We Need Trevor Thomas In Congress And Trevor Thomas Needs Your Help Now
I like Trevor Thomas. Trevor first came on my radar when he was working for SLDN, working to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Remember all those “Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama” we published in 2010? Thank Trevor for making that happen. Trevor worked tirelessly for SLDN, providing so much information and advocating day and night to repeal DADT. But even before I knew Trevor, he had worked for the LGBT community at HRC, since 2007. And when DADT repeal was sewn up, in January of 2011, Trevor went to work for a group I admire greatly, Equality Matters, part of the Media Matters family. He’s had five years of successful campaigning for our issues. Now he’s campaigning for us again — this time, hopefully, his campaign will lead him into Congress.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dME7qql824o%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US
Trevor Thomas, who happens to be openly gay, is running for Congress, for Michigan’s third district in Western Michigan, the Grand Rapids area. Here’s his website.
You should vote for him if you can. You should support him in every wary that you can.
You can support Trevor Thomas by clicking here now. Please do!
Here are a few words from Trevor’s campaign about why he’s running and about the multi-millionaire Tea Party Republicans he’s facing.
Trevor Thomas, 28, filed in February to challenge tea-party freshmen U.S. Rep. Justin Amash in Michigan’s 3rd district — the seat of President Jerry Ford. As the only person not self-funding in the race, Trevor comes from a working class family — his mom and dad met on the lines of General Motors where they worked together for more than 30 years.  According to campaign pollster Mark Mellman, Justin Amash is unpopular with a re-elect of 33 percent. Trevor is in the margin-of-error, but first he must win the democratic primary against local establishment pick Steve Pestka, 60.
Pestka is socially conservative and does not support a woman’s right to choose and does not allow exceptions for rape and incest. Trevor, who helped repeal the discriminatory “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, spoke out at Netroots Nation for the DREAM Act and is pro-choice. Trevor was just endorsed by Governor Jennifer Granholm and Lt. Gov. John Cherry. Knowing the district leans red, his campaign slogan, “A campaign for us all”, was unveiled as Trevor was introduced at his kick off by former Kent County/Grand Rapids GOP party chair Bob Eleveld.
Today, The New Civil Rights Movement is joining other prominent blogs, listed below, and coming together to say we don’t want Tea Party politicians in Congress, and we don’t want Republican politicians in Congress, and we don’t want so-called “moderate Democrats” who aren’t progressive Democrats in Congress.
Remember the 14 months of war in Congress over “Obamacare”? If Congress had been filled with more real Democrats, more real progressives, we could have had a single payer system and not faced the threat –a very real threat, as we’ve learned this week — of the Supreme Court striking down the most important Democratic achievement in 50 years.
Here’s more about Trevor, from his campaign:
Trevor Thomas is running for Congress against a Tea-Party Republican in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and he needs help. Â Trevor, who is openly gay and helped repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ by working with the Human Rights Campaign and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, is at a critical fundraising deadline in the next 24 hours.
Trevor’s up against a lot.  Both his opponents are self-funding millionaires. Trevor is a member of the 99%, coming from a working class family — his mom and dad met on the factory lines of General Motors where they worked together for more than 30 years.  He filed in February to challenge freshmen U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, but now also has a Democratic primary opponent who doesn’t support a woman’s right to choose and called Trevor’s work on LGBT issues “extreme.”
This is the seat once held by President Jerry Ford. Â Trevor’s message centers on the values of Jerry Ford – a man who believed in clean water, the Civil Rights Act, LGBT equality, and a woman’s right to make her own personal health care decisions. To this day, the district still leans red, which is why Trevor has already started reaching across the aisle even as he maintains solidly progressive stances. His inclusive slogan, “A Campaign For Us All,” was unveiled at a campaign kickoff where Trevor was introduced by longtime Republican and former Kent County GOP Party Chair Bob Eleveld.
After working as a reporter in the community, Trevor went on to work for Governor Jennifer Granholm who has now endorsed him in the race.  You can watch Trevor’s interview with her on The War Room with Jennifer Granholm, aired last Friday night and focused on his race being one of the youngest in the country.
Trevor needs our help so he is not outpaced by two multi-millionaires. Â Let’s stand with him now.
The New Civil Rights Movement is proud to support Trevor Thomas, who is openly-gay, and has done battle for the LGBT community. Now, he wants to help all Americans.
Here’s the list of other blogs that today are participating in a “blogswarm” to help elect Trevor Thomas:
–Marcy Wheeler at EmptyWheel
I hope you’ll consider contributing to Trevor’s campaign if you possibly can. If you can’t, please share this with all your friends and family.
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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
