U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. She interviewed Barack Obama one-on-one CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-COLUMBUS, Ohio- U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to lead a major party in congress, told fellow Democrats at the state party's annual fundraising dinner Friday evening in Columbus that the Dems must work diligently to turn Ohio blue again, President Donald Trump, a Republican, winning the pivotal state in 2016 over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Voting blue refers to voting for Democratic candidates down the ticket, or otherwise, and red pertains to backing Republicans, Ohio a swing state as no Democrat has ever won the White House without first winning Ohio, and neither has any Republican of remembrance.
Ohio voted blue in 2008, the nation electing Barack Obama its first Black president that year, the former junior U.S. senator from Illinois winning reelection to a second four-year term in 2012, again with support from a majority of Ohio's voters.
A San Francisco Democrat, Pelosi, 79, was the keynote speaker at the invitation of Ohio Democratic Party Chairperson David Pepper, nearly 1,000 Dems and their supporters putting out $250 a ticket to show support for the House Speaker and the Democratic Party in general.
She was introduced by Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat and one of two Blacks in congress from Ohio, the other being Rep Marcia Fudge, a Warrensvillle Heights Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes the majority Black city of Cleveland.
'"You have to fight to turn Ohio blue," said Pelosi, whose comments follow the ruling earlier this month by a federal district court in Columbus that deemed Ohio's congressional map unconstitutional, partly because it favors Republican congressional candidates over Democrats for elections to congress in Ohio, a win for Democrats.
Of Ohio's 16 congressional seats, the Republicans outnumber Democrats, 12-4.
The U.S. House Speaker blamed Republican leaders at the statehouse and elsewhere in Ohio, including the offices of the governor, Ohio attorney general and secretary of state, for either crafting or perpetuating "unfair [congressional] maps that have silenced the voices of Ohio voters."
In Ohio, Republicans hold all of the statewide offices aside from two judge ships on the seven-member Ohio Supreme Court.
The Republican controlled Ohio state legislature has until June 14 to redraw its illegal congressional map, the Federal District Court of the Southern District of Ohio in Columbus said in an order issued in conjunction with its May 3 decision that Ohio's congressional map discriminates against Democrats.
This is absent a stay granted by the U.S. Supreme Court at the request of Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who appealed the federal court ruling to the nation's high court and says he will fight vigorously for a reversal.
Pelosi said that "to ignore Ohio would be our peril."
An astute and seasoned politician, Pelosi knows full well that "as Ohio goes, so goes the nation."
She spoke to the energetic crowd for nearly 30 minutes, highlighting the wins last November where the Democrats reclaimed control of the House with a record number of women winning office, a disproportionate number of them minority women.
Republicans still control the U.S. Senate.
Pepper said he invited Pelosi to keynote Friday's Legacy Dinner because she is symbolic of the success of a a wave of women winning office to congress and respective state legislatures, and in other political venues across the nation.
“Democratic women are leading the way forward, at the Ohio statehouse and in the halls of congress, and we could think of no one better to help us celebrate our annual Legacy Dinner than Speaker Nancy Pelosi," said Pepper.
The federal lawmaker's visit to Ohio comes as the 2020 election nears with a crowded field of some 24 presidential hopefuls seeking the Democratic nomination, including former Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, former vice president Joe Biden Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Corey Booker and Elizabeth Warren, and former congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas.
Sens Harris, Warren and Sanders, and former congressman O'Rourke have all campaigned in Ohio this year and President Trump rallied in Cleveland, Ohio's second largest city behind Columbus, the day before last year's Nov. 6 general election, the president stomping for now Gov Mike DeWine, who edged Democrat Richard Cordray in a close election last year.
Pelosi was House Minority Whip from 2002 to 2003, and was House Minority Leader from 2003 to 2007 before she became Speaker of the House in 2007 when the Republicans lost the House, the Republicans again gaining control of the House in 2011 and Pelosi stepping down as House Speaker and up again as House Minority Leader.
She was again elected Speaker in January by her Democratic congressional colleagues, and ran uncontested, though not without controversy.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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