US Sees Surge in Women Interested in Running for Office

ATLANTA — 

Inside a classroom on the campus of a community college in Dallas, a group of about two dozen women took turns sharing their names, hometowns and what they hoped would be their future titles.

Congresswoman. County judge. State representative.

It was part of a training held by EMILY's List, an organization dedicated to electing women at all levels of government who support abortion rights. One of the presentation's PowerPoint slides flashed a mock advertisement on the projector screen: "Help Wanted: Progressive Women Candidates."

A record number of women appear to be answering that call, fueled largely by frustration on the Democratic side over the election of President Donald Trump and energized by Democratic women winning races in Virginia in November. Experts say 2018 is on track to be a historic year, with more women saying they are running at this point than ever before.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILY's List. "Every day, dozens more women come to our website, come to our Facebook page and say, 'I am mad as hell. I want to do something about it. What should I do now?' "

In the four weeks after the 2016 election, 1,000 women came to the group's website to learn about running for office. That number has now surpassed 26,000. By comparison, the group was in contact with 960 women for the previous election cycle.

Whether all that enthusiasm will result in full-fledged campaigns and translate to gains in the number of women elected to office remains to be seen.

One-fifth of federal lawmakers

Although women are more than half the American population, they account for just a fifth of all U.S. representatives and senators, and one in four state lawmakers. They serve as governors of only six states and mayors in roughly 20 percent of the nation's most populous cities.

For Sarah Riggs Amico, the executive chairwoman of a major auto hauling company, last year's Women's March in Atlanta ignited her interest in running for office.

"It was something that really lifted me up and made me want to demand better from my government," said Amico, who recently announced plans to run for lieutenant governor in Georgia.

Sol Flores has been walking in marches with her mother in Chicago since she was a little girl, but never thought she would run for office. Now 44, Flores said she was enraged by policies put forward by the Trump administration and decided to jump into a crowded Democratic primary for Illinois' 4th Congressional District.

Flores said her network of friends has been crucial to helping her navigate the realities of being a first-time candidate and the challenges of gathering signatures for qualifying and fundraising.

"Women are really good at this, saying, 'Let's sit down and figure this out. You raised your hand, and let's win. Let's go to Washington, D.C.,' " said Flores, the executive director of a nonprofit helping homeless families and at-risk youth.

The last time the U.S. saw a surge in women running for office was 1992, in the wake of Anita Hill's testimony before an all-male U.S. Senate committee weighing the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was called the "Year of the Woman" because women were elected to the U.S. House and Senate in record numbers.

The number of women in office has held steady in recent years, but experts say conditions are ripe for an increase in 2018 — especially if more politicians are forced to step down or retire amid the growing #MeToo movement that began with accusations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Open seats

One U.S. senator and four congressmen have so far announced plans to retire or not seek re-election following allegations against them, presenting a prime opportunity for women to compete for their open seats. For example, seven women have expressed interest in an April special election for an Arizona congressional seat.

The increase in women candidates is largely being seen in U.S. House and governor's races next year and driven primarily by Democrats, said Debbie Walsh, who leads the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. In addition to the 50 Democratic and 10 Republican congresswomen expected to run for re-election, there are 183 Democratic women and 14 Republican women running in primaries to challenge their current U.S. representatives.

These can be uphill races, but many of the women running say they were encouraged by what happened in Virginia in November, when 30 percent of the women who challenged their state representatives won.

Katie Hill is among those seeking to oust her local congressman, Republican Representative Steve Knight, in California's 25th Congressional District, a key Democratic target this year.

As an advocate for the homeless, Hill recalled the joy she felt on the night of the 2016 election when voters in Los Angeles passed a $1.2 billion bond measure for housing and services for homeless people and those at risk of becoming homeless. But she said that was quickly tempered by the outcome of the presidential election.

"November made us all realize that our country is not where we need to be," Hill said. "And that's the point when people start to stand up and say, 'If no one else is going to fix, I'm going to.' "

It's not just Democrats. First-time Republican and Libertarian women candidates are also jumping into the mix.

