Stepping In It: Nina Turner's Disastrous Congressional Campaign in Ohio-11
In politics, you can only hide your true self for so long.
It was mere minutes after that fateful escalator descent that the world immediately saw Donald Trump as a vile, racist human being. Of course, The Donald wasn't exactly what we could call a seasoned politician, so it shouldn't have surprised anyone that he went off message that quickly. You see, normally it takes weeks or even months for a seasoned politician to somehow hit a roadblock to her or his campaign. With today's gotcha media ready to pounce on even the slightest misstep and social media providing a digital footprint, candidates have to choose their words in a way that leaves little to no room for misinterpretation. Combined with the fact that opposition candidates face no repercussions for misquoting their opponents or for Super PACs and alternative media to selectively edit videos and what we have is an environment where both veteran politicians and political neophytes must become extremely careful in choosing their words, knowing that a potential gaffe can potentially derail their entire campaign.
Nina Turner is not a political neophyte.
In fact, she has been in politics for 20 years, starting as an aide for Ohio state senator Rhine McLin. With only a few months under her belt, Turner felt compelled to run for Cleveland City council by challenging incumbent Joe Jones, whom she lost to in 2001. Jones retired in 2005 and Turner again ran for the position, which she won and she remained on the city council for a term and then in September of 2008 was appointed to fill the seat of retiring state senator Lance Mason. She ran unopposed for that same seat in 2010 and remained in the position until she announced her candidacy for Ohio Secretary of State in July of 2013. Taking on incumbent Jon Husted, Turner was resoundingly defeated by a 25-point margin in November of 2014. Over the next year, Turner slowly worked to regain trust while simultaneously looking for ways to take on a more visible role in her region and in the state of Ohio. Undeterred by her loss, Turner sought a way to gain national exposure and she found that opportunity in late 2015.
It was at this time that Nina Turner began to make a name for herself. She did so as a high-profile and controversial surrogate for Bernie Sanders after having switched her support from Hillary Clinton to Sanders in November of that year. Despite the vast majority of Sanders' supporters accepting the primary result, Nina Turner refused and was even asked to become the Vice-Presidential candidate for the Green Party. Turner rejected this offer, but did nothing in the waning months of 2016 to support Clinton's candidacy, saying "I'm endorsing Dems, not an individual" leading many to suspect that she may have not even voted for Hillary Clinton during the most important election of our lifetime. As the general election approached, Turner refused to do any campaigning for Clinton, despite the fact that thousands of Bernie Sanders' former staffers and campaign volunteers seamlessly transitioned to supporting Hillary Clinton. Rather than becoming a Democratic team player, Turner remained uninvolved, having felt slighted by the only political party that stood between Donald Trump and what would become four years of hell for America and for the world.
Like many top brass associated with Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign, Turner would attempt to parlay her surrogate experience into political opportunities for herself and her brand during the Trump administration. She became an opportunist in every sense of the word. She immediately hopped in with Jeff Weaver, Larry Cohen, and James Zogby among others to serve on the Board of Our Revolution, a PAC formed to carry on the "legacy" of Bernie Sanders. Turner was appointed Board president in June of 2017 but the organization would struggle tremendously under her leadership. According to a May 2018 article from Politico, Turner was the cause of internal strife as many staffers felt that she was using her position as president to build up her own political resume and promote her own personal agenda rather than that of the organization. Examples given were that of Turner attempting to hire an inexperienced friend as her chief of staff and endorsing Dennis Kucinich for Ohio governor because Turner had a close, personal relationship with his running mate. Turner's presidency drove away several key allies all while Our Revolution continued to fail in trying to elect Sanders-backed candidates for all levels of political office.
Despite her disastrous Our Revolution tenure, Turner's unyielding loyalty to Bernie Sanders was rewarded with her being named a national co-chair of his second presidential campaign in February of 2019. However, the Sanders campaign experienced the same fallout as Our Revolution, due to Turner's incompetence. At a time when the campaign should have been building inroads with Democratic voters, Turner, along with campaign staff-turned-trolls David Sirota and Briahna Joy Gray, took to social media, criticizing and doxxing anyone they felt was unfairly criticizing Bernie Sanders. While the terrible trio was busy fighting Twitter windmills, Democratic voters out in the real world were handily rejecting Bernie Sanders for a second time. Turner, once again, failed to accept responsibility for Sanders' loss, this time comparing having to vote for Biden or Trump in the general election as a comparison between eating "two bowls of shit." Turner later stated that Biden's vice-presidential search needed to be about more than "checking off a box" in identifying a nominee and she once again refused to say whether or not she voted for the Democratic nominee for president. Even today, Turner has refused to apologize for either of her two outrageously offensive statements.
So it should come as so surprise that in the age of Democratic competence led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Nina Turner is still seeking political relevance.
This time, Turner is running for the open Congressional seat in the 11th Ohio district, a seat that opened as a result of President Biden naming former Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to head up Housing and Urban Development. Turner, who had previously drawn papers to challenge the incumbent Fudge in 2011, believed her name recognition from her time with Bernie Sanders would propel her to an easy victory in Ohio's only majority-black congressional district. By mid-April, she had amassed nearly $1.6 million in fundraising. A June poll showed Turner with a 35-point lead over her nearest competitor, Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown. Turner was getting the usual endorsements from BernieWorld including Sanders himself, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Susan Sarandon, and the Sunrise Movement among others. Like Bernie Sanders in 2020, Turner had the name recognition, fundraising apparatus, and a clear lane to victory as long as she listened to her people on the ground.
