Much is being made about the elections that took place across the country on November 2nd. The spotlight was on Virginia where Republican Glenn Youngkin beat well financed and Biden backed former governor Terry McAuliffe.
UH Political Science Professor Brandon Rottinghaus, Ph.D. is a guest on this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall and says that result may foretell a trend that Democrats should watch carefully.
“In rural Virginia you saw that the Republican candidates were able to squeeze more juice from that lime,” he said. “They got more votes out of those areas than did Donald Trump and they were able to swing conservative voters, especially White women towards the Republican ticket.
Rottinghaus also weighs in the Department of Justice lawsuit against the State of Texas voting law and says Democrats should not get excited just yet.
“I feel like they needed something more and they’re not going to get it just from this lawsuit,” he said.
Executives to sleep outside to help homeless youth
Hundreds of thousands of young people are homeless on the streets of this country. Covenant House Texas is devoted to change that dynamic by offering a way off the street and to a better future.
“Our goal is to meet them where they are and help walk that journey with them during their homeless experience,” said Leslie Bourne, Executive Director for Covenant House Texas.
“We give them more than a bed in a shelter. To help fund that mission, more than 100 Houston area executives will sleep outside on Nov. 18th at Minute Maid Park to call attention to the plight of homeless youth and to try to raise One million dollars for Covenant House Texas.
“Lest anybody get a wrong impression, we won’t be sleeping out on that beautiful outfield grass,” said Steve Biegel, co-chair of the Executive Sleepout. “We will be sleeping in the Diamond Club parking lot on the asphalt on a cardboard box with nothing but a sleeping bag!”
See how you can support this worthy mission on this week’s program.
Jehovah’s Witnesses go virtual door-to-door
The pandemic forced millions of us to change the way we live and work. That includes the Jehovah’s Witnesses who, prior to the pandemic, went door-to-door for its outreach efforts.
COVID-19 forced a change that strategy but Robert Hendriks, U.S. Spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, says they already had a virtual foundation.
“Our JW library has 15 million users each month on 15 million devices, 600 thousand audio and video,” he said. “All free and so we’ve delivered content for free in a virtual way for many years.”
Dorian Gamble is the local media representative and says November will be devoted to a message everyone needs. “Now the message is about hope, he said. “We know that hope is not what we know, it’s actually what we believe.”
See the full interview on this week’s program.
More Information:
· Brandon Rottinghaus, Ph.D., University of Houston Political Science
· Website: https://uh.edu/class/political-science/faculty-and-staff/professors/rottinghaus/
· Leslie Bourne, Executive Director, Covenant House Texas
· Website: https://www.covenanthousetx.org/
· Steve Biegel, Co-Chair, Covenant House Executive Sleepout
· Website: https://www.covenanthousetx.org/
· Robert Hendriks, U.S. Spokesman, Jehovah’s Witnesses
· Website: https://www.jw.org/en/
· Dorian Gamble, Local Media Representative, Jehovah’s Witnesses
· Website: https://www.jw.org/en/