivated violence,” she said, pointing to another of her tweets that had been removed.

Greene on Monday made anti-trans remarks in the wake of the the Nashville shooting.

“How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking? Everyone can stop blaming guns now,” she said.

Currently, numerous right-wing and far-right wing Twitter accounts are linking the alleged Trans Day of Vengeance to Monday’s horrific Covenant Presbyterian elementary school shooting in Nashville, where three nine-year olds and three adults were shot to death. The shooter allegedly identified as transgender, according to Nashville police.

 

 

 

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Troubling Questions’: Experts Slam Ginni Thomas’ Group That Waged Cultural War Against the Left via Web of Dark Money Orgs

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Legal experts are responding to bombshell reporting from The Washington Post revealing Ginni Thomas, the spouse of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, who had unprecedented access to the Trump White House and Oval Office, for years headed a secretive right-wing activist organization funded through a web of dark money groups, whose purpose was to wage a culture war against the left.

The Post reports the organization, Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty, took in nearly $600,000 in anonymous funds to fuel its efforts to battle “cultural Marxism,” as Ginni Thomas, who headed the group, called their mission.

Thomas had stepped away from her previous non-profit right-wing activist group “amid concerns that it created potential conflicts for her husband on hot-button issues before the court,” The Post says, and yet, she led Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty, which creates the same concerns. Where is the money coming from? What is the group doing with it? How much crossover is there between her activism and the group’s targets and efforts, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ work?

According to The Post, in tax filings of its think tank sponsor, Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty is described as an “informal, unincorporated nonprofit association which serves as an incubator for ideas across a network of conservative leaders, cultural entrepreneurs, and cultural influences.”

READ MORE: ‘Heist’: Ginni Thomas Tells J6 Committee Election Was Stolen, Says She Never Discussed Efforts to Overturn With Spouse

It appears great efforts were made to ensure the donors to Thomas’ Crowdsourcers group would not be able to be publicly identified.

“In 2019, anonymous donors gave the think tank Capital Research Center, or CRC, $596,000 that was designated for Crowdsourcers, according to tax filings and audits the think tank submitted to state regulators. The majority of that money, $400,000, was routed through yet another nonprofit, Donors Trust, according to that organization’s tax filings. Donors Trust is a fund that receives money from wealthy donors whose identities are not disclosed and steers it toward conservative causes,” The Post explains.

Thomas, who is reportedly active in another secretive far-right wing group, the Council for National Policy, brought two well-known far-right wing activists from CNP into Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty: former Trump attorney, ally, and advisor Cleta Mitchell, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The New York Times last year described the Council for National Policy as an organization that “brings together old-school Republican luminaries, Christian conservatives, Tea Party activists and MAGA operatives, with more than 400 members who include leaders of organizations like the Federalist Society, the National Rifle Association and the Family Research Council.”

But despite all the obvious red flags, an attorney for Ginni Thomas, Mark Paoletta, told The Washington Post she was “proud of the work she did with Crowdsourcers, which brought together conservative leaders to discuss amplifying conservative values with respect to the battle over culture.”

READ MORE: Ginni Thomas ‘Intertwined’ With ‘Vast’ Campaign Pressuring Supreme Court to Overturn Roe: Report

“She believes Crowdsourcers identified the Left’s dominance in most cultural lanes, while conservatives were mostly funding political organizations,” Paoletta also told The Post.

“There is no plausible conflict of interest issue with respect to Justice Thomas,” he claimed.

Others disagree.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who is also an attorney, responded to The Post’s report by mocking Paoletta’s claim there is no conflict of interest.

“Donors Trust was central to the far-right Court-packing operation, and now they pass secret donor funds to a justice’s spouse, but ‘no plausible conflict of interest’? Please.”

Sen. Whitehouse went on to explain his additional concerns.

“Plus, remember that the secrecy conduits like Donors Trust keep the *public* from knowing what’s happening, but nothing prevents the secret donor from telling the spouse or the justice, ‘Hey, that money that secretly came through to you — that’s me.'”

Adam Smith, Vice President for Democracy Initiatives at the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), observed: “Seems like the spouse of a Supreme Court Justice shouldn’t be able to hide the source of huge donations that could be from people with business before the court.”

READ MORE: Ginni Thomas’ Attempts to Influence Overturn of Election Even Wider Than Previously Known

CREW’s President, Noah Bookbinder, a former federal corruption prosecutor, adds: “Hundreds of thousands in anonymous donations to an activist group led by Ginni Thomas, spouse of a Supreme Court justice, raises all kinds of troubling questions about who could be influencing decisions that affect all of us.”

Attorney and Slate Magazine senior writer covering courts and the law, Mark Joseph Stern, pushed back against any idea the nearly $600,000 funding came from small donations.

“Ginni Thomas’ various political ventures have never had any small/grassroots donors. They have ALWAYS been funded by a handful of ultra-wealthy individuals and organizations who are very obviously trying to curry favor with her husband,” Stern said.

Former White House aide and CNN commentator Keith Boykin, also an attorney, called for Justice Thomas to recuse from certain cases: “If Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had to recuse herself from the Harvard affirmative action case, then Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from all the cases on right-wing issues in which his activist wife, Ginni Thomas, is involved.”

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Christian Nationalist Group Working to Get Its ‘Biblical Worldview Spread Across the Nation’

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Last week, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation prohibiting transgender people from using public school facilities that match their gender identity. That legislation was crafted by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a right-wing organization that seeks to elect “godly leaders in our nation at every level” and then use them to “restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation.”

Following the signing of this legislation into law, Jason Rapert, a longtime religious-right activist and ardent Christian nationalist who founded the NACL, took a victory lap, crediting his organization for the law and celebrating its success in pushing back “against the things of the devil in our country.”

As Rapert reported, this legislation had first been proposed by Arkansas school board member David Naylor during an annual NACL meeting and then brought to the Arkansas state legislature by state Rep. Mary Bentley, who serves on the board of the NACL.

On Friday, Rapert interviewed Bentley on his “Save The Nation” program, where she celebrated the NACL’s efforts “to get our biblical worldview spread across the nation.”

“Thank goodness we’ve got some common sense left here in Arkansas,” Bentley said. “[It was because of the NACL] that we were able to get that passed as model policy and bring it forth. I just love seeing grassroots come together and school board members coming to the capitol and going to the governor’s desk and just seeing it all work and flow just exactly how we want to. So, for the folks that are supporting NACL and what we’re doing, this is what we want to do across the country.”

“This is an example of the power of the NACL’s ability with model legislation,” Rapert replied. “This was brought by one of our members, and this policy actually could be immediately adopted by school boards in every school district across this country. If the school board wanted to adopt it, this is the model that they can utilize. And in addition to that, just like you did, go and pass it for the state so that this is going to apply to all the school boards in your state.”

Rapert and Bentley agreed that Arkansas has now blazed the trail on this issue, thereby making it easier for legislatures in other states to enact the same law.

“That’s what happens when you can be a leader,” Bentley asserted. “Once you make a trail, it’s a lot easier for people to follow once you get that trail made.”

“Thank you again for being a part of the NACL,” Bentley declared. “It’s just what we need in this nation right now to have it moving forward, to get our biblical worldview spread across the nation.”

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

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