And like Bernie Sanders, Turner has spectacularly failed to do that last part.
Over the past month, Turner's campaign has come crashing back down to earth. On June 16th, Hillary Clinton publicly endorsed Turner's rival, Shontel Brown marking the highest-profile endorsement of the entire campaign. Then on June 26th, former Sanders surrogate Killer Mike referred to the head of the Congressional Black Caucus James Clyburn as "stupid" for supporting Joe Biden at a televised event to which Nina Turner said, "Amen." This utter lack of respect for Clyburn and the Black voters of the Democratic Party opened the floodgates as Clyburn himself publicly endorsed Brown three days later and the entire Congressional Black Caucus publicly endorsed Brown on July 7th with plans for Clyburn and members of the CBC to campaign in-person for Brown the weekend before the election. On July 12th, an internal poll done by Brown's campaign showed that Turner's 35-point lead had evaporated to 7 points in just over 6 weeks. On July 16th, Turner released an anti-Brown ad that was so misleading that a group of Cleveland clergy vowed to hold a press conference on July 19th to "denounce the misrepresentation, misinformation and outright lies that Nina Turner's campaign is spreading against Shontel Brown." For a Black Democratic woman to have both the CBC and Black Church against you in 2021 is truly something to behold.
But this is who Nina Turner has always been and will continue to be. She doesn't care about relationship-building, she only cares about building her own name and her own political power. Why else would you attempt to primary a popular, sitting elected official like she tried to do in 2011? Yet all of the messages of Bernie Sanders' failed 2020 campaign seem lost on Turner. Both are mediocre at best politicians believing that they are entitled to become elected officials. Like Sanders, Turner refused to build alliances. She refused to make amends with the Democratic Party. She refused to expand her voting base beyond those who were already supporters. The demographics of those campaigning for her and attending her rallies simply does not match the overall demographics of the district. Negatively invoking the name of James Clyburn, the hero of 2020, is more than a tactical error, it's a direct attack against a generation of African-American activists who fought for civil rights and who fought to keep Donald Trump out of the White House for a second time. To intentionally alienate them at a time when they are the true kingmakers in the Democratic Party is a mistake of monumental proportions.
And it's a mistake that's so Bernie it hurts.
So it should come as so surprise that in the age of Democratic competence led by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Nina Turner is still seeking political relevance.
This time, Turner is running for the open Congressional seat in the 11th Ohio district, a seat that opened as a result of President Biden naming former Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to head up Housing and Urban Development. Turner, who had previously drawn papers to challenge the incumbent Fudge in 2011, believed her name recognition from her time with Bernie Sanders would propel her to an easy victory in Ohio's only majority-black congressional district. By mid-April, she had amassed nearly $1.6 million in fundraising. A June poll showed Turner with a 35-point lead over her nearest competitor, Cuyahoga County Councilwoman Shontel Brown. Turner was getting the usual endorsements from BernieWorld including Sanders himself, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Susan Sarandon, and the Sunrise Movement among others. Like Bernie Sanders in 2020, Turner had the name recognition, fundraising apparatus, and a clear lane to victory as long as she listened to her people on the ground.
And like Bernie Sanders, Turner has spectacularly failed to do that last part.
Over the past month, Turner's campaign has come crashing back down to earth. On June 16th, Hillary Clinton publicly endorsed Turner's rival, Shontel Brown marking the highest-profile endorsement of the entire campaign. Then on June 26th, former Sanders surrogate Killer Mike referred to the head of the Congressional Black Caucus James Clyburn as "stupid" for supporting Joe Biden at a televised event to which Nina Turner said, "Amen." This utter lack of respect for Clyburn and the Black voters of the Democratic Party opened the floodgates as Clyburn himself publicly endorsed Brown three days later and the entire Congressional Black Caucus publicly endorsed Brown on July 7th with plans for Clyburn and members of the CBC to campaign in-person for Brown the weekend before the election. On July 12th, an internal poll done by Brown's campaign showed that Turner's 35-point lead had evaporated to 7 points in just over 6 weeks. On July 16th, Turner released an anti-Brown ad that was so misleading that a group of Cleveland clergy vowed to hold a press conference on July 19th to "denounce the misrepresentation, misinformation and outright lies that Nina Turner's campaign is spreading against Shontel Brown." For a Black Democratic woman to have both the CBC and Black Church against you in 2021 is truly something to behold.
But this is who Nina Turner has always been and will continue to be. She doesn't care about relationship-building, she only cares about building her own name and her own political power. Why else would you attempt to primary a popular, sitting elected official like she tried to do in 2011? Yet all of the messages of Bernie Sanders' failed 2020 campaign seem lost on Turner. Both are mediocre at best politicians believing that they are entitled to become elected officials. Like Sanders, Turner refused to build alliances. She refused to make amends with the Democratic Party. She refused to expand her voting base beyond those who were already supporters. The demographics of those campaigning for her and attending her rallies simply does not match the overall demographics of the district. Negatively invoking the name of James Clyburn, the hero of 2020, is more than a tactical error, it's a direct attack against a generation of African-American activists who fought for civil rights and who fought to keep Donald Trump out of the White House for a second time. To intentionally alienate them at a time when they are the true kingmakers in the Democratic Party is a mistake of monumental proportions.
And it's a mistake that's so Bernie it hurts.