With recent news of Joe Biden and Donald Trump presumptively clinching their party nominations, it is more important than ever to get people to understand the power of the vote. Biden is on a mission to win the Black vote, and The Collective Political Action Committee, co-founded by Quentin James and Stefanie Brown James, are sharing what Biden is doing to address their concerns.
Stefanie spoke with rolling out about The Collective PAC and how the Biden administration is prioritizing Black voters.
Tell us about The Collective PAC.
In 2016, my husband, Quentin James, and I started this organization because we realized that as important as it is for us to advocate [for] civil rights, and to talk about the issues in our community, at the end of the day, so much of what impacts us on a day to day is based on laws. When we looked at who are the lawmakers, we saw in 2016 that over 90% of all elected officials were White in this country, and that is not in any kind of way, equitable representation for Black people for us to believe we’re able to get the laws that we need to progress forward.
We started The Collective PAC to support Black candidates running for office across the country. We’re now the largest political action committee to do so. We help fund, train, and support Black candidates, help them find staff, and help them to win. Now we’re turning our attention to the first White person we’ve ever endorsed with President Biden, along with Kamala Harris, because we really believe that in this election is too important to not give our support to them considering all that we’re facing.
What initiatives has the Biden administration implemented to address the concerns and priorities of Black voters?
A lot of folks feel disenchanted. A lot of folks feel disengaged, upset, and angry at the administration for various reasons. We are working to tell the success story of the administration. This is an administration that has one of the most diverse cabinets and secretaries in history. You look across the board you basically see the makeup of America within his cabinet. Representation is important. You also have an administration that has hired more Black women to the federal bench as judges than all presidents in the history of America combined. He’s done that in four years.
They are also helping to make sure that we can help lift babies and Black children out of poverty, by providing families with over $300 a month to help offset the cost of raising a child, making sure we can expand Medicaid. Medicaid is what we need to help those who can’t afford insurance. It used to be that after you gave birth, you could only have Medicaid until that baby was two months old. That’s now been expanded until the baby is one. That helps out when it comes to the incomes of households.
Why do you think the community has bought into the lies that Donald Trump continues to tell?
People like his persona, and they think that he’s telling the truth because he’s saying it so loudly. This man is essentially working to erase progress that has been in place for generations. The fact that he cut Roe v. Wade, who doesn’t know a woman who for one reason or another, [has] had an abortion or [has] had to go to a Planned Parenthood clinic just to get basic medical care? Planned Parenthood isn’t just about abortions, it’s also about providing medical care for women, especially for uninsured women. To cut Roe v. Wade is saying that a woman does not have the right to have autonomy over her body. I don’t believe in that.
