It’s a Love Story

Good evening to Swifties and the people who love them,

Today marks 0 days since Taylor Swift announced her engagement and 105 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which secured the vote for (some) women in the United States. Huge day.

To sort out our feelings about that (the unfinished work of suffrage, not Taylor, for whom we’re uncomplicatedly happy), we called up Rep. LaMonica McIver. The congresswoman has been in the news since May, when she was charged with assault after attempting to conduct an entirely legal congressional oversight visit at an immigration facility in Newark, New Jersey. She has pleaded not guilty.

In today’s newsletter, Rep. McIver shares her own personal call for action. Plus, something good is happening in Illinois.

Fearlessly,

Cindi, Mattie, and the team

WHAT’S GOING ON

Voting like our lives depend on it: Over a century ago, the 19th Amendment became law and millions of women in the United States were granted access to the ballot box. Sounds great, and it was. But not for everyone.

It’s never simple to mark these kinds of dates on the calendar, and the 19th Amendment—a rad thing, to be clear—did not in fact do what it promised for large chunks of the population. Poll taxes kept some poor women from voting. It wasn’t until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that Black women in the Jim Crow South (and some Native American women, for that matter) were able to cast their ballots. Voting can feel like the bare minimum, but August 26 is a reminder that people fought hard for even this basic right. We vote so we can exercise one of our most essential liberties, but we also vote so that we can elect qualified, inspiring candidates, who can represent our interests. When democracies are working as they are supposed to, this is in fact a wildly beautiful and cool process.

REP. LAMONICA MCIVER, AT A NEWS CONFERENCE IN FEBRUARY 2025. VIA GETTYIMAGES

In honor of Women’s Equality Day, we called Rep. LaMonica McIver—one such legislator. Below, the 39-year-old U.S. congresswoman from New Jersey shares her thoughts on suffrage, activism, and where we go from here.
________

When I think about suffrage, I think about how women are leading the fight for representation across this country. Women have always been leaders on voting rights, immigration, and justice, and they’ve shown how these issues are tied together. Now more than ever, women are doing that work. Our freedom is under attack each and every second of the day under this administration, and that makes this anniversary so much more important. It’s a day that reminds us why we have to keep leading.

We have an administration that is trying to take us backward, rolling back civil rights, women’s rights, and the protections our ancestors fought for. We’re seeing them do it with the stroke of a Sharpie pen. I know people feel defeated, but I want people to focus on what they can do. As a member of Congress, I’m always asking myself, “Why am I doing this?” The “why” for me is the people I represent, who are counting on me to raise their stories and to advocate for them, to make sacrifices for them, to give a voice to the people who are voiceless. They give me strength. We all have a “why,” and we all need to find it to keep pushing for the country that we know.

We can’t always predict where our fight will take us. I tell people all the time: I did not come into office with a robust immigration plan. That is the honest truth. But I knew I wanted to protect the people in this district—documented, undocumented, women, children. And that is exactly what I am doing. I am showing up to do the job I was hired to do.

There’s something for everyone to do. Voting is something. Exercising the right that suffrage gave us is something. Keeping your circle informed is something. The work that folks in the media are doing is something, because you are being attacked as well. You don’t have to be the next Martin Luther King, Jr., but you have to find something to do. You have to stay engaged. — Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), as told to The Meteor 

A few “somethings” you can do on this anniversary: 

• First (and second and third), make sure you’re registered to vote.

• Volunteer! Whether you’re a student, an attorney, or just a human being who wants to do violent things with a knitting needle but needs to find legal outlets for her rage, Black Voters Matter and Vote Riders have options for this fall.

• And of course, it’s never a bad day to call your reps.

AND:

• Most abortion news is bad. This is good: Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a law last week that will make contraceptives and medication abortion available to all students at public universities in his state, reminding people nationwide that the government is in fact capable of providing basic services to the people it serves. I had forgotten! Pritzker deserves praise for recognizing this essential truth, but so do the champion student activists who helped bring the issue to his attention. At the bill signing, he acknowledged as much, crediting young people for being “the energy that lights up this movement.”

• Things are looking less bright in Mississippi, where health officials have declared a state of emergency as the infant mortality rate continues to rise. It has now climbed to a decade-long high, with 9.7 deaths per 1,000 live births—up from 8.9 in 2023. That number is frighteningly higher in Black families, in which there are 15.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. Lots of factors have contributed to these dismal numbers in Mississippi and in states across America, but abortion bans are one. Medical professionals have reported moving to states where they can provide basic care for patients without the threat of prosecution, and rural hospitals are closing as federal funding dries up, leaving millions of women without access to obstetric services.

• There’s a lot to feel on edge about in this world—guns, killer AI, wannabe dictators, real dictators, a new Lana Del Rey album called . . . Stove. You know what’s not frightening? Two animated moms. Yet somehow, in a recent podcast appearance, Snoop Dogg did indeed report feeling “scared to go to the movies now” after taking one of his grandsons to see Lightyear in theaters. The movie features a scene in which a lesbian couple kisses. Grow up.

• Maybe we don’t need to Make America Gavin Again, but we definitely do need every elected Democrat official to have a coherent social media strategy. So our hero of the moment is 29-year-old Camille Zapata, a Stockton native and UC Santa Cruz grad who is shaping Governor Gavin Newsom’s, uh, distinctive voice and has grown his TikTok audience from 500,000 to 1.9 million.

• He belongs with her!

• And Meghan Markle belongs on TV, okay? In the new season of With Love, Meghan, which premiered today, it was revealed that Markle hand calligraphied her own wedding menus. She’s committed to the bit, and she doesn’t care if it’s cringe, and people have been famous and beloved for less. Let her enjoy her $15 flower sprinkles.

FOLLOW THE METEOR

Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[email protected]