Jewish Activist Joins Ticket Of Former NAACP Head Running For Maryland Governor
Veteran Jewish leader Susan Turnbull has been picked as former NAACP chair Ben Jealous’ running mate in the Maryland gubernatorial race. Image by Courtesy of Ben Jealous for Governor campaign
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A top former Jewish community official has joined the ticket of a one-time NAACP president in the latter’s bid for Maryland governor.
Susan Turnbull, who chaired the Jewish Council for Public Affairs from 2014 to 2016, would become lieutenant governor should Ben Jealous be elected. Regional newspapers reported Jealous’ pick on Wednesday. Neither has held elected office.
The pairing is seen as bringing together the Democratic Party’s establishment wing with those who support Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who ran an unsuccessful insurgent campaign from the left last year for the party’s presidential nomination. Sanders backs Jealous, and Turnbull is a former vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and a former chairwoman of Maryland’s Democratic Party.
Jealous, 44, who served as president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 2008 to 2013, must clear a crowded primary field in June to face off against popular incumbent Larry Hogan in November’s general election. Hogan is a moderate Republican who has distanced himself from President Trump. Maryland trends heavily Democratic.
Turnbull, 65, of Bethesda, has a long and deep involvement in the Jewish community. From 2009 to 2013, she was the chairwoman of Jewish Woman International, and was active in that capacity and as JCPA chairwoman with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. She has also served on the board of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Washington and has been involved with Hillel International.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
