Doug Jones Is In, Omarosa Is Out, Ivanka Trump's New Store: Broadsheet for Dec. 14
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Omarosa is out of the White House, Reformation raises a $25 million round, and I outline the basics of what we know about Alabama’s newest senator, Doug Jones. Have a great Thursday.
EVERYONE’S TALKING
• What will Doug do? The exit polls are out for Tuesday’s Alabama Senate election and one stat getting lots of attention is that winner Doug Jones, a Democrat, captured all but 3% of black women’s votes. Fortune‘s Ellen McGirt has ideas for how Jones can express gratitude to those who propelled him to victory. (“Do something about their maternal death rate and protect them from intimate partner violence, both of which are alarmingly high in your state.”)
Meanwhile, 65% of white women voted for Moore, who has been accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls (allegations he denies). While it’s a shocking statistic, it should be noted that 71% of Alabama Republicans didn’t believe the allegations against Moore in the run-up to the election. Vox’s Brian Resnick does an excellent job of explaining the psychology behind the numbers, many of which echo the factors that led to Trump’s victory in 2016.
But instead of dwelling on the past, let’s look to the future—that is to say, to what Doug Jones will do and how he will vote as a Senator. Here’s what we know about his policies as they relate to women:
Women’s health: According to his campaign website, Jones is opposed to repealing Obamacare and has called health care plans that don’t cover maternity care, birth control or other care for women “a sham.”
Equal pay: Jones promised on the campaign trail to “work to extend the spirit of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to make it mandatory that two people, doing the same job with the same qualifications, are paid equally—regardless of their gender.”
Abortion: “I fully support a woman’s freedom to choose to what happens to her own body. That is an intensely, intensely personal decision that only she, in consultation with her god, her doctor, her partner or family, that’s her choice,” Jones said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Omarosa is out. Former Apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman, who was director of African-American outreach for Donald Trump’s campaign and had a similar role in the White House, is now out of a job. The official statement is that she resigned, but journalists report that she was fired and “physically dragged” from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Fortune
• Reformation’s next round. Reformation, the trendy direct-to-consumer fashion brand founded in 2009 by Yael Aflalo, has raised a $25 million Series B funding round led by 14W and Stripes Group, as well as Imaginary Ventures, the new VC firm started by Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet. Business of Fashion
• A (more) sexist version of Siri. Chinese tech company iQiyi, the online streaming unit of Baidu, has pulled “Vivi,” a VR avatar depicted as a flirtatious secretary in revealing clothes, a few hours after The Wall Street Journal asked whether such depictions encourage a view of women as sexual objects in the workplace. Vivi was intended to help users complete tasks via voice commands, but could also flirt with users and respond to commands to dance. Wall Street Journal
• Ivanka’s grand opening. The Ivanka Trump brand is opening a brick-and-mortar store on Thursday in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City. This will be the brand’s second attempt at brick-and-mortar commerce in the U.S.; the fine jewelry boutique that the First Daughter opened in 2007 closed in 2015. Ivanka herself is no longer involved in day-to-day operations of her eponymous brand; the company’s new president is Abigail Klem. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: DocuSign has appointed Kirsten Wolberg as chief technology and operations officer. Wolberg was CIO at Salesforce and VP of technology at both PayPal and Charles Schwab. Hilton today announced the appointment of Kellyn Smith Kenny as senior vice president and chief marketing officer. She was previously VP of marketing at Uber.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• More #MeToos. I hope that one day, sexual harassment allegations won’t be all over the headlines. Today is not that day. Here are the latest:
Rep. Dan Johnson (R-KY), who was accused of molesting a 17-year-old girl four years ago, died in a “probable suicide” on Wednesday—just two days after the allegations (that he denied) were made public.
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), a politician who’s managed to avoid major repercussions despite the sexual misconduct allegations against him, is now being accused by a male staffer of creating “an intensely hostile environment.
Russell Simmons has been accused by three women of rape. This is in addition to the two women who came forward last month. Simmons “vehemently” denies the allegations.
Tavis Smiley’s PBS show has been suspended after the organization “uncovered multiple, credible allegations of conduct that is inconsistent with the values and standards of PBS.” Smiley denies that anything non-consensual occurred.
John Hewitt, the former CEO of Liberty Tax Inc., is facing pressure to relinquish his controlling stake in the tax-preparation service after an internal review found that he had had sex in his office and hired relatives of employees with whom he’d had romantic relationships. He was voted out of his CEO job in September.
Joe Alexander, chief creative officer at the Martin Agency, was let go after the advertising firm received several sexual harassment complaints about him. He denies all allegations.
Morgan Spurlock, the documentarian most famous for Super Size Me, has written a confessional blog post called “I am Part of the Problem,” in which he chronicled sexual misconduct against his classmates, co-workers and his two wives.
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ON MY RADAR
Joe Biden comforts Meghan McCain in heartfelt exchange on The View New York Times
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