Pictured is Ohio 11th Congressional District Candidate Nina Turner
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Former state senator Nina Turner, a front-runner for the 11th congressional seat vacated by former Ohio Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge who resigned from Congress earlier this week after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), has received the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union District 1199 (SEIU District 1199), a local chapter union of SEIU.
Nationally SEIU consists of some 2 million members in healthcare in the public sector and property services.
“Nina Turner is a fighter, an advocate, a professor, a mother, and the leader working people need in Congress fighting for them,” said Becky Williams, President of SEIU District 1199 WV/KY/OH and a national vice president SEIU. “Nina has fought for rights, dignity, and respect of working people in the streets of Cleveland and in the halls of power in Columbus, and I know she is the leader this community needs now to lift people out of poverty and to bring about racial and economic justice for all of us.”
Williams said that Turner stood up against unjust legislation like Senate Bill 5 in 2011 and walked arm in arm with low-wage workers in the fight for a $15 minimum wage.
The union endorsement is one of a growing list of endorsements Turner has nabbed for the competitive race, including from the Amalgamated Transit Union, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, and Ohio Sen Kenny Yuko.
In addition to Turner, 53 and also a former Cleveland councilwoman, other declared candidates for the Democratic nomination for Fudge's seat are state Sen. Nina Turner, who co-chaired Bernie Sanders' 2020 unsuccessful campaign for president, former state representative John Barnes Jr, former state senator Shirley Smith, former former Cleveland city councilman Jeff Johnson, former state representative Bryan Flannery, and Tariq Shabazz, a U.S. Navy veteran.
All of them are Black, except Flannery, who is White.
Brown, 45, is a Fudge ally, though Turner leads in fundraising and has raised over a million dollars to date, her campaign has said.
Brown is also a front-runner in the congressional race and has the backing of Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), as well as an array of local elected officials, ministers, and building trade unions, including the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council
The candidates await the scheduling of a special primary and general election for Fudge's seat by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, and per state law.
Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district includes most of Cleveland, a majority Black pocket of Akron, and some suburbs of Cuyahoga and Summit counties.
It is a Democratic stronghold, as is Cuyahoga County, the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties.
Hence, the candidate who wins the Democratic primary is all but assured to become Fudge's replacement in Congress.
A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Fudge served in Congress for nearly 12 years before accepting Biden's offer to lead HUD.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. 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.
