by the Rev. Dr. Earle J. Fisher —
In November of 2022, UPTheVote901 conducted a survey of over 100 people through SurveyMonkey immediately after the midterm election. Almost 90 percent of our respondents expressed concern about the potential of a split or diminished Black vote in the 2023 mayoral election.
Several people have publicly expressed their interest or intent in running for the office. Every candidate to date has been a Black or African-American candidate.
UPTheVote901 and some of our community partners, elected officials, faith leaders, and several of the organizations that have been influential in voting engagement efforts – like Memphis Artists For Change, the official Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter, Sister Reach, Stand for Children TN and MICAH – gathered together with several notable candidates, others were invited and declined to attend.
From these gatherings, the candidates and community partners have agreed that a process be put in place to ensure that whoever is elected to office in the municipal elections represents the broadest range of ideological and political interests for the majority of the citizens. Regretfully, the current electoral process does not guarantee this.
We would’ve preferred it for the City Council to allow voters to decide on partisan elections, or at the very least, a runoff provision that will provide a 50-percent-plus-one rule for all city elections. Both of these efforts failed. As such based, upon past precedent, it remains rather likely that a candidate could win office through a split or diminished Black vote without getting a simple majority of the voters.
Therefore, we are committed to producing a Memphis People’s Convention in the summer of 2023. This convention will serve as a people’s primary envisioned as a ward or precinct-based caucus with proportional representation, offering citizens a chance to vet candidates and organize efforts around a consensus candidate.
We believe this will also accomplish the goal of ensuring whoever is elected to office in 2023 will receive the majority of the votes cast.
In an effort to obtain unity across the city, we welcome those community organizations and interested and concerned individuals who are willing to participate in our planning process.
We also welcome any notable, serious and viable candidate for office to participate.
Those who are willing to work with us can email their interest to UPTheVote901@gmail.com and put Memphis People’s Convention in the subject line.
We hope to work with all of you and we hope to ensure the best for the City of Memphis in 2023.
