Nina Turner: “Good Ideas Are Not Enough, We Need to Marry Our Ideas to Power”
Former state senator and Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign cochair Nina Turner is running for Congress. In an interview with Jacobin, Turner reflects on the heartbreaks and new opportunities of both Bernie campaigns, the left agenda she will bring to Capitol Hill, and why policies like Medicare for All and a Green New Deal are racial justice issues.
Nina Turner at a speech by Sen. Bernie Sanders on Medicare for All in Washington, DC, 2019. (Cheriss May / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Before becoming the national cochair of Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, Nina Turner was a Cleveland city councillor (2006–8) and an Ohio state senator (2008–14). Now she is running for Ohio’s 11th congressional district seat in a primary election slated for May 2021.
Jacobin’s Eric Blanc spoke to Turner about why she is running for national office and about her vision for winning the changes needed by working people.
Eric Blanc
What are the challenges you anticipate facing in your race to win Ohio’s 11th congressional district?
Nina Turner
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