What Black Voters Need From Ohio Democrats
By: Mark Gavin
Tags: Ohio, Ohio Democratic Party, Democratic Party

*Writer’s note: It was difficult to write this from one particular prospect because while I am a long time Democratic staffer, I am first, a Black man. Therefore you’ll notice that at times when I reference the Party as “we” it’s because I feel that I’ve represented the party to many people for the better part of a decade. Then other times I refer to the party from the outside because as a Black man, I have never felt fully welcomed or represented by it.

As Democrats in Ohio, we spend a lot of time and energy in the last few weeks of an election trying to turn out Black people to vote for our candidates. We rent buses to push churchgoers to early vote in Cincinnati, we drop “strike teams” of canvassers into the southside of Youngstown, and we hold free Jay Z concerts in Cleveland all in an attempt to boost turnout. At best it’s pandering. At worst it’s offensive.

While voter suppression is real and turnout efforts are essential, politicians and the Party don’t try to earn Black votes because it assumes it already has them. Black voters deserve more from the Party it carries. We deserve deep conversations, backing, and a seat at the table.

Below I outline four actions the Ohio Democratic Party needs to take in order to not only win Black votes but to earn sustained Black voters.

We’re More Places Than Churches And Barbershops

Black voters need to be prioritized and persuaded from the outset of elections. Too often, Black votes are taken for granted, yet outreach to our community is felt to be almost secondary to so-called working-class voters. And now with Ohio’s predominantly white suburbs deemed fertile turf for Democrats, many Black voters feel passed over by the Party they’ve given so much for, but our votes are still expected with minimal persuasion. Two months out from every statewide election, we begin to be bombarded with messages about early voting and acceptable forms of ID meanwhile at this same time in suburbs like Westerville, Howland, and Shaker Heights there have been ongoing conversations happening for months to find out what these voters care about in an attempt to earn their vote.

Democrats must start asking what we care about and what affects our day to day lives.

Rhetoric from Dems often paint Black people as poor and or criminal so we find that our issues are often assumed by the Party to be related to criminal justice reform or public assistnace. While Black people care about these things, many of us are union workers dealing with shrinking workplaces, college graduates with student loan debt, or people focused on their access to healthcare. Dems need to stop treating the Black community as a one issue constituency. Also, we’re not just in churches and barbershops. We’re everywhere. Democrats need to start seeing us as more than just a monolith and respect our diversity as a people.

Issues Organizing

With centuries-long oppression in this country, Black Americans are still working so hard to get even a fraction of the quality of life as white people in this country. Redlining and creative zoning have historically placed Black people in the way of environmental and financial harm. Many of our communities lack things others take for granted such as nearby grocery stores, good air quality, or level roads. A lot of these issues can be fixed with sustained community organizing.

It’s not quick and easy work but partnering with people to address problems that affect their everyday lives not only helps secures our votes, but it also helps us create a legion of trained local organizers who we can mobilize to win elections at every level.

Recruit Black Candidates

One shinning part of David Pepper’s Ohio Democratic Party tenure is his Main Street Initiative which is focused on continued support for local candidates from their announcement through Election Day. We should use this program to continue to recruit local Black candidates which in turn builds a bench for future statewide elections.

We too often build these exclusionary profiles of what makes a successful candidate. Things like wealth, pedigree, education, and access to potential donors often make it difficult for Black candidates to gain a foothold in local politics which in turn hinders our representation at every level of government. We have to recognize that the shared lived experience and community ties Black candidates hold can be just as valuable as, if not more than, the connections that white candidates have. Being able to see someone like yourself, someone from your neighborhood, be elevated by the Party is a powerful thing. Adding more Black candidates to the ballot makes Black voters want to turn out.

Electing Black candidates is more than a visual representation though. When We (Black voters) see someone who looks like us in these positions, we know that they share a common history and bond with us that will inform their decision making. We trust that they are thinking about us when they are governing.

Hire Black Organizers

I CANNOT state this strongly enough We have to hire Black organizers in Black communities. Organizing is always an uphill battle. gaining the trust and buy-in of volunteers is the hardest part so once again, representation matters.

But putting just any Black organizer in just any Black community isn’t quite the answer either. We need to prioritize hiring Black staff from the community they’re organizing. These organizers need to have the local knowledge and cultural competency to know what it means to live on a certain side of town or who the gatekeepers are in local institutions. This also means that every organizer won’t be a 22-year-old Oberlin graduate who is afraid to knock on doors in their assigned turf because of their implicit (and sometimes explicit) biases. We need to drop exclusionary qualifications like bachelor’s degrees, access to a car, intern or field experience, and owning a laptop. Organizers who are hired locally will reflect their community in age, background, and local relationships. Democrats should hire people with deeply established roots in their neighborhoods.