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By J. K. Schmid, Special to the AFRO
What follows is an intimate account of Ben Jealous’ final day of campaigning before his decisive primary win.
Polls are open at Barack Obama Elementary School June 26 at 7 a.m. Ben Jealous’ boosters are already out in force, waving signs, waving to voters, and waving down cars to thank them for voting. The school behind them is a massive campus of brick and steel and glass, its atrium reflects the blue sky and thin clouds of early morning.
The candidate arrives around 7:15 a.m., he checks in with his boosters first, campaigns alongside his volunteers, as well as posing for pictures.
Jealous forgoes his usual look of a brawling titan of industry; no suit, no suspenders, no tie. Today, in jeans, blazers and leather shoes, it’s something more venture capital chic.
There’s also no signature goatee.
“It’s the bad luck of a dull razor,” Jealous told the AFRO. “The angle was off and because I was keeping it low, it just wiped away the beard. Then it started looking too theatrical, so I had to take it off. And then you can’t grow it back, because you can’t be looking scruffy. You need a good three or four days just to get it kind of going for you, so first real vacation, it comes back.”
It’s a modest setback.
“The last thing you want to do, is change your look in the middle of advertising on television,” Jealous said.
Maybe so, but in Upper Marlboro, he’s easily recognizable. A man crosses the street to reminisce about a dinner he shared with Jealous and actor, Harry Lennix.
“When he works with somebody, he invites you over to his house, you sit down and you break bread, and he gets you to buy into his vision,” Bob Ross, president of the NAACP Prince George’s County Branch told the AFRO. The NAACP does not endorse candidates, so Ross speaks for himself. “If he can do that for the state, get people to buy in, he’s good to go.”
Jealous streams a get-out-the-vote message with Ross at Evangel Cathedral, the second stop of the day. It’s the last public stop in Upper Marlboro, Rushern Baker’s home turf. Baker, the Prince George’s County Executive, is roughly tied with Jealous in the polls.There’s no Baker boosters in sight, and no queue of voters, either.
The sun’s still low, and the heat’s not on yet, as the campaign moves onto Takoma Park, Montgomery County.
The television cameras are ready at the Takoma Park Recreation Center, and Jealous goes into his feeling on the necessity of beating incumbent Larry Hogan, in order to implement his plans for improving healthcare for Maryland and the quality of life for Maryland’s seniors. The halting speech from the MPT debate, May 21, is gone. He’s fluent again, but still shuts his eyes for a moment before answering a question.
For Jealous to win the Democratic primary for Governor, he’ll have to beat a number of Black candidates, a daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, and an openly gay state senator; seemingly progressive stories all.
“The voters have always wanted a set of candidates who are as diverse as the voters are, and we’ve come the closest to that that we’ve ever seen,” Jealous said. “And that’s really affirming about our state. I think it speaks to the future of politics south of the Mason-Dixon, that we can hasten the day when our leadership is more inclusive in every way. In fact, here in Maryland, we’re doing that and I’m proud to be part of that field. We have always focused on letting the best ideas win. And we’re fairly confident that that will happen today.”
The sun’s getting higher, and Jealous is starting to turn red in the heat. It’s at this point he’ll take a break and turn to what a campaign communications rep would call a list of “private functions.”
There’s no huge crush of voters at any of these first three polling sites, despite the massive spike in early voting this year. There’s fear that the failure of the MVA to transmit 80,000 voters’ updated information to the Board of Elections may depress turnout. It’s too early in the day for exit polling, and the early June polling from Gonzales, OpinionWorks and University of Maryland are all over the place. Jealous is either tied with Baker, or one of them has a lead within the margin of error.
“We have succeeded in increasing the energy in this race and we have benefitted from that disproportionately,” Jealous said. “And it makes us very confident. It’s also a part of why we’re the only campaign that’s really confident about our ability to beat Larry Hogan. Because we know that we can pull in independents, to vote for me as a Democrat, that we can turn out democrats that don’t vote, and it’s precisely because we speak to working people and we fight for actual solutions to actual problems.”
When he returns to the trail, it’s in Baltimore City. The last stop is Callaway Elementary School, Callaway-Garrison. The difference between this school and Barack Obama Elementary is stark. Where each new clean brick in Obama is almost as sharp as a knife edge at the corners, Callaway is a muddle of black a green stains on dark red, each brick weathered and blunted to the point that they’re almost round.
Alice Brailey Torriente, an old friend of Jealous’ mother from Oxford Court, pulls over at the intersection of Ayredale Avenue and Ridgewood Avenue to say hello. Jealous’ mother is in town, so he puts the two of them on the phone together.
From here, it’s down to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture to await the results.
Jealous is hidden away, literally waiting in the wings, as the results come in. No one in the crowd seems able to look away from the two large screens in the reception area. At least, not for long. Returns are delayed as the polls are kept open an additional hour until 9 p.m. A girl dances on the ballroom floor while most of the crowd talks over plates of cheese, fruits and crackers.
Shortly after 9:15 p.m., the state board of elections releases data for 175 precincts. Jealous leads Baker 73,499 to 58,875. It snowballs from there, with the crowd getting increasingly impatient for the final word. Jealous gets off to a dominating lead.
The campaign announces that Baker conceded and that Jealous declared victory close to 10:30 p.m. Jealous is preceded by Rep. Elijah Cummings, another winner of the night; his cousin Rachelle Bland, owner of the business where Jealous announced his candidacy May 2017; and finally his mother and father.
Ben Jealous announces his victory to the crowd of supporters at 11:34 p.m. The last words of his prepared speech are, “We have the opportunity to change the trajectory of our state. Instead of a slow consistent decline in one area after another, lowered expectations and accepting this as the new norm.
Instead we can seize this moment create history so that Maryland can be all that it can be and ought to be. And with your help that is exactly what is going to happen. “
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