The big political story in the Tri-State today is the Democratic primary in OH-11, as Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair Shontel Brown takes on former Bernie Sanders campaign aide Nina Turner for Rep. Marcia Fudge's seat, as Fudge is now Biden's HUD Secretary. Two Black women Democrats competing for a Democratic Black Congresswoman's seat should be a cause for celebration, but the fight between Turner and Brown has gotten deeply personal and even ugly as Turner has all but lost her commanding lead over the last six weeks.
Despite taking place during a politically off-cycle campaign year, a major intraparty battle heavy with national implications is brewing in Tuesday's Democratic primary special election for Ohio's 11th Congressional District.
The contest presents an early test case of whether progressives can gain traction ahead of a pivotal midterm election cycle by going up against establishment-backed candidates. A slew of high-profile figures even descended on the Cleveland area in the lead-up to election day -- including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
With Republicans simultaneously vying in another heated primary in the suburbs of Columbus in the state's 15th Congressional District, Tuesday's race in the 11th district takes place in one of Ohio's few reliably blue areas and features more than a dozen Democratic candidates. Whoever comes out on top is all but guaranteed to go on to fill the seat left vacant by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge when she joined the Biden administration.
Over the last several months, the field narrowed down to two candidates -- Nina Turner, former state senator and top Sanders campaign aide, and Shontel Brown, who currently serves as chairwoman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
Regardless of who advances from the primary, either of the two candidates would continue the more than two-decade long tradition of Black women representing the 11th district in Congress. Although the pair of front-runners share the common cultural baseline in their goal of speaking on behalf of the majority-Black district in Washington, Turner and Brown approached the campaign trail from different ends of the Democratic political spectrum.
"I've talked to people, my team has talked to people, and although people ... believe that things can change, they also say that they want a fighter, somebody that's gonna push back," Turner told ABC News in an interview.
Turner has brought in some big guns: Bernie himself, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, but Brown has come to the fight with her own endorsements: Rep. Jim Clyburn, CBC chair Rep. Joyce Beatty, and Marcia Fudge's mother, Marion Saffold.
Turner had a big lead earlier this year in the polling, but that has evaporated as her own less-than-glowing comparison of Joe Biden's 2020 campaign as eating "half a bowl of shit" (compared to Trump's full fecal feast) came to light. Turner has also flubbed easy questions like "Did you vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016" which of course she won't answer.
But Brown has her own problems, with The Intercept accusing her of corruption in contract dealings as party chair (hello, Walker Bragman!) and stating she'll face an ethics probe. While anything Bragman does makes me immediately suspect that Brown is the better candidate by an astronomical unit or six, the attacks in the final week or so have been hurting Brown.
We'll see who prevails today. Most of you I suspect know how I feel about Nina Turner.
For what it matter, I want to see Shontel Brown win.
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