Powering the Black Vote — On the Road!
Kicking off the last week before the election with the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus
Hey y’all — it’s Jewell again. I’m all about getting more people of color on board with the Democratic process, so I was obviously super excited for the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus’ #PowerTheBlackVote bus tour launch.
Our kickoff began with a press conference outside the King Arts Complex in Columbus, where OLBC President Rep. Stephanie Howse started off the tour talking about the importance of putting people first.
We had an all-star crew out today — candidate for Lt. Governor Betty Sutton, candidate for Ohio Treasurer Rob Richardson, Sen. Charleta Taveres, Rep. Kristin Boggs, Rep. Emilia Sykes, Rep. Hearcel Craig (running for State Senate), state Rep. Cathy Ingram, candidate for state representative Erica Crawley, Rep. Glenn Holmes, candidate for judge Karen Phipps, and Chairman David Pepper.
Check out the live stream from our kickoff press conference below!
We climbed onto the #PeopleFirst bus with a bunch of the OLBC members and Chairman Pepper and headed over to Global Mall (a Somali marketplace in Columbus) to meet up with State Senate candidate Louise Valentine and State Rep. candidate Mary Lightbody.
We got to talk to folks in the Somali community about how we as Democrats can support them — from standing up for small businesses to making sure health care is affordable, and most importantly, by reaffirming our pledge to show up even when it’s not an election year. And more importantly, we got to hear about the issues that keep them up at night.
Our final stop of the day — a GOTV rally in Youngstown with the Youngstown/ Warren Black Caucus and tons of special guests — candidate for Attorney General Steve Dettelbach, candidate for Supreme Court Judge Michael Donnelly, Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown, state Rep. John Boccieri, candidate for Ohio Treasurer Rob Richardson and a bunch of local Democratic candidates and elected officials.
The show was, at least partially, for the culture — we saw a phenomenal performance by Harambee, a youth group in the church, as well as a beautiful rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cooke. And we, of course, stood and sang the Black National Anthem, a personal favorite of mine.
We’ve only got one week to go — let’s bring this home!
