The desperate need to see a more active Cuyahoga County Democratic Party has never been more urgent. While an unelected body at the federal level make far-reaching decisions, Democrats at the local and state levels are springing into action to ensure that abortion access remains. Ohio’s statehouse quickly responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade by passing an abortion ban after 6 weeks.
As a Democratically-controlled county in a Republican-controlled state, organizing towards turning Ohio blue is even more critical for abortion-access supporters.
Last week, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party’s Central Committee voted on outgoing Congresswoman Shontel Brown’s replacement as head of the county party. David Brock, a longtime organizer and Cleveland resident, was elected as the new party Chair, (see CoolCleveland VIDEO here).
Before the Supreme Court’s decision, CoolCleveland correspondent Jenna Thomas spoke with incoming Vice Chair of the county party and State Representative Juanita Brent. Representative Brent ran for the Chair position, but dropped out of the election after the first round of voting and threw her support behind Brock. After Brock was elected, he nominated Brent, who ran unopposed and was sworn in as the Vice Chair.
CoolCleveland: First of all, congratulations on the Vice Chair role. What was your experience on Saturday? What did you think of the process and the outcome?
Representative Juanita Brent: The process made me realize that there’s always still more to learn about being a part of the Democratic Party, particularly when it comes to leadership. People have to be very strategic and intentional and everyone needs to be involved and engaged no matter what role it is. Even though we had many people going for the chair position, there also should have been intentionality in having multiple people going for the vice-chair, treasurer, and secretary positions.
CC: Does any of this work bring you joy? If so, what are you most looking forward to in your new position?
JB: I definitely have a lot of joy when it comes to this. For one, I’m excited about the team I am working with. Our Chairman Brock has a lot of energy and I like that we are two peas in a pod but we are also so different when it comes to our viewpoints and politics. One of the things that I am looking forward to is helping mobilize people who want to see more Democrats come out and vote this election cycle.
CC: Throughout the campaign, you mentioned approaching voter contact like a marriage instead of a one-night stand. Do you think the county party has the capacity to do that kind of deeper relational organizing?
JB: Yes, we’re being more intentional. Today, our leadership team was looking over social media graphics that we are going to be pushing out. We are also looking at how we can develop training, how we can better contact our city leaders and precinct people so we can build our leadership team – which is not just the chair and the top four. We need to expand that to build up that marriage.
CC: I am a recent graduate of Cleveland State, I was in college democrats and am now a part of Cuyahoga County Young Democrats. What role will young people play under this new leadership?
JB: There will be some vice chairs to the party who will be young people. All of our affinity groups will be represented in some form as we roll out the leadership team.
CC: Do you really think we can turn Ohio blue? What statewide candidates are you excited to watch this election season?
JB: Ohio definitely can be turned blue. We are not a red state, we are a purple state, but it comes with intentionality and it comes with not even just this election cycle. You can’t think of it as a hit-it and quit-it, where it’s just going to happen and we can just walk away. It is going to have to be constant relationship building, constant showing up, constant education on what’s going to be on the ballot. Honestly, I am excited about Tim Ryan, who is doing really well in the polls. He’s really hitting it home whether you’re a Democrat or not on how important it is that he represents us at the federal level across the state. Nan Whaley, who is just doing a wonderful job, is the key to what a lot of candidates miss out on – that’s building relationships before they decide to run for office. She has been building relationships up all across the state, so people feel very invested in her race because they have a relationship with her.
CC: What will your first actions be as vice chair?
JB: Some of my first actions will be, surprisingly enough, working on some graphics for our communications and having a lot of sit-downs with people right now. I’m talking to city leaders and precinct people to ask people: “what do they value? What do they feel like our party should be working towards?”
CC: I’ve seen that you have a great presence on Instagram and I feel like I have a better idea of what’s going on at the Statehouse because of that. I’d love to see more of that from the County Party.
JB: It’s very much necessary, because we want people to feel seen and one great way to help people feel seen is by communicating with them.
CC: Right. So, voter turnout in Democrat-leaning areas in Ohio is abysmal compared to rural Ohio. Less than 20% of eligible voters turned out in the May primary and 24% fewer vote-by-mail ballots were requested this year compared to 2018. What are you going to do to turn this around?
JB: The biggest thing is that we can’t just go to the typical voters. We are going to have to go to those inconsistent voters and start talking to them, specifically about the issues. People are more concerned about the issues than just the party. There are people who are, you know, party-or-bust, but there are people who are turning independent because they are more concerned about affordable housing, getting their student loans paid off, the gun legislation at the statehouse. They are concerned with what their local community is doing when it comes to these school levies. People are more concerned about the issues and how that party is handling that issue. We are speaking on the issues of the people – that will just keep bringing people in. We have to be in a place where we are communicating effectively. One of the many things that Chairman Brock and I agree on is that we have to utilize services that meet people where they are such as social media ads, text messaging, and other services like that that really meet people where they’re at.
CC: Some Democratic candidates see Black voters as a monolith and expect them to vote blue in local, state and federal elections. Reality is, we are losing Black voters in Cleveland to Republicans just as we are losing voters in Parma. What experiences and strategies will you bring to the position to reach Black voters specifically?
JB: Well, Black people don’t want to feel like you came to them last in the process. I think that historically we’ve seen many situations where other communities are being courted first, and you’d be like, “Well, Black people are going to vote Democrat so we don’t need to worry about it.” We are seeing more and more and more that Black people are just not showing up. It’s being intentional that we are making that investment and time and effort to reach out to communities of color all across the state.
CC: What do you think it would take to see turnout rates in the City of Cleveland match those in the suburbs?
JB: It’s going to take some money and some boots on the ground to do that. It’s going to take some time – I ask people every time I sit down with people to give the Chairman and our leadership team some grace because we are kind of coming in the middle of an election cycle, where we are getting ready for a primary but also getting ready for another election in November. This is going to be a courtship over time, but hopefully we will see some shift in voter trends in November. It’s a continuous effort to seek real improvement.
CC: I’ve seen the county party become more and more divided between progressives and more moderate Democrats. I’m wondering if you think we will reach more common ground under the new leadership?
JB: I think there’s a narrative that people want to put out there that the party is divided. What we saw on Saturday was an army of people – some poeple were centrist, some people were moderate, some were progressive who all came out and voted for Chairman Brock. Now, people may feel like he came from one way of being a Democrat, but that day so many different types of Democrats voted for him and that is going to be our point of bringing people together. People were looking for leadership, they were looking for somebody with integrity, someone who wants to bring that consistency and focus on the issues. That’s what we’re getting with Chairman Brock.
Get involved and pitch in at CuyDem.com.
Jenna Thomas is a recent graduate of Cleveland State University with a Master of Public Administration. She is currently the Advocacy & Policy Manager for Bike Cleveland and Director of Communications for the Cuyahoga County Young Democrats. Jenna has been published in CoolCleveland, The Land, and is a Cleveland Documenter covering local public meetings. She is passionate about neighborhood-level news reporting.