Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Brandaun Dean laid out an ambitious legislative agenda in a statement that Dean shared with 1819 news. Dean is the former Mayor of Brighton and a former labor organizer in Birmingham for the American Federation of Teachers.
If elected, Dean promised to cosponsor legislation to admit the District of Columbia as the 51st state in the union. Republicans oppose D.C. statehood because they predict that it would create two new Democratic U.S. Senators.
Dean also said that he would cosponsor controversial legislation creating a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans.
"Reparations today, reparations tomorrow, reparations forever," Dean told 1819 News on Monday.
1819 News asked, How much would each Black family receive and would the descendants of Blacks who were not imported as slaves (i.e. Barack Obama and Kamala Harris whose fathers were scholars from Kenya and the Caribbean, respectively) also qualify?
“The first iteration of reparations would be a set of federal and state initiatives that would have 100 years of dedicated funding,” Dean told 1819 News. “That would include a minimum of $300,000 - $400,000 in direct cash payments and indiscriminate debt relief to individuals who descend from American Descendants of Slavery and have historically identified as Black. Blacks who descend from African and Caribbean immigrants in the generations that followed the end of the transatlantic slave trade are not entitled to this relief in the United States. Some 4-5 million Africans were enslaved in the Caribbean. Their descendants are entitled to make a reparations claim with the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, The Netherlands, and The Danish Realm.”
Dean said that he is committed to supporting historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and would co-sponsor legislation that according to the description online, “authorizes the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering within the Department of Defense (DOD) to establish activities to better connect historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions to the programs of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).”
Dean also said that he supports S.3164 the Private Prison Information Act of 2021. S.3164 is sponsored by Sen. Brian Cardin (D-Maryland). The legislation would require non-Federal prison, correctional, and detention facilities holding Federal prisoners or detainees under a contract with the Federal government to make the same information available to the public that Federal prisons and correctional facilities are required to make available.
Dean promised to introduce legislation imposing “a federal operations moratorium on historically violent and deadly prisons.”
The U.S. Justice Department has declared that the Alabama Department of Corrections runs the most violent prisons in the nation.
Dean also pledged to work with Alabama’s HBCUs to raise their endowments to $1 billion.
In addition, Dean pledged, if he is elected. to introduce legislation to “Establish an hourly Federal Living Wage of $33.”
He also promised $55 billion for Black reproductive health initiatives as well as “Full-spectrum family, mental, dental, and specialty health care for all people.”
Dean also had an ambitious environmental social equity agenda that includes legislation to provide, “Finance and down payment grants for electric vehicle purchases for poor Americans.”
Dean also promised to introduce legislation to create a pilot project creating a $200,000 a year salary “for master public elementary educators.”
Brandaun Dean faces Lanny Jackson and Florence pastor Dr. Will Boyd in the Democratic primary on May 24.
“I am a son of Alabama,” Dean said. “In this primary, I am unmatched by the two remaining gentlemen in my ability to appeal broadly without assuming a bowed posture or appearing outdated in conceptualizations.”
The winner of the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Alabama Republican primary on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Doug Jones’s victory over Roy Moore in the 2017 special election for U.S. Senate is the only victory for a Democrat in any statewide race in Alabama since the late Lucy Baxley defeated Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh for Public Service Commission President in 2008.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