Republicans launched an effort in 2012 that is focused on electing women. Under the "Right Women, Right Now" program, 390 new GOP women have been elected since then.

"Twenty-five percent of state legislators are women, and that's clearly insufficient," said Matt Walter, head of the Republican State Leadership Committee. "That's a Democratic and Republican number, and something we really felt strongly was something we needed to change."

'Exactly what we need'

Tiffany Shedd, a lawyer for small businesses who lives on a farm in Eloy, Arizona, said she was talking with her husband one evening this year about the importance of having someone representing them in Congress who will fight for rural communities. She said he challenged her to run.

"I said, 'I can't run. What's a person from a little town in Arizona doing running for Congress?' " Shedd said. "And then I thought, 'Wow — that is exactly what we need.' "

She will be running in the Republican primary in the hopes of challenging Democratic Representative Tom O'Halleran in November.

On the state level, 36 governor's races will be contested in 2018. The Center for American Women and Politics says 49 Democratic women, including two incumbents, and 28 Republican women have indicated they will run for those seats. There have never been more than nine women serving as governors at the same time.

Even if all the women who have reached out to groups such as EMILY's List do not end up running next year, they are expected to play key roles in supporting those who do.

"This is the next decade of candidates," Schriock said.

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Trump 2018 Priorities Focused on November Mid-term Election

WHITE HOUSE — 

President Donald Trump, energized by an end-of-year tax cut victory and a buoyant economy, is pushing ahead with a domestic and foreign priority agenda designed with the 2018 mid-term elections in mind.

"Welfare reform, infrastructure, responsible immigration reform and health care will all be top priorities for the administration this year," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Trump's latest tweets provide a few clues about his mindset. Among his first tweets of the New Year, the president cast Republicans as the friends of young immigrants who could be deported when the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program expires ends in March.

And he has signaled that he won't relent on his campaign promise to restrict illegal immigration and build a wall along the Mexican border.

White House officials say repealing and replacing Obamacare is also a Trump imperative.

But the most immediate priority will be avoiding a government shutdown January 19 when the current stopgap funding measure runs out.

"Obviously the budget is the first and foremost … and the biggest priority in the immediate term," Sanders said Tuesday. "The president wants a two-year budget deal that provides realistic budget caps and provides for our national security. That'll be front and center in the conversations that are taking place this week [with Congressional leaders]."

Trump watchers say the president also wants to step up initiatives to roll back what he has called the "regulatory state" this year and win bipartisan approval of an infrastructure bill that could authorize as much as a trillion dollars in new spending.

"He wants to take the momentum from tax reform which he sees as a cornerstone achievement, using his executive power to tear down a lot of the big government and big regulation that he sees as impediments to the American economy and doing business with the United States, and move on to infrastructure as the next priority," said Dan Mahaffee, senior vice president and director of policy at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.

"He personally likes building things. He has a construction background, and he's going to like projects to rebuild bridges and roads and other big projects," Mahaffee said. "The pushback he will get will be from Republicans worried about the price tag of these massive infrastructure projects."

Iran developments

Mahaffee and others say, however, that no matter how much Trump wants to focus on the crucial mid-term elections, geopolitical issues have a way of dominating a president's priorities.

"There are always these surprises on the global stage, things you can't plan for and have to accommodate," he said. "I don't think anyone saw the nature of these protests in Iran that have really driven from the bottom up about economic concerns."

Trump has devoted a number of tweets to Iran in past days, and was busy again Tuesday following the latest night of deadly clashes.

Trump's embrace of the protesters and denunciations of Iran's government contrasts with how the Obama administration responded to the 2009 protests over Iran's contested presidential election. At the time, U.S. officials had more restrained responses to try to keep the U.S. from becoming an issue in the demonstrations.

James Carafano, vice president for the Institute of National Security and Foreign Policy at Washington's conservative Heritage Foundation, says that decision was a mistake.

"One of the things that took the steam out of the revolution in 2009 was the fact they felt that the rest of the world had abandoned them. They got no strong support from the international community," he told VOA.

"The regime interpreted that as, there need be no constraints on how they responded. That has changed," Carafano said.

