The State of Black Civic Power in Ohio

This Juneteenth, the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation releases The State of Black Civic Power in Ohio, the first county-level look at how many Black Ohioans step back from our midterm elections. The number is 603,000, more people than live in the entire city of Cleveland, in a state where statewide races are decided by a handful of points.

I want to be clear about what that number is not. It is not a story about apathy. The people behind it are our family, our neighbors, our coworkers, and our congregations. They stepped back because the system gave them every reason to: early voting sites closed, names pushed off the rolls, campaigns that show up for six weeks and disappear for years, and a political process nobody ever bothered to make sense for us.

So we are doing something about it. Today we also launch Civic AF, All Facts, a digital series that meets people where they already are and tells the truth plainly about how Ohio government works and what our vote actually touches. No lecture. No spin. Just the facts, made for us.

Here is the part I need you to hold onto. The 603,000 are not a problem to solve. They are the strategy. If one in ten of us comes back, races change. If one in four comes back, we decide every statewide office in Ohio. We have never gotten free by shrinking, and we are not about to start now.

The data is in the field. The work is now.

Yours In Service,

Shayla L. Davis

President & CEO, Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Foundation

Read the full report: The State of Black Civic Power in Ohio