CA House Representative, Katie "Badass White Board Goddess" Porter, just announced her candidacy for US Senate. Senator Dianne Feinstein is almost 90 and will be retiring. Here's what Katie wants you to know about her:

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CA House Representative, Katie "Badass White Board Goddess" Porter, just announced her candidacy for US Senate.

Senator Dianne Feinstein is almost 90 and will be retiring.

Here's what Katie wants you to know about her:

I'm running for the U.S. Senate because Californians deserve a warrior fighting for them in Washington. In the House, I've stood up to leaders of both parties"as both the only Democrat to oppose earmarks and as one of just a dozen Members of Congress to reject lobbyist and corporate PAC money.

I'm not a career politician. I'm a single mom of three school-aged kids in Orange County and I drive a minivan. Plenty of people know me as the "woman with the whiteboard." I've used it to break down the math behind important issues, like how corporate greed is driving inflation and how pharmaceutical companies are ripping off patients.

Prior to being elected in 2018, I was a consumer protection advocate and professor at UC Irvine. Much of my work centered around the housing crisis that rocked Orange County and many other parts of the country. Before the crisis, I was one of the first to sound the alarm about how the biggest Wall Street banks were preying on homeowners. And when the crisis hit, I was appointed by then Attorney General Kamala Harris to work directly with California families who were cheated by the five biggest Wall Street banks.

The five banks had promised to help homeowners who had been harmed, and it was my job to hold the banks' feet to the fire. My team won thousands of victories against the banks, forcing them to pay billions to families. And our work helped tens of thousands of Californians move forward with their lives.

But for so many families across the country, the harm had already been done. Politicians in Washington bailed out the banks in a matter of days, but middle-class families waited years for help from Washington"help that never came.

Over a decade after the crash, California families still find themselves stuck. Profits are surging for major corporations, but middle-class wages are stagnant. And the cost of things that matter most for families"affording childcare, sending your kid to college, paying for your prescription"are skyrocketing, while the high cost of housing is pushing families to the brink.

California needs a warrior in the Senate to stand up to Mitch McConnell, big corporations, and the special interests that try to rig the rules against our families. I'll fight to protect our environment, to restore the nationwide right to an abortion, and to finally hold corporate special interests accountable to lowering costs for families.

We're just getting started...

Katie Porter

If you are involved in the fiber arts, you know of Liz Porter (now retired, of the Fons & Porter quilt magazine and TV show). Liz is Katie's mom, and I give big kudos to Liz for raising such an amazing person!

I love Katie Porter and I just donated to her campaign here.

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.