Former Obama administration officials dispute that view, saying that such high-profile support will do more harm than good.

​North Korea

Containing the North Korea threat and a more confrontational approach toward China will join Iran as Trump's foreign policy priorities in 2018, as set out in the National Security Strategy issued in December.

​Many pundits in the international community have described Trump's foreign priorities as confused and chaotic, but Carafano says America's enemies see the president's positions on key issues as robust.

"I think our adversaries increasingly think they have to take into account an American foreign policy that is more forceful than the previous administration," he said.

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Iran Protests Revive Bitter US Political Divides

CAPITOL HILL — 

President Donald Trump blamed former president Barack Obama Tuesday for "foolishly" giving Iranian leadership money as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement negotiated by his administration, tweeting a claim the funds "went into terrorism and into their pockets."

Trump's tweet recalled the bitter and ongoing political divide over the deal and the U.S. approach to the Islamic Republic, as protests in Iran reached their sixth day on Tuesday. At least 21 people are reported killed in those nationwide protests.

Trump has drawn a clear comparison to Obama's response to the June 2009 Green Revolution, when the former president told reporters "it's up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders should be."

Republican critics in Congress said Obama should have been more forceful in support of the Green Revolution, after it was triggered by a presidential election protesters said was fraudulent. Their frustration with the Obama administration's approach to Iran only deepened after the nuclear deal offered Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for concessions on the development of the country's nuclear program.

The deal is now in question after Trump refused to certify it in mid-October, saying "in the event we are not able to reach a working solution with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated."

The 60-day deadline for Congress to address Trump's refusal to re-certify the deal begins on January 11. But the appetite for scrapping the deal is thin, even among Republicans.

"As flawed as the deal is, I believe we must now enforce the hell out of it," House Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Ed Royce said at an October House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

Congress could pass legislation that would find a middle ground between Trump's rejection of the deal and the significant consequences of U.S. withdrawal from the agreement. The recent protests are likely to hasten that possibility.

"The protests, however, may increase the incentive for all sides to come together and find a legislative solution," Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation to Defend Democracies, told VOA. "The protests reinforce the administration's view that the Iranian regime is an odious, expansionist and destructive force in the Middle East."

Additional action?

"If I were Trump, I'd do the exact opposite of Obama," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation" news program December 31. "Obama said, 'I don't want to get involved. I don't want to mess up the chance of getting that deal with Iran,'" Graham said.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Graham called on Trump and all those who support freedom to "speak loudly in support of the Iranian people and punish their oppressors to the fullest extent possible."

But for now, most congressional reaction has been limited to broad statements of support for demonstrations of free expression — an approach that could change if the protests develop a clearly defined leadership or set of demands that will require specific policy approaches.

"If Iran has a truly Democratic election, this current regime will be overthrown. Most Iranians want peace, stability, prosperity & freedom," Rep. Lee Zeldin, a Republican from New York who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tweeted Tuesday.

Retiring Republican U.S. congressman Charlie Dent tweeted support for the people of Iran "in their hour of need. Zealot Iranian rulers must embrace modernity & freedom or suffer the fate of other failed autocrats."

Democratic lawmakers have been relatively quiet in commenting on the Trump administration's approach to the protests. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator and former running mate of 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, suggested in a tweet Monday action that would provide immediate assistance to the people of Iran.

Iran is one of eight countries with varying levels of restrictions on immigration imposed by Trump in his executive order banning travel from some Muslim-majority countries.

While the Trump administration is highly unlikely to undertake that action, the prospect for bipartisan cooperation on some aspects of the U.S. approach to Iran remains.

Rep. Will Hurd, a rising new voice in the Republican foreign policy establishment, raised the possibility of sanctioning individuals who abuse the human rights of the protesters.

"Iran is a real threat to the rest of the world. This is something that we can get together as Republicans and Democrats and support and work together on," he said on "Face the Nation" last Sunday. "We should be unified and show the Iranian people we stand with them."

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Utah Senator Hatch to Retire, Despite Push to Run Again

Utah Republican Senator Orin Hatch will be retiring at the end of his current term, after four decades in the Senate, he said Tuesday.

