Meet the Next Elizabeth Warrens Now Running for Congress
From Zephyr Teachout to Pramila Jayapal to Lucy Flores, these women are ardent activists, deep thinkers, and champions of fundamental reform.
The next Elizabeth Warrens are running for Congress. Some are actually stepping out of academia, as Warren did in 2012, to campaign as champions of fundamental reform. Consider Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham University law professor who is seeking an open congressional seat in New York’s Hudson River Valley with encouragement from local Working Families Party activists and groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Teachout, an expert on money in politics and the author of scholarly texts on the corruption of elections and government, is unapologetic in her activism. She says she plans to focus on “connecting concentrated power and the new monopoly state with how campaigns are funded,” and how this is reflected in the country’s “unbelievably quick transformation to monopoly capitalism instead of competitive markets in area after area. And that’s a vicious cycle with the private-financing model.”
Elected to the State Senate in 2014, Pramila Jayapal has championed wage hikes, voting rights, and protections for immigrants and minorities. Often aligned with Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative activist whom Jayapal backed for re-election in 2015, the state senator will face primary- and general-election fights in what The Seattle Times refers to as a “solidly liberal” district. But she won’t be pulling any punches, as was obvious at an announcement event where she ripped into “people like Donald Trump [who] are whipping up hate and fear across the country, resulting in a rise of anti-Muslim violence.”
Those themes are being heard more and more in House races around the country. In Nevada, for instance, Lucy Flores, who went from being a high-school dropout who “fell through the cracks” to earning a law degree and winning a legislative seat, is in a highly competitive primary contest for an open seat that Democrats think they can win in November. In January, Flores announced her support for Sanders, declaring: “Now, more than ever, America needs a political revolution.”
Full Article at The Nation
The next Elizabeth Warrens are running for Congress. Some are actually stepping out of academia, as Warren did in 2012, to campaign as champions of fundamental reform. Consider Zephyr Teachout, the Fordham University law professor who is seeking an open congressional seat in New York’s Hudson River Valley with encouragement from local Working Families Party activists and groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. Teachout, an expert on money in politics and the author of scholarly texts on the corruption of elections and government, is unapologetic in her activism. She says she plans to focus on “connecting concentrated power and the new monopoly state with how campaigns are funded,” and how this is reflected in the country’s “unbelievably quick transformation to monopoly capitalism instead of competitive markets in area after area. And that’s a vicious cycle with the private-financing model.”
Elected to the State Senate in 2014, Pramila Jayapal has championed wage hikes, voting rights, and protections for immigrants and minorities. Often aligned with Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative activist whom Jayapal backed for re-election in 2015, the state senator will face primary- and general-election fights in what The Seattle Times refers to as a “solidly liberal” district. But she won’t be pulling any punches, as was obvious at an announcement event where she ripped into “people like Donald Trump [who] are whipping up hate and fear across the country, resulting in a rise of anti-Muslim violence.”
Those themes are being heard more and more in House races around the country. In Nevada, for instance, Lucy Flores, who went from being a high-school dropout who “fell through the cracks” to earning a law degree and winning a legislative seat, is in a highly competitive primary contest for an open seat that Democrats think they can win in November. In January, Flores announced her support for Sanders, declaring: “Now, more than ever, America needs a political revolution.”
Full Article at The Nation