Following President Biden’s April 28th address to a joint session of Congress, we reached out to the principal candidates in the special election Democratic primary on August 3 who are running to fill the unexpired term of former Congresswoman Marcia Fudge. Fudge resigned the seat earlier this year when her nomination as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development was confirmed by the US Senate.
An early theme of the contest has been the extent to which the candidates have pledged to support President Biden. No candidate has been more insistent on her allegiance to the President than local party chair Shontel Brown, who says she is “running to be a partner to the Biden-Harris administration. Former state senator Jeff Johnson has made a similar proclamation.
That such a typical position can even be considered an issue in a party primary stems largely from the reticence expressed by Nina Turner before last fall’s election, when she likened voting for Biden as akin to eating a bowl of excrement. Turner, the presumptive frontrunner in the Democratic race, has since attributed the vehemence of that moment to holding on too long to her disappointment at Biden’s victory over her preferred nominee, Bernie Sanders.
We posed three questions via email to each of the candidates after Biden’s speech, using the email addresses they supplied to the Board of Elections.
- What did you find most impressive, exciting, or important in the President’s address to Congress last night in terms of its impact upon the 11th District?
- Was there anything in his address that concerned you, e. g. the sheer size and cost of his proposals and America’s ability to pay for them?
- Was there anything in the Republican response by Sen. Tim Scott with which you agree?
Candidates were advised they could answer one, two or all three of the questions.
Two candidates, Turner and Tariq Shabazz, answered the questions.
US Navy veteran Tariq Shabazz says healthcare should not be dependent on financial status.
On what impressed him in Biden’s speech, Shabazz cited the “bold initiatives” contained in the President’s statement that health care is a right and his advocacy of a $2 trillion infrastructure passage. He also noted the President’s support of the George Floyd Act, a bill which seeks to reform police practices.
For her part, Turner also noted Biden’s support for the George Floyd Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. She also acknowledged the Administration’s “positive steps on issues including taming this unprecedented pandemic, supporting our workers through unions, recognizing climate change as the existential threat that it is.”
But Turner said her main concern from the President’s address is that “these policies don’t go far enough in fighting for Ohio’s 11th congressional district and communities just like it throughout this country. Our district faces massive issues of poverty, as Cleveland is the poorest large city in the country with nearly one-third of city residents living in poverty and Ohio’s 11th congressional district ranks in the top-ten nationally in child poverty, with nearly 60% of children living below 185% of the federal poverty line.”
Former state senator Nina Turner says "the nation is at a turning point."
Turner called for a “$15 minimum wage, universal pre-k and the canceling of all student debt,” and said “$15 is the floor not the ceiling. If the national minimum wage had increased at the rate of productivity since 1960, it would currently be $22.50, but here in Ohio, the minimum wage is $8.80 per hour”, which she called “a starving wage.”
Shabazz also believes that the President was not bold enough, given the plight of so many 11th district residents. Agreeing that healthcare is a right, Shabazz finds it “imperative that we embrace the principles of a healthcare structure that is not defined by the financial status of Americans and is solely tied to health and wellness of the nation.”
Shabazz called for reparations to address “the egregious deeds of slavery and the systemic marginalization of black people in the nation, [and] also ensure the reduction of the racial wealth gap which was manufactured through years of coordinated efforts of systemic racism.”
A Navy veteran, Shabazz also expressed concern over “years of executive overreach regarding the mobilization of troops.” But he does want the US to strengthen its readiness to defend against cyber-attacks.
Neither Shabazz nor Turner found much to like about Senator Scott’s response. Certainly, they both disagreed with Scott’s judgment that America is not a racist country. Shabazz said that the statement impedes racial progress, given that “misinformation and disinformation disrupts the natural order of an informed citizenry. We must be willing to have the courage to bring truth to light.”
Turner said the nation is at a turning point, given that “systemic racism harms Black and brown communities in nearly every facet of our democracy.” For this reason, she was able to agree with Scott’s statement that “Our Nation is starving for more than just empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together.”
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