Leader of WA Democrats wins leadership post with national party
Washington state Democratic Party chair Shasti Conrad won a coveted leadership post with the Democratic National Committee on Friday.
Conrad was elected DNC vice chair, giving her a voice in crafting the party's strategy for responding to the Trump administration and recapturing control of Congress in 2026.
She beat Kalyn Free, a national committee member from Oklahoma, in a run-off after neither garnered a majority in a first round of balloting earlier this week. That initial round featured a third candidate, Jeanna Repass, chair of the Kansas Democratic Party.
Conrad, 40, said in a statement that she was 'deeply grateful' for the result, which came after six days of voting.
'This was the longest election in DNC history, and every vote cast reflected our shared belief in building a stronger, more inclusive Democratic Party,' she said.
The party is looking to bounce back after a disastrous 2024 cycle. Conrad has argued that Democrats don't need to drastically change their message or positions and instead must improve how they communicate with voters.
She has also argued that the platform that has brought Democrats success in Washington, where the party controls all statewide elected offices and the Legislature, can be replicated to rack up victories elsewhere.
'We are not just strategizing to win elections. We are working to transform lives,' Conrad said before results came out.
The DNC chose two vice chairs over the past two weeks in a do-over of Feb. 1 elections that were won by Malcolm Kenyatta and David Hogg.
Those contests were invalidated after Free filed a complaint contending the party failed to follow its own rules on gender parity in officer elections. DNC members agreed to rerun elections for those seats. Only candidates who made it to the final round of voting in February and were eligible for each seat under party rules, could compete.
Hogg, a 25-year-old gun-control activist, declined to run for his seat. He faced criticism from fellow Democrats because of his plans to fund challenges to Democratic incumbents with his group, Leaders We Deserve.
Hogg's exit left Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state representative, as the only eligible candidate in the election for the vice chair position that had to be filled by a male under the DNC rules. Kenyatta was elected Saturday.
Conrad, 40, is in her second term as leader of Washington's Democratic Party and is the first South Asian woman to lead a state party.
She had the backing of DNC Chair Ken Martin, who appointed her in March to be an associate chair for the national party. In this role, she said she's strived to spotlight issues of importance to Asian Americans and to work with influencers on ways to better engage younger voters.
'As a millennial, I'm committed to creating more opportunities for young people to get involved and become the leaders of today—not just tomorrow,' she said. She added that she'd ensure Asian American and Pacific Islanders 'have a seat at every table where decisions are made.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
AstraZeneca unveils $50 billion US investment as pharma tariff threat looms
By Maggie Fick and Ahmed Aboulenein WASHINGTON (Reuters) -AstraZeneca plans to spend $50 billion to expand manufacturing and research capabilities in the U.S. by 2030, it said on Monday, the latest big investment by a pharmaceutical company reacting to President Donald Trump's tariff policy. The investment will fund a new drug manufacturing facility in Virginia and expand research and development (R&D) and cell therapy manufacturing in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, Indiana and Texas, it said in a statement. It will also upgrade the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker's U.S. clinical trial supply network and support ongoing investment in novel medicines. On Monday, AstraZeneca said the expansion supports its ambition to reach $80 billion in annual revenue by 2030, with half coming from the U.S. The U.S. accounted for more than 40% of AstraZeneca's annual revenue in 2024, and the company had been prioritising the market - the world's largest, worth $635 billion - before Trump's return to office. The move to scale up its U.S. footprint is the latest by a drugmaker as Trump threatens to impose import tariffs on the industry and seeks to boost domestic manufacturing. The sector has historically been spared from trade disputes. Trump has called on pharma companies to make more of the medicines they sell in the U.S. within the country, rather than importing active ingredients or finished medicines. CEO Pascal Soriot announced the plans in Washington. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's department is leading a probe into pharmaceutical imports that could pave the way for new tariffs. "For decades Americans have been reliant on foreign supply of key pharmaceutical products. President Trump and our nation's new tariff policies are focused on ending this structural weakness," said Lutnick in a statement issued by AstraZeneca. While Trump has repeatedly threatened tariffs on the sector, he signalled earlier this month that companies would be given a year to 18 months to "get their act together" before any levies take effect. The company said that the timing and location of the announcement was linked to the U.S. policy environment, though some of the spending would have occurred regardless so that the infrastructure for future medicines was in place. The pledge is in addition to the $3.5 billion in investments the company announced in November 2024, the statement said. PLEDGES The $50 billion pledge matches the commitment announced by Swiss rival Roche in April and exceeds