Colette

Breaking: Tennessee Republicans pass new 9-0 gerrymander after SCOTUS destruction of Voting Rights Act eliminating state’s only majority-Black district & last Democratic seat. Splits Memphis, which is 63% Black, into 3 districts to disenfranchise Black voters. Quite literally a return to Jim Crow

Excited to share that Cindy Kam’s and my article is published online! We examine item refusal pre- and post-Dobbs and find a significant increase in women’s refusal to disclose their pregnancy status after the decision, with concerning implications for research, policy, and women’s health.

TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there. Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.

BREAKING: Democrat Abigail Spanberger has won the Virginia governor’s race, defeating Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and becoming the state's first female governor.

Nashville #NoKings just getting underway. @tennesseelookout.com

New from me and @brendannyhan.bsky.social Why Trump's "Compact for Academic Excellence" is a devil's bargain and should be rejected in all forms www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb...

Trump will federalize D.C. police, deploy the National Guard, & send the FBI after homeless people to combat a made-up crisis in D.C. But on Jan. 6th when violent insurrectionists stormed the Capitol he couldn't be bothered to call the National Guard. Make it make sense.

Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated last night, was the Speaker of the Minnesota House in the 2023-2024 session, when Democrats ran the state government. That means she had a leading role in shepherding the many landmark reforms that Dems adopted in that period—an important legacy. Brief 🧵.

A depressing summary of where things stand w/r/t police accountability five years after the murder of George Floyd, by Jamiles Lartey at the Marshall Project.

Thanks to your reports, we have created a tracker of college campus Visa revocations. Please continue to let us know if you hear of these (names of colleges and number of revocations). www.wearehighered.org/campus-abduc...

2025 EGEN Prize Announcement: We are thrilled to announce the results of the 2025 prize competition. The EGEN prize committee selected 5 Prize Recipients and 3 Honorable Mentions this year! @tiffanydbarnes.bsky.social @teele.bsky.social @mirya.bsky.social

Approaching majority opposition to basic 20th century second wave feminism among Republican men

There used to be a bipartisan consensus that rejected traditional gender roles. Not anymore. Republican men *and* women increasingly endorse traditional roles. Here's a 🧵 based on a new New York Times piece by @tesler.bsky.social, Colette Marcellin, and me.

“I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level…In good conscience, I cannot stand back & let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/u...

“Taking on our main obstacle is better served by working outside the NLRB process at this time. We’ve done this before, and made a lot of progress. Vanderbilt has the ability to recognize us at any time, as many other universities have done. They should respect our legal and democratic rights.”

At 13, Arrianna Jentink-Bristol fought with her mother, who was hitting her 3-year old sister. She was dragged into the court system, & saddled with fees & debt. Jentink-Bristol then participated in a youth program—where she helped craft a proposal to end fees/debt on children. Michigan passed it.

Incredible news out of the White House this morning and hope the Biden administration continues to grant more clemency to thousands whose sentences continue to be disproportionately long www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo...

The goal appears to be not to prevent the deaths caused by abortion bans, but to conceal them.

It's unconscionable how this country treats pregnant women and their babies. www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

“Women are not without electoral or political power.” - Sam Alito

Three places electing state governments this week—KY, MS, VA—together ban hundreds of thousands of people from voting. A crystal-clear, enormously impactful example of systemic racism/classism, but one that often flies under the radar. I explored in a 3-story series: boltsmag.org/felony-disen...

Please keep in mind, these elections in Tennessee (in Nashville and elsewhere) are marred by an extraordinary escalation in the state’s rules on how it excludes people from voting this summer. https://boltsmag.org/tennessee-restricts-rights-restoration/

Freddie O’Connell is officially moving up from councilmember to the head of Nashville’s Metro government. Voters chose the progressive candidate, O’Connell, as the city’s new mayor in a runoff election today.

In this week's newsletter, read an excerpt from @kylietcheung.bsky.social's new book, "Survivor Injustice," which explores how the carceral state operates within patriarchy and colludes with perpetrators of interpersonal gender-based violence to exercise control over survivors.

if this doesn't tell you what's going on in TN: