US Rep. Snontel Brown, left, defeated former state senator Nina Turner in yesterday's May 3, 2022 Democratic primary.
For the second time in nine months, Shontel Brown has defeated Nina Turner in a Congressional primary seeking the Democratic nomination for Ohio’s 11th District.
Brown has run nonstop since beating Turner and 11 also-rans in last August’s special primary to replace Marcia Fudge, who vacated the seat to become HUD Secretary. Brown cruised to victory in November, was sworn in as Congresswoman days later, and has not stopped running since.
Unofficial results from the county Board of Elections show Brown defeating Turner by a 2-1 margin, wining 43,997 votes to Turner’s 22,329. Turnout was 18.5%.
Brown beat Turner by 33 percentage points, compared to last year’s rough margin of seven points.
It’s hard to say this result was unexpected. Less than a year ago, Turner was considered the odds-on favorite to succeed Fudge. She was far better known, the result of both her own record in public office as a former state senator and Cleveland councilwoman, and the national attention she had garnered over five years as a chief surrogate for the presidential campaigns of US Senator Bernie Sanders. With access to Sanders’ nationwide database, the 2021 Turner campaign was flush with cash.
But a combination of factors derailed Turner last year, including an avalanche of dark money on Brown’s behalf, Turner’s own badly executed campaign, and perhaps most importantly, a reluctance by the District’s voters to embrace an all-out progressive agenda.
For her part, Brown once again smoothly executed a winning strategy: stick to a non-controversial middle path of backing Biden, manifest her congeniality at every turn, and let campaign professionals carry out the assault on her opponent.
Congresswoman Brown will step down from her role as party chair this summer, and her constituents will have the next few years to measure her performance as their representative in Washington and her performance with respect to constituent services at home. She is unlikely during that time to display in local politics either the deft touch of Lou Stokes or the heavy hand of her mentor, Marcia Fudge.
Turner’s political future is less clear. Counting her 2014 race for Secretary of State, she has now lost three consecutive races. Some found in her concession speech last night a hint that her gaze will refocus to the national stage in 2024. At some point, she may have to reconcile the extent to which her losses are attributable either to the message, the methods or the messenger.
In the wake of the global assaults upon basic freedoms — in Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Florida, Texas, Washington, DC, and Columbus, OH all come to mind — Pogressives everywhere should be conducting the same self-examination.
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