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).
This morning on Cheddar Big News: President Trump says a pardon is "not off the table" for his former campaign chairman Paul Mananfort; families of victims of the Santa Fe, Tex. school shooting sue the parents of the gunman; and highlights from the National Tree Lighting in Washington, D.C.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Thursday, Nov. 29, 2018.
Committees in the New Jersey state Senate and Assembly may have both approved a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana in the state, but the bill's success isn't certain, said Politico New Jersey Reporter Sam Sutton.
Facebook has failed to properly address its “black people problem,” a former employee told Cheddar Wednesday. Earlier this month, former partnerships manager Mark Luckie sent a searing memo criticizing the company’s lack of racial diversity to Facebook employees shortly before he left his post. He recently published the memo, which quickly went viral.
TOMS Founder Blake Mycoskie told Cheddar in an interview he decided after the recent shooting in Thousand Oaks, Calif., near his home, that it was incumbent on businesses to act where lawmakers could not.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell addressed a luncheon Tuesday with a tone that suggested interest rate hikes may slow. Investors loved what they heard, and markets soared in the wake of Powell's remarks.
Venezuela, once a vibrant economy with some of the richest oil reserves in the world, is now in economic crisis. Brian Price, executive producer of a new documentary "Venezuela: State of Disaster," explores how a country with so much promise devolved into utter economic disaster, where hospital patients are now told to "bring their own lightbulbs" to surgery so the doctor can see.
After General Motors announced it will be closing several plants and reducing its workforce significantly, there was bipartisan criticism from Americans and Congress. Democrat Debbie Dingell, a representative from a small suburb of Detroit, told Cheddar that she was backing out of her support for President Trump's trade policies if they meant GM jobs would be going to Mexico.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Nov. 28. 2018.
Columbus, Ohio, may not have won the bid for Amazon's HQ2, but the city isn't ready to retire its proposal quite yet. Mayor Andrew Ginther said the city's leaders plan to use their application as a road map to transform Columbus from a Midwestern destination into a national one.
