Turner picks up Cleveland Plain Dealer endorsement in special House race

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio’s largest newspaper, endorsed Nina Turner ahead of next month’s special Democratic primary in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District.

Turner, a former co-chair for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, is running to replace former Rep. Marcia Fudge (D), who now leads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Plain Dealer praised Turner, a former state senator, in an editorial this week, calling her someone who “has shown she isn’t afraid to stand up to power and to partisan shibboleths, who has the guts to say what she thinks and do what’s right for her constituents and country, who is passionate about public service and knows the issues, the personalities, the challenges better than anyone else in this race.” 

“In her long career of public service — including time on Cleveland City Council and in the Ohio Senate and most recently as national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign — Turner, 53, has shown her ability to synthesize priorities and tackle challenges head-on,” the newspaper wrote.

The Democratic primary field to replace Fudge is crowded, with Turner drawing the backing of progressives such as Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), while moderate Democrats and a senior House lawmaker, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), have backed Shontel Brown, a Cuyahoga County councilwoman and chair of the county Democratic Party.

The Plain Dealer praised Turner as “the heavyweight in this primary race,” while panning Brown, calling her “a pleasant but undistinguished member of Cuyahoga County Council who has little to show for her time in office, and who failed to do what was right — to step down as Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chair once she’d announced her candidacy in this race.”

“Many in this race cite the need for the next member of Congress from a district encompassing large parts of Cleveland and Akron to address generational poverty, systemic racism, Black voting rights, unequal access to health care and other urban, social ills,” the Plain Dealer concluded. “The candidate best-equipped to tackle those challenges, hands-down, is Nina Turner. She has the tools, the smarts and the energy to carry forth Louis Stokes’ outspoken yet effective activism on behalf of this region.”

The Democratic primary in the special House race is Aug. 3.