Freshman U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown is defending her newly won seat in the May 3 Democratic primary.
Brown was the victor in a crowded special primary last year. Now, she again faces her main rival, Nina Turner, the former state senator and prominent Bernie Sanders supporter.
The boundaries of Ohio’s 11th Congressional District have changed from last year. Gone is the long tail stretching to Akron. Now, the district includes all of Cleveland, many East Side suburbs and the West Side city of Lakewood.
Nina Turner is campaigning on a progressive populist platform of canceling student debt and enacting a Medicare for All national health care program.
“What I do want the powers that be to do is to use the hegemonic power that is United States of America on behalf of the poor, the working poor and the barely middle class,” Turner said recently at a Cleveland church. “Hello, somebody!”
Turner says Democrats should do more to change people’s material conditions — particularly as prices rise, and as Republicans pass abortion bans and legislate classroom instruction on race and sexuality.
“I wish more Democrats would comport themselves like their damn hair was on fire, because my hair is on fire,” she told Ideastream Public Media. “It is sad. We are going backwards as a country, backwards. We're supposed to be a nation of progress, so we can't let Republicans off the hook. At the same time, I'm not going to let my party off the hook either.”
Turner is trying to reach out to the district’s suburban Jewish communities, which favored Brown last year. Turner took out an ad in the Cleveland Jewish News saying she was unfairly painted as “anti-Israel” last time around. She made similar points at the City Club of Cleveland recently, saying she supports justice and security for Israelis and Palestinians.
“It was important for me for people to hear in my voice how I feel about the fact that the state of Israel has every right to exist,” Turner told Ideastream. “I know that there’s some people in this world and also in this nation who do not want, do not believe that. But I absolutely believe that.”
This race is again attracting independent expenditures. The Democratic Majority for Israel political action committee has bought TV spots backing Shontel Brown. So has a PAC supported by the founder of a cryptocurrency exchange. The moderate think tank Third Way has digital ads portraying Turner as too critical of fellow Democrats.
Turner decries the outside spending.
“When you have the level of money that’s coming into this district that came in last year, and it’s the same players coming in this year, they think that Cleveland is for sale, or Greater Cleveland is for sale,” she said.
Still, some outside money has boosted Turner, too. The Justice for All of Us Action Fund has paid for mailers criticizing Brown.
One difference from last year is that Brown is now running as an incumbent member of Congress — and one who was sworn in just in time for vote for the infrastructure bill.
“I was still getting my bearings. I don’t think I even knew where the restroom was, but I was proud to cast my vote to help pass the historic bipartisan infrastructure law,” Brown said to applause at the City Club recently.
Brown highlighted her infrastructure vote — and the relationships she’s starting to build in Congress — at a recent meet-and-greet outside a coffee shop in Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood, a new addition to the district.
“Starting from scratch is not going to be an option,” Brown said. “We need people who can deliver results, not insults, sound solutions, not sound bites, and one that’s focused on making headway, not headlines. And you can count on me to continue to do that.”
In the House, she’s joined both the moderate New Democrat Coalition and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Brown said that in Congress, she’s drawing on her experience chairing the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, a role she soon plans to give up.
“Our Cuyahoga County party consists of over 1,000 members,” she said. “Some are very far left, and even some very conservative. And so it was, I would think, good training ground for Congress to be able to learn how to work with a variety of people.”
Turner has criticized Brown for appearing to take credit for earmarks inserted into a spending bill by Sen. Sherrod Brown. Rep. Brown said she did still vote for the bill that contained those earmarks, and fired back at Turner.
“If we were going to talk about integrity, it’s not a lack of integrity on my side,” Brown told Ideastream. “And I think for one to attack my integrity is demonstrative of a lack of accomplishments on the other side. If you had something to speak about, maybe that’s what you should run on. Run on your record.”
There have been some realignments in this rematch. For instance, the Congressional Progressive Caucus backed Turner last year. This year, it’s with the incumbent.
