Voters To Tea Party And Republicans: Get Lost!
Across the nation on election day Tuesday, voters — who went to the polls in higher-than usual numbers — had little trouble pushing back the inroads made by Republicans in the 2010 elections, and furthering the idea that American is not a center-right country. Democrats handily won a great number of races and important ballot issues, sending a strong message to the Republican Party and to the Tea Party: get lost!
The question now is, to what degree did the Occupy Wall Street movement impact Tuesday’s elections? There’s no way to measure, but I’ll offer this: had Occupy Wall Street either not happened, or had it been unsuccessful, voter turnout would have been lower, and Republicans would have performed better. Americans are angry, but too many progressives and Democrats have been far too complacent. Just as the Tea Party energized the Republican base when it first appeared on the scene, so has the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Critical decisions were made in favor of unions and workers’ rights, women’s rights, and LGBT candidates, who were huge winners across the country. Anti-gay, so-called “pro-family” organizations, like NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, Bob Vander Plaats‘ Family Leader, the American Family Association, and the Family Research Council, were crushed.
Even in conservative, religious, right-wing Mississippi, the “personhood” bill was roundly defeated. It would have made contraception and miscarriages illegal, declaring that life begins at the moment of conception.
The single-most important person who fathered Arizona’s infamous immigration law, SB 1070, was recalled. “Considered the de facto governor of Arizona, the seemingly invincible and right-wing extremist Pearce became the first state senate president in American history to be thrown out of office in a recall election,” Alternet reported.
Annise Parker, Houston’s first lesbian mayor, was re-elected.
In a huge loss for NOM, the Bob Vander Plaats, the Family Research Council, and the American Family Association, the Democratic Iowa Senate candidate Liz Mathis, who was attacked by “homosexual marriage includes homosexual sex” robocalls, beat her Republican opponent, securing the Iowa Senate for Democratic control, effectively preserving same-sex marriage for the state.
America’s “first openly gay, African American, Republican mayor,” Bruce Harris, was elected mayor of Chatham Borough, New Jersey.
Charlotte, North Carolina elected their “first openly LGBT elected official,” LaWana Mayfield (image, top), an African-American.
The Virginia Senate has its first openly gay Senator, Adam Ebbin.
Cincinnati, Ohio elected its “first openly LGBT council member in the city’s history,” Chris Seelbach.
Indianapolis, Indiana elected “its first openly LGBT city council member,” Zach Adamson.
Pam Spalding writes, “The smell of bigot flopsweat is in the air as anti-gay Durham, NC mayoral candidate Pastor Sylvester Williams (18%) is trounced by incumbent ally Bill Bell (82%) with 90% of precincts in.”
Here’s a roundup of key races and decisions:
The Good:
Liz Mathis Wins Iowa State Senate District 18
AP: Maine Voters Say Yes To Same Day Registration (Question One) (TPM)
Va. elects first openly gay state  (Washington Blade)
Nation’s youngest gay mayor elected (Gay Politics)
Mississippi: ballot initiative that would have declared life begins at conception defeated (AP)
Read Chris Geidner’s roundup at MetroWeekly.
Gay candidates win big across North Carolina (Q Notes)
“Democrat Jack Conway was re-elected as Kentucky’s attorney general, defeating a Republican prosecutor, Todd P’Pool, who tried to turn the race into a referendum on President Obama’s federal health care law.” (USA Today)
The Bad:
Ledyard Town Clerk Rose Marie Belforti who refused to issue a same-sex couple a marriage license is overwhelmingly reelected (Syracuse.com)
Republican Phil Bryant wins Mississippi gubernatorial election
Enjoy this piece?
… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.
NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.
Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.
|
Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
