This past weekend, the political world watched as the so‑called “Red Fortress” of Texas showed its first major cracks in decades. In a special election for Texas State Senate District 9, a district in northern Tarrant County that Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024, Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a stunning upset over his Republican opponent. In a district long considered firmly Republican, Rehmet’s victory was powered by working families, union members, public education advocates, and everyday Texans who are tired of the politics that ignore their realities.

If there was ever a sign that our movement in Georgia House District 99 is on the right side of history, this is it. The results out of Texas confirm what we have felt on the ground for months in Duluth, Suwanee, and Sugar Hill: voters are looking for leaders who will fight for public schools, lower costs, and real representation.

The Blue Wave is officially in motion.

Historic shift

In Texas State Senate District 9, Democrats outright won a seat the GOP had held since the early 90s. In the district that Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024, Rehmet dominated, a staggering 31-point swing. This is the kind of race that national pundits write off, until the results come in and force a rewrite of the narrative.

Here’s why it matters:

* This was a district Trump carried by a wide margin in 2024.

* Republicans poured in money and attention, assuming they could still hold it.

* Voters, especially working families, chose a different path when presented with a candidate focused on schools, jobs, and cost of living.

Further narrowing the GOP’s grip, Christian Menefee won his race in the 18th Congressional District. His arrival in Washington slashes the Republican House majority to a mere four seats.

Why we’re next

That same energy is building right here at home.

* The Margin is Within Reach: In 2024, our community came within just 621 votes of winning the seat. We closed the gap to just 2.2%, proving the incumbent is vulnerable and this seat is a prime target for the next cycle.

* The Strength of Diversity: Our district—encompassing Duluth, Suwanee, and Sugar Hill—is one of the most diverse in Georgia, with nearly 60% of our residents identifying as people of color. We are a vibrant community that deserves leadership reflecting our shared values of progress and inclusion.

* Kitchen-Table Issues: While the Republican incumbent focuses on protecting partisan interests, we are building a grassroots movement focused on lowering housing costs, fully funding our public schools, and ensuring healthcare for every Georgian.

Path to victory

The victories in Texas show us a clear path forward.

Our campaign is following that same blueprint:

* We are building a multilingual, multicultural coalition that reflects the true face of our community.

* We are investing in year‑round organizing, rather than last‑minute advertising.

* We are meeting voters where they are: community events, faith gatherings, small businesses, and front doors, listening as much as we speak.

Meanwhile, the GOP is on defense. They are spending millions to hold onto seats they once took for granted. Every upset like the one in Texas sends a message: no seat is safe when voters are organized and united around a vision of progress.

This November, we have the opportunity to send that same message from Georgia to the rest of the country.

But what does it mean for us?

Here’s how you can be part of this moment:

* Volunteer a few hours a week to knock on doors or make phone calls. One conversation can be the difference between staying home and casting a ballot.

* Chip in whatever you can to help us compete with a well‑funded incumbent. Grassroots campaigns are powered by many small donations, not a few big checks.

* Share our posts with friends, neighbors, and family, inviting them to join our movement.

We are closer than ever. We came within 621 votes last cycle. With your help along with the momentum we’re seeing across the country, we can close that gap and flip this seat.

This November, let’s show the country that the same wave that just hit Texas is washing over Georgia.

Let’s flip District 99 and finally give this community the leadership it deserves.

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The Trump administration has swung what many are calling a “data sledgehammer” at the gates of American universities. Under a new memorandum called Ensuring Transparency in Higher Education Admissions, the Department of Education is demanding five years of detailed, student‑level data from colleges. This means every application, every test score, every demographic detail will be handed over to the federal government. One can call it “transparency”. What’s really happening is the weaponization of data to intimidate universities and control who gets a fair shot at higher education.

Transparency or surveillance?

True transparency helps the public understand how systems work so we can make them fairer. Trump’s memorandum is about control.

Forcing colleges to hand over 60 months of retroactive admissions data, the federal government is effectively installing a permanent auditor in every admissions office. Using student information, they move to build a massive federal database that can be used as a roadmap for lawsuits, political attacks, and targeted defunding.

Extortion by deadline

Colleges have to comply with these sweeping data demands by March 18th, or risk losing access to federal student aid like Pell Grants and crucial research funding.

This issue directly affects first‑generation college students and working‑class families on financial aid. Federal aid can be the difference between enrolling and dropping out.

Forcing colleges to choose between their students’ financial survival and their own institutional integrity is financial extortion. And the ones paying the price are young folks and working families.

