she SLAUGHTERED Cornel West
Nina Turner eyes Marcia Fudge's Ohio U.S. House seat: Turner EATS BOWL OF SH!T to Brown
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she SLAUGHTERED Cornel West
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Godless Socialist CEO
Superstar
that white guy sounds like more than a few posters in hl
Don't start this agent bullshyt that TLR pulls man. We're all black here, that much I do know. TLR it's questionable though
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
I didn't call anybody white but I really dislike when "progressives" paint the black community as low iq voters when one of theirs loses. It really grinds my gears.
Godless Socialist CEO
Superstar
storyteller
Veteran
This was pretty good for a quick look. MR had some solid guests discussing the loss too. Much better input from people who are just antagonistic toward progressives on this message board as a meme.
only so long fake thugs can pretend...excellent analysis.
Even Krystal Ball had to stop lying and admit that Black voters dont like taking risks when we see what republicans are doing out here.To be fair I find most of the country to be stupid including my own people
EVEN SHE admitted it...
newsweek.com
This is Joe Biden's Party Now | Opinion
Marcus Johnson
6-7 minutes
This is Joe Biden's party now.
That was the indisputable message sent after Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown defeated former Ohio state senator Nina Turner in the Democratic primary to succeed Marcia Fudge. The special election to fill the seat in Ohio's 11th Congressional District will be held in a few months, but the outcome is already known, given that it is one of the bluest districts in the country.
This race was once thought to be a slam dunk for Turner, given that she began with a commanding 35 point lead and strong name recognition. Turner cemented herself as a progressive, anti-establishment firebrand over the past several years as a fierce backer of Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 Presidential runs. She refused to back Hillary Clinton's presidential bid once she became the Democratic nominee, and last year compared voting for Joe Biden to eating a bowl of excrement.
Turner made a strategic bet that Democratic voters wanted a progressive voice to challenge Biden in Congress. She had Sanders and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez campaign for her in the district.
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) campaigns with Ohio Congressional Candidate Nina Turner on July 24, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. Turner, a former Ohio State Senator is in a tough race in the upcoming Democratic primary for Ohio's 11th Congressional District. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Shontel Brown leaned into her longstanding support for President Biden. She won the endorsement of powerful House Democrats in the Congressional Black Caucus such as Joyce Beatty and Jim Clyburn. And Hillary Clinton endorsed Brown in June.
Brown's message was that she would be a supporter of the President who would help him achieve his political agenda. And this decision, to position herself as a supporter rather than a challenger of the President, played a major role in the outcome of the race.
"The other candidate already made a commitment to be a part of the Squad," Brown said in an interview. "I'm running to be a member of Congress."
The split couldn't be any clearer.
While progressives have had some success during Donald Trump's tenure, the political winds are now blowing in a different direction. A recent AP poll found that 92 percent of Democrats approve of Biden's work as President. That means it is going to be difficult for progressives who brand themselves as anti-Biden or anti-establishment to win.
This point was implicitly acknowledged by the pro-Sanders group Our Revolution when their executive director rebranded them as "pragmatic progressives" who were willing to work with President Biden's more moderate agenda rather than flatly oppose it. You can see this also in other recent progressive losses in high profile races, such as the runoff election in Louisiana's 2nd district, or the Virginia gubernatorial and New York mayoral primaries. Centrist candidate Eric Adams, now the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, went as far as to call himself the "Biden of Brooklyn."
None of this should be a total surprise, as parties often take on the rhetorical styles of their leadership. After Trump's ascension in 2016, Republican voters became more hostile to free trade and more likely to elect candidates reflecting the former President's brash, combative style.
With Biden in the White House, Democrats feel quite comfortable electing candidates who share his political values and who will support his agenda. When Trump was President, progressives often pointed to Democrats' losses in the 2014 midterms and the 2016 general election as evidence of the party's inability to reach voters. Those losses were a core aspect of the progressive narrative of why moderates should be replaced. With Democrats winning the presidency, House, and Senate in 2020, largely from moderate victories, that message has become much more difficult to sustain.
This isn't to say that progressives cannot win, and that their wing of the party does not have a future. Progressives can compete as long as they avoid the anti-Biden, anti-establishment framework.
It will be a shift, given how during the Sanders' era, progressives have repeatedly leaned into anti-Democratic rhetoric that is harmful for their chances to compete during Biden's Presidency. With Biden nearly universally popular among Democrats, progressives have to find a way to push for legislative reforms they believe in without alienating Democratic voters who genuinely like Biden and the party establishment.
While Trump won over the Republican primary by trashing their party's establishment, progressives don't have that option. They should instead focus on highlighting strong support for the Democratic Party while amicably negotiating with the Biden White House when possible.
There's already some evidence that progressives have had some legislative success doing just that.
While the race between Brown and Turner might not be the biggest of the year, it is nevertheless important because it is emblematic of how internal Democratic dynamics will play out during the Biden years. Turner showed us that even a well funded anti-establishment candidate with name recognition and endorsements can lose in this Democratic environment.
If Turner had opened the race by embracing Biden, downplaying her earlier antagonistic stance towards the party, and criticizing Trump, she would likely be on her way to Washington this fall.
Progressives don't need to drop their fierce advocacy for legislation that is important to them in order to win. But they do have to drop the hostility towards the Democratic establishment and Joe Biden if they want to find success.
Marcus Johnson is a PhD student at American University who studies how political institutions impact the racial wealth gap.
The views in this article are the writer's own.