Brown up to challenge in race for lieutenant governor

Yvette McGee Brown knows a little something about tough races.

The year was 1992 and Brown, not long departed from her role as legal counsel at the Ohio Department of Youth Services, had decided to run for an empty seat on the Franklin County Domestic Relations Court.

She had five or six strikes against her.

She was Black, in a county that had never elected a Black woman to the Domestic Relations bench, she was a woman, and she was a Democrat – in a county that trended heavily Republican in judicial races at the time.

Plus, she was up against Republican Clifford Cloud – the scion of a powerful Republican family in Franklin County and statewide politics who had money and name recognition as well as the incumbent.

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“Even my mother said to me, ‘why are you doing this? I just don’t want to see you hurt,’” Brown explained.

Nobody thought she could win, except herself.

In the end, Brown after gaining support from the generally conservative Columbus Dispatch while flashing her infectious personality and mobilizing a strong team beat Cloud by 11,000 votes. And she has not lost an election since.

So, don’t hold it against her if she views her most recent race, as the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor, as a little less challenging than her first one.

“Your first-time race is always your hardest because you don’t know what you’re doing,” Brown said. “The scope [of the governor’s race] is far larger, but you have the benefit of running with an incumbent governor. You have a huge staff. You have people out there to help you.”

Brown has been on the road now for almost five months, running to make history as the first African American Democrat – and second African American woman overall – to be elected Ohio’s lieutenant governor.

It has been an exciting ride.

Brown said she has gotten “a great response” in her travels across the state.

“It has been amazing to me how people have embraced me. Ted will be the first to tell you he has not been a perfect governor. But people are willing to ask questions.”

And, among African Americans as she moves around the state, “There is such pride and support,” she said. .

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She had worked closely with Strickland over the years on a variety of issues particularly in her role as the founding director of the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, an agency with 400 staff and a budget of $30 million per year. She helped create the agency in 2002, after winning re-election as Domestic Relations Judge in 1998.

Brown is not coming to the race as window dressing for a governor who knows a key component of his re-election is likely to be the African American vote. She has some specific goals she wants to address as lieutenant governor.

“I told [Strickland] I wanted to have a significant portfolio and have issues to lead on,” Brown said.

And the big issue is the governor’s “Urban Agenda,” which was released with much fanfare during his 2006 campaign but withered on the vine of funding crises and bureaucratic inattention for the first three years of Strickland’s administration.

... “I have said that the urban agenda is hugely important to me. [Strickland] acknowledges there is much more we could have done with it and more we can do with it in the second term.”

Based on her background as a judge, she is particularly sensitive to the problems of the criminal justice system including the challenges facing Black men as they attempt to reenter society after a term of incarceration.

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When she was given the opportunity to run for lieutenant governor with Strickland, she gave up her job. She did not take a leave of absence. She resigned.

“It’s like the kids say, ‘I’m all in,” Brown said. “I’m unemployed.”

She didn’t see her decision as a risky move.

“I think it’s a calculated risk,” Brown said. “My husband was the one who first said, ‘You really need to do this.’ I’ve known Ted for a long time. I know we work well together. I know I have leadership skills that will help him lead the state. I’m ready for my next challenge.”

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