The St. Louis American endorses two candidates that are particularly easy to choose with great confidence: Yinka Faleti for secretary of state and Nicole Galloway for governor.
Yinka Faleti would be easy to endorse with confidence were he not the only Democrat on the ballot, which he is. Missouri has never elected an African American to statewide office, though nearly 12% of the state’s residents are Black. Faleti, who almost certainly will oppose the odious incumbent John “Jay” Ashcroft in November, would be a worthy candidate to make Missouri history and a vast improvement upon the Republican incumbent, who plays along with a national Republican strategy of voter suppression, particularly in urban districts that traditionally vote Democrat.
A U.S. Army veteran, attorney and former non-profit executive, Faleti seeks this office, he told us, because it is “the frontier in the fight for democracy in Missouri. As the chief elections officer, the secretary of state is able to expand voting access in Missouri, making sure that the legislature is composed of individuals who will truly advance the will of the people. The secretary of state also administers the ballot initiative process, a robust example of direct democracy that must be protected.” We believe that Faleti would be a diligent and ethical defender of this crucial frontier of democracy, and strongly endorse Yinka Faleti for the Democratic nomination for secretary of state.
Nicole Galloway is not without challengers for the Democratic nomination for Missouri governor, though none of the other four candidates (Eric Morrison, Antoin Johnson, Robin John Daniel Van Quaethem and perennial St. Louis candidate Jimmie Matthews) has any name recognition or any semblance of a statewide campaign. Galloway, on the other hand, is currently elected to statewide office as auditor, a position she successfully defended in 2018 when Missouri voters rejected all other statewide Democratic candidates. We endorsed her for auditor in 2018 as possibly the most competent and diligent auditor in the state’s history and one of the most capable and accountable public officials we had ever observed in any statewide office in Missouri. Two years later, we are only more convinced of her competence, diligence and accountability and eager to see her voted into the much more impactful office of governor.
No one is ever going to be elected governor of Missouri running solely on a Black Agenda, yet Galloway somewhat boldly has published an Opportunity Agenda for Black Missourians. It calls for executive and legislative bans on discrimination in Missouri – yes, in 2020 there remains a need for this. It mandates that 20% of the state’s Small Business Grants and other entrepreneurial investments go to minority-owned businesses, as well as for the formation of state Department of Minority Business that will administer these investments. Yes, in 2020 there remains a need for this in Missouri. And it calls for an expansion of the pre-kindergarten grant program to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline from the beginning. She also would end the practice of asking job applicants about their criminal history.
Her Black Agenda also takes up the crucial, controversial issue of police reform. She calls for a statewide ban on chokeholds and the like, mandates for the use and activation of body cameras, limits on no-knock warrants in drug-related cases, and subpoena power for civilian oversight boards. She calls for an overhaul of the moribund Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Program that has allowed abuse of police power to continue unchecked in Missouri, with abusive officers drifting from department to department while keeping their licenses to abuse and kill with impunity. Importantly, this would include the creation of an independent statewide Civil Rights Accountability Board with subpoena power to investigate and refer for prosecution violations of POST standards.
Unlike other recent statewide Democratic candidates (Claire McCaskill comes to mind), Galloway is not ignoring the existence of Black people and their concerns in order to appeal to the perhaps mythical out-state Missouri white swing voter. She evidently is well-informed about our issues and has framed credible solutions to many of them in a Black Agenda. We commend her willingness to address some of the systemic inequities that must be dealt with to create transformational change. This also reflects her awareness (not shared, again, by McCaskill) that she needs energized Black voters to win in November. We affirm that we should start building this energy now with a huge turnout for her on August 4. With Trump now slightly trailing Biden in Missouri in some polls and Galloway nibbling at what has been a decisive Parson lead in polls, perhaps Democrats will mount a national effort in Missouri on her behalf that would at least force Republicans to campaign statewide. Democratic decision-makers would do well to remember that Blacks form almost 30% of Democratic Party electorate. Black votes matter.
For these and many other reasons, we strongly endorse Nicole Galloway for the Democratic nomination for Missouri governor.
