Front-runners Nina Turner and Shontel Brown announce election night watch parties relative to the August 3 special Democratic primary as to the fight to succeed former Ohio 11th congressional district congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, who is now HUD secretary with President Joe Biden's administration....Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district includes most of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, a majority Black pocket of Akron, and staggering sections of Akron's Summit County suburbs....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsbloig.com, Ohio's Black and alternative digital news leader

U.S. Congressional candidates Nina Turner and Shontel Brown

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND, OHIO – U.S. Congressional Candidates Nina Turner and Shontel Brown, the front runners in the heated race in Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district to replace former 12-year congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a former president of the Congressional Black Caucus who vacated her powerful congressional seat in early March to join President Biden's administration as the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development, are both hosting election night watch parties the evening of Tuesday's special Aug. 3 Democratic primary.

A resident and former council woman of Cleveland Ward 1, which has the highest Black voting bloc in the city of any of the 17 wards, Turner is a former Ohio senator and a former surrogate for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders who co-chaired his campaign for president last year, and Brown, a Fudge ally, is a Cuyahoga County Councilwoman and chair of the county Democratic party, the first Black and first woman to hold the volunteer post.

According to the county board of elections, polls open at 6:30 am and close at 7:30 pm with early voting, which began July 7, ending Monday at 2 pm.

Per press releases from the two campaigns, Brown's open-to-the public election night watch party begins at 7 pm on Tuesday at the Touch of Italy on Aurora Road in Bedford Hts and Turner's watch party, which is also open-to-public, will begin at 7 pm at the Lanes Bowling Alley on Southgate Park Boulevard in Maple Hts.

Both Maple Hts and Bedford Hts are largely Black Cleveland suburbs

One of two of Ohio's 16 congressional districts crafted under the redistricting provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, Ohio's 11th congressional district includes most of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County and a majority Black pocket of Akron and staggering sections of Akron's Summit County suburbs. The winner of the crowded 13-person Democratic primary race will face the Republican primary winner for a Nov. 2 general election, either Republican Laverne Jones Gore, who lost by a large margin to Fudge last November in the general election, or Felicia Washington Ross.

Both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are Democratic strongholds run primarily by Democrats and the winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary is likely the next congress person. That winner will serve out the remainder of Fudge's unexpired two-year congressional term.

The multi-million dollar congressional race has put Cleveland on the political map and has drawn big money and national public figures to Northeast Ohio, particularly during the weeks leading up to the special primary election, including U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez of New York and former NAACP President and prior Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ben Jealous of Maryland, also a former president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a prominent organization of Black newspaper publishers.

Jealous and Ocasio-Cortez campaigned with Turner in the greater Cleveland area two weeks ago, followed by Bernie Sanders, who appeared in Akron and led a get-out-the vote rally with Turner in Cleveland on Saturday with other big political names such U.S. Rep Cori Bush of Missouri, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, scholar and motivational speaker Dr. Cornel West, and local leaders, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Cleveland Councilman Blaine Griffin, and state Rep Juanita Brent, a Cleveland Democrat.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest ranking Black in Congress, Rep Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat and currently the only Black in Congress from Ohio, joined Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, for campaign events over the weekend in the Cleveland area, among others.

Turner is considered a more progressive Democrat while Brown, a more moderate Democrat, though both are also aligned with the establishment factions of the party.

Other high profile Blacks on the ballot in the closely watched Democratic primary race for the congressional seat at issue are former Ohio senators Jeff Johnson and Shirley Smith, and former state representative John Barnes Jr.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman. Coleman is a former public school biology teacher and a Black political and investigative reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio