This is an excerpt of a column I wrote for Dome Magazine last Friday.
By Chad Selweski
The Michigan Democratic Party endorsement convention on April 15 was not the meltdown that some feared, but just as the Dems try to pull together some post-convention unity they face a potential revolt along racial lines.
Black party activists in the city of Detroit were angered when the convention favored an all-white (and all female) ticket for statewide offices: U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Dana Nessel for attorney general, Jocelyn Benson for secretary of state and, for the most part, Gretchen Whitmer for governor.
The left wing of the party, particularly the large faction of (mostly white) Millennials that has become active and energized, seemed particularly pleased with the result at the Cobo Center confab in Detroit. After all, their favorite candidate—Nessel—whom is vying to become Michigan’s first openly gay statewide official, was a big winner. But the loser in that hotly contested AG race was Pat Miles, the only African-American candidate who had a chance of winning a spot on the ticket.
In a state Democratic Party known for its political cannibalism, the knives came out quickly. Bankole Thompson, a prominent black commentator in the Motor City, used his radio show on 910 AM to blast the party for the “indignity” of shunning the black community. “The facts are … the party of the ‘big tent’ just gave us an all-white ticket,” he said. On Facebook, Thompson made this prediction: “Watch how this party crashes and burns.” Joining in the criticism were Keith Williams, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus (MDPBC) and a former Wayne County commissioner; Lavonia Perryman Fairfax, former chair of the MDPBC; and Steve Hood, a political consultant and WKBD TV show host. In a column written for Bridge Magazine, Hood, an African-American, wrote: “Does the party really think it can ignite the minority vote without at least one minority on the ticket? This is a recipe for disaster.”
Continue reading here.
