POTUS in the Peach State

Presented by the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative: How race and identity are shaping politics, policy and power.

Jan 11, 2022 View in browser   By Brakkton Booker Presented by the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative With help from Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz President Joe Biden departs from the State Dining Room of the White House in November 2021. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File What up Recast family! Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the city's teacher's union reach an agreement to reopen schools and the University of Georgia defeats Alabama in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. But we kick things off with the Democrats' all-out blitz to tackle voting rights. President Biden may be in Georgia, but things aren't all that peachy when it comes to the prospects of passing federal voting reform legislation. Last week, in an impassioned speech on the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, he told Americans, "I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of our democracy." Today in Atlanta, the president's supporters will be looking for a blueprint for how he plans to deliver. Of course, the backdrop for the speech is a state where the Republican Legislature enacted stricter voting laws months after Biden's narrow 2020 electoral victory there. Several grassroots organizations will reportedly be no-shows for Biden's remarks, including prominent voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, who is mounting a gubernatorial run against incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. (Abrams says she had a scheduling conflict and tweeted her support for Biden's visit.) It's seen by many as a sign that voting rights groups have grown frustrated with Biden as the administration has put much of its focus on other issues, including infrastructure legislation. High-profile Democrats have aided the administration's push in elevating elections reform to the top of Biden's agenda. Attorney General Merrick Garland is reflected in a technician's monitor as he speaks at the Department of Justice on Jan. 5. | AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Pool Attorney General Merrick Garland expressed frustration that the DOJ's tools to uphold the Voting Rights Act of 1965 "have been drastically weakened" in remarks last week tied to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Meanwhile, former first lady Michelle Obama named-checked Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Texas in an ad in The New York Times over the weekend. Each of those states, she wrote, enacted laws after the Capitol attack that were "designed to make it harder for Americans to vote." "This type of voter suppression is not new," Obama added. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is expected this week to force votes on a pair of voting rights bills.   A message from the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative: Join more than 50 manufacturers in building a more diverse future workforce through the Future of STEM Scholars initiative (FOSSI). FOSSI provides scholarships to students pursuing select STEM degrees at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), in addition to leadership development, mentoring and internship opportunities. FOSSI seeks to increase the number of underrepresented professionals in the chemical industry workforce, building a pipeline of talented chemical engineers, scientists and other future leaders. Learn more at FutureOfSTEMScholars.org.   The Freedom to Vote Act would overhaul federal elections by expanding voter registration and making Election Day a federal holiday. A bill named after the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis would restore protections to the Voting Rights Act that were gutted in by a Supreme Court ruling nearly a decade ago. Both measures will fail, given that Democrats don't have the 60 votes necessary to advance the bills under filibuster rules. Schumer is expected to try to change those rules in the next week, though Democratic opposition will likely doom that effort as well. As if to underscore they have no appetite for bipartisan support on the issue, Senate Republicans launched an ad Monday warning Democrats are trying to get rid of the filibuster to advance their "radical agenda." Video: Senate GOP ad, "Protect Your Voice. Stop the Radical Agenda." Biden, who spent nearly 40 years in the Senate, is expected to give a full-throated endorsement of changes to that chamber's filibuster rule on voting rights. Proponents argue it's the only way to get federal election bills passed ahead of midterm elections later this year. It's not just the GOP that Biden is battling on the issue. Moderate Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — yes, the same two that have drawn the ire of many within their party for stalling other parts of Biden's agenda — remain opposed to any filibuster changes. They may not be the only ones. My POLITICO colleagues Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine report Arizona's other senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat who is up for reelection in November, is still on the fence about the rules change. