Pictured are U.S. Congressional candidate Shontel Brown (wearing Black), the winner of the special Democratic primary election on Tues, Aug 3 as to the open seat in Ohio's 11th congressional district, which includes most of Cleveland, a largely Black pocket of Akron, and staggering sections of Akron's Summit County suburbs, and Nina Turner who lost to Brown on Tuesday along with 11 other Democratic candidatesClevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
CLEVELAND, OHIO – Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown emerged as the winner among a crowded field of Democrats competing in a special Democratic primary election in Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district on Tuesday, handily defeating her 12 opponents, including Nina Turner, the well-financed front-runner and a former Ohio senator who last year co-chaired the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Also chairwoman of the county Democratic party, Brown will face Republican Lavern Gore for a Nov. 2 general election, Gore winning with 75 percent of the vote over her only opponent, Felicia Washington Ross, in Cuyahoga County and 70 percent of the vote in neighboring Summit County.
Brown, 46, is all but the congresswoman in the heavily Democratic congressional district, winning in Cuyahoga County 50 percent to Turner's 44 percent, unofficial results from the Cuyaghoga County Board of Elections reveal.
Voter turnout there was low at roughly 17 percent with some 75,000 of the county's nearly 422,000 voters taking part in Tuesday's primary election.
With 95.95 percent of the precincts reporting Brown had 33,535 votes to Turner's 29, 100 votes.
Former Ohio senator Jeff Johnson trailed in third place with 1,234 votes, followed by former state representative John Barnes Jr. with 724 votes, and former state senator Shirley Smith with 534 votes.
The remaining eight Democratic candidates combined got less than four percent of the vote.
Turner led over Brown 49 percent to 48 percent in Summit County where less than 8, 000 of its roughly 72,000 registered voters cast ballots in the closely watched race. And there the other 11 candidates each got less than one percent of the vote.
Tuesday's win moves Brown closer to succeeding former congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge in Congress, her mentor who vacated the congressional seat in March to become U.S. secretary of housing and urban development and all but named Brown as her replacement.
Both of the front-runners hosted election night watch parties, Brown holding her event at the Touch of Italy on Aurora Road in Bedford Hts and Turner's campaign gathering with its supporters at Lanes Bowling Alley on Southgate Park Boulevard in Maple Hts.
Both Maple Hts and Bedford Hts are largely Black Cleveland suburbs.
Brown thanked her supporters and said "I'm just a little girl from the hood that has really been blessed....just to be in this position." She added that "anything really is possible."
Turner conceded the election at about 10 pm and vowed to keep fighting for the issues she holds dear.
"Tonight, my friends, we have looked across at the promised land. But for this campaign, on this night, we will not cross the river, Turner said. "Tonight, our justice journey continues. And I am proud to continue that journey with each and every one of you. We will continue this journey until every working person earns a living wage, including passing a $15.00 minimum wage. We will continue this journey until every person has health care as a right and not a privilege."
One of two of Ohio's 16 congressional districts crafted under the redistricting provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, Ohio's 11th congressional district includes most of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County and a majority Black pocket of Akron and staggering sections of Akron's Summit County suburbs.
Both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are Democratic strongholds. The multi-million dollar congressional race put Cleveland on the political map this year and drew big money and national public figures to Northeast Ohio, particularly during the weeks leading up to Tuesday's special primary election, including U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez of New York and former NAACP President and prior Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous of Maryland, also a former president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a prominent organization of Black newspaper publishers.
Jealous and Ocasio-Cortez campaigned with Turner in the greater Cleveland area two weeks ago, followed by Bernie Sanders, who appeared in Akron and led a get-out-the vote rally with Turner in Cleveland on Saturday with other big political names such U.S. Rep Cori Bush of Missouri, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, scholar and motivational speaker Dr. Cornel West, and local leaders, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland Councilman Blaine Griffin, and state Rep Juanita Brent, a Cleveland Democrat.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest ranking Black in Congress, Rep Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat and currently the only Black in Congress from Ohio, joined Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, for campaign events over the weekend in the Cleveland area, among others.
With the advantage of a $5.6 million campaign war chest, Turner ran on a progressive platform and promoted a $15 minimum wage, Medicare for All and a cadre of other progressive agendas while Brown, a moderate Democrat supported by Cleveland's "Old Black Political Guard," or by the remnants of the once powerful group, stressed that, if elected to Congress, she could get along better with the Biden administration, her message obviously resonating more with voters who gave her the win on Tuesday.
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.
By Kathy Wray Coleman. Coleman is a former public school biology teacher and a Black political and investigative reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio
