The primaries were yesterday (8/14/2018) so I hope you all made it out to vote as I did. Every little bit is needed to set us up for success in the November midterm. It looks like we are off to a good start in ramping up for that, and there being a number of progressive Democratic party nominees really leaves me hopeful for later this year.

“The Democratic Party has long attempted to brand itself as the party of diversity, and on Tuesday, voters delivered several results that may further support that claim” (NY Times).

In Minnesota Ilhan Omar won the Democratic primary for district 5. Ms. Omar last year became the first Somali-American to win public office and is a practicing Muslim, which you’d think would make her the most conservative of the people I’m going to mention here. In reality “Omar supports a $15 hourly minimum wage and free tuition for college students whose family income is below $125,000 as well as greater accessibility to student loan forgiveness programs. As of May 2018, she had authored 38 bills, though none have been passed into law. She is an Assistant Minority Leader for the DFL caucus” (Wikipedia).

In Vermont, Christine Hallquist took the Dem slot in the primaries. She is a transgender female who wants to see the minimum wage made a living wage and also supports a single payer healthcare system, just like most of us that were “feeling the Bern” over Hillary in the last election for the Democratic candidacy.

Jahana Hayes took the Democratic primary for Connecticut. She is an African-American woman who was voted “National Teacher of the Year” in 2016 and had no formal political experience before this point. She is a teacher with a good education and her having never hosted a reality show really makes me hopeful that she’ll do a solid job in public office.

It’s a good start and if you’d like to see the rest of the results of the election, click here for CNN’s updated list. I hope everyone that could vote got out and did so and I hope you will again in November for the midterm elections. The future of the US really is depending on our votes this year. If we continue the way the current administration is headed, it’s very possible we’ll end up totally isolating ourselves from the rest of the world or at war with another country as well as reverting our public social system back to the 1950’s with rampant racism, misogyny, and xenophobia everywhere. It’s already more prominent than it was in 2016 and it’s getting worse. This is something we can actively do to stop it so make sure you get out and vote to do your part.

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