What A Week! Georgia, that Slush Fund, SCOTUS, the Autopsy
— A WEEKLY NOTE FROM LEAH DAUGHTRY —
Black
Lady
News
What matters this week.
For the women who move the world.
Issue No. 004
Friday, May 22, 2026
A NOTE FROM LEAH
Next Tuesday, we begin determining the path to 2028.
That's when the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee convenes to hear presentations from twelve states competing to host the party's early primary contests in the next presidential cycle. The stakes are higher than they've ever been — not just because early states shape who can run, but because this particular committee is meeting in a political moment when Black voter power is under assault from every angle.
I need to tell you something: I serve on that committee. That means I get to tell you what this process actually looks like — not from the press gallery, but from the decision-maker's table.
This week, we're profiling someone who understands the information war better than almost anyone — Esosa Osa, the woman building the tools Black communities need to fight disinformation. We're also tracking what's happening in Georgia after Keisha Lance Bottoms's primary win, watching for the AFSCME succession signals, and naming the win nobody saw coming.
Forward it to your group chat. Pull a stat for your next meeting.
Let's get into it.
THE HEADLINE
The Watch: Twelve states, four slots, and the woman who co-chairs the path to 2028
On Tuesday, May 27, the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee will convene in Washington to hear presentations from twelve states competing to host early primary contests in the 2028 presidential nomination calendar. The committee will select four or five states — one from each region — to vote before Super Tuesday. The decisions made in that room will shape who can run for president in 2028, and how.
At the co-chair table: Minyon Moore and Jim Roosevelt Jr. Moore is one of the most influential voices in Democratic politics — a former White House political director, Clinton campaign manager, and current principal at Dewey Square Group. She also happens to be one of the most effective behind-the-scenes operators in the party. If you don't know her name, you should.
A note: I serve on the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee. I'll be in the room for the presentations described above. I'm telling you because you should know.
The field: who's presenting
Twelve states advanced from the initial application stage to next week's presentations: Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The RBC will hear presentations from each state over three days (May 27-29), with final decisions expected by late summer.
The formula is regional: one state each from the East, Midwest, South, and West, with the possibility of a fifth "flex" slot. Each region's contest is different, but the South is the one to watch. Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia are all competing for what amounts to one or two slots. That's where Black primary voters are most concentrated. That's where the stakes are highest.
The South: Five states, high stakes
South Carolina has held the "first in the South" slot since 2008, and moved to first in the nation in 2020, positions that helped launch Barack Obama's 2008 nomination and rescue Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. But each state brings distinct arguments: Georgia points to its size (11 million residents), diversity (30% Black electorate), and recent Democratic victories. North Carolina emphasizes its competitive general election status and growing Black voter registration. Tennessee argues for representing the interior South. Virginia highlights its diverse suburbs and reliable Democratic performance.
The South Carolina case rests on proven track record, established infrastructure, and institutional memory. The question for the committee: does continuity or change better serve the party — and Black voters — in 2028?
"The early state calendar is not just about logistics. It's about who gets to shape the conversation, and whose voices get centered from the very beginning of the process."
— Melanie Campbell, Black Women's Roundtable, March 2026
The Minyon Moore factor
Moore brings forty years of Democratic politics to the co-chair role — from Reverend Jesse Jackson's campaigns to the Clinton White House to the 2020 Biden transition. Her presence at the table matters at a moment when the party is grappling with Black voter concerns after the post-2020 redistricting disasters.
Her presence at the table matters because early state selection is ultimately about power — who gets to vote first, whose issues get prioritized, and which candidates have to prove themselves to which communities. In a cycle when Black voting power is under assault from redistricting to voter suppression to court decisions like Callais, the early primary calendar becomes one of the few remaining venues where Black voters can exercise outsized influence on the nomination process.
WHY THIS MATTERS FOR US — NOW MORE THAN EVER
The 2028 calendar will be set in a political environment where Black voting power has been systematically undermined by redistricting, voter suppression, and court decisions. The early primary states may be one of the last remaining venues where Black voters can exercise disproportionate influence on who gets to run for president — and on what terms. That makes this a fight worth following closely. The discussions taking place next Tuesday don't just shape the 2028 primary calendar. They shape who will be viable as a presidential candidate in an increasingly constrained electoral landscape. And the woman co-chairing that process understands exactly what's at stake.
READ MORE. DNC announcement · Politico · Black Women's Roundtable.
THE PROFILE
Fighting the info war: Esosa Osa builds the tools Black communities need
If the Headline is about the rooms where political power gets shaped, the Profile this week is about the digital spaces where information gets weaponized — and the woman building tools to fight back.
WHO Esosa Osa
WHAT Founder/CEO, Onyx Impact
WHERE Atlanta-based
WHY NOW Built Digital Green Book + Blackout Report tools
Esosa Osa understands something most people are still learning: the disinformation targeting Black communities isn't just about elections anymore. It's about everything — health care, economic opportunity, education, even where it's safe to travel. And the tools being used to spread that disinformation are more sophisticated than most people realize.
