Democrats Abroad is honored to have received the support of Rep. Dina Titus in our fight for fair taxes for Americans abroad. Remarks by Rep. Titus, placed December 19th in the Congressional Record, demonstrate her strong opposition to the Republican Tax Bill H.R. 1 and note the harm it will cause the majority of her constituents.

Despite a sleepless night waiting for special election results to come in, voters such as Marshall Johnson are finding time to celebrate today, after Doug Jones won a closely-watched Senate race against Republican Roy Moore.

Democrats Abroad asks Americans around the world to make their voices heard, and to call or message Congress TODAY to help stop the GOP Tax Scam. The final fight over the GOP Tax Scam will be decided in the next few days but the impact will last decades. 

Democrats Abroad firmly stands against the Senate Tax Bill. It is grossly irresponsible of Republicans to ignore the needs of the vast majority of Americans — including middle and working class families at home and abroad — in exchange for a tax giveaway for the “donor class.” This is a sham tax plan that cuts taxes for the wealthy and well-connected; slashes tax rates for big business who already pay far below the marginal rate; worsens inequality; slows economic growth; blows out the budget deficit by a trillion dollars; and positions Congressional Republicans to make drastic reductions in federal programs that support millions of Americans, including the nation’s most vulnerable. 

THE 2017 GLOBAL AUCTION IS CLOSED NOW. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE NEXT ONE - OR JUST MAKE A DONATION AND HELP US TAKE BACK CONGRESS.  WWW.DEMOCRATSABROAD.ORG/DONATE

Just in time for your holiday shopping, the Democrats Abroad Annual Global Auction is now underway! It's a perfect chance to snap up a holiday vacation spot, great piece of artwork, or that political memorabilia you've been looking for. 

The Virginia House of Delegates is one seat away from a 50/50 Democratic/Republican split.

Ballots sent from abroad may help decide that outcome, but local election officials in Virginia are illegally refusing to count them.

The Republican candidate for House District 28 currently leads the vote count by only 84 votes, but news reports note that the local election board has refused to tally at least 55 ballots from abroad, and more than 1,000 other absentee ballots may not have been counted yet as well.

As Julia Bryan, Chair of Democrats Abroad, stated today: “Our legal system promises that all Americans who successfully cast their ballot should have their votes counted. By not picking up overseas ballots from their post box on Election Day — ballots that arrived before the 7pm deadline on November 7 — the Stafford County electoral board has effectively, and illegally, disenfranchised our military and civilian voters abroad. There is simply no legal reason not to count these votes.”

Democrats Abroad stands firm in condemning voter suppression efforts and will continue fighting to protect all votes from abroad.

UPDATE (Nov 12): The Stafford County electoral board will hold a meeting on Monday, November 13th to decide whether or not they will count the 55 votes from abroad. We will keep this statement updated as news comes in.

Nov 16: Virginia’s 28th House District race remains undecided. Currently the VA House Democratic Caucus has filed suit with the Stafford County electoral board for mishandling their absentee ballots and it appears that hundreds of voters may have voted the wrong ballot. Three recounts are underway in Virginia's state legislature, threatening the Republicans' 51/49 advantage in the House. Many thanks to our Comms team for their help with our outreach this weekend. It led to great connections with grass roots leaders on social media, and good conversations with several media orgs, including DemList, who made the issue their lead story on Monday after we spoke with them and helped put pressure back in the States.

Virginia

Ralph Northam is the governor-elect (54% - 45%!), Justin Fairfax is lieutenant governor-elect, and Mark Herring was re-elected attorney general.

Control of the Virginia House went from 66R/34D to 51R/49D, with Democrats picking up 15* House of Delegates seats - just two seats shy of flipping the House to Democrats. 

• Jennifer Carroll Foy (HD-02)
• Wendy Goodits (HD-10)
• Chris Hurst (HD-12)
• Danica Roem (HD-13) (first openly transgender state legislator)
• Kelly Fowler (HD-21)
• Elizabeth Guzman (HD-31)
• David Reid (HD-32)
• Kathy Tran (HD-42) (first Asian-American woman in the House)
• Lee Carter (HD-50)
• Hala Ayala (HD-51)
• Karrie Delaney (HD-67)
• Dawn Adams (HD-68)
• Schuyler VanValkenberg (HD-72)
• Deborah Rodman (HD-73)
• Cheryl Turpin (HD-85)

* This is the largest pickup for Virginia Dems since 1899. 

Florida
Democrats re-elected Mayor Rick Kriseman to be the mayor of St. Petersburg.

Georgia
Democrats flipped two House districts by electing Deborah Gonzalez (HD-117) and Jonathan Wallace (HD-119). 

Massachusetts
Democrats re-elected Boston Mayor Marty Walsh.

Michigan
Democrats held Michigan’s 109^th House District by electing Sara Cambensy.

Minnesota
Melvin Carter won the mayor's race in St. Paul to become the first African American Mayor. 

New Hampshire
Democrats flipped the Manchester mayoral seat by electing Joyce Craig. Joyce is the first woman to ever serve as mayor of Manchester.

Democrats flipped one seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives by electing Erika Connors to the Hillsborough County District 15 and held the Sullivan County District 1 by electing Brian Sullivan.

In total, Democrats have now flipped six seats in New Hampshire from red to blue in 2017 

New Jersey
Democrats flipped the governor’s seat from red to blue by electing Phil Murphy (55.6%-42.3%). 

Sheila Oliver was elected Lt Governor and became NJ's first African American Lt Governor.

Vin Gopal flipped New Jersey’s 11^th Senate District from red to blue.

New Jersey became the 7th state in the US where Democrats control both legislative and executive branches. 

New York
Democrats re-elected New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.  

North Carolina
Democrats flipped 2 mayoral seats by electing Vi Lyles in Charlotte and Mitch Colvin in Fayetteville. Vi Lyles is the first-ever African American woman to be elected mayor of Charlotte, while Mitch used his strong ties to the community to flip the Fayetteville mayoral seat from red to blue. 

Washington
Manka Dhingra's resounding victory in the Washington 45th state senate race successfully flipped control of the Washington State Senate to the Democrats.

Jenny Durkan won the mayor's race in Seattle to become the first openly lesbian Mayor. 

Democrats Abroad DNC members attended the Fall meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Las Vegas this October.  International Chair Julia Bryan (Czech Republic) and the DNC delegates Connie Borde (France), John Eastwood (Taiwan), Adrianne George (Sweden), Martha McDevitt-Pugh (Netherlands), Ken Sherman (Canada), and Orlando Vidal (UAE) represented the organization. 

On October 28, Democrats Abroad France in partnership with Our Revolution France welcomed Larry Cohen to Paris.  Cohen is co-chair of the DNC's Unity Reform Commission (URC), and chairman of the board of Our Revolution. He reported on the URC's work, the proposals it will introduce, and their prospects to an audience of more than eighty people.

Check out Ralph Northam's video to Democrats Abroad!

"Virginia voters: Have you sent in your absentee ballot for 2017? Now’s the time!" If you’re registered to vote in the Commonwealth, you may have gotten that very call from a DA volunteer.