ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 12, 2020 at 1:01 PM

Scientists call for emergency measures

        Friends,   Scientists studying the spread of COVID have found a disturbing trend: across the country, Black Americans are disproportionately hardest hit by the virus.    Systemic inequalities are largely to blame, with one epidemiologist citing l…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 11, 2020 at 3:01 PM

Biden wanted her as VP in 2016, now she has said she’d agree

        Friends,   In a survey of Michigan and Wisconsin voters conducted for Donors of Color Action, Elizabeth Warren topped the list of vice presidential candidates.   Joe Biden famously wanted Hillary Clinton to pick Warren as a running mate in 2016 -…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 10, 2020 at 11:01 PM

GOP attacks spouses of immigrants

        Friends,   From The New York Times:    “Like many people in the U.S., Jonny Arenas and his husband have seen their lives turn upside down. Both lost their jobs when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered much of their city, and they were hoping that …

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 10, 2020 at 4:01 PM

RBG’s “tough as nails”

        Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a progressive icon for decades, but now Slate magazine is laying out a way for her to step in and save the November election from Republican interference.   Conservatives on the Supreme Court already abused their majori…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 9, 2020 at 10:04 PM

“Stacey Abrams would be the strongest candidate”

        Friends,   One poll of Biden’s possible running mates shows Stacey Abrams would be the strongest candidate.    The poll, conducted by Data for Progress, found that “A Biden-Abrams ticket would beat a Trump-Pence ticket and perform competitively w…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 9, 2020 at 3:02 PM

Betsy DeVos lies about the law

        Friends,   Betsy DeVos told Greta Van Susteren that it’s not her fault the Department of Education is denying relief money to the hundreds of thousands of DACA-eligible students enrolled in higher education in America.   Instead, DeVos blamed Con…

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  Grace Meng · [email protected]

May 8, 2020 at 10:01 PM

A historic endorsement

        Friends,   When we say we deserve better from our leaders, Candace Valenzuela is exactly who we deserve.    ASPIRE is thrilled to join BOLD PAC and CBCPAC in the Tri-Caucus PACs’ first joint endorsement of 2020: supporting Candace for TX-24. Canda…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 8, 2020 at 3:01 PM

Under Trump, vaccines may “go to the highest bidder.”

        Hello there,   Noting that it “would be terrible for the world,” Melinda Gates said that Trump’s refusal to cooperate with international counterparts on a vaccine effort may result in a situation where impoverished countries must fend for themselve…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 7, 2020 at 6:03 PM

Stephen Miller finds his excuse to ban migrants

        Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration advisor, has been looking for an excuse to ban immigration for a long time.   Back in 2018, a group of detained migrants became seriously ill. Two children, both under the age of ten, died in federal custody.…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 6, 2020 at 10:07 PM

Supreme Court set to rule against birth control

        Hello there,   Today, the Supreme Court heard two cases that, as Vox reported, “could write the final chapter in a multi-year struggle over whether employers with religious objections to birth control may deny insurance coverage of contraceptives t…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 6, 2020 at 3:01 PM

Laborers of color threatened

        The past week saw protests from frontline workers who demanded fair pay, sick leave, and basic human dignity from their employers and from the government.   Unions have historically been a powerful means for disenfranchised groups to build coalitio…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 5, 2020 at 4:05 PM

Biden wanted her as VP in 2016, now she’s said she’d agree

        Friends,   In a survey of Michigan and Wisconsin voters conducted for Donors of Color Action, Elizabeth Warren topped the list of vice presidential candidates.   Joe Biden famously wanted Hillary Clinton to pick Warren as a running mate in 2016 -…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 4, 2020 at 4:02 PM

RBG could save the election

        Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a progressive icon for decades, but now Slate magazine is laying out a way for her to step in and save the November election from Republican interference.   Conservatives on the Supreme Court already abused their majori…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 3, 2020 at 10:03 PM

Michelle Obama surges to 9-1 favorite to be Biden’s running mate

        Hello there,   The Washington Examiner is reporting that Michelle Obama is now favored by international betting organizations to be Joe Biden’s running mate.    The widely-adored Democratic leader could bring much-needed party unity and a return …

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 3, 2020 at 3:03 PM

“U.S. Unemployment Rising Faster for Women and People of Color”

        Hello there,   The Harvard Business Review reports that “all signs indicate that minorities and women will be hardest hit” by the jobless claims that have now reached over 30 million.    These demographics are most at risk not just because they t…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 2, 2020 at 10:03 PM

Will you be counted or ignored?

