Pictured is U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge
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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-Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine on Thursday set the dates for the special election to replace former Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, who resigned from her congressional seat on March 10 after she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the cabinet of President Joe Biden.
A primary election has been set for Aug 3 and the general election will be Nov. 2
So far, seven declared candidates, all of them Democrats, are in the running to succeed Fudge, namely Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown, who is also chair of the county Democratic party, former 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.
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.
The candidate who wins the Democratic primary is all but assured to become Fudge's replacement in Congress.
During her confirmation hearing Fudge said that her priorities in leading HUD include seeking to eradicate discriminatory housing practices, increasing home-ownership in the Black community across the country, dismantling systemic racial injustice, and narrowing the racial wealth gap.
A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Fudge, 68, had been a member of Congress for 12 years.
She has not endorsed anybody to replace her in Congress.