Shay White is looking to make history in Oklahoma, becoming the first woman -- and the first African-American -- to hold a seat in the state legislature.
She hopes she can use her relatability to her advantage.
“The biggest unifying factor is that I am a voter from my district,” White told Cheddar in an interview. “I live here, I shop here, I worship here, and I contribute here.”
Like her potential constituents, White says, “sometimes I have to make a tough decision [of whether] I buy gasoline or groceries.” She says she wants to provide a voice to working families in her area.
White is one of many women jumping into the electoral fray since 2016’s presidential elections. Nearly 400 are reportedly running for the U.S. House of Representatives this year -- the most in U.S. history -- and 22 are non-incumbent black women.
But White’s campaign has nothing to do with that movement. She told Cheddar she’s wanted to run since age 12.
The twenty-six-year-old elementary school mental health provider has a prevalent presence in her community. Besides being a woman’s rights supporter, the District 77 candidate holds a leadership position within Together Oklahoma, a grassroots education and advocacy group.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-womens-march-to-elected-office).
President Joe Biden is taking a markedly more humble tone for a U.S. leader on climate change.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has opened a global climate summit, saying the world is strapped to a “doomsday device.”
Activists are getting a boost from CrowdLobby to press legislators to expand New York's Good Samaritan Law to teach high school students about being proactive in saving their peers from potentially dying of a drug overdose.
The United States has issued its first passport with an “X” gender designation for people who don’t identify as male or female.
A group of prominent academics and activists are calling on banks and insurers to avoid the kind of systemic collapse that crippled the world economy back in 2008.
Last spring, as false claims about vaccine safety threatened to undermine the world's response to COVID-19, researchers at Facebook found they could reduce vaccine misinformation by tweaking how vaccine posts show up on users' newsfeeds.
New York City's first immersive cannabis experience, The Stone Age, is seeking to change the narrative about cannabis, just in time for legalization.
The U.N. weather agency says greenhouse gas concentrations hit a new record high last year and increased at a faster rate than the annual average for the last decade.
Facebook the company is losing control of Facebook the product — and of the carefully crafted image it’s spent over a decade selling despite problems like misinformation, human trafficking, and pervasive extremist groups on its platform.
The Supreme Court is allowing the Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in place for now but has agreed to hear arguments in the case on Nov. 1.
