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The Gov Hub Newsletter: August 12, 2024

The Gov Hub Newsletter: August 12, 2024

Gov Hub
August 12, 2024

Welcome to The Gov Hub Newsletter by Girl and the Gov®. This weekly pop of politics is designed to share action items, resources, & quick links to civic engagement tools & topics. Find a typo? Congrats, today is your lucky day!

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THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 – VOTING

The Ask: Make sure your group chat of besties are registered to vote.

The Background: Election day is going to come at us all F A S T. Make sure every friend, from the classic type A to the master procrastinator, is registered to vote at their current address. Not every state has same-day registration, and you don’t want to find out yours doesn’t on E-Day.

ACTION 2 – ELECTIONS

The Ask: Sign-up to be a poll worker and help protect democracy.

The Background: The math is simple – we need more poll workers across the country to make sure our elections go on smoothly. If you like lists, organization, and making a difference, being a poll worker for the day will be right up your alley.

Looking for more action items? Check our library of past Gov Hub’s.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Just about guaranteed to make it to the group chat

The Wisconsin Dems have gone full brat(wurst) mode with this iconic merch collection, and so have these campaigns which get gold, silver, and bronze in the political wear-ables competition [hosted by us, obvi].

Biden apparently held an ice cream social for staffers as a TYSM for helping with the campaign that changed courses, and all we want to know is if it included Ben & Jerry’s new YOU Churn out the Vote ice cream, because duh.

In California, this state Senator said “I’m the drama” and switched parties, from Dem to GOP, citing that her values no longer align with the Dem party.

What’s cookin’ Gov. Walz Turkey Trot Tater-Tot Hotdish and VP Harris’s Classic Tuna Melt, both made using Harris’s 7 top cooking tips, obvi.

As for the Second Gentleman, he’s dropping tips on how to annoy your wife and also support your wife via this mini series with Esquire.

Now if football isn’t your sport and you’re like WTF Walz, idk my BFF Jill about his sports analogies, this ‘primer’ will get you up to speed and translate what he’s sayin’.

It appears JD Vance dressed in drag in college. We yet again have to ask, who makes your eyeliner? Is it waterproof? Mechanical, old school or gel?

In this teeny tiny Michigan town, they’ve elected a horse to replace their dog mayor. Literally. And it’s caused a whole hullabaloo!

GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]

MA GOVERNOR HEALEY SIGNS PARENTAGE LAW: Legal parenting equality got a big boost in Massachusetts with Governor Maura Healey signing the Parentage Act. The legislation brought MA’s parentage laws into the 21st century with critical updates that “ensures the rights and protections for parents who use surrogacy, in-vitro fertilization and assisted reproduction, while also updating the law to be more inclusive to LGBTQ+ parents.” In translation, the newly minted law guarantees that all families in the state have the same legal rights and protections regardless of marital status, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation of the parents OR whether the child was born via surrogacy or assisted reproduction.

BIPARTISAN LAW CREATING PERMANENT ADVISORY BOARD FOR WIC IN PA GOES INTO EFFECT: A bill turned law circa this spring [2024] went into effect in Pennsylvania this weekend that creates a permanent advisory board for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC. If you’re not familiar with WIC, as explained by the PA Senate Democrats, “WIC offers federal funding to states to provide supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, as well as to infants and children under the age of five who are identified as being at nutritional risk.” Now, with this new law, the advisory board will be tasked with reviewing WIC’s impact, its effectiveness, and areas that need improvement. The board will also be responsible for recommending solutions to pieces of the program that have roadblocks or other issues that prevent people from being able to access its benefits.

HGW LISTENS

Hit play on these pods

Toto, we are in Kansas with this episode of Girl and the Gov, The Podcast featuring Kansas State Rep. Haswood chatting about the state’s political landscape.

Laverne Cox joined this episode of America, Who Hurt You? to discuss the current status of trans rights in the US and the fear mongering done by the media around the topic.

Swing state Nevada is top of mind for people from coast to coast, but especially for Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar who chatted about the state’s voter rolls on this episode of Ballot Battleground Nevada.

BOOK THESE BOOKS

Read for your book club

Senator Tim Kaine is walkin’ with it, ridin’ with it, and paddling with it, via his new book Walk Ride Paddle which features tales from his outdoor adventures across the state of Virginia.

Coming to a Barnes & Noble and bookstores near you is abortion reporter Jessica Valenti’s book - Abortion. Our Bodies, Their Lies, and the Truths We Use to Win.

A book that will probably be banned in Utah for being about book bans is this soon-to-be-available tome, That Librarian by Amanda Jones.

**BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T**

Bills, bills, bills

FEDERAL: If you’ve been ‘round the block with us for a bit, you know that child marriage in the U.S. is still legal in most states. And while getting it banned mostly requires action at the state level, this bill, introduced in the U.S. Senate – the Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2024 – takes aim at the practice at the federal level. Specifically, the bill would…

Establish a National Commission to Combat Child Marriage.
Require a report by the GAO examining child marriage across the country.
Incentivize states to ban child marriage via grant funding.
Create a competitive grant program for eligible states that set-up state-based task forces to examine the practice in their states.
Ban child marriage from occurring on federally-funded or owned land/buildings/property.
Instruct the AG to promulgate a model state statute that prohibits child marriage.

FEDERAL: Everyone knows that bodega BECs are the GOAT. But do they know that bodegas and their employees face unique safety issues? Maybe not. Regardless, this new bill – the BODEGA Act – if passed, would expand the use cases for existing grants, allowing bodegas to use approved grant money for panic buttons and surveillance equipment to keep employees safe.

ELECTION SZN 2024

Guides, chatter, who’s who

As of the date of this newsletter, Trump has recommitted to the September 10th presidential debate with VP Harris. We’ll put our money on this changing about 10x before it happens, if it does at all, TBH.

Wisconsin has a big day tomorrow with primaries happening all over the state. This gives the FAQ version of what to expect or look out for.

Let’s paint this picture: Your conservative uncle brings up how Gov. Tim Walz handled the 2020 protests (unfun). Then you send that uncle this fact check run-down form USA Today (welp).

Who is Gwen Walz, first lady of MN? NPR has the quick skinny.

Because there’s seriously something in the water with North Carolina’s GOP nominees, this one running to be in charge of NC’s school systems as the Superintendent of Public Instruction has previously but publicly called for the execution of Obama, Biden, and others. Touch…. grass??

The governor’s race in Washington state is shaping up, with these two dudes at the top of the ticket one who wants to protect repro rights and the other who wants to ban abortion.

Trump had himself a manic Monday-style press conference last week and NPR found that his address had over 162 lies and distortions of the truth in it.

Some say a picture is worth a thousand words – and this picture of three maps is certainly worth that if not more in showing the political shift in this PA state house district. Some might even say it’s because of this candidate running on the ticket.

Meanwhile in Arizona at the Harris/Walz rally, this Republican mayor – the mayor of Mesa, Arizona – endorsed Harris/Walz.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

NPR: Walz and ‘legion of dudes’ want to give men permission to vote Democrat
CNN Politics: Iran steps up influence campaign aimed at US voter with fake news sites, Microsoft says
Politico: We received internal Trump documents from ‘Robert.” Then the campaign confirmed it was hacked.
The Hill: GOP lawmaker squares off with USDA, tribes over farm bill land transfer