Activist and former progressive congressional candidate from Louisiana Gary Chambers on Thursday discussed his new political initiative aimed at boosting the Deep South’s progressive movement, saying he felt the need to do so because the national progressive movement “was not going to come and save us.”
Appearing on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Chambers said that despite losing the special election for Louisiana’s 2nd congressional district to Democratic to Rep.-elect Troy Carter, he felt the election still showed that “progressive values were important,” leading him to form his initiative “Bigger Than Me.”
“I think that it’s critically important that the progressives in the Deep South get taken serious. We shook up the world in our race. They told us that we come in at 6 percent, and we took off 21 percent of the vote, which meant that progressive values were important,” Chambers said. “And I believe with the right infrastructure with the right tools in place and the organizer capacity to touch grassroots organizing around the state that Louisiana could do what Georgia has done.”
“Rising” host Krystal Ball asked Chambers what he felt the progressive movement in the South had lacked in the past.
“Well, number one: one of the things we found out in our race was that the calvary was not going to come and save us. Right? And so progressive movement, many of the national organizations did not help our candidates,” Chambers said. “And so rather than get angry, we’re going to get active. And we’re going to help register thousands of people to vote in the state of Louisiana, we’re going to fight for fair districts to be drawn when redistricting happens in our state next year and we’re gonna be active with supporting and doing whatever we can to raise awareness on progressive issues.”
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