Universities to spreadsheets, humans to test scores

The administration’s focus on narrowing metrics to academic scores erodes holistic admissions. It eliminates the personal: the veteran coming back to school, the first‑generation student juggling two jobs, the artist, the student who’s been translating for their parents since childhood.

In diverse communities, holistic review matters. Students from immigrant families, lower-income households, and communities of color have a lived experience past the numbers that colleges value. This memo is about forcing a one‑size‑fits‑all mold onto American learning, discouraging universities from considering the whole person.

The compliance trap

Many colleges, especially smaller liberal arts colleges and underfunded state schools, do not have the systems to produce the level of detail the memo is compelling them for on such short notice. These schools are staring down the possibility of huge fines for every violation. By setting the bar impossibly high and the deadline impossibly short, the Trump administration looks to blame schools to justify political interference.

Beyond campus

If we allow the government to dictate who a university teaches through data-driven intimidation, we are witnessing the end of academic independence in America. It turns the Department of Education into an enforcement arm for a narrow political ideology instead of a partner in expanding opportunity. As such, it affects the extent of health, economic, and climate research, and whether children have affordable, realistic paths after high school.

Take Action

The deadline is March 18, 2026. We must pressure our institutions to choose student privacy over federal coercion now.

1. Demand Accountability: Email your University President and ask how they are safeguarding applicant data against this “high-tech witch hunt.”

2. Support the Defense: Stand with the ACE and AAUP as they lead the legal battle to block this mandate in federal court.

3. Break the Silence: The administration counts on this happening in the dark. Share this post with colleagues and alumni to bring the “Data Sledgehammer” into the light.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

One year into the Trump administration, the damage is clear.

Democracy Under Threat

Trump has attacked free and fair elections, undermined independent institutions, and placed personal loyalty above the Constitution—weakening trust in our democracy.

Cruel and chaotic immigration enforcement

Families have been torn apart, communities live in fear of mass raids, and ICE has been empowered with little oversight—creating chaos instead of real reform.

An economy rigged for the wealthy

Billionaires and corporations benefit from tax breaks, while working families face rising housing costs, healthcare bills, and stagnant wages.

Healthcare put at risk

Repeated efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act threaten coverage for millions, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Civil rights rolled back

Voting rights are under attack, LGBTQ+ protections are being dismantled, and judges hostile to workers’ rights and reproductive freedom are being fast-tracked for lifetime appointments.

America weakened on the global stage

Democratic allies are pushed away while authoritarian leaders are embraced—leaving the U.S. less respected and less secure.

After one year, the pattern is undeniable: This administration governs through division, fear, and chaos—putting power over people.

We can change the course of the country by electing Democratic leadership that protects democracy, respects dignity, and delivers for working families!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

On Sunday 1/11, despite freezing temperatures and relentless wind, everyday people gathered in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, to join the national rally calling for ICE OUT—for good. They came in solidarity. And they came to say that what happened to Renee Nicole Good must never happen again.

Renee Nicole Good was 37 years old.

She was a mother of three.

She was a poet.

She was a U.S. citizen.

On Wednesday morning around 9:30 a.m., Renee was shot and killed by an ICE agent on a quiet residential street in south Minneapolis—less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered in 2020. Video footage and eyewitness accounts show an ICE agent firing three shots into Renee’s SUV before it crashed, as neighbors screamed for agents to stop.

Renee’s killing is the result of unchecked power and failed policy. Under Donald Trump, ICE was emboldened to operate above the law—shielded from accountability, militarized in its approach, and increasingly indifferent to human rights. What began as aggressive enforcement in immigrant communities has escalated into something far more dangerous: a federal agency whose actions now threaten the safety of everyone.

Let us be clear: Renee Good was a U.S. citizen.

Yet she was still killed by ICE.

Her family is now left grieving a life stolen far too soon. Her children must grow up without their mother—not because of justice or necessity, but because of reckless policy choices.

And still, the violence continues.

Even after Renee’s death, ICE has expanded militarized raids across the country, terrorizing communities and eroding trust. In response, the mayor of Minneapolis has called for ICE to leave the city altogether—an extraordinary demand that reflects the depth of public outrage and fear.

This is the human cost of reckless ICE policies.

Policies that terrorize neighborhoods.

Policies that normalize violence.

Policies that weaponize federal power against everyday Americans.

As a Democrat—and as your neighbor—I refuse to accept a system that treats any human life as expendable.

This is not an isolated tragedy. It is a national crisis.

That is why I am asking you to act. Join community partners across the country as we lift our voices and say:

Not one more death at the hands of ICE.

