Deray McKesson, who’s become the most well-known voices of the Black Lives Matter movement, has announced he’s going to make a run for mayor in his home city of Baltimore. In a post at medium.com, he laid out his case for running:
I have come to realize that the traditional pathway to politics, and the traditional politicians who follow these well-worn paths, will not lead us to the transformational change our city needs. Many have accepted that our current political reality is fixed and irreversible — that we must resign ourselves to accept the way that City Hall functions, or the role of money and connections in dictating who runs and wins elections. They have bought into the notion that there is only one road that leads to serve as an elected leader.
It is easy to accept this, because those of us from Baltimore live and experience the failures of traditional politics and pathways to leadership. Too often the elected individuals we put our public trust in, disappoint us. We have lived through lofty promises and vague plans. We have come to expect little and accept less. When we rely on this traditional model of politics we are rewarded with consistent, disappointing results.
In order to achieve the promise of our city and become the Baltimore we know we can become, we must challenge the practices that have not and will not lead to transformation. We must demand more from our leaders and local government.
He says he will usher in a new era of accountability, driven by his non-traditional path to office. In short, he’s done talking the talk, he’s going to walk the walk:
It is true that I am a non-traditional candidate — I am not a former Mayor, City Councilman, state legislator, philanthropist or the son of a well-connected family. I am an activist, organizer, former teacher, and district administrator that intimately understands how interwoven our challenges and our solutions are.
I am a son of Baltimore.
Will his campaign inspire other Black Lives Matter activists to run for local office throughout the country? We hope so.
For more on his campaign, read his entire post at medium.com.
Thursday, Feb 4, 2016 · 3:10:43 PM +00:00
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Jen Hayden
Deray McKesson joins 12 other candidates who’ve announced a run for mayor. For Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, who is seen as the current front runner, told the Baltimore Sun that she’d never even heard of Deray. It’s hard to believe she has never heard of one of the most well-known activists in the fight for criminal justice reform, which is most certainly one of the biggest issues in the city of Baltimore.