Taniel Profile picture
11 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
The Houston DA is getting a mountain of Eyes today for prosecuting a doctor.

She was up for re-election in 2020, & challenged by a few progressive candidates in a Dem primary that just didn't generate that much buzz & attention.

(Which is just to say, local elections matter!!)
ALSO, are you paying attention to 2021 elections for DA yet? Because things are starting to heat up. theappeal.org/criminal-justi…
Houston's Ogg secured the nomination in March with 55%, avoiding runoff. I've wondered how well she'd have fared in July runoff (after attn to George Floyd, police, inequality) had she dipped below 50%.

Austin's DA went from being down 44/41 in March to losing 68/32 in July.
[That first tweet was meant to have an "👀" emoji, rather than 'Eyes,' which looks strange.]

If you've missed the story, this is what it's referring to: nytimes.com/2021/02/10/us/…

originally reported via: houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Taniel

Taniel Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Taniel

13 Feb
First Republican to vote to convict: Richard Burr.
Second Republican to vote to convict: Bill Cassidy
Third Republican to vote guilty: Susan Collins
Read 8 tweets
21 Jan
exactly 2 weeks ago , at around this hour, Ted Cruz voted to disenfranchise every single voter of Pittsburgh (a city that went for Biden) by throwing out their state's electoral votes.
now that that's been said, I'll add: worse things to do than listening to the citizens of Paris when it comes to climate
(also watch out to see if Hidalgo runs for president in France next year))
Read 4 tweets
20 Jan
Georgia is transformed.

And this is not just happening in *federal* elections & policy.

Yes, the state is run by the GOP, still. But locally, just since Nov., there've been huge flips & changes toward Dems in general & toward progressive policy in particular.

Some examples. ⬇
Gwinnett & Cobb counties, populous suburbs of Atlanta, were long conservative bastions — & known for very anti-immigrant policies.

Two black Dems flipped both sheriffs' offices in November away from longtime GOP sheriffs.

And both VERY quickly ended ICE contracts this month.
Cobb & Gwinnett are important for 2 reasons: partisan shift at top of ticket also applied to local offices.

*And* these Dems ran on big meaningful transformations like ending ICE contracts, *&* kept their words.

That wasn't obvious at all. Took work. (theappeal.org/politicalrepor…)
Read 6 tweets
19 Jan
A big day in Georgia today: The new sheriff of Cobb County terminated the county's (287g) contract with ICE.

This used to be Newt Gingrich's base; it had a longtime GOP sheriff who targeted immigrants. But in 2020 a Black Dem ran on this, flipped office: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
"Let me be clear: there’s a new day and a new era in Cobb County," the new sheriff (Craig Owens) said today. ajc.com/news/atlanta-n…

Indeed!

Here's what he told The Appeal in September on why he'd do this: theappeal.org/politicalrepor…
And 👀: this is 3rd populous Southern county that has quit ICE's 287(g) this month due to the 2020 races! (And there've been more since 2018.)

Gwinnett County (GA) & Charleston (SC) also just elected sheriffs who ran on this.

My thread on Charleston:
Read 4 tweets
18 Jan
big news in Virginia: a bill to abolish the death penalty passed the state Senate's Judiciary Committee, 10-4.

All Democrats voted yes. And one Republican voted yes.

(Just a year ago, the bill had failed in the same committee. So this was one of the clear obstacles.)
3 Dem senators who last year had voted to delay the bill (as well as one Republican) voted to advance it today.

The Republican who joined proponents of abolition is Bill Stanley, from the 20th district. [**corrected**]
Virginia is the likeliest state to abolish the death penalty in 2021, as I've said, & keep up the trend of yearly abolition.

But many steps remain.
Read 4 tweets
13 Jan
Many exciting things in Dems' updated federal voting rights bill.

Including online, automatic, and same-day voter registration mandates.

Another big measure: restoring voting rights to anyone who is not presently incarcerated. Would affect millions.
There's important organizing around the important idea of eliminating disenfranchisement altogether.

But the fact that Dems are coalescing so clearly around the idea that anyone not incarcerated should vote is itself recent, & a huge deal. 4 states got that done in 2019/2020.
(That's why I said it was so disappointing earlier this week for the VA governor to propose felony disenfranchisement reform that would not at least enfranchise everyone not in prison: It leaves many behind, *and* in a way that's far from the mainstream politics of the moment.)
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!