History was made in several races during the 2017 off-year elections, with minorities, first-timers, and other under-represented candidates winning their campaigns. But it was no easy feat. Some hopefuls were hit with racial epithets and discriminatory advertisements before they won.
And for them, victory sent a clear message: our state is not a state of hate.
At least this was Virginia’s delegate-elect Elizabeth Guzman’s reaction. She and Hala Ayala this year became the first two Latinas ever elected to the state's House of Delegates. In an interview with Cheddar on Tuesday, Guzman said that many Republicans were mimicking the anti-immigration rhetoric exhibited by President Donald Trump. In her case, her opponent accused her of wanting to protect criminals.
“I think it was a huge response from Virginia to Washington, D.C., and also to Richmond, and Prince William County,” she said about winning. “We are not a state of hate. We are a state that is diverse, and we are proud of our diversity.”
Guzman, who began campaigning in October 2016, says her children were a motivating factor for her run for office. The public administrator and social worker was already heavily involved in her community. As a delegate, she hopes to encourage Latin children to feel represented and hopes more people with her background run for office in the future.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Monday, Dec. 10, 2018.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Times Square is known as the "crossroads of the world," but tell that to Stacey Cunningham. The CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, the first woman to hold the job in the exchange's 226-year history, said it's at the NYSE where capitalism, economics, politics and "the world at large" converge.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Dec. 6, 2018.
Los Angeles is taking a strong stance against single-use plastic straws: the local City Council is moving forward with its "Plastic Straws on Request" initiative with an ultimate goal to phase them out completely by 2021. "This has been a long time coming," Mitch O'Farrell, Los Angeles city council member, told Cheddar Thursday. "I wish that the city had acted 10, 15 years ago."
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018.
Medical marijuana is now legal in Utah, but not exactly in the form voters intended. Shortly after the medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 2, was scheduled to go into effect, the Utah state House and Senate swooped in and replaced it with a new law. Wayne Niederhauser, a Republican senator for Utah's 9th district, defended the move in an interview on Cheddar Wednesday.
Financial markets closed, mail delivery stopped, and federal offices shut down as the nation paused to remember the life of President George H.W. Bush, who will be memorialized during a state funeral at Washington's National Cathedral on Wednesday.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018.
The famously stoic president of France may have conceded on fuel taxes to protestors, but his decision was most likely a product of circumstance, not an act of altruism. In this case, said Erin Zaleski of the Daily Beast, Emmanuel Macron had no one with whom he could negotiate. But small concessions, like a fuel tax moratorium, won't be enough to satisfy protesters who are wreaking havoc in the streets of Paris.
