• Celebrity
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Women in Music
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
  • Fashion
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion House
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Color Files Podcast
    • Nails
    • How-To
    • Beauty Carnival-Archive
    • Dope Stuff On My Desk
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
  • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weaves
    • 4C
    • Spring Hair And Beauty
  • Love
    • Love & Sex
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle News
    • Build Your Legacy
    • Coronavirus: Everything You Need to Know
    • Health & Wellness
    • Holiday Gift Guide 2020
    • Unbossed Podcast
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
    • Currency Conversations
  • News
    • Latest News
    • BLACK VOTES MATTER
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Videos
  • Events
    • WELLNESS HOUSE: YEAR OF RENEWAL
    • LEVEL UP: Entrepreneur Summit (DEC 2020)
    • Power Tools
    • SHE GOT NOW
    • Girls United Summit
    • Making Moves Now: Virtual Bootcamp
    • #EF SESSIONS
    • Dear Black Men
    • Cares Act
    • News & Announcements
  • Festival
  • Subscribe
  • Essence Studios
  • Girls United
  • NaturallyCurly
  • Shop Essence

Follow Us

Skip to content
  • Essence Studios
  • Girls United
  • NaturallyCurly
  • Shop Essence
  • Celebrity
    • Celebrity
    • Celebrity News
    • ‘Yes, Girl!’ Podcast
    • Entertainment
    • Black Women in Music
    • Black Celeb Couples
    • Celebrity Moms
    • Red Carpet
  • Fashion
    • Fashion
    • Fashion News
    • Street Style
    • Accessories
    • Fashion House
    • Fashion Week
  • Beauty
    • Beauty
    • Beauty News
    • Skin
    • Makeup
    • Color Files Podcast
    • Nails
    • How-To
    • AVEENO® Skin Health Startup Accelerator
    • Girls United: Beautiful Possibilities
    • Beauty Carnival-Archive
    • Dope Stuff On My Desk
  • Hair
    • Hair
    • Hair News
    • Natural
    • Relaxed
    • Transitioning
    • Weaves
    • 4C
    • Spring Hair And Beauty
  • Love
    • Love
    • Love & Sex News
    • The Solve Podcast
    • Weddings
    • Parenting
    • Relationships
  • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle
    • Lifestyle News
    • Build Your Legacy
    • Coronavirus: Everything You Need to Know
    • Health & Wellness
    • Holiday Gift Guide 2020
    • Netflix’s Jingle Jangle Gift Guide
    • Unbossed Podcast
    • ESSENCE Eats
    • Money & Career
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Black Travel Guide
    • Currency Conversations
    • Your Legacy
  • News
    • News
    • Latest News
    • BLACK VOTES MATTER
    • Essence 50th Anniversary
    • Raise Your Voice
    • Culture
    • Politics
  • Videos
  • Events
    • Events
    • WELLNESS HOUSE: YEAR OF RENEWAL
    • LEVEL UP: Entrepreneur Summit (DEC 2020)
    • Power Tools
    • SHE GOT NOW
    • Girls United Summit
    • Making Moves Now: Virtual Bootcamp
    • #EF SESSIONS
    • Dear Black Men
    • Cares Act
    • News & Announcements
  • Festival
  • Subscribe
Home · News

Jennifer McClellan Is Ready To Lead Virginia Into An Equitable Future

By Tanya A. Christian · June 18, 2020June 18, 2020
Virginia State Sen. Jennifer McClellan has announced her bid to become the first Black woman governor of the Commonwealth and this country.

Where do we go from here?

The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., posed this very question in 1967 to the members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. His own leadership helped achieve the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, the desegregation of American schools and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But as America stood at an inflection point, the daunting task of moving forward remained unclear.

Today, more than 50 years after Dr. King’s notable query, the country, the world, continues to grapple with the answer. And though no one solution will bring this nation to the point where Blacks are no longer judged by the color of their skin, where systemic oppression is uprooted from every governmental structure and where equal justice is attainable for those who had no part in creating the system, Virginia State Senator Jennifer McClellan says she’s ready to move her state closer to that once-envisioned land.

Jennifer McClellan
Virginia State Sen. Jennifer McClellan (Photo courtesy of McClellan campaign)

On Thursday, the former vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, and the current vice-chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, announced her candidacy for the governor of Virginia. “I come from a family tradition of community and public service, and learning about my parents’ experiences growing up in the segregated South during the Depression and through the Civil Rights Movement, I came to believe that government can either be a powerful force for change in solving people’s problems, or it can be a force that oppresses some and benefits others,” McClellan tells ESSENCE on the eve of launching her historic campaign. “So at a young age, I decided I want to help make government the force for good and problem solving.”

Nearly 15 years ago McClellan, now 47, entered the Virginia legislature to do exactly that. Since taking on politics she has become a recognized advocate for progressive change, leading the charge on investments in education, growing small business and expanding health care access. She’s also proposed measures to protect reproductive rights and reform the criminal justice system. And though her work in the Virginia House of Delegates and in the state Senate has been commendable, McClellan says that this moment in time calls for her to lead at the very top. 

“The governor sets the agenda and sets the direction of where the commonwealth is going to go,” the native Virginian contends. “And we are at a critical juncture both in our state and in our country that requires us to ask, ‘Are we going to be a government that doesn’t leave anybody behind, that addresses 400 years of systemic inequity?’ ” 

“We say justice is blind, but it’s not. Inequity was built into our criminal justice system from the beginning. We need to dismantle it.”

