As Democrats look to expand their House majority, they are hoping to flip the seat for Texas' 24th congressional district.
Republican incumbent Rep. Kenny Marchant is retiring, leaving the seat up for grabs in a district where Donald Trump had a strong showing in the 2016 presidential election, but Democrat Beto O'Rourke performed well in his failed 2018 bid for Senate
Now, if the Democratic nominee Candace Valenzuela manages to pull off a win, she will make history as the country's first Afro-Latina congresswoman.
Still, the idea that lawmakers continue to make history by breaking racial and cultural barriers reflects the lack of progress America has made.
"The fact that I'm the first in 2020, it just speaks to the fact that we've been lacking representation in so many different ways," she noted.
After winning in a primary runoff, Valenzuela told Cheddar she is confident that she will be heading to Washington because she can relate to the voters in her community.
"It's the quintessential American story," Valenzuela said. "It's the story of families fighting for the ability to put a roof over their heads, put food on the table, to see their children succeed because they have access to education they need."
For Valenzuela, life has presented its share of obstacles including homelessess that drove her family to live in shelters, and even outside of a gas station, but through government-assisted programs she says they persevered and landed on solid ground.
"Those opportunities are those that I'm fighting for every Texas and every American," she said. "We were able to get things together through some key programs. Housing through HUD, we got food stamps, and public schools became a source of stability, a source of home, a source of social stability for my brother and I."
As no stranger to hitting life's curveballs,Valenzuela said the challenges brought by the coronavirus pandemic will not stop her from delivering her message of relatability to voters.
"Instead of knocking on doors, we've been making phone calls, we've been shooting texts, we've been having digital town halls on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter," she said.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
President Donald Trump's administration is appealing a ruling blocking him from immediately firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook as he seeks more control over the traditionally independent board. The notice of appeal was filed Wednesday, hours after U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb handed down the ruling. The White House insists the Republican president had the right to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations involving properties in Michigan and Georgia from before she joined the Fed. Cook's lawsuit denies the allegations and says the firing was unlawful. The case could soon reach the Supreme Court, which has allowed Trump to fire members of other independent agencies but suggested that power has limitations at the Fed.
Chief Justice John Roberts has let President Donald Trump remove a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of high-profile firings allowed for now by the Supreme Court.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
