Women take over ballots

First they marched, now they’re running. And winning too.

Female candidates dominated in the first multi-state Democratic congressional primaries of the 2018 midterms. Out of 20 open primaries with women on the ballot on Tuesday night, voters selected a female nominee in 17 of them.

The development is only fitting after women orchestrated the opening salvo of the national post-Trump resistance, bringing tens of millions into the streets the day after the inauguration for the Women’s March. In the aftermath there has been a deluge of women intent on channeling that energy into political candidacy. Emily’s List, a women’s candidacy advocacy group reported a more than 20-fold increase in inquiries from women interested in running after Trump’s election.

According to Politico’s Women Rule candidate tracker, 599 women nationwide have run or have said they’ll run for US House, Senate or governor in 2018. Of the more than 100 who have already stood for primaries this year, 56% have won so far.

Women currently occupy just 20% of seats in Congress despite making up half of the US population.

Most of the winning Democratic candidates from Tuesday are facing an uphill climb in the November general elections, as nearly all are in districts that Republicans are heavily favored to win, but it’s still representative of a shifting candidacy landscape. A number of women also stood for Republican nominations on Tuesday but they did not fare as well as Democratic women, winning less than half the seats they competed for.

House races aren’t the only places women are making huge imprints on the ballot. In Georgia’s 22 May gubernatorial primary, voters will be choosing between one of two Democratic Staceys – Stacey Evans and Stacey Abrams. Either would be the first female executive in the state’s history, and despite the fact that the state hasn’t elected a Democrat to the office since 1998, polling suggest the race could be very competitive.

Haspel hearing harangued

The Senate confirmation hearing for CIA director nominee, Gina Haspel, was interrupted multiple times by demonstrators upset about her connection to the torture of foreign detainees. A 33-year veteran of the agency, Haspel ran a secret detention centre in Thailand in 2002 where inmates were tortured. In 2005, she drafted an order calling for the destruction of nearly 100 videotapes of interrogation sessions.

“Bloody Gina! Bloody Gina! Bloody Gina! You are a torturer,” one protester yelled before being escorted by Capitol police. Another group of Code Pink activists were removed before the proceedings began, and several were dragged out by authorities as they yelled about torture.

One of the protesters removed from the chamber was Ray McGovern, a former CIA operative turned activist who has been highly visible in criticizing the agency, especially on torture, since the mid 1990s.

Another protester has been forcibly dragged out—who appears to be Ray McGovern. (H/t @attackerman) pic.twitter.com/KaOyyV4GVc — Katie Bo Williams (@KatieBoWill) May 9, 2018

Haspel has pledged not to bring back any such torture program if confirmed.

“I can offer you my personal commitment, clearly and without reservation, that under my leadership, on my watch, the CIA will not restart a detention and interrogation program,” Haspel said.

What we’re listening to

In the week that Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, it’s been uplifting to listen to the latest episode of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, entitled The Wind in Your Hair. It’s an interview with Iranian journalist and author Masih Alinejad about everyday life for women in Iran. An exile in Brooklyn these days, after several years in the UK following her ousting from Iran in 2009, Alinejad is a face of the resistance on both sides of the ocean. She wrote about her opposition to the president’s notorious travel ban. And she has a campaign against the compulsory wearing of hijab (emphasis on compulsory), hence the title of the podcast episode and also her new memoir.