Polk County Democratic Party Weekly Digest: November 13th - November 19th, 2023


RUNOFF ELECTIONS ARE COMING UP:

Fort Meade-  TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21st
Lakeland- TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5th
Winter Haven- TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5th

IF YOU LIVE IN  FORT MEADE, LAKELAND OR WINTER HAVEN (inside the city limits of each)- GET OUT AND VOTE AND ENCOURAGE YOUR NEIGHBORS TO DO THE SAME!!

POLLS ARE OPEN FROM 7am to 7pm on the corresponding runoff election day.

All Vote By Mail requests expired after the 2022 General Election! Click here to request a VBM Ballot now.

Please check your registration as another 100k voters were purged from the Vote By Mail list!!!

The Biden-Harris Administration is building a federal bench that looks like America. Last night, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s 150^th federal judicial nominee.  

See the memo from Office of Public Engagement Director Steve Benjamin and senior White House officials below. Click here to read the full statement from President Joe Biden on this historic achievement.

MEMO

RE: President Biden has seen 150 life-tenured federal judges confirmed       
DATE: 11/7/2023
FROM:  Ed Siskel; Shuwanza Goff; Stephen Benjamin

On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s 150^th life-tenured federal judge, a major milestone in the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to appoint highly qualified jurists dedicated to fairness and impartiality, the rule of law, and the Constitution.^thOn Tuesday, the Senate confirmed President Biden’s 150

 
Working closely with Leader Schumer and Judiciary Chair Durbin, the Biden-Harris administration has made enormous strides when it comes to the appointment of Article III judges, nearly matching the confirmation pace of the Trump-Pence administration despite inheriting far fewer judicial vacancies.
 
Moreover, the President has honored a core campaign promise, setting records when it comes to demographic and professional diversity of judicial appointees and ensuring that the federal Judiciary looks like the nation. The President has appointed a record number of public defenders and civil rights lawyers, bringing balance to a bench that has historically drawn from the ranks of prosecutors and corporate lawyers. In addition, the President has in just three years set numerous records, including:

• The appointment of the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court.

• The appointment of more Black women to the nation’s circuit courts than all previous administrations combined.

• The appointment of more Black women to the federal bench than any previous administration.

• The appointment of more AANHPI federal judges than any previous administration.

• The appointment of more Hispanic women to the federal bench than any of the three prior administrations.

• The appointment of more Native American federal judges than any administration in history.

• Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court.

• Judge Myrna Pérez, a former voting rights lawyer and the only Hispanic woman currently serving on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New York.

• Judge Nancy Abudu, the first Black woman ever to serve on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Atlanta.

• Judge Dana Douglas, the first Black woman ever to serve on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans.

• Judge John Lee, the first AANHPI judge ever to serve on the Chicago-based Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

• Judge Beth Robinson—who holds a Vermont seat on the New York-based Second Circuit—the first openly LGBTQI+ woman ever to sit on a federal court of appeals.

• Judge Veronica Rossman—whose family fled the Soviet Union to escape Antisemitism—is currently the only judge on the Denver-based Tenth Circuit with experience as a public defender.

The confirmation of 150 life-tenured federal judges is a major achievement, but it’s also just the start. The President is committed to filling every judicial vacancy, and the administration will continue to work closely with Senators from both parties to identify, nominate, and confirm judges from diverse professional and personal backgrounds who are eminently qualified and faithful to the rule of law.