In a video message, Hatch said, "When the president visited Utah last month, he said I was a fighter. I have always been a fighter. I was an amateur boxer in my youth and I have brought that fighting spirit with me to Washington. But every good fighter knows when to hang up the gloves."

"For me," he added, "that time is soon approaching.That is why after much prayer and discussion with family and friends, I have decided to retire at the end of this term."

Hatch, 83, was encouraged by President Donald Trump to run for another term and block Mitt Romney, a Republican, but a harsh critic of the president, from running.

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Trump Confident Immigrant Activists Will Eventually Support Him

WASHINGTON — 

U.S. President Donald Trump says immigrant activists and Hispanics will turn against opposition Democratic lawmakers who have supported them and will "start falling in love" with him and other Republicans.

Trump said in a Twitter comment that Democrats "are doing nothing" for the estimated 690,000 immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents and are "just interested in politics" in trying to prevent their deportation.

Many of the young immigrants, often called Dreamers, have only known the United States as their home. They were temporarily protected from deportation under a program started by former President Barack Obama, but Trump ended it in September, while giving Congress until March to address the issue.

The U.S. leader said those supporting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and Hispanics "will go hard against" Democratic lawmakers and increase their support for him and other Republicans. "We are about RESULTS," Trump said.

While Congress could wait until closer to March to decide the fate of the young immigrants, most of whom have attended U.S. schools or hold jobs in the United States, the issue is likely to be a focal point of discussions in the next two weeks. The White House and congressional leaders are negotiating spending levels for the government through the end of September, while also sparring over several contentious government policies, including immigration, electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists and health insurance.

Current government funding runs out January 19 and some Democratic lawmakers say they will not vote for a new funding agreement unless the young immigrants are protected from deportation.

Trump, even though he conditionally ended the Obama-era program, has at times voiced sympathy for the plight of the young immigrants even as Republican immigration hardliners want them returned to the countries of their birth, mostly Mexico and Central American countries.

Upcoming meeting

Trump, in exchange for agreeing to protect the immigrants from the threat of deportation, is calling for approval of stricter immigration policies, including construction of a wall along the southern U.S. border with Mexico, a key campaign plank in his successful 2016 presidential bid.

Democratic lawmakers, along with some Republicans, are opposed to construction of the wall, which Trump argues is needed to thwart more illegal immigration. Some Democratic lawmakers have said they are willing to support more border security, but not construction of the wall.

Congressional leaders are to meet Wednesday with Trump about several key issues, including protecting the young immigrants from deportation.

One Illinois congressman, Democrat Mike Quigley, rebuffed Trump's claim that Democrats have not supported them.

Quigley said that allowing the Dreamers "to stay in the only home they've ever known will help America grow and thrive, and Republicans must join us in protecting these young people."

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California Lawmakers to Confront Sexual Misconduct Scandal

California lawmakers will grapple for the first time as a group with a growing sexual misconduct scandal when they return to Sacramento on Wednesday.

The 2018 legislative year will bring debates over legislation to boost protections for victims and people who report sexual misconduct, as well as both chambers' continued efforts to improve their own policies for handling misconduct.

On the very first day back, the Senate must confront how to handle one of its members, Sen. Tony Mendoza, who has refused calls to step aside amid an investigation into his alleged inappropriate behavior toward young women who worked for him.

"This is certainly not something we thought we'd be working on,'' Democratic Sen. Connie Leyva of Chino said. "We're finally going to be able to get it right and make sure any injustices in the past we can correct and that moving forward, everyone who works in the Capitol can feel like they can come forward.''

That's not all that's on lawmakers' plates. Within a week of their return, Gov. Jerry Brown will submit his final budget proposal, kicking off six months of negotiating on how California should raise and spend money. Proposals that stalled last year on bail reform, single-payer health care and expanding renewable energy also will be back for debate.

​Still, sexual misconduct will be a dominant theme. A letter circulated in mid-October by lobbyists, lawmakers, legislative staffers and other political consultants cited a pervasive culture of harassment in California's Capitol. Women eventually came forward with specific allegations that prompted Democratic Assemblymen Raul Bocanegra and Matt Dababneh, both of Los Angeles, to resign.

