Election season is officially here, and women of color are shattering previous numbers as candidates at all levels. There have been some notable and unexpected victories by progressive women of color, taking out establishment candidates, from Stacey Abrams in the Georgia Governor’s race to Congressional candidates Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Rashida Tlaib in Michigan and Ayanna Presley in Massachusetts. We talk with Democracy in Color‘s Aimee about the She The People Summit, a one-day national gathering of women of color to be held in San Francisco on September 23 (registration is open to the public).
Then we sit down with Gayle McLaughlin, two-term mayor and three-term city council member in Richmond, California, and cofounder of the Richmond Progressive Alliance. Under her leadership, Richmond raised the minimum wage to $15, passed the first new rent control ordinance in California in decades, and reduced the homicide rate by 75%. Gayle is now helping to build the California Progressive Alliance, to spread the Richmond model to other cities around the state.