Author: Mel Leonor Barclay, The 19th

Mel Leonor Barclay is a political reporter. She has a decade of experience covering government and elections, from tiny South Florida localities to Congress. Most recently, Leonor Barclay was a Virginia politics reporter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and previously covered federal policy at POLITICO. Leonor Barclay is an immigrant of the Dominican Republic and native Spanish speaker.

How a Kamala Harris Candidacy Could Supercharge Democrats’ Message on Abortion

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President Joe Biden’s decision to not seek a second term—and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him—gives Democrats the opportunity to elevate an eager and consistent messenger on abortion rights heading into the first presidential election since the fall of Roe v. Wade. 

Harris had already become the administration’s leading voice on the importance of abortion rights, one of the Democratic Party’s top issues, at the federal and state level. She has spent the last year using rallies and interviews to make a clear-eyed case to voters on how a second Donald Trump presidency and Republican majorities in Congress could restrict abortion access. 

Trump Is Man in a Man’s World. The RNC Underscored That.

The GOP convention put on display the party’s version of masculinity that has shaped Trump’s time in the public eye, from his cultivated image as a playboy in New York to his campaigns for office.

“The idea of the president as the hypermasculine father protector figure has been with us since the start,” said Melissa Heldman, who has long studied masculinity in presidential politics. Trump’s brand of masculinity, she said, has been that of an aggressor and open bully more “than probably any previous president.”

Laphonza Butler Tapped to Fill Dianne Feinstein’s Senate Seat

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday named Laphonza Butler, the first Black woman to lead EMILY’s List, to fill the Senate vacancy created by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Butler was named two years ago to lead EMILY’s List, which works to elect Democratic women who support abortion access, and has led the organization through the end of federal abortion rights. Butler will also be the first openly LGBTQ+ senator from California.

“An advocate for women and girls, a second-generation fighter for working people, and a trusted adviser to Vice President Harris, Laphonza Butler represents the best of California, and she’ll represent us proudly in the United States Senate,” Newsom said in a statement.