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Thursday, March 28, 2024

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Tami Sawyer takes District 7 Commission race

The Shelby County District 7 Commissioner’s position was snared in powerhouse fashion Thursday night by social justice activist Tami Sawyer. She swept the race with 80.5 percent of the vote against Republican Party challenger Samuel Goff.

It was a night of celebration for Tami Sawyer and her supporters. (Photo: Jonathan Martin)

The Blue Nile Ethiopian Kitchen on Madison Avenue – the site Sawyer’s watch party – was filled with blaring music from a DJ and the revelry of those celebrating a hard-fought campaign. Not for one moment did anyone in that place doubt that Sawyer would take the night.

They were right. Sawyer drew 7,700 votes to Goff’s 1854.

“We did fight hard for this,” said Lydia Crivens. “When I first started working on the campaign, I thought we would knock on a few hundred doors. We knocked on thousands of doors, and I mean thousands. I grew up in Hyde Park, and my dad was Rev. T. O’Neal Crivens. So I grew up working in politics with my dad. This is a wonderful night for us.”

Sawyer entered shortly after the polls closed dressed in a blue Afro-centric custom dress, created by Grace Byeitima of Memphis’ Mbabazi House of Style. She thanked individual supporters and campaign workers who helped make the night possible.

A prominent figure in the local Black Lives Matter organization and founder of #takeemdown901, a successful movement to remove Confederate monuments from public parks in Memphis, Sawyer works as director of Diversity and Cultural Competence with Teach for America Memphis.

Her campaign flyer echoed the tone of her effort to secure the commissioner’s seat: “Memphians are rallying around a Bold and Courageous Leader.”

 

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