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) speaks during a United States Senate Committee on Finance in October 2021. | Rod Lamkey-Pool/Getty Images Other Senate Democrats have varied opinions on how to tweak filibuster rules, from reinstalling the talking filibuster to eliminating the 60-vote threshold entirely. But any change to the Senate rules will still require full unity of the entire Senate Democratic caucus — 50 votes — which has proved elusive in the past. It also makes the prospects of getting voting rights bills enacted by Monday's Martin Luther King, Jr. federal holiday — an ambitious deadline set by Schumer last week — all the more difficult. And that piles on the pressure for Biden to chart a course to passage. "Frankly if the Senate can't pass the voting rights [bills] before the King holiday, they are making a mockery of the holiday," the Rev. Al Sharpton, who heads the National Action Network, said in a call with activists last week. "It was never a holiday for Kool-Aid and ribs," Sharpton noted. "It was always a holiday to try to deal with the issues of human rights and civil rights," before suggesting there should be no celebrations this Monday if the voting rights bills don't get passed. Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and President of National Action Network, speaks during the "March On for Washington and Voting Rights" in August 2021. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images His sentiments were echoed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where activists in the city said Biden and Vice President Harris' visit to Atlanta would be "insufficient and unwelcome" unless they had a veto-proof majority on voting rights. Nsé Ufot of the New Georgia Project agreed, telling The Recast last week that any speech that does not include a plan to set federal election standards and abolish the filibuster is simply "a rhetorical exercise and a low-key waste of time." All the best, The Recast Team   Power dynamics are changing. With The Recast, you'll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy. Stay tuned for fresh analysis, scoops and new voices. Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.   THE NUMBERS GAME Opponents of several bills targeting transgender youth attend a rally at the Alabama State House to draw attention to anti-transgender legislation in March 2021. | Julie Bennett/Getty Images The onslaught of anti-trans bills in mainly GOP-led state legislatures across the nation in 2021 has had unfortunate consequences for LGBTQ+ teens and young adults, a new survey from The Trevor Project and Morning Consult found. Overall, two-thirds of LGBTQ+ Americans ages 13-24 say debates in statehouses over curbing the rights of transgender people have negatively impacted their mental health. When broken down by transgender and/or non-binary youth, the figure soars to 85 percent of respondents who say their mental health has been adversely impacted. As POLITICO reported, several states introduced legislation that would greatly expand states' say in medical decisions being considered by trans youth. Another finding from the survey compared the issues most important to Black and white LGBTQ+ youth. Both Black and white respondents ranked racism as the most important social issue impacting society.   A message from the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative:   Rounding out the top four issues for Black LGBTQ+ youth included climate change and homophobia, followed by LGBTQ rights/equality. For white LGBTQ+ youth the next three most important social issues include LGBTQ rights/equality, followed by climate change and homophobia.   TO SIR, WITH RESPECT Sidney Poitier, star of "To Sir With Love," places his hands in wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on June 23, 1967. | AP Photo/File Sidney Poitier was arguably the nation's first Black movie star, with looks and charisma made for the big screen. He was also a film director, with a flair for comedy, directing Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in "Stir Crazy" and directing and co-starring with his buddy, Bill Cosby, in '70s-era capers "Uptown Saturday Night," "Let's Do It Again" and "A Piece of the Action." But beneath that movie star exterior pumped the heart of a fierce activist.That activism played out in the roles he played — but also in the ones he refused to play. With his lifelong friend, Harry Belafonte, he helped organize the March on Washington in 1963, bringing star power and visibility to the front lines of the civil rights movement. Poitier, Martin Luther King, Jr. said in 1967, "is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom." After King's assassination in 1968, Poitier and Belafonte raised money for King's memorial. "I believe still, very strongly in his nonviolent philosophy," Poitier