Mendoza, meanwhile, denies allegations against him and says an investigation will clear his name. But Republican Sen. Andy Vidak said he'll move to expel Mendoza when the Senate reconvenes, setting up a potentially fraught showdown on the Senate floor.

Legislatively, Republican Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez will bring forward for the fifth time a bill that would give whistleblower protections to legislative employees who report ethical violations, including sexual misconduct. The Senate has killed her bill four times.

Dozens of women have said they do not report misbehavior by lawmakers or legislative staff because they are afraid of losing their jobs or facing other professional repercussions. Several former Mendoza staffers have accused the Senate of firing them because they reported his overtures to a young woman who worked for him, something the Senate and Mendoza deny.

Melendez, of Lake Elsinore, has been tweeting the names of every lawmaker who has agreed to co-sponsor the measure as a means of ramping up pressure on the Senate. The bill has historically passed the Assembly with bipartisan support.

Leyva, meanwhile, will introduce a bill that would ban nondisclosure agreements in sexual harassment settlements, both in the public and private sectors, which can stop the parties from speaking publicly about what led to the settlement.

"Eliminating these secret settlements, the no-disclosure agreements, then the accused, the person who is doing the harassing, they have nowhere to hide,'' Leyva said. "They have to stop their behavior.''

Two other planned Assembly bills would extend the period in which people can report sexual harassment claims at the state's Department of Fair Employment and Housing and impose stricter rules for employers - including the Legislature - to track sexual harassment complaints. Democratic Assemblywoman Eloise Reyes of San Bernardino is backing both pieces of legislation.

Reyes sits on the Assembly subcommittee tasked with rewriting the Legislature's sexual harassment policies. She was sharply critical during a hearing last month on the Assembly's policy of not tracking sexual harassment complaints, only investigations. She wants to mandate better tracking by the Legislature and other employers.

"The only way that were going to know if there's a pattern is if we keep track of this,'' Reyes said.

Regarding the state budget, another top concern for lawmakers, the governor must submit his blueprint by Jan. 10. Lawmakers must send a final spending proposal to Brown, who is term-limited out of office, by mid-June.

The Assembly has already staked out budget priorities, including providing health care for people living in the state illegally and expanding a tax credit for the working poor. The Senate hasn't outlined its ideas.

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Trump: US Aid to Pakistan Got Nothing but 'Lies and Deceit'

ISLAMABAD — 

U.S. President Donald Trump is again accusing Pakistan of sheltering terrorists whom American forces are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan. In his first Twitter message of 2018, he threatened to stop aid to Pakistan.

Washington has long accused Islamabad, particularly its security institutions, of turning a blind eye or covertly helping the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network to stage cross-border attacks against Afghan and U.S.-led forces.

It is not immediately clear whether Trump is threatening to cut financial assistance to Pakistan.

The United States suggested in August it would hold up $255 million in military assistance until Pakistan cracks down on extremists.

The U.S. Congress has authorized up to $700 million in a Coalition Support Fund to reimburse Pakistan for activities carried out in support of U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told the local Geo News television station, "We have already told the U.S. that we will not do more, so Trump's "no more" does not hold any importance."

He tweeted that Pakistan will make details public of the U.S. aid it has received.

Islamabad denies allegations it is harboring Afghan insurgents and instead complains anti-state militants are using the neighboring country for terrorist attacks against Pakistan.

Trump unveiled his new South Asia policy last August, in which Pakistan was blamed for providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

American officials have also warned that if Islamabad does not take actions against terrorist havens on Pakistan soil, Washington will do so unilaterally.

The Pakistan military last week warned Washington against any unilateral military action on its soil, saying U.S. allegations of terrorist sanctuaries in the country are "unfounded" and "no more valid" because "indiscriminate" security operations have targeted all terrorist groups.

"We have paid a huge price both in blood and treasure. We have done enough and we cannot do anymore for anyone," said the chief military spokesman, Major-General Asif Ghafoor.

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