new spending plans unveiled this year by Eli Lilly & Co, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Sanofi. Also present at the announcement was Virginia State Governor Glenn Youngkin, a vocal Trump ally who has defended the administration's tariff policies. The new Virginia facility - the company's largest single manufacturing investment - will produce active ingredients for AstraZeneca's experimental weight-loss medicines, including its oral GLP-1 candidate and an oral PCSK9 inhibitor for cholesterol management, it said. The company said the investment could create tens of thousands of new jobs, but declined to give specifics. It employs about 18,000 people in the U.S. and has a global workforce of about 90,000. The effort to strengthen its U.S. ties comes after years of criticism of the UK business investment climate. In January it scrapped plans to invest 450 million pounds ($607.1 million) in its vaccine manufacturing plant in northern England, citing a cut in government support. Earlier this month, The Times reported the company was considering moving its stock market listing from London, where it is the exchange's most valuable company worth 159 billion pounds, to the U.S. The company declined to comment. The company rejoined the leading U.S. drug lobby group earlier this year, roughly two years after leaving it. ($1 = 0.7415 pounds) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
Federal agents in Miami arrest a prominent Haitian businessman and once presidential hopeful
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal agents in Miami have arrested Pierre Réginald Boulos, a well-known Haitian businessman, doctor and former presidential hopeful. The arrest occurred at Boulos' home in South Florida late last week, a person familiar with the arrest said Monday. Boulos was born in the United States but renounced his citizenship to run for president of Haiti in recent years. He obtained his U.S residency last year under the Biden administration. Boulos, who previously has denied a flurry of corruption allegations, is the most well-known Haitian arrested to date by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It wasn't immediately clear why Boulos was arrested. ICE did not return a message seeking details. An attorney for Boulos could not be immediately reached for comment. Boulos was being held at Krome North Service Processing Center in Miami, a detention center that Human Rights Watch said in a recent report is one of three in Florida that are grossly over capacity and 'flagrantly violate international human rights standards.' Boulos founded several businesses while in Haiti, where he served as president of the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2019, he created the Third Way Movement, a political party in contrast to the "shameless elite and the unscrupulous politicians who are working to bog down the country and increase the suffering of the people,' he said at the time, according to local media. The party promptly stated it would seek "a historic political compromise that would facilitate the negotiated departure from power of Jovenel Moïse.' Boulos visited Haiti's central region in August 2019 as he rallied for support. 'I am part of the system that must be destroyed," he was quoted as saying by Le Nouvelliste newspaper. 'I know how to destroy it.' Moïse served as president from 2017 until he was gunned down at his private residence in July 2021. Dozens of suspects were arrested, including seventeen former Colombian soldiers who are still being interrogated by Haitian authorities. Court documents have stated that those involved in the plot included Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a pastor, doctor and failed businessman who envisioned himself as Haiti's new leader. Elections have not been held since Moïse was killed. Gang violence surged in the political vacuum that ensued, and Boulos soon returned to the U.S. The arrest comes as the Trump administration seeks to end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians after announcing it would revoke such protections for those who arrived in the U.S. under a humanitarian parole program. Rod Joseph, a Haitian-American running for U.S. Congress, said he has been working with the administration to avoid deporting people 'just for the fun of it.' 'If the president goes after criminals, no one is against that,' he said over the phone on Monday. 'But if you deport someone who doesn't commit any crime who's here seeking a better life, this is when we start having issues with the practice.' Dánica Coto, The Associated Press Erreur lors de la récupération des données Connectez-vous pour accéder à votre portefeuille Erreur lors de la récupération des données Erreur lors de la récupération des données Erreur lors de la récupération des données Erreur lors de la récupération des données
The Hill
3 minutes ago
- The Hill
Hunter Biden snaps at Clooney, Trump, Obama officials in media blitz
