A major figure in the Black Lives Matter movement is running for mayor of Baltimore
Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for GLAAD
In the 18 months since that event, Mckesson has become a full-time activist, working within the loosely organized Black Lives Matter movement, helping formulate its related police-reform campaign known as Campaign Zero, and traveling across the country to protest and support those working in support of those efforts.
Mckesson is now formally jumping into politics.
On Wednesday, Mckesson announced that he has filed to run for the mayor of Baltimore. A native of the city, Mckesson will run in the Democratic primary.
"I am running to be the 50th Mayor of Baltimore in order to usher our city into an era where the government is accountable to its people and is aggressively innovative in how it identifies and solves its problems. We can build a Baltimore where more and more people want to live and work, and where everyone can thrive," Mckesson said in a statement posted on Medium.
Filing deadline surprise: @deray files to run for mayor of Baltimore pic.twitter.com/J1ABRGjSau
- Luke Broadwater (@lukebroadwater) February 4, 2016
The Democratic primary is especially important in Baltimore because the city historically votes Democratic for mayor. The last Republican mayor of Baltimore was in 1967.
Mckesson entered the race at the last possible moment, filing his paperwork just minutes before Wednesday's 9 p.m. filing deadline.
The Democratic primary field includes Mckesson, former mayor Sheila Dixon, City Councilman Nick J. Mosby (whose wife is Marilyn Mosby, the state's attorney currently trying to prosecute the police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray), businessman David L. Warnock, and nine others.
A recent poll in the Baltimore Sun has shown Dixon leading the polls with 27% of polled voters. That survey was released before Mckesson's entry. It is not clear what impact he will have on the race.
Mckesson has never held elected office. His background is primarily in school administration and teaching. He has previously served as an administrator for Minneapolis and Baltimore City public schools and as a teacher for Teach for America.
During the course of his activism, Mckesson has become a huge figure on social media, amassing a following of nearly 300,000 followers on Twitter.
In a statement released on Medium, Mckesson seemed to indicate that this nontraditional background was key to candidacy.
"I have come to realize that the traditional pathway to politics, and the traditional politicians who follow these well-worn paths, will not lead us to the transformational change our city needs," the statement reads.
The Washington Post's Wesley Lowery has the inside scoop on how Mckesson made the decision to run, which was not final even hours before filing. Check it out here.
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