        Hello there,   The U.S. Census proportions the resources communities need to thrive by trying to take a count of every member of every community -- but it only works if we all do our part to respond. According to the Census Bureau, the data is used…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 2, 2020 at 3:02 PM

Racism spreading like virus thanks to Trump

        Hello there,   The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center says there were 1,100 instances of racial discrimination just in the last two weeks of March. Racist attacks, both verbal and physical -- like the March 14 stabbing of a Hmong American family in Te…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

May 1, 2020 at 6:03 PM

Department of Education blocks relief funds for DREAMers

        Friends,   Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education just told undocumented college students including DACA recipients they can’t have any federal relief funds for food, child care, or housing -- even though the relief act passed by Congress allows for…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 30, 2020 at 4:02 PM

“A Biden-Abrams ticket would beat a Trump-Pence ticket”

        Friends,   One poll of Biden’s possible running mates shows Stacey Abrams would be the strongest candidate.    The poll, conducted by Data for Progress, found that, “A Biden-Abrams ticket would beat a Trump-Pence ticket and perform competitively …

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 29, 2020 at 4:03 PM

Warren tops survey of VP candidates

        Friends,   In a survey of Michigan and Wisconsin voters conducted for Donors of Color Action, Elizabeth Warren topped the list of vice presidential candidates.   Joe Biden famously wanted Hillary Clinton to pick Warren as a running mate in 2016 -…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 28, 2020 at 6:02 PM

White House selects ASPIRE leadership for economic recovery panel

        Friends,   In a victory for Asian American & Pacific Islander leadership, Rep. Stephanie Murphy has been named to the White House bipartisan economic recovery panel.   The Florida Congresswoman has already vowed to help the country emerge str…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 27, 2020 at 11:01 PM

POLITICO: “DeVos bars undocumented college students from emergency aid”

        Friends,   Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education just told undocumented college students including DACA recipients they can’t have any federal relief funds for food, child care, or housing -- even though the relief act passed by Congress allows for…

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  Rep. Grace Meng · [email protected]

April 27, 2020 at 2:03 PM

Thank you for sharing your stories.

        Friends,   Last week, ASPIRE reached out to ask about your personal experience with COVID-19 and sheltering in place. I want to thank you for being brave enough to respond -- your stories were sometimes heartbreaking, but also filled with optimism. …

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 26, 2020 at 11:01 PM

Would you support a VP Kamala Harris?

        Friends,   Sen. Kamala Harris has said she would be “honored” to be Joe Biden’s running mate.    Biden himself has committed to picking a woman for VP, though he declined to commit to a woman of color. But he did say of Harris on the campaign tra…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 26, 2020 at 3:02 PM

Give a voice to the vulnerable with vote-by-mail

        Hello there,   A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that a combined 67% of voters “support either permanent changes to the nation’s laws or a one-time exception for November” to allow all eligible Americans to vote by mail.   Voting by ma…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 25, 2020 at 11:02 PM

Should Stacey Abrams be Biden’s VP?

        Friends,   One poll of Biden’s possible running mates shows Stacey Abrams would be the strongest candidate.    The poll, conducted by Data for Progress, found that, “A Biden-Abrams ticket would beat a Trump-Pence ticket and perform competitively …

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  Rep. Grace Meng · [email protected]

April 25, 2020 at 2:06 PM

We’re pushing forward together

Friends,   The last time I wrote to you, it was to check in and see how you were doing -- and to thank you for everything you’ve done for your families and communities. Now I want to give you an update on the targets we’re hitting on the ground and the steps we’re taking to move us all further …

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 24, 2020 at 10:07 PM

Protect the healthcare workers Trump has threatened

        Hello there,   Healthcare workers have been threatened since the start of this crisis. Working on the front lines, they are at the biggest risk of exposure and infection -- even with proper personal protective equipment, which we know they don’t alw…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 24, 2020 at 3:00 PM

States deem abortion “nonessential”

        Friends,   The GOP has already used the current crisis to successfully restrict abortion care in four states and is currently fighting to do the same in at least nine more.     Republican governors have deemed this core reproductive right “electi…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 23, 2020 at 10:04 PM

Would you support a Biden/Warren ticket?

        Friends,   In a new survey of Michigan and Wisconsin voters conducted for Donors of Color Action, Elizabeth Warren topped the list of vice presidential candidates.   Joe Biden famously wanted Hillary Clinton to pick Warren as a running mate in 20…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 23, 2020 at 2:02 PM

Photographic proof of Trump’s racism

        Hi there,   If you haven’t seen this yet, you deserve to.     The photo, taken by a staff reporter at The Washington Post, shows how Trump is rewriting history on the failure of the coronavirus response -- and stoking xenophobia instead of tak…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 22, 2020 at 10:03 PM

Trump suspends immigration, green cards

        Friends,   Trump declared a ban on immigration via a tweet, blaming the current public health situation.    Then, Trump doubled-down and announced that he’d be suspending the issuance of green cards. The New York Times reported Trump’s action, “p…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 22, 2020 at 2:02 PM

How is COVID-19 affecting you?