Not in our cities.

Not in our communities.

Not anywhere in this country.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

The lives of Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov were tragically cut short at Brown University this past week. Ella was a sophomore and vice president of Brown’s College Republicans. Mukhammad was a freshman studying biochemistry and neuroscience. These were 2 undergraduate underclassman students studying for finals, and their futures were stolen in an environment that should have been completely safe.

Universities are areas that allow students to think freely, speak openly, and manifest their futures. No one should feel endangered in such a space. No family should have to fear sending their child to college from the risk of gun violence. The lives of Ella and Mukhammad are an immeasurable loss we should not view as routine or expected.

We cannot let public discourse sweep this tragedy as yet another statistic into the constantly moving media landscape.

Preventing future harm necessitates collective action. We have to push for policies that reduce gun violence, such as universal background checks, red flag laws, and investing in mental health care and education. These approaches are solid steps towards protecting communities without infringing constitutional rights.

Remembering Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov carries the obligation to act. By choosing safety, strengthening gun laws, and investing in prevention, we show respect to their lives, protecting others from the same fate. Our efforts will determine whether students across the nation can return to classrooms without fear and whether policymakers are willing to do the work needed to make that possible.

— Michelle Kang, Democratic Candidate for Georgia State House District 99

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

On December 9, 2025, the Department of Justice issued a final rule eliminating key parts of its Title VI civil-rights regulations that recognized disparate-impact discrimination. With this move, DOJ is signaling that individuals and communities can no longer rely on disparate-impact standards to challenge federally funded policies that disproportionately harm people of color—even when no one admits discriminatory intent.

Why This Matters

Most contemporary discrimination is structural, not explicit. It lives in “neutral” policies that repeatedly produce unequal outcomes: transit cuts that isolate Black neighborhoods, school funding formulas that deepen racial gaps, hospital closures that target low-income communities.

For decades, disparate-impact rules were one of the only legal tools capable of confronting these patterns. Removing them means communities must once again prove intentional discrimination—an almost impossible bar when institutions know how to avoid leaving evidence.

Part of a Larger Strategy

This change is not an isolated action. It follows a broader, government-wide effort to minimize or eliminate disparate-impact enforcement across agencies—from EEOC shutting down disparate-impact investigations to HUD advancing rules that weaken fair-housing protections.

What Happens Now

Without Title VI disparate-impact protections:

School districts, transit agencies, and state programs receiving federal funds will have more cover to adopt policies that widen racial disparities.

Communities facing disproportionate harm, from discipline policies to housing decisions, will have fewer avenues to challenge systemic inequity.

This rollback is significant, but not final. Here’s where pressure can make a difference:

Call to Action

How to respond:

• Support congressional efforts to restore explicit disparate-impact authority.

• Urge state legislatures, school boards, and housing agencies to adopt state-level protections.

• Back litigation that challenges the rollback.

• Keep this issue visible in your networks and communities.

DOJ is signaling that individuals and communities can no longer rely on disparate-impact standards to challenge federally funded policies that disproportionately harm people of color—even when no one admits discriminatory intent.

— Michelle Kang, Democratic Candidate for Georgia State House District 99

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

Did you know student loans are now capped?

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed on July 4, 2025, the rules for federal student loans change dramatically starting July 1, 2026:

* Lifetime borrowing limit on all federal student loans, excluding Parent PLUS Loans received as a student, to $257,500 ($57,500 as an undergraduate student).

* Graduate students: $20,500/year, $100,000 total

* Professional programs (law, medicine, etc.): $50,000/year, $200,000 total

* Parent PLUS: $20,000 per child, $65,000 total

It sounds “responsible,” but it doesn’t lower tuition; it just limits who can afford to keep learning. If you’re wealthy, nothing changes, but if you’re first-gen, working-class, or already stretched thin, these caps hit hard. They’ll stop degrees, not debt.

Education is infrastructure. It keeps the middle class alive, and we need policies that open doors, not close them.

What We Can Do:

* Push to cap tuition, not students’ futures: Support legislation that limits tuition increases at public universities.

* Expand Pell Grants and need-based aid: Contact your representatives and urge them to increase federal and state grants so students borrow less.

* Reinvest in public colleges: Advocate for stronger funding to make state schools affordable again — the way we fund roads or defense.

* Protect borrowers: Demand robust income-based repayment options and loan forgiveness for educators, healthcare workers, and public servants.

* Stay informed and organize: Join local education coalitions, share verified information, and help others understand how these changes will affect them.

This bill doesn’t fix student debt; it weaponizes it. Let’s organize, speak out, and protect opportunity for the next generation.

