MICHIGAN, August 6, 2012 – The GOP U.S. Senatorial primary has been a very heated contest. There has been a level of vitriol and infighting which should never be present when, after the dust settles, all are supposed to be on the same team.
Early in this primary I chose to refrain from personally endorsing any of the candidates. This is particularly true, since I am contracted by Cornerstone School, with candidate Clark Durant. I work with the school to help develop partner relationships in the city of Detroit on behalf of its youth.
Even so, my first choice was not to support Clark Durant. It was Gary Glenn I had planned to vote for. Gary Glenn is a mentor and friend to me. He is the one that taught me all I know about Labor Freedom.
Clark knew that even as he and I talked about my coming onboard as a Cornerstone Partner. He didn’t care about that. He felt I offered the kids at Cornerstone opportunities they deserved. He put the kids, not patronage, first.
Glenn then dropped out of the primary and neither of them have a clue that I have decided to do what my conscience compels me to do: Endorse Clarke Durant for in the GOP Primary.
Durant is the candidate who is best positioned to defeat Senator Debbie Stabenow, who has been a major contributor to the loss of over 800,000 Michigan jobs and, sadly, blatant, discrimination against Blacks in labor and education via her support of racist policies such as the Davis Bacon Act, Prevailing Wages, and Union-Only Project Labor Agreements.
Senator Stebanow has opposed the expansion of school choice, which she understands is an extension of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Black families then and now have seen our children suffer from a lack of access to the best educational facilities and resources as a direct result of policies Senator Stabenow supports.
The GOP nominee will have to possess not only necessary knowledge of these issues, but also shall need a proven ability to work across class and cultural lines in a manner no GOP Senator in recent memory has done in Michigan.
Clark Durant brings a proven track record of understanding the specific challenges in urban communities, as well as other communities. That is important to me, in light of the fact my ministry is urban based.
Having met with a number of Black pastors over the past weeks things about Clark were revealed, things he never told me. One pastor told me he and Clark’s father were friends. I listened to stories about how his dad used to fight for people in the city.
“Clark has it in his DNA to fight for those no one fight for because that how he was raised,” this pastor says.
I met citizens who told me of how Clark defended their relatives when they were in trouble, making sure they took responsibility for whatever, but also that they were treated fairly. That meant something to me because I made a lot of mistakes in my youth. I was functionally illiterate until I was in my mid 20s. I went to jail for foolish choices. I later reinvented myself, won awards for working with gang members, am a graduate of multiple Chamber of Commerce Leadership Initiatives, the Henry Marsh Institute of Public Public Policy and am a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I can tell you that not many people truly believe in second chances. Clark Durant does. He is a man that minorities and every American can trust to care about the disparities brought about by policies that Senator Stabenaw supports. He has the courage to be honest about it, even if it means he alienates some of his own peers.
We need that kind of integrity in D.C.
Clark represents the “radical revolution of values” that this nation, which is crumbling at the feet of moral relativism and socialism, so desparately needs. He offers the ability to rally Americans, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American, around a common cause.
He has stayed away from the personal slander and hateful rhetoric often seen in political campaigns. I have personally been attacked by the supporters of other candidates, who demeaned me for the very things Clark has fought for his entire life.
I am compelled to endorse Clark Durant because I know that he is the only candidate that has the ability to win the trust of the urban community. A community that no other GOP candidate has bothered to cultivate relationships in. Let’s face the truth. It’s not becaue they are racist, but because they simply followed the status quo of the Republican Party.
Clark doesn’t know anything about the status quo. His life’s work is an affront to it. I expect that there will be some who will attempt to personally attack or discredit me, hoping to make this endorsement insignificant. However, those of you that know me, also know I am well respected in the faith community, among Tea Party groups, and have proven the ability and willingness to build bridges where others burn them.
I know that Clark Durant will do the same, not only in the urban community where I live, but in D.C., where too many officials have forgotten that they represent all of the people.
Not just a specific demographic and not just the elite of their party.
Clark Durant is Michigan’s best chance to stay “open for business”.
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