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Last week, our McGovern Day speaker, Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, announced her support for marriage equality. This week, our very own Senator Tim Johnson joined Senator Heitkamp, thousands of South Dakotans, and millions of Americans in advancing the cause of equality for all.

We have a lot to be proud of as Democrats at this year’s McGovern Day on Saturday, April 20. Join us in recognizing the hard work Democrats put in and the bold stances we make in red states to advance equality everywhere by supporting your South Dakota Democrats at McGovern Day.

Buy your tickets today!

Best,

SDDP team

If you’re gay, you don’t deserve protection against domestic abuse.

That’s what Rep. Dan Kaiser (R-Aberdeen) decided after amending a domestic abuse protection bill to include only people of the opposite sex. An Aberdeen area police offer, Kaiser evidently believes straight couples are worthy of his protection under the law and same sex couples are not.

Kaiser should know better. America holds its deepest roots in equality under the law and justice for all – no matter who you are. With a simple amendment, Kaiser has denied equal protection under the law for the LGBT community and justice for victims of domestic violence.

Help us hold Kaiser accountable to his constituents, the founding ideals of our great country, and our state’s better angels.

Ask your state senator to oppose Rep. Kaiser’s amendment today. They have one more chance to stop this amendment dead in its tracks.

Thank you for doing your part to root out injustice.

Chairman’s Note: Across the country, Republican Governors and legislators are attempting to suppress the vote. Despite the fact that in person voter fraud happens less than once per election, the GOP is using it as an excuse to stop young voters from casting a ballot. Instead of winning voters over with their arguments, the GOP is trying to take away their right to participate.

Chairman’s Note: Yesterday, President Obama endorsed same sex marriage, giving the LGBT community more of the dignity they deserve. Make no mistake –  we just took one step closer to a more perfect union. I’m proud to be on President Obama’s team.

Chairman’s Note: Noem is on the defensive with an op-ed outlining why she thinks the Republican War on Women is a myth. Focus on the “real issues” says Noem. Here’s the thing: you see, the Democratic party believes women’s issues – such as access to family planning services, breast and cervical cancer screenings, nutritious food, contraception, and gender equity in schools – are real issues. And Democrats are going to keep holding Congresswoman Noem accountable for supporting policies that hurt women across America everyday.

In a tweet earlier this week, Congresswoman Kristi Noem called the Republican War on Women a ‘myth.’ Aside from pointing out Noem’s obvious implication that women’s issues aren’t real issues , we thought we’d illuminate this so called “myth” for our Congresswoman.

So, let us count the ways in which the Washington Republican agenda is hurting women all over the country:

• Slash $2.4 trillion from Medicaid, in which women make up 70% of adult beneficiaries, denying life-saving health care to over 12 million women.
• Eliminate the Title X program, denying family planning services, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other preventive health care to over 5 million low-income women.
• Slash $747 million from the  Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), jeopardizing food, counseling, and other support for over two million women, nearly five million children, and over two million infants
• Get rid of the Women’s Educational Equity program, which helps schools comply with Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs.
• Cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens – over two-thirds of which include elderly poor women.
• Allow employers to deny women access to contraception through their health insurance plans.
• Gut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning for women in our country.

Chairman’s Note: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, marked Equal Pay Day: To earn what men did in 2011 alone, women would have had to keep working all the way until this past Tuesday — an extra 4 1/2 months. It’s a reminder that we still have much work to do to make pay more fair.

“Point to one policy that this president has enacted that has actually worked.” That’s what Rep. Kristi Noem challenged folks to outline on Fox News yesterday with Greta Van Susteren. 

Challenge accepted. Here are just a few Obama policies that are working for Americans everyday.

• Added 4.1 million private sector jobs and seen 25 straight months of job growth. American Recovery Act.
• Rescued American auto industry, saving more than 1 million jobs and preventing the loss of over $96 billion in personal income as a result. Rescue loans to American Auto Industry.
• Repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,”ensuring that no one ever again has to lie about who they are to serve the country they love. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
• Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, making progress in a decades-long battle for women to get equal pay for equal work. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act
• Provided 46 million seniors access to free preventive services like annual wellness visits and health screenings .Affordable Care Act. 
• Closed the Medicare “doughnut hole,” saving the average senior approximately $4,200 over the next 10 years. Affordable Care Act. 
• Extended more benefits to National Guard members who have performed active service and allow education benefits to be transferred to family members. Post 9/11 GI Bill.
• Brought the war in Iraq to a responsible end. For the first time in nine years, there are no American troops fighting in Iraq.
• Doubled funding for Pell grants, making college more affordable for 9 million students a year.
  
• Established new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks will nearly double fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, saving American families an estimated $1.7 trillion at the pump.

The policies and their effects are pretty obvious. So either Noem is lying about Obama’s policies that work or she doesn’t see these policies as successes. Either case shows an extreme lack of attention that the issues of our day deserve.

Here’s some advice for Noem: take some time away from high dollar lobbyist fundraisers and Fox News appearances to learn the issues. It’s hard enough when smart legislators make bad decisions. It’s worse when oblivious representatives make terrible ones.

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., uttered these words – taught us this lesson – the urgency of now existed in every home, every community across this nation. Today, we face that same urgency as we are called to act on problems new and old.

Without a doubt, we are a different country because of Dr. King. However, we have more work to do. We know what ordinary citizens can do when they seek to right injustice. We know the power of hope, of change, and of compassion for others.

We also know the world Dr. King envisioned, and the ability we all have to create that world today. For the jobless, the hungry, the sick, and the weary, we are not too late. We are not too late to fulfill Dr. King’s dream. As Democrats—today, tomorrow, and on Election Day, now is our moment, now is when we live the words of Dr. Martin Luther King.