— Michelle Kang, Democratic Candidate for Georgia State House District 99

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

The federal government shutdown is finally over, but here’s the thing: working families were left behind. The bill that Donald Trump signed didn’t include the enhanced ACA tax credits that help millions of Americans afford health coverage. And now, the numbers are pretty shocking.

Someone earning about $28,000 a year will see their premiums jump from $325 to more than $1,500. That’s a $1,200 increase for the exact same insurance, and a 60-year-old couple making $85,000? They could end up paying over $22,000 more each year. That’s not just a number on paper, that’s money that could cover groceries, rent, or school supplies.

To make things worse, insurers are already proposing rate hikes of up to 18% next year. So even folks who manage to keep their coverage will be paying more while getting less. That’s not fair, and it’s not sustainable.

When people lose coverage, they skip doctor visits, they cut pills in half to stretch prescriptions, and they end up in the ER when it’s too late. No one should have to choose between seeing a doctor and putting food on the table.

That’s why, when I’m elected as your next state representative, I’m going to fight to make healthcare affordable and accessible for everyone here in Georgia.

* We can fully expand Medicaid to cover more Georgians who are falling through the cracks.

* We can lower premiums with a state reinsurance program so that everyone pays less each month.

* We can create state-level tax credits to help working families afford care.

* We can make sure no one loses coverage for pre-existing conditions, no matter what happens in Washington.

Health care shouldn’t depend on your income or your ZIP code. It should be something every Georgian can count on.

I’m running because I believe health care is a right, not a privilege, and with your help — your voice, your time, and your vote — we can make sure every family in Georgia can see a doctor, afford their prescriptions, and live healthy, secure lives.

Together, we can make that promise real!

— Michelle Kang, Democratic Candidate for Georgia State House District 99

Thanks for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

This week, history was made in New York City. Voters elected Zohran Mamdani, a mayor who believes government should work for everyday people — with affordable housing, free public transit, universal childcare, and fair wages at the heart of his plan.

His victory is more than a win for New York. It’s a signal that bold, compassionate leadership works, and that people everywhere are ready for policies that lift families up instead of leaving them behind.

Here in Georgia, we face many of the same challenges: Soaring housing costs, childcare that’s out of reach, and wages that don’t keep up with the cost of living, but like Mayor Mamdani, I believe we can take on these challenges, and we can do it the Georgia way.

* Childcare Families Can Rely On

We can make childcare affordable and accessible with state support for working parents and small businesses.

* Good Jobs with Dignity

It’s time to raise wages so every Georgian who works hard can afford to live and thrive here.

* Fair Taxes & Responsible Growth

When everyone, including large corporations, pays their fair share, we can invest in schools, transit, and communities across our state.

* Affordable Homes for Working Families

Let’s expand affordable and workforce housing so that teachers, nurses, and first responders can live where they serve.

Zohran Mamdani’s election shows what’s possible when people come together around fairness, community, and hope.

I believe that Georgia can be next, a state where opportunity and compassion go hand in hand. If you share that vision, I invite you to stand with me. Together, we can build a Georgia that works for all of us.

With gratitude and determination,

Michelle Kang— Democratic Candidate for Georgia House District 99

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com

The headline is chilling. Here in Georgia, up to 1.4 million people, including more than 640 thousand children, could lose their SNAP benefits because of a federal budget standoff.

As of November 1st, 2025, the USDA says it no longer has funds to issue new SNAP allotments. The state confirms: families can still use what’s left on their EBT cards, but no new benefits will be added until the shutdown ends.

That’s not just paperwork.That’s hunger.That’s fear.That’s parents choosing between gas for work, rent, or food for their kids.

Nearly one-and-a-half million Georgians depend on SNAP, especially in rural counties where one in six households rely on it. When benefits stop, it’s not just fewer groceries; it’s kids starting school hungry, small grocers losing business, and whole communities struggling to hold on.

This isn’t about efficiency, it’s political gridlock over human need, and we can do better. Because food is not a privilege. It’s a basic human right.

If you or someone you know is affected, help is available:

* Call Georgia 211 for immediate local food resources.

* Find nearby food pantries through the Atlanta Community Food Bank map at acfb.org/get-help/food-map.

* Or visit feedinggeorgia.org for statewide food-bank partners and updates.

Let’s act with empathy. Let’s stand together until every family in Georgia has enough to eat, because nourishing people is what makes a society truly strong.

— Michelle Kang, the Democratic Candidate for Georgia State House District 99

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michellekangforga.substack.com