California Legislative Black Caucus: Rep. Karen Bass or Rep. Barbara Lee should replace Kamala Harris is Senate

The California Legislative Black Caucus met via Zoom with other Black leaders Friday and urged Governor Gavin Newsom to appoint an African American woman to fill the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated when Kamala Harris takes office as the first African American female Vice President of the United States.

Speakers at the Zoom conference included the leader of the California Legislative Black Caucus, Dr. Shirley Weber; the Vice Chair of the Caucus, Steven Bradford; a newly elected Los Angeles Councilmember, Mark Ridley Thomas and the Chair of the California Democratic Party African American Caucus, Taisha Brown.

The group unanimously recommended either Karen Bass or Barbara Lee as appointees to the California Senate seat vacated by Harris.

Karen Bass formerly served in the California State Assembly for six years, the last two as speaker. As a Los Angeles native, Bass is currently the Congresswoman for the 37th congressional district of California.

As such, Bass was elected chair of the Congressional Black Caucus in 2018, serves as Chair of the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations and for the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

The other highly qualified candidate suggested by the Caucus is Barbara Lee. Lee was elected to the State Assembly in 1990, where she served for six years prior to being elected to the State Senate.

As a legislator, Lee authored almost 70 bills and resolutions that were signed into law by then Republican Governor Pete Wilson. These different pieces of legislation addressed a wide variety of issues ranging from public safety to environmental issues.

In 1995, Lee authored the California Schools Hate Crimes Reduction Act, which affords protection from hate crimes to all students in public schools regardless of their race, gender identity, sexual orientation, or other. During her time in the State Senate, Lee was a strong advocate for African Americans, and for women.

In 1998, Lee was elected as Congresswoman for California’s then 9th district where she took controversial stances on many different issues. She has been a strong advocate for legislation to end poverty, ending the HIV epidemic and the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force following the September 11 attacks.

As Dr. Shirley Weber noted in her remarks Friday morning, both women “have confidently built strong coalitions across diverse communities, and will do so in the senate.”

[SOURCE: DAVISVANGUARD]

Lauren Underwood wins re-election to House of Representatives

In a very tight race Democrat Lauren Underwood (IL, 14th District) defeated her Republican challenger Jim Oberbeus to win re-election to the House of Representatives.

The Associated Press called the close race for Underwood on 11/12/2020.

Underwood got 50.6% of the vote to Oberweis' 49.4%.

Vote Totals

Democrat: Lauren Underwood 200,638

Repulican: Jim Oberweis 196,034

Nikema Williams wins John Lewis' congressional seat

Democratic State Senator Nikema Williams won the race for U.S. Representative John Lewis’s seat, representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.

Nikema Williams is also Georgia’s Democratic Party chairperson. She received more than 90% of the vote, beating out Republican Angela Stanton King. She says she’s proud to succeed her hero and civil rights icon Representative Lewis.

“To think that voters in this district could deliver for the presidency and get Donald Trump out of the White House is just poetic justice,” she said.

Williams says she plans to make addressing the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic her number one priority in Congress, specifically drawing attention to the healthcare disparities hurting the black community.

“We have to get this right. Our economy is hurting. Our education is hurting. Our healthcare is at risk, because we have not had leaders willing to address this pandemic,” said Williams.

She says she also plans to address voting rights, advocating for standardized processes nationwide to make sure all votes are counted equally.

[SOURCE: CBS Atlanta]

Naval Academy announces first African American female brigade commander

History will be made at the Naval Academy in Annapolis next year.

When spring semester midshipman leadership positions were announced last week, they included Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber, of Lake Forest, Illinois, who will become the academy's first African American female brigade commander.

Barber will be the sixteenth woman selected for brigade commander in the 44 years women have been attending the Naval Academy.

Barber is a mechanical engineering major and aspires to commission as a Marine Corps ground officer. She is also on the Navy Women’s Varsity Track and Field team, and has lettered all three years of competing. She is a USNA record holder for the outdoor 4x400m relay. She is the co-president of the Navy Fellowship of Christian Athletes Club, secretary for the National Society of Black Engineers, and a member of the USNA Gospel Choir and Midshipman Black Studies Club.

“She is a catalyst for action, a visionary, a listener, a doer, and a person driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of passion and heart full of love,” said Midshipman 1st Class Ryan Chapman, who currently holds the semester-long brigade commander position. “Sydney is the perfect person to lead the brigade.”

[SOURCE: WJLA]

Rep. Donald Payne Jr. thanks voters for re-electing him

NJ Congressman Donald Payne Jr. released the following statement thanking voters for his re-election:

I want to thank all my constituents in New Jersey's 10th District for electing me to represent you in the halls of Congress again. It is an honor and a privilege I don't take for granted for a second. Again, I thank you for your confidence to represent your will.