Jennifer McClellan

McClellan points out that the coronavirus pandemic coupled with the heightened racial tensions stemming from state-sanctioned killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others, has forced the nation to think about ways in which it will rebuild to specifically address the inequities that demonstrators are underscoring with their activism. “I have a clear understanding of how we got here and where we need to go, and how we’re going to get there,” McClellan insists, “so that’s why I decided to jump in the race now.” 

Future

At this critical time in our history, we’ve been frightened, outraged, and inspired. Where do we go from here? Boldly into the future. I'm running for Governor of Virginia to rebuild an inclusive Commonwealth and transform pain into action. Join me: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/jlm-launch-fb

Posted by Jennifer McClellan on Thursday, June 18, 2020

The wife and mom of two young children is entering a crowded field at the height of an international health crisis. The circumstances have led to unprecedented challenges, but the self-proclaimed believer of science says she’s able to make the shift from the campaign she once imagined. “Bringing different people’s perspectives to the table hasn’t changed, McClennan maintains. “You just have to find different ways of doing that. You need to meet the constituents where they are, use the technology or communication methods that they have available to them. So we’ve just pivoted to that.”

Those who are also vying for the position to be decided in a November 2021 election include former governor Terry McAuliffe, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, Attorney General Mark R. Herring and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. McClellan also faces another woman hoping to make history next year as the first Black woman governor of any state: Jennifer Carrol Foy announced her intentions weeks ago after two years in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Each of McClellan’s competitors brings an impressive amount of experience and skills to the gubernatorial race, but McClellan insists that her background makes her uniquely qualified to serve. Her answer to why that is takes us back to King’s unrelenting question. “You can’t answer that question ‘Where do we go from here?’ if you don’t fully understand how we got here,” says McClellan. “Part of that is being in the community listening, listening to different perspectives, bringing those perspectives to the table to make change. I have both the experience and the ability to do that. I have done that and will take that to the executive branch.”

Jennifer McClellan talks with Christian Worth
LEXINGTON, VA – OCTOBER 5: State Senator Jennifer McClellan, left, talks with Christian Worth during a meeting of Virginia Democrats Saturday, October 5, 2019 at the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia. Worth is seeking election to the Virginia House of Delegates to represent District 24. (Photo by Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

What McClellan would be able to do as governor is yet to be determined, but what she’s already done for the state in her roles as a community leader and legislator shows promise. A part of that encompasses her efforts in making sure that the justice system is fair and equitable for everyone. “We say justice is blind, but it’s not,” the University of Richmond law school grad argues. “Inequity was built into our criminal justice system from the beginning.”

In addition to working on a measure to properly address the issue of parole, McClellan shares that she’s also “spent a lot of time dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.” Her most recent bill to address the disturbing trend will take effect on July 1. What she says she’s found during her research, is that a great deal of the negative behavior exhibited by kids could and should be handled through a disciplinary process that does not involve locking them up and throwing away the key. 

“Behaviors that start to manifest underlying mental health issues have been overcriminalized,” McClellan asserts. “The number one way that has happened is by charging disorderly conduct on kids in school. So we worked to eliminate that crime for children, and also to give principals flexibility again to decide if they are going to handle this through the discipline process, or is it something that law enforcement needs to handle?”

The overcriminalization of Black bodies is rooted in history, a history that McClellan strongly believes needs to be dismantled. It’s why the daughter of civil rights activists and the senator from Richmond has also fought for the removal of Confederate statues in the former capital of the Confederacy. The symbols of White supremacy, McClellan stresses, were constructed in response to the rising political, social and economic power of Black people. “They were part of an effort that also included disenfranchisement, the institution of Jim Crow and racial terror through lynching and other means to put Black people back in their place.” 

Virginia State Sen. Jennifer McClellan is sworn in at the Virginia State Capitol

More than 400 years later, McClellan insists that our place is in the C-suites of corporations, in leadership roles within the community, and in any and every public and private space that we hope to occupy. Among them, the Virginia Executive Mansion in Richmond’s Capitol Square, the home to the governor of Virginia.

“Every day, I wake up thinking, ‘What am I going to do to achieve King’s vision of a beloved community which is consistent with the ideals our country was founded on, but was never a reality for all Americans, and certainly not all Virginians?’ ” McClellan asserts. “So I view my public service as a continuation of his, because his question still needs to be answered and that work isn’t done.” 

Share :
TOPICS:  In Her We Trust News Politics Jennifer McClellan Virginia Virginia governor Virginia gubernatorial race
COMPANY INFORMATION
  • Our Company
  • Customer Service
  • Essence Ventures
  • Change Your Address
  • Contact Us
  • Job Opportunities
  • Internships
  • Media Kit
  • tag
SUBSCRIBE
  • Newsletters
  • Give a Gift of ESSENCE
  • Magazine Tablet Edition
FOLLOW US
MORE ON ESSENCE
  • Home
  • Love
  • Celebrity
  • Beauty
  • Hair
  • Fashion
  • ESSENCE festival

ESSENCE.com is part of ESSENCE Communications, Inc.

Essence may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.

©2021 ESSENCE Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Essence.com Advertising Terms

Get The ESSENCE Newsletter and
Special Offers delivered to your inbox

By clicking Sign Up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Get The ESSENCE Magazine
by subscribing below
subscribe now