        Friends,   First, some bright news: the Michigan Health Lab, which helped bring the phrase “flatten the curve” into the mainstream, is saying that our efforts to slow the spread of the virus are working to save lives right now across the country. T…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 21, 2020 at 4:03 PM

Income inequality rising most rapidly among Asian Americans

        Hello there,   The wealth gap between America’s richest and poorer families more than doubled from 1989 to 2016, according to the Pew Research Center.   The U.S. ranks highest in income inequality of all the G7 nations, and 61% of Americans say the…

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  Rep. Grace Meng · [email protected]

April 19, 2020 at 3:01 PM

I hope you’re staying safe

        Friends,   Late last month, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and I wrote Donald Trump a letter. We described how the U.S. had just hit the highest number of COVID-19 cases globally and how New York had become the eye of the storm -- more specifi…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 18, 2020 at 3:01 PM

Protect the vulnerable

        Friends,   Donald Trump separated immigrant and refugee families. He put their children in cages. He called Nazis “very fine people” in the wake of a domestic terror attack in Charlottesville. And now his xenophobic rhetoric is resulting in violence …

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 17, 2020 at 3:01 PM

Steve Chabot: The Donald Trump you haven’t heard of

        Friends,   Rep. Steve Chabot from Ohio’s 1st District has taken over $2 million from big corporate interests in finance and real estate and voted to deregulate big banks and weaken consumer protections. He hired his own son-in-law as a campaign con…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 10, 2020 at 4:03 PM

Tell Mitch McConnell to do his job and pass campaign finance reform

        Hey friend,   It’s been called “the most consequential -- and destructive -- campaign finance decision by the Supreme Court in nearly half a century.” Citizens United, now ten years old, created super PACs by labeling big corporations “people” and th…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

April 8, 2020 at 10:08 PM

Help grassroots Dems fight systemic GOP racism

        Hi there,   We at ASPIRE are laser-focused on fighting the systemic racism of the GOP. In the last ten years, Republican state legislators have implemented voting restrictions aimed largely at people of color in at least 25 states. They have drawn g…

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  Rep. Grace Meng · [email protected]

April 3, 2020 at 5:31 PM

Thank you for doing your part

        Friends,   In the middle of everything going on, I’m in awe of how much our community members have stepped up for each other in any way they can. Here in NY alone, we had over 76,000 healthcare professionals volunteer to help in our understaffed hospi…

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  Grace Meng · [email protected]

March 27, 2020 at 4:31 PM

How to make our voices heard

        Friends,   In the past few days, without actually apologizing or acknowledging why it was wrong, President Trump has tried to cover for his continued use of the racist, xenophobic term “Chinese virus” in reference to COVID-19.   Asian Americans have…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

March 23, 2020 at 7:31 PM

“I don’t take responsibility at all.”

        Hi there,   It’s been a challenging month. Across this country, families are adapting to a rapidly changing reality as society collectively steps up to halt the spread of COVID-19. People everywhere are coming together in the name of shared sacrifice…

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  Rep. Grace Meng · [email protected]

March 17, 2020 at 8:03 PM

Together, we have the power to save lives

        Friends,   With so many things that we take for granted changing or closing in the wake of this public health crisis, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But we have a tremendous amount of power right now. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, “we are a…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

March 14, 2020 at 4:11 PM

Need your help to flip a Trump district -- Nikki’s election is on Tuesday!

        Friends,   Donald Trump’s GOP has spent the last three years punishing immigrants and refugees for trying to make a better life in America and enacting a slew of policies to make life harder for communities of color.    But even the vast majority o…

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  Grace Meng · [email protected]

March 12, 2020 at 3:47 PM

How not to respond to a public health crisis

        Friends,   The Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus is frustrating, inept, and wildly unacceptable -- but unsurprising from a president who has tried to cut CDC funding in every single budget he’s proposed. The virus has laid bare many…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

March 11, 2020 at 3:46 PM

Need your help

        Friends,   Donald Trump separated immigrant and refugee families. He put their children in cages. He called Nazis “very fine people” in the wake of a domestic terror attack in Charlottesville. And his criminally inept response to Hurricane Maria led…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

March 10, 2020 at 4:04 PM

We need every Democrat who cares about defeating Trump to join us today

        Hello there,   Today’s primaries could lock in the Democratic presidential nomination.    But regardless of who wins, we have less than eight months to organize, to fight voter suppression, and to vote Trump out of office in November.    We saw t…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

March 9, 2020 at 3:36 PM

POLITICO: “Republicans lean into Biden probe as he surges in Democratic primary”

        Hours after Biden’s Super Tuesday surge last week, Senate Republicans announced that they would re-open investigations into ethics violations that Biden has already been cleared of.    House Intel Chair Adam Schiff said these senators were “effectiv…

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  Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · [email protected]

March 6, 2020 at 9:03 PM

We can’t let up the fight

Hi there,   On Friday, January 27, 2017, I was less than a month into my first term in Congress and home in Illinois for the weekend when President Trump signed the first Muslim travel ban.     He and I were elected on the same day in 2016, but our backgrounds couldn’t be more different. His c…

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  ASPIRE · [email protected]

March 5, 2020 at 6:02 PM

WSJ: “Growing immigrant population to influence 2020 election”

        Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that more than 23 million immigrants are eligible to vote in November. That’s 10% of the electorate, and could be an even higher percentage of those voting on the Democratic presidential nominee.   Regardle…

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