Hunter Biden is back in the spotlight thanks to a media blitz in which he aggressively defended his father, former President Biden, and reignited a long-simmering feud between the Biden family and members of the Democratic Party who pushed for the former president to drop out of the 2024 race. Hunter Biden took aim at actor George Clooney, Obama White House officials and President Trump in a pair of fiery and profanity-laced interviews that were released on the anniversary of the former president's decision to end his candidacy. The former president's son, a major target for personal and political attacks from Republicans in recent years, appeared on YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan's show and also sat down for a lengthy interview with former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Jamie Harrison to unpack the 2024 campaign and the state of the party. Republicans viewed Hunter Biden's reemergence as a gift, as they have tried to keep the former president and his mental acuity in the headlines. Democrats, meanwhile, were left shaking their heads at yet another self-inflicted controversy sparked by the former first family. 'It's good to see that Hunter has taken some time to process the election, look inward, and hold himself accountable for how his family's insular, dare I say arrogant at times, approach to politics led to this catastrophic outcome we're all now living with,' Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House official, posted on the social platform X. The interviews underscored the degree to which the Biden family still feels stung by the Democratic Party's decision to abandon the former president as its nominee, despite his decades of service and his successful 2020 campaign. The comments also came at a time when Trump has grappled with discontent among members of his own base over the handling of the case of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and as Democrats have attempted to stay on the attack over the massive tax and spending bill Trump signed into law earlier this month. Hunter Biden's interviews made significant rounds in the media and online. Fox News played comments from the former president's son in which he went on an expletive-laced tirade against the Trump administration's deportation efforts, as well as a soundbite in which Hunter Biden mused about how he would have handled discussions with El Salvador about a wrongfully deported migrant. 'How do you think your hotel room gets cleaned? How do you think you have food on your f‑‑‑ing table? Who do you think washes your dishes?' Hunter Biden said of those in the country illegally. 'Clearly they've learned nothing from President Trump's overwhelming victory on Nov. 5,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox in response to those comments. Some of Hunter Biden's more incendiary comments came during a sit-down with Callaghan, who hosts the YouTube series Channel 5. Hunter Biden teed off on Clooney, whose New York Times op-ed last summer added fuel to calls for then-President Biden to step down after his disastrous debate performance. 'F‑‑‑ you, what do you have to do with f‑‑‑ing anything? Why do I have to f‑‑‑ing listen to you? What right do you have to step on a man who's given 52 years of his f‑‑‑ing life to the service of this country,' Hunter Biden said of Clooney. Hunter Biden went on to single out Democratic strategist James Carville, top Obama White House adviser David Axelrod, former Obama aide David Plouffe, who joined the Harris campaign in a senior role, and Anita Dunn, who was a top White House official under the former president. 'They're all going to insert their judgment over a man who has figured out, unlike anybody else, how to get elected to the United States Senate over seven times … and how to garner more votes than any president that has ever won, and they're going to replace their judgment for his?' Hunter Biden told Callaghan. Hunter Biden also offered a previously unheard of explanation for why his father struggled so mightily in a June 2024 debate with Trump that set off a wave of calls for Democrats to reconsider their nominee. 'I know exactly what happened in that debate. He flew around the world basically the mileage he could have flown around the world three times,' Hunter Biden said. 'He's 81 years old. He's tired as s‑‑‑. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like a deer in the headlights.' The former president has repeatedly blamed his halting debate performance on feeling under the weather. Some allies have blamed his taxing travel schedule before the debate. But he had been at Camp David for a week before the debate privately preparing. A spokesperson for the former president did not respond to a request for comment about Hunter Biden's comments to Gallagher. Hunter Biden also echoed the argument of many of his father's allies that the party's defeat last November was a result of its decision to push the former president out of the race. 'We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That's my position,' Hunter Biden told Jamie Harrison on his newly launched podcast, 'At Our Table.' The former president has largely remained under the radar since leaving office in January. He has made a few low-profile public appearances, and he gave a rare interview to The New York Times earlier this month to push back on claims he was not aware of who was granted clemency in the final weeks of his presidency. The Trump White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill have worked to keep him in the spotlight, though. Trump attacks his predecessor multiple times each week over policy and the use of an autopen to sign certain actions while in office. House Republicans have launched a probe into the former president's mental acuity while in office, summoning a host of former White House officials for testimony. So far, his aides who have been called to testify have invoked their Fifth Amendment right, giving the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee little to work with. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), also keen to keep a spotlight on the Biden administration, released a 14-minute video on Monday of Democrats repeatedly defending the former president's mental sharpness. 'As House Republicans investigate the scandal to bring accountability, the American people should never forget how far Democrats and the media went to hide the truth about the mental decline of the man holding the most powerful position on earth,' Johnson said in a statement.
