Accountability | Virginia
Anti-LGBT Va. Lawmaker Bill DeSteph Attempts to Whitewash Anti-LGBT Record
In an attempt to rebrand himself a champion of equality, Virginia State Sen. Bill DeSteph touted a singular endorsement of an openly gay Virginia Councilman in a Facebook post last week, despite his lengthy record of voting against LGBT equality in Virginia, including his ongoing support of harmful conversion therapy practices.
According to a review by American Ledger, in January 2019, DeSteph voted in favor of SB 1778, a bill that would allow for psychological conversion therapy to be practiced upon minors in Virginia. The American Psychological Association is opposed to conversion therapy, stating it poses significant risk of harm to LGBT individuals, including elevating the risk for potential suicide.
Accountability | Michigan
Former GM Employee Blasts Trump For Broken Promise to Autoworkers
In a heartfelt op-ed penned yesterday in the Akron Beacon Journal, John DeGarmo, a decades-long employee of General Motors, called on President Trump to finally make good on his broken campaign promise to revive the auto industry across the Rust Belt. DeGarmo demanded action after he and others lost their jobs when the GM Lordstown plant in Ohio shuttered in March 2019.
Accountability | Louisiana
Former Employees Sue Rispone Campaign Contributors, Allied Cajun Industries
Cajun Industries, founded by a close political ally of Eddie Rispone, is currently being sued for the events leading to an August 2018 explosion at a Lake Charles complex that caused many of his workers to flee the scene vomiting and gasping for air.
Just a few months after the dangerous explosion, Rispone continued to raise money with Grigsby, who originally founded the Louisiana-based contracting and engineering corporation -- Cajun Industries LLC -- that allegedly left these workers unprepared for the blast.
Accountability | Virginia
Virginia Republican Bryce Reeves: Women Need Transvaginal Ultrasounds to Make Rational Decisions About Abortion
In a newly uncovered radio interview, Va. State Sen. Bryce Reeves stated he believed women needed a transvaginal ultrasound in order to make a “rational” decision when seeking an abortion.
“This bill, transvaginal ultrasound bill, of which I got to tell you, I think helps women make a logical, rational decision,” Reeves said on the John Fredericks radio show in December 2012.
Accountability | Virginia
In the Wake of Virginia Beach Shootings, GOP Va State Sen. Hopeful Geary Higgins Embraces NRA
In the days following the deadly mass shooting on May 31, 2019 that took the lives of 12 people in Virginia Beach, State Senate Candidate Geary Higgins doubled down on his embrace of the gun lobby. Instead of disavowing his support of the National Rifle Association in the wake of the tragedy, Higgins continued to run ads on Facebook trumpeting the group's endorsement.
Coincidentally, the NRA returned the favor just weeks later, spending nearly $6,000 to give Higgins the boost he needed to win the Republican primary to represent Virginia’s 13th District in the State Senate.
Accountability | Maine
Analysis: Susan Collins Repeatedly Voted to Undermine Medicare, Social Security
Contrary to a misleading fact-check on her Medicare and Social Security record recently posted by her campaign, Sen. Susan Collins has repeatedly voted for Republican legislation that would have slashed funding for Medicare benefits and against multiple proposals to protect or expand Social Security funding.
According to a review by American Ledger, between 1997 and 2017 Collins voted at least eight separate times for GOP budgets that attempted to slash funding for Medicare.
Accountability | New Hampshire
As Opioid Crisis Ravages New Hampshire, Trump Offers Little More than Insults to Granite State
In 2017, President Trump claimed he won the state of New Hampshire in the 2016 election -- a state that in fact, he lost to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- because it was a “drug-infested den” that needed his help. But since his inauguration, the epidemic continues to ravage New Hampshire communities such as Manchester, where overdoses are skyrocketing this year.
According to a review by American Ledger, opioid overdoses in Manchester -- where the President is campaigning Thursday -- are up by 13% this year alone, many of which are caused by users unknowingly mixing Fentanyl, a synthetic form of Heroin, with prescription opioids, often leading to overdoses, and in many cases, death.