[Posted Dec. 26, 2007]

Cynthia McKinney Runs for President On Green Ticket

By Akwasi Evans
Special to the NNPA from Nokoa

   Many political observers believe that it is highly unlikely that America will elect a woman for president and even less likely that America will elect an African-American, so what would be the odds of America electing an African-American woman for president?
Whatever they would be, Cynthia McKinney is ignoring them.
    The former Georgia Congresswoman, known for her outspokenness on hot political issues, is the presidential nominee of the Green Party and she was in Austin (Texas) earlier this month, soliciting support for her up the mountain campaign.
    McKinney spoke to listeners of KAZI-FM's talk show, “The Wake-Up Call”, telling listeners that both the Democrats and the Republicans want to feed the people to the war machine. She said people's values are ignored by the major parties and opportunities for advancement are being exported instead of cultivated here at home. McKinney spoke with NOKOA by phone following the radio broadcast.
   “The Green Party has a primary process. I have had a long relationship with members of the Green Party. Their members supported my first campaign in 1992. Think about economic justice, public policy for people who have been left out, health care, these are all concerns I share with members of the Green Party,” she says.

   Mckinney, who served in Congress as a Democrat, quit the party in September.
In the radio interview, Mckinney said she was on the ballot in four or five states. She tells Nokoa that she won't stop there.

   “My goal is to be on 51 ballot lines, including the District of Columbia. In Texas our petition drive needs to collect 45,000 valid signatures from registered voters for my name to appear on the ballot. Nationally our goal is to get over 5 percent of the vote. McKinney is traveling by car. She has toured Oklahoma, Illinois and Minnesota. She said she has visited 25 states so far and her support keeps growing everywhere she makes an appearance.
    Her political career began in 1986 when her father, a representative in the Georgia House of Representatives, submitted her name as a write-in candidate for the Georgia state house. She won about 40 percent of the popular vote and began preparing for another attempt. In 1988, McKinney ran for the same seat and won, making the McKinney's the first father and daughter to simultaneously serve in the Georgia statehouse.
    In the 1992 election, McKinney was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the member of Congress from the newly created 11th District, a 64 percent Black district stretching from Atlanta to Savannah. She was the first African-American woman to represent Georgia in the House.    McKinney lost her seat in 2002 after losing the primary election. She regained her seat in 2004, when it was open due to then Rep. Denise Majette's run for the U.S. Senate.
    In 2006, she was opposed in the Democratic primary by Hank Johnson and John Coyne III. McKinney lost the primary election runoff 59 percent to 41 percent for Johnson on August 8, 2006.  

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