In silver lining news: Baton Rouge just elected its first black woman mayor

If Donald Trump calling the CIA “ridiculous” for its conclusion that Russia fuxed with the 2016 election is getting you down, I am here for you with some solidly good news right quick: Black women are still out here winning.

On Saturday, Sharon Weston Broome, 60, beat out Republican, Mack “Bodi” White (yes, he’s white and so is his last name), and became the first black woman mayor of East Baton Rouge Parish. The newly minted mayor previously served as a state representative and state senator in Louisiana.

Here, watch her acceptance speech. She says really inspirational things like, “we made history tonight,” and “Baton Rouge made a statement, a statement that we are a city of inclusion and optimism.” Made me smile, should make you smile.

“This is a dawn of a new beginning for our parish…an opportunity for us to rise from the ashes of the past six months and write a new chapter in our history,” Broome said, an oblique reference to the increased racial tensions Baton Rouge endured after Alton Sterling, a black resident of the city, was shot and killed by police in July.

Broome joins Senator-elect Kamala Harris (D-CA) and State Representative-elect Ilhan Omar (D-MN) as black women elected in this wild ass 2016 election cycle. Go forth gyals!

Collier Meyerson is a reporter at Fusion with a focus on race and politics. She lives in Brooklyn.

 
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