once said. "I'm against violence for violence's sake." Flowers and tributes lay atop the late actor Sidney Poitier's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Jan. 7. | AP Photo/Chris Pizzello But sometimes violence found him. In 1964, Poitier and Belafonte took a doctor's bag stuffed with $70,000 in cash to help the Freedom Riders in the Deep South, the New York Times' Charles Blow noted in a 2017 column. There, the KKK shot at them, chasing them as they traveled through Mississippi. In the span of his decadeslong career, Poitier inspired other Black and brown actors to take up the activist mantle. Still, at times he bristled at journalists who saw him as the go-to man in Hollywood when it came to all things race. "You ask me questions that fall continually within the 'negro-ness' of my life," he said at one press conference. "I am artist, man, American, contemporary, I am an awful lot of things so I wish you would pay me the respect due and not simply ask me about those things."   ICYMI @ POLITICO Symone Sanders applauds during a campaign event for Joe Biden in January 2020. | AP Photo/Matt Rourke Ex-Veep Spox to MSNBC — Symone Sanders, fresh off her departure from Harris' staff two weeks ago, lands a host gig on MSNBC. POLITICO's Max Tani also reports Sanders' hire is the latest in the "arms race for talent'' as streaming network CNN+ just announced it's hired former NPR host Audie Cornish as anchor and correspondent. Phenomenal Woman — The late poet and activist Maya Angelou is officially the first Black woman to have her likeness appear on a coin. POLITICO's Claire Rafford reports the U.S. Mint began putting the coins into distribution this week as part of its American Women Quarters Program, which celebrates the contributions and accomplishments of trailblazing women. Video: How one congressman's act of service will be forever memorialized Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) is heralded as one of the many heroes of the Jan. 6 insurrection. A photograph of Kim cleaning up debris in the Capitol Rotunda went viral, and his act of service was memorialized. Check out more from JC Whittington and Monica Akhtar of POLITICO's video team.   THE RECAST RECOMMENDS A viral tweet from the Texas GOP got a lot of people talking last week. The Houston Chronicle reports that some took exception to the party making "light of issues that disproportionately affect communities of color." Hoopster Klay Thompson of the NBA's Golden State Warriors made his regular season debut after missing 941 days with multiple injuries. Read more about the comeback here. More on Sidney Poitier from the Miami Herald , which reports how his birth city helped shape some of the iconic actor's film roles. And while the Golden Globes were a muted affair this year, there was one bright spot: actress Mj Rodriguez became the first trans woman to win Best Actress for her portrayal of Blanca Rodriguez in the series "Pose."   A message from the Future of STEM Scholars Initiative: The Future of STEM Scholars Initiative, or FOSSI, aims to help create a diverse, equitable and inclusive future workforce, where minority groups are equally represented throughout the chemical manufacturing and affiliated workforces. FOSSI provides qualified students who aspire to pursue a variety of relevant STEM studies at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) with $40,000 scholarships over 4 years, as well as mentoring, leadership development and internship opportunities. FOSSI recognizes and rewards demonstrated achievement, talent, work ethic and, importantly, the future potential of students in the communities in which we operate and across the nation. FOSSI has the prospect of one day transforming our industry by building and supporting a workforce that brings not only diversity of race and ethnicity, but diversity of thought and perspective as well. As an industry, we are committed to being a part of the solution. We hope you'll join us. Learn more at FutureOfSTEMScholars.org.   Before his untimely death, actor Michael K. Williams was shooting the second season of his documentary series for Vice TV, "Black Market," which explores the underworld of carjackers, hustlers and poachers around the world — and how limited opportunities and a jacked-up system force these outcasts to earn a living by any means necessary. Jabari Asim, a former book critic for The Washington Post, has a new novel out, "Yonder," about a group of enslaved people living on a plantation in 1852. In this telling, there are no "slaves" and masters." Instead, there are "the Stolen" and "The Thieves." When the Stolen decide to steal themselves — escaping to Canada — magic comes to their aid. The soundtrack to "Encanto," featuring songs by Lin Manuel Miranda, made history this week, becoming the number one selling album in the country. TikTok of the Day: When the killer needs a grammar lesson.   Follow us on Twitter Brakkton Booker @brakktonbooker Rishika Dugyala @rishikadugyala Teresa Wiltz @teresawiltz   Follow us

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