A political progressive in New Jersey said that the way to be to stand-out trendsetter is to be like conservative red-state GOP governors in Florida and Texas.
"We could be a proving ground," Ras Baraka, the 10-year veteran mayor of Newark, and gubernatorial hopeful, told Politico.
"I think that what we can do in New Jersey would have an impact on the country," he said "I pray that it does the same way that Gov. Abbott has an impact on the country, the same way that Gov. DeSantis has an impact on the country.
"Whether we're talking about affirmative action or voting rights or opportunities for working people in this nation, we can be an example for the rest of the nation."
Baraka said he's eager to become governor despite political upheaval and an endorsement process that gives local leaders the power to anoint candidates in primaries.
"People are tired of the same old, same old, and the same people who look the same, who talk the same, who have the same talking points all the time, saying they're going to do stuff that they're really not going to do," Baraka said.
He called housing and healthcare "the No. 1 most expensive" issues to deal with as governor.
"It's a statewide issue," he said. "New Jersey is deeply segregated. At the base of our segregation is housing. At the base of our educational issues is housing. From Livingston to Newark is eight miles. The life expectancy rate is a 14-year difference Livingston and Newark. So you are basically condemned by your ZIP code."
Baraka said reparations will be part of the conversation.
"I think the first thing people are afraid of is that you're blaming them," he said of the enslavement and segregation of Blacks. "Well, none of us were there, but the harm of it still exists all the decades, centuries later. … All the discrimination that came between that, from lynching to segregation to poor housing — all of those things are barriers, deliberate institutional barriers that prevented people from gaining wealth or access to wealth."
Baraka said he's confident his progressive message will appeal not just to left-leaning Democrats, asserting "whether you're Black or brown, whether you are Caucasian, in this community, that community, I think everybody feels the brunt."
Lawmakers, he charged, are "afraid" to talk about reparations and the wealth gap.
"I love my community and fight for it as desperately as I can, which is why I'm so passionate and committed to the work that we're doing," he told Politico. "And really, I think these people are careerist and ambitious. And I'm not angry at the ambition. I just think that ambition should be big enough to include more people than themselves."
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