Political Roundup
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard by now that Keith Ellison became the first Muslim Congressman, but there was another Congressional race that caught my attention and surprise…
I had been monitoring the race for the 9th District seat in Tennessee from a distance (as my parents and one of my friends still live in Memphis) and was glad to see that Steve Cohen, a white Jew, won big in a racially charged election in a overwhemingly black racially polarized city.
It is a sign that perhaps that city is moving beyond racial politics because his opponent was running on the platform that he was black and that the 9th district “belonged to blacks”
Now for the irony:
Cohen’s opponent was Harold Ford, Jr’s brother Jake.
So while Harold Ford, Jr was positioning himself as a racially ambiguous “non-black”, his brother Jake was running a highly polarizing campaign back in Memphis, outside of the national spotlight. Harold even refused to endorse Cohen, who was the Democratic nominee.
Although it will probably all be temporary - as Harold, Jr will probably go back to being black when he attempts to take that seat back from Cohen - it is nice to see that all segments of that city came together for once and that Memphis is now finally out from under the heel of Harold Ford, Sr (yes the ballot in the picture is real)
UPDATE: It wasn’t racist crackers who cost Harold Ford, Jr the Senate - This was written by a Democrat
Filed under: Black American Muslims, Changing World
Cohen was just hands down the most qualified for the job. Everyone saw that. Plus there’s some Ford fatigue here in the big M-town.
Jake Ford was just…Jake. No experience and underqualified to even enter the realm of politics. If Cohen had had a viable opponent, maybe the race would have carried a little more suspense. But Jake was just some regular guy who came from a prominent family and decided to see how far his name would carry him. I’m glad that the 9th district didn’t fall for it.