That's why, in 2021, she founded Onyx Impact, an Atlanta-based nonprofit focused on combating disinformation that targets Black communities. The organization has built two groundbreaking tools: the Digital Green Book, which helps Black travelers identify safe spaces and avoid hostile areas, and the Blackout Report, which tracks and analyzes disinformation campaigns targeting Black voters.
The path to this work
Osa, a Duke University graduate and Ohio native, came to this work through traditional political channels. She served as a senior advisor to Stacey Abrams's gubernatorial campaign and as deputy executive director of Fair Fight Action. Before that, she worked in finance at BlackRock and Morgan Stanley. But it was watching the disinformation campaigns targeting Black voters in 2020 that convinced her a different kind of infrastructure was needed.
"The traditional approach to combating disinformation is reactive," she explains. "Someone posts false information, we fact-check it, maybe we get a platform to take it down. By then, it's been seen by thousands of people." Onyx Impact takes a different approach: tracking the patterns before they become widespread, building tools that communities can use to protect themselves, and training local leaders to recognize and counter false information before it spreads.
The Digital Green Book
The name is intentional — a reference to Victor Hugo Green's "Negro Motorist Green Book," which helped Black travelers navigate segregated America from 1936 to 1966. Osa's digital version serves a similar purpose: it's a crowdsourced database where Black travelers can share information about businesses, neighborhoods, and cities where they've felt safe or unwelcome.
The tool launched in beta in 2023 and has grown to include reviews from more than 15,000 users across all 50 states. It's not just about dramatic incidents — though those are tracked. It's about the everyday microaggressions, the businesses with "certain" hiring practices, the neighborhoods where Black families report feeling watched or followed.
The Blackout Report
This is the tool that caught the attention of national security experts. The Blackout Report is a monthly analysis of disinformation campaigns targeting Black voters, tracking everything from false information about voting procedures to conspiracy theories about Black political leaders. The report has identified coordinated campaigns targeting Black women in particular — false narratives about Black female candidates, health misinformation aimed at Black mothers, and economic disinformation designed to discourage Black entrepreneurship.
WHY THIS WORK MATTERS — ESPECIALLY RIGHT NOW
Disinformation targeting Black communities has become more sophisticated and more dangerous. It's not just about elections — it's about health care, economic decisions, even personal safety. Osa's work at Onyx Impact represents a new model: community-driven tools that help Black communities protect themselves from information warfare. In an environment where traditional media gatekeepers have less influence and social media algorithms can amplify false narratives, the kind of infrastructure Osa is building isn't optional. It's essential. And the fact that she's building it in Atlanta, in the heart of the South, matters. This is where much of the political targeting happens. This is where the defense needs to be strongest.
THE FIVE
Five things to know this week.
01 Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Georgia gubernatorial primary.
The former Atlanta mayor secured 56.22% in Tuesday's Democratic primary, avoiding a runoff. Her victory, fueled by Biden's early endorsement and strong Atlanta-area turnout, sets up a November general election against the winner of the Republican runoff between Rick Jackson and Burt Jones (June 16). Bottoms will be the second Black woman major-party nominee for Georgia governor. The general election becomes a test of whether Democratic gains in the state can survive post-redistricting challenges.
Georgia Secretary of State · Atlanta Journal-Constitution
02 Black Women's Leadership Collective launches massive voter effort.
The "1 Million Black Voters Rising" registration drive officially launched Monday, coordinated nationwide with a focus on registering new Black voters and ensuring their presence at the polls. The effort targets first-time voters and those who've been purged from voter rolls since 2022. The timing is strategic — launching the same week as Georgia's primary to build on electoral momentum.
onemillionblackvotersrising.org
03 DOJ creates $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump allies.
The Justice Department announced an "Anti-Weaponization Fund" paying nearly $1.8 billion to Trump allies who claim they were unfairly investigated during the Biden administration. The fund stems from Trump's personal lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax returns — a case where he sued his own administration. Critics call it a taxpayer-funded piggybank for presidential allies, created while the administration proposes cuts to childcare and food assistance programs serving Black families.
CNN · DOJ press release
04 DNC releases 2024 autopsy — with a glaring omission.
This week, DNC Chair Ken Martin released the party's long-coming 2024 election postmortem, but the 192-page report analyzing Kamala Harris's loss makes no substantive mention of race or gender as factors. The report, which comes with a disclaimer that the DNC doesn't endorse its contents, urges the party to "move away from identity politics" — apparently including any analysis of how being the first Black woman presidential nominee might have affected the campaign. That would seem to be essential information to understanding 2024.
CNN · Washington Post
05 SCOTUS denies Virginia redistricting appeal.
The Supreme Court denied Virginia's emergency appeal of the state court decision striking down Sen. Louise Lucas's redistricting amendment. The denial leaves the Virginia Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling in place, blocking the 10-1 Democratic map that voters had approved. Virginia will use existing maps for 2026 elections, maintaining the current 6-5 Democratic advantage instead of the stronger 10-1 split Lucas had engineered.
