In
this crucial midterm election season,
democracy is on the ballot, and
that’s real. Issues such as reproductive
justice, voting rights and
many basic freedoms hang in the balance as
Trump acolytes hope to
take power at the state and federal level,
gain control of the
electoral process to steal elections and
wipe away our civil rights.
In
numerous statewide races around the country,
a new generation of bold
and dynamic Black leadership is running for
office, and many are
favored to win. Black turnout will be
crucial. Running against MAGA
ideologues and election deniers,
insurrectionists and outright white
nationalists, these Black hopefuls are on
the frontlines of the war
for the future of America.
One
of the youngest of these candidates is Austin
Davis,
32, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant
governor in Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania - where candidates for
governor and lieutenant
governor run separately in the primary and
the party nominees run
together as a pair in the November general
election - Davis won
two-thirds
of
the vote
and carried every county in the state. He
joins Pennsylvania Attorney
General Josh Shapiro, the Democratic
gubernatorial nominee, on the
November ballot. Polls
suggest Austin Davis is poised to become
the first Black lieutenant
governor of the Keystone State.
A
Black state representative whose district
is in McKeesport in Allegheny County,
Davis became one of only a few
Black lawmakers to represent a
majority-white district in
Pennsylvania and the first in Western
Pennsylvania outside of
Pittsburgh.
Davis’
upbringing in a Black working-class family
informed his decision to
pursue public service and take it all the
way to the state house in
Harrisburg.
"My
dad’s a bus driver in Pittsburgh and my
mom’s a hairdresser. You
know, my parents worked really hard to be
sure my sister and I had
every opportunity to succeed, and that
wasn’t always easy, right?
My family struggled with many of the same
things that families are
struggling with today," Davis said on the
campaign trail in West
Philly in a one-on-one interview with
theGrio. “And it really gave
me a perspective that folks don’t
necessarily want anything handed
to them. They just want a fair shot. They
want an economy that allows
them to have a family-sustaining job and to
get ahead and build the
foundation for what can lead to their
children living a better life
than what they had before, and so that’s
really kind of informed my
background.”
The
legislator’s experience with gun violence as
a teen propelled him
into politics. “No person should have to
live in a community that
has to deal with gun violence. I got my
start in politics when I was
16 years old when somebody got shot on my
block. I decided that I
wanted to go to a city council meeting,”
Davis said. “There were
two things that I noticed when I was in that
meeting: One, nobody
looked like me in government. And two,
nobody was talking about the
issue of gun violence. Instead of waiting
for somebody else, I
started a violence-reduction program in my
community when I was 16
years old.”
After
graduating from the University of
Pittsburgh, Austin Davis did not
leave his community but stayed in the old
industrial town that was
devastated when the steel industry collapsed
in the late 1970s,
leaving white and Black people in poverty.
Now, he is preparing the
community for a new economy with new jobs
such as the legalized
medical marijuana industry.
And
when an unarmed Antwon
Rose
II
was killed by East
Pittsburgh
police
in 2018, Davis was one of the leading
legislators calling for police
reform. Standing up and taking
responsibility as a Black leader, he
worked with Attorney General Shapiro to
create a first-ever officer
misconduct database in Pennsylvania.
Across
the country, we see other Black candidates
moving beyond the old
expectations and confronting the GOP
threat. A Black woman named
Deidre
DeJear
is challenging Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who
supports an anti-abortion
amendment to the state constitution. Stacey
Abrams
wants to become the next governor of
Georgia - and the first Black
female governor in U.S. history - and
transform government in her
state. And the Maryland gubernatorial race
pits
Wes Moore
- an author and former CEO of an
anti-poverty nonprofit - against
Trump-backed GOP nominee Dan Cox, a
candidate that current Republican
Gov. Larry Hogan calls a “QAnon
whack
job”
and will not support.
In
Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Mandela
Barnes
hopes to unseat a vulnerable U.S. Senator
Ron Johnson, a conspiracy
theorist who
played a role
in Trump’s Jan. 6 coup attempt. Gary
Chambers is the Democratic
nominee for the Senate from Louisiana, and
Charles Booker wants to
unseat Senator Rand Paul in Kentucky. And
two Black women - former
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Cheri
Beasley
and Florida Congresswoman Val
Demings
- are fighting to make their way into the
Senate as Raphael
Warnock
protects his Georgia Senate seat from
Herschel Walker.
Austin
Davis views his own candidacy through the
prism of these national
dynamics and believes we are living at a
critical moment. “The
stakes are so high for folks who are working
class or who really rely
on government to deliver results for them
and be effective, and
that’s why I think you’re seeing so many
candidates of color get
off the sidelines and get in the game and
say, you know we need to
make sure government is working for the
people that it’s supposed
to work for,” Davis told theGrio.
“And
quite
frankly, I think you’re seeing so many
younger folks, because
look, we’re going to have to - my generation
is going to have to
deal with the consequences of the decisions
that are made for the
next 40 years. That’s our future, right? And
so we’re saying
we’re we don’t want other people shaping
what our future looks
like. We want to shape that ourselves and
create a commonwealth or a
country that works for everyone. And I think
that’s the message
that you’re seeing with Mandela, with Val
Demings and some of these
other folks,” he added.
According
to Davis, the contrast between Democrats and
Republicans could not be
clearer as America becomes an increasingly
diverse country and some
view this diversity as a threat rather than
as a strength “We’re
talking about creating a more inclusive
society as Democrats. And you
have white nationalists who are talking
about [how] they want to
create a more white society and traffic in
white supremacy. The
reality is, I think that’s the contrast,
right?”
Perhaps
the contrast is no greater than in
Pennsylvania, where the
Shapiro-Davis ticket - a Jewish man and a
Black man who, as Davis
notes, are “reflective of the communities
we seek to serve and that
our party represents” - is running against
the Trump-blessed
Republican candidate and state Senator
Doug Mastriano. The racist,
antisemitic
and Christian
nationalist
Mastriano believes Trump won the 2020
election and wants
to
steal the 2024 election
for the former president.
Mastriano’s
brand
is so toxic that, as Pennsylvania State
Senator Vincent Hughes
said over the weekend at a Davis event,
the Republicans are running
ads for Carrie
DelRosso,
the GOP lieutenant governor candidate
instead.
Ultimately,
what distinguishes the new generation of
Black political leaders such
as Austin Davis is a focus on marginalized
communities.
"The
people closest
to
the pain
should be the closest to power," is
Austin’s motto, which is
profound. “Oftentimes when you look at
people in high government
offices, governors, senators, you know,
members of Congress, they’re
very traditionally very wealthy because of
the system that’s set
up, and it requires a lot of money to get
there,” he said.
“I
can say I’m an average person. I pay a
student loan bill every
month, right, and my parents are not leaving
me with a trust fund
that’s going to help spur my political
career. I’m the only
person in my family and extended family
that’s ever run for office,
right? So, I didn’t come from a political
family, and I think that
gives me a perspective more so what average
people are going through
on a day-to-day,” he said.
“And
I
think our government would be better served
if more normal
working-class folks had a seat at the table.
And so that’s what I
strive to bring to every room that I walked
into as an elected
official.”
This
commentary
is also posted on The
Grio.