Spotlight
Spotlight: Nina Turner For Congress
My name is Nina Turner, and I am running to be your Representative in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. This community means everything to me. My love of people, my faith in humanity, my commitment to justice — it all started right here in northeast Ohio.
I grew up in Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard neighborhood, am a product of the Cleveland Municipal School District, raised my family here, and have a history of serving here. As is true for many of us, life was not always easy. I grew up the oldest of seven children to loving parents who, despite working hard every day as a truck driver and nursing home aide, struggled under the weight of poverty.
I will never forget the sound of my mother crying herself to sleep at night because she couldn’t afford to give her children all that we needed and desired. And then I watched my mother, at the young age of 42 years old, fall into a coma and die suddenly with her dreams deferred — no insurance and no money in the bank. I saw firsthand the reality of our healthcare system and the barriers to quality care for the poor, the working poor, and communities of color.
I pursued my education and got involved in public service not only to honor the life of my mother and women like her but to push for bold progressive policies that change the material conditions for everyday people.
Nina Turner on the cover of The Summit Magazine – Issue #30
I worked my way through Cuyahoga Community College where I later served as a tenured professor of history and went on to earn my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Cleveland State University. I made history in 2005 as the first woman to represent Ward 1 on the Cleveland City Council and again in 2008 as the first Black woman to serve as a state senator in Ohio’s 25th District.
In the legislature, I repeatedly de- fended against attacks on women’s health care freedom and partnered with working families and organized labor to protect collective bargaining rights. As a champion for criminal justice reform, I led the bipartisan effort to create Ohio’s first task force on community and police relations in the wake of tragic police killings in Ohio and across the country.
I was a two-time delegate for Senator Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 — and traveled the state to deliver Ohio for the first Black President of the United States. In 2014, as the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, I traveled throughout Ohio fighting against Republicans’ concerted efforts to suppress access to the ballot box and make it harder for Black and Brown people to vote.
I am a product of all these experiences, as well as the many other roles I have had in my life: Planned Parenthood National Board Member, Chair of Party Engagement at the Ohio Democratic Party, Co-chair of Senator Bernard Sanders’ presidential campaign, wife, mother, sister, grand- mother. My entire life’s journey informs my love for people and my belief that there is more that unites us than divides us.
These experiences fuel my views on policies and during this race we have worked tirelessly to run an issues-focused “Opportunity Agenda” that centers the poor, the working poor, and the barely middle class. As the next Congresswoman for the 11th Congressional district, I will focus on creating opportunities, advancing the justice journey in this country, and delivering on progressive values for Ohio families.
I want to help build an America as good as it’s promise; where healthcare is a human right, working people can organize and create a union without fear and earn a living wage.; An America where we can educate our children from pre-k to college so they can carry a degree without carrying massive debt.
I strongly believe that systemic issues require systemic solutions. Addressing economic injustice will take all of us to make sure that one job is enough. We must increase the minimum wage to ensure that working people can afford to take care of their families. As we work to jumpstart the economy and get people back to work we must ensure that the job they go back pays a living wage. How else can we expect families to get on solid ground after this pandemic? So it is important that we increase the minimum wage and understand that $15 an hour is the floor and not the ceiling.
Nina Turner for Congress GOTV Rally with Bernie Sanders!
Healthcare is a human right. I believe that we must provide everyone in America comprehensive health care coverage without premiums, deductibles, copays, or surprise bills through a Medicare for All system. We must also prevent drug companies and insurers from gouging patients. In addition, we must invest in infrastructure so every community has real access to health care. In order to show a reduction in health care disparities, these are issues, I would champion.
I am also committed to criminal justice reform and a comprehensive fight for racial justice and police reform. Here in Ohio, the state’s two-year budget by Governor Mike Dewine includes $10 million in grants for local law enforcement to assist with purchasing body cameras, $8 million to help support programs that meet local communities’ needs with “promising or proven crime reduction strategies” along with various other measures which are similar to proposals being considered at the federal level.
Education should be a human right in this country and I am calling for expanded public education from Pre-Kindergarten to College or Technical School. Every person that wants a higher education should be able to get one without taking on massive, crippling debt to do so. Almost two-thirds of all student debt — nearly $929 billion as of 2019 — in the U.S. is held by women. Who have also been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic with black women carrying the highest student loan debt of any racial or ethnic group.
These are just a few of the issues that I plan to champion if fortunate enough to be elected by the community. Thank you for taking the time to get to know more about me and what gives me the courage to ask for more — more for you, more for northeast Ohio, and more for the poor, the working poor, and the barely middle class across this country. I look forward to walking with you on this justice journey and doing what I can to help fulfill your hopes and dreams and creating a strong foundation for future generations.
BlackPages Ohio / The Summit Magazine are proud to feature Nina Turner on the cover of issue V.30 of The Summit Magazine. Check out the full magazine below.