Supreme Court order list · Virginia Mercury
MONTGOMERY · ALL ROADS LEAD TO THE SOUTH
The numbers that mattered on sacred ground
Saturday's "All Roads Lead to the South" National Day of Action drew over 5,600 people to Montgomery, with more than 1,000 clergy leading prayer as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The mobilization reached far beyond Alabama: 82 buses transported participants from across the country, while 3 million people and counting watched via livestream, and 80+ satellite events were held nationwide.
The day began with prayer at Selma's Tabernacle Baptist Church, where original 1965 "foot soldiers" joined current organizers. Participants then silently crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge before traveling to Montgomery for the afternoon rally at the Alabama State Capitol. Speakers included lead organizers LaTosha Brown, Melanie Campbell, and Janai Nelson, Cong. Terri Sewell, and Rev. Jamal Bryant, with 250+ organizations represented.
Organizers framed the event as "Day One" of sustained mobilization against post-Callais redistricting efforts across the South. The attendance numbers — from buses to bridges to livestreams — demonstrate that the infrastructure for resistance is not just intact. It's growing.
THE WIN
The Georgia wave: Black women's primary night.
Some weeks the Win is one breakthrough. This week, it's seven. Georgia's Democratic primary wasn't just about Keisha Lance Bottoms winning the gubernatorial nomination — it was about Black women securing victories up and down the ballot in a way that redefines Georgia politics.
The full slate: Bottoms for Governor. Penny Brown Reynolds for Secretary of State. Tanya Miller for Attorney General. In Congress: Nikema Williams (GA-05) and Lucy McBath (GA-06) advance directly, while Joyce Griggs and Amanda Holloway head to a runoff in GA-01, and Traci George and Ceretta Smith advance to a runoff in GA-12. Dr. Jasmine Clark (GA-13) also secured her primary. Multiple victories, multiple runoffs — all featuring Black women candidates.
What this means
This isn't just individual candidate success — it's proof that the organizing infrastructure Stacey Abrams built has matured into a pipeline that works at every level. From statewide constitutional offices to congressional districts to local races, Black women aren't just running in Georgia anymore. They're winning.
The Secretary of State and Attorney General races deserve particular attention. These are the offices that oversee elections and voting rights enforcement — the very systems that determine whether future Black women candidates have fair access to the ballot. Reynolds and Miller winning these primaries means Black women could soon control the machinery of Georgia elections.
The November test
Primaries are one thing. General elections in a purple state are another. But Tuesday's results demonstrate something crucial: the coalition that elected Raphael Warnock to the Senate twice and made Georgia competitive in presidential races has translated into sustainable electoral success for Black women candidates.
The broader implications extend far beyond Georgia's borders. Black women considering statewide runs in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Florida now have not just Abrams's template to study, but an entire state's worth of successful campaigns at every level of government.
Abrams broke the ceiling. Bottoms proved it wasn't a fluke. Tuesday night, other Black women proved it's become the new normal in Georgia. That's the foundation every other state needs.
THE WATCH
What we are watching next.
Five dates worth circling. The first one is Tuesday.
Tue-Thu, May 27-29: DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee early state presentations in Washington. Twelve states will present; four or five will be selected for the 2028 calendar. The decisions reshape presidential politics.
Sun, June 7: AFL-CIO Convention begins in Minneapolis. April Verrett (SEIU) will be a key voice as SEIU has rejoined the federation. Watch for positioning ahead of leadership elections.
Mon, June 16: Georgia runoff elections. Republican gubernatorial runoff between Rick Jackson and Burt Jones will determine Keisha Lance Bottoms's November opponent. Multiple Black women congressional candidates also face runoffs.
Thu, July 24: Charletta Wilson Jacks becomes International President of Alpha Kappa Alpha. The installation of AKA's new leadership happens at the sorority's international convention in Las Vegas.
August 2026: AFSCME International Convention and Lee Saunders's retirement from the presidency. Internal positioning is intensifying among potential successors, including several Black women international vice presidents. The succession matters because AFSCME represents 1.4 million workers, many of them Black women.
Ongoing: Post-Callais redistricting challenges continue across multiple states. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act remains stalled in the Senate.
ONE THING TO READ
For your weekend.
This week's recommendation is the Brookings Institution report "Digital Disinformation and Black Communities: A Growing Threat" (April 2026), co-authored by Dr. Nicol Turner Lee and Dr. Darrell West.
I'm recommending it because it provides crucial context for understanding the work profiled in this week's issue. The report documents how disinformation targeting Black communities has evolved from election-focused campaigns to year-round efforts targeting health decisions, economic choices, and civic participation more broadly.
The most striking finding: disinformation campaigns targeting Black women specifically have increased 340% since 2020, with false narratives about Black female political leaders, health misinformation aimed at Black mothers, and economic disinformation designed to discourage Black entrepreneurship. The report includes specific case studies and provides practical guidance for communities to protect themselves.
Read at: brookings.edu — search "digital disinformation Black communities."
A note on timing: this report was completed just weeks before the 2026 midterm cycle intensifies. The strategies it documents are likely to be deployed at scale over the next six months. Knowledge is defense.
Stay rooted.
— LD
Black Lady News is a weekly curation by Leah Daughtry.
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Black Lady News · Issue 004 · May 2026
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