Heated congressional primary in Ohio a battle between Democrats’ establishment, progressive wings
It was a brief truce amid a nasty campaign fight between the two leading candidates in a congressional special election Democratic primary in northern Ohio that’s turned into proxy battle between the party’s establishment and progressive wings.
Nina Turner, a former state senator and a top surrogate for Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, and Cuyahoga County councilwoman Shontel Brown shook hands as the joined together on stage at a predominantly Black megachurch in suburban Cleveland.
The brief moment of peace came two days before Tuesday’s primary election in the special election in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District, a predominantly Black and overwhelmingly Democratic district that includes large portions of Cleveland and its southern and eastern suburbs, as well as parts of the city of Akron.
Turner and Brown, who are both Black, are the top two candidates in a 13-candidate field in the race to fill the seat left vacant when longtime Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge stepped down early this year after being confirmed as Housing and Urban Development secretary in President Biden's administration.
"Soon as church is over, ya’ll go back to fighting," senior pastor R.A. Vernon of the Word Church said as he prayed for both Turner and Brown.
Turner, the 53-year old front runner in the contest, supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, two top goals for progressives. And she’s hauled in nearly $6 million in fundraising since launching her campaign in December, more than twice what Brown’s raised.
The battle between Brown and Turner – always tense – has turned even more negative in recent weeks.
The narrator in a Turner commercial spotlighted that Brown "voted to give herself a $7,000 raise while opposing Biden’s $15 minimum wage plan." The narrator then spotlighted a report questioning Brown’s ethics before charging that "Brown could face charges, if convicted, jail time." Brown’s campaign criticized the ad as false.
