Rev Caviness, Cleveland Area Black ministers meet to push Ohio State Senator Nina Turner to run for Ohio Secretary of State against Republican Jon Husted

- December 03, 2012

Ohio State Senator Nina Turner (D-25), a Cleveland Democrat

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Led by Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church Senior Pastor Rev E. Theophilus Caviness, who is also 1st vice president of the Cleveland NAACP and the executive director of the Cleveland Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a small but influential group of black ministers, labor officials and community activists met at a Glenville area church Tuesday night to promote the candidacy of State Sen. Nina Turner(D-25) as Ohio’s next Secretary of State. They hope to convince Turner, a former Cleveland Ward 1 council person and a Cleveland Democrat to take on Republican Jon Husted for the seat in 2014.

The Rev E Theophilus Caviness

L-R: first row, Marcia McCoy, Bishop F.E. Perry, Rev. E.T. Caviness, Fred Harris, Vic Rubenstein, Art McKoy, Darlene Hardiman; 2d row: Richard Nix, Rev. Tyrone Davis,Shermaine Oliver, Barbara Rogers, [Cleveland Black Nurses Association] Pam Mason, ATU No. 268], Dr. Patricia McDonald, Mary Davis, Evelyn Bolden, Patricia Patterson, Rev. Dr. David Hunter [Baptist Ministers Conference]; 3rd row: Rev. Larry Harris, [United Pastors In Mission] Rev. Ivory Jones, Rev. Dan Smith, Mt. Moriah Baptist [Photo: Jeff Ivey]

Other influential ministers at the meeting were Bishop E. F. Perry, Rev. Tyrone Davis, Rev. Larry Harris and Rev. Dan Smith.

No African American Democrat has ever been elected to a statewide office in Ohio, though some have been appointed like Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Evette McGee Brown, who lost her seat to Republican Sharon Kennedy in November.

Turner has not said whether she will run for Ohio Secretary of State but has heightened her visibility this year,including actively campaigning for the successful reelection of President Obama and making appearances on national cable news stations like CNN and MSNBC.

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