African Community In Colorado Enter the Rough and Tumble of US Politics

Edi­tor’s Note: This post was pub­lished before the Novem­ber 6, 2020, U.S. midterm elec­tions. The  results show Jason Crow defeat­ing Mike Coff­man by 10 points (54.1 by 42.9) 

With­out a doubt, one of the hottest races in the 2018 U.S. midterm elec­tion is being fought in Colorado’s Front Range which includes Auro­ra, Cen­ten­ni­al, Brighton, and the sur­round­ing cities of Den­ver and Lit­tle­ton. The area is part of the state’s 6^th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict or CD6 cur­rent­ly held by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Coff­man. Coff­man, in his fifth term, has suc­cess­ful­ly fend­ed off Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lengers and kept the seat in the Repub­li­can col­umn despite the area’s chang­ing demo­graph­ics, which ana­lysts say favors Democrats.

It is esti­mat­ed that there are more than 30,000 Ethiopi­ans and Eritre­ans in the Den­ver metro area alone. When you add to this the Ghana­ians, Ugan­dans, Kenyans, and oth­ers who make up the com­mu­ni­ty, you have a for­mi­da­ble vot­ing block that can decide an election. 

Who is the African Community? 

The African com­mu­ni­ty in Col­orado has been the sub­ject of many news sto­ries in past elec­tion cycles. But not like in the 2018 midterm elec­tion. The rea­son: the stakes could not be high­er for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic par­ty, espe­cial­ly if they want to take back the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and even so if Democ­rats want to stop the agen­da of Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump. Whether this comes to pass or not is anoth­er story. 

In this sto­ry, I define “Africans” as a blend of gen­er­a­tional Africans who migrat­ed to Amer­i­ca for var­ied rea­sons, includ­ing fam­i­ly ties, eco­nom­ic and social oppor­tu­ni­ty, or as refugees, as well as African-Amer­i­cans with roots from con­ti­nen­tal Africa. 

Also, I define “com­mu­ni­ty” as not just peo­ple of African descent liv­ing in the dis­trict, but also friends of the com­mu­ni­ty, those who work with them and advo­cate on their behalf. This includes pri­mar­i­ly African-Amer­i­cans, busi­ness peo­ple, and the pub­lic that sup­ports their ideas and well-being.

In CD6, increas­ing­ly politi­cians have dis­cov­ered the strength that the com­mu­ni­ty, con­cen­trat­ed in South East Den­ver and Auro­ra, has and their crit­i­cal role in select­ing lead­ers for the dis­trict. Coffman’s suc­cess in past elec­tions is attrib­uted to his con­nec­tions to the com­mu­ni­ty, some­thing oth­er politi­cians have seized upon.

Black People Pulling the Strings of Politics

In the many nar­ra­tives about the com­mu­ni­ty in the news—both local and national–Africans and peo­ple of col­or – undoubt­ed­ly are pulling the strings in the race.

I tracked recent cov­er­age the com­mu­ni­ty received in local and inter­na­tion­al news. You can read some of the cov­er­age by fol­low­ing this link.

In the many news accounts on this sub­ject between 2014 and 2018, one thing is very clear: the bur­geon­ing pop­u­la­tion, as well as the diver­si­ty of the com­mu­ni­ty, is some­thing that makes it the sub­ject of so much hard­ball pol­i­tick­ing in the 2018 race. It’s part­ly why the fight to unseat Coff­man by Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Jason Crow is so intense.

On the one hand is the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee (DNC), the Col­orado Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, as well as the Super Pacs with all of the mon­ey they’ve poured into the race to defeat the incum­bent. On the oth­er hand are the Repub­lic Nation­al Com­mit­tee (RNC), the Col­orado Repub­li­can Par­ty, and sev­er­al GOP-aligned Super Pacs. Even while Coff­man lost sup­port from some Super Pacs sup­port­ing him, he is said to be still forg­ing ahead despite the circumstances.

And in the mid­dle, you have the vot­ers who hold the sway.

Ethiopians Have the Last Laugh

While Coff­man likes to min­gle with the com­mu­ni­ty, Ethiopi­ans espe­cial­ly, at every oppor­tu­ni­ty, the com­mu­ni­ty stands by his side because of what they say he’s done for them, accord­ing to the Auro­ra Sen­tinel. Just as the elec­tion was heat­ing up Coff­man quick­ly cut TV ads fea­tur­ing the com­mu­ni­ty that calls him one of their own. The ads have been run­ning on local TV for some time.

But not every­one believes Coff­man deserves their sup­port. There are oth­ers who want to help Democ­rats defeat the five-term rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the dis­trict. This is why some are not just help­ing Crow with inroads into the com­mu­ni­ty; Crow and the Democ­rats are court­ing the com­mu­ni­ty might­i­ly. At a Sep­tem­ber 29 Taste of Africa event at Utah Park in Auro­ra, Crow said he was humbly ask­ing for the community’s sup­port dur­ing the midterms.

The event includ­ed a food fair, an African mar­ket, soc­cer games, infused with a vot­er reg­is­tra­tion dri­ve, and polit­i­cal speeches.

“I need your sup­port and I humbly ask for that sup­port,” Crow told the crowd. Before his speech Crow was intro­duced by Omar Mont­gomery, Pres­i­dent of the Auro­ra Chap­ter of the NAACP, also run­ning for office in the 2019 Auro­ra may­oral race.

Democrats for Crow 

In his brief remarks, Crow tout­ed his mil­i­tary cre­den­tials, as well as the need for new lead­er­ship in Wash­ing­ton, and the need for some­one who will hold the admin­is­tra­tion account­able, as rea­sons why he needs sup­port from the community.

When I caught up with Milette Birhhane­maskel, one of the orga­niz­ers of the event, she told me they are work­ing to fill a gap in the com­mu­ni­ty. Birn­hane­maskel is part of a group of Africans –African Dias­po­ra for Jason Crow—that wants to unseat Coff­man in the Novem­ber elec­tion by every means. The group says Coff­man has tak­en them for grant­ed even while he prof­its from their votes.

“There is a hunger in the African Dias­po­ra to gath­er, not just for food and fun, but also to pool our polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic resources,” she said. “The African Dias­po­ra has made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to the area. It’s time we begin to rec­og­nize and build on that.”

By her own esti­mate, Birhhane­maskel said “More than 1000 Africans and Friends of Africans” attend­ed the event.