This is major!
Jennifer McClellan is campaigning to become the first Black woman governor in the United States, NewsOne reports.
The daughter of educators and mother of two is in the race to become the next governor of Virginia. McClellan now joins an elite group of Black women running for office who are working to speed up change in the political arena that the country so desperately needs.
The Virginia native has been a Democrat in the state legislature for over 14 years. If she wins the gubernatorial seat, she plans to focus on addressing inequalities in Black communities, disenfranchisement for native Virginians, reforming systems of exclusion by advocating for universal childcare, expanded health care access, environmental justice and criminal justice reform.
McClellan is one of three other Black women running for Governor of Virginia, including former state delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy, activist Princess Blanding and former Roanoke Sheriff Octavia Johnson. The women seek to replace current Gov. Ralph Northam who has been plagued by a blackface scandal.
“While my candidacy is historic, this isn’t a moment about me. This is a movement about the future Virginia that will emerge from these crises stronger and more united than ever. I’m honored and excited that a little girl who grew up in Virginia from parents who grew up in the Depression can lead that healing,” McClellan told reporters.
She credits her lived experiences as a daughter of the South and her work in the community as her motivation to run for Governor. Ultimately, McClellan wants to be a part of the future of Virginia, working to push past the pain by creating laws that make it more fair and equal for all of its residents.
“At my core, I am a servant leader who sees pain and wants to heal it, sees problems and wants to fix them. Virginia really is, like our country, we’re at a crossroads of four crises. The worst health pandemic in 100 years, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, reckoning with racial injustice, and a lot of people who have lost faith in government’s ability to understand their problems, let alone solve them. I’m running because I hear the call to help people and lead us through these crises in a way that brings us together, and gives hopes, and addresses inequity, and begins to heal from 400 years of trauma that has all culminated up to this point,” said McClellan.
Congratulations, Jennifer! We are all rooting for you!
Photo Courtesy of Darryl Wingo/Jennifer McClellan for Governor