By Brandon Moseley
Monday, U.S. Senate candidate, former Brighton Mayor Brandaun Dean, shared his views of the 2022 Senate race and the problems facing America and Alabama.
Dean, who is Black, said that it will be the “Black and poor people” who “will save the union.”
“We’ve tilted toward collapse of the systems we value and the urgency to control the damage is lacking within non-minoritized political interests [sic] groups,” Dean said in a statement. “A continuation of the racialized politics and deliberately oppressive politics of historical Alabama will be detrimental to us all if continued for another moment.”
Dean is currently the only Democratic candidate in the 2022 U.S. Senate race and is the only African American candidate running for the office.
“My participation and advancement in this election is essential to the unmasking of impropriety in the ranks of both the conservative and so-called moderate political machines,” Dean claimed.
On Tuesday, September 28, Dean and the candidates for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate addressed the meeting of the Alabama Retired State Employees Association.
Former Business Council of Alabama President and CEO Katie Boyd Britt, Mark Dunn, Congressman Mo Brooks, former Ambassador to Slovenia Lynda Blanchard, and businesswoman Jessica Fair Taylor, are running as Republicans.
‘Frankly, I think they all lack relevance to the present spirit,” Dean told 1819 News in response to their speeches.
Dean is a Democrat, but he is also skeptical of Democratic party leadership.
“I have about as little faith in the DNC’s intention to address mass incarceration, ending homelessness and delivering on the debt owed to the formerly enslaved as I do in Republicans’ willingness to put humanity above big banks and oil giants,” Dean added. “All my real friends are in the streets. They are not lobbyists or political power brokers.”
Alabama has elected only one Democrat to a statewide office since 2008. That was Doug Jones’ defeat of Roy Moore in the 2017 special election for the U.S. Senate. Dean acknowledges that winning will be a challenge.
“Alabamians might ask, ‘Why should we trust a young Black man with a political history stained by allegations of Robin Hood criminality?’ I’d suggest that’s a good damn reason to have my back,” the former Brighton Mayor said. “My background in the teachers’ Union and in the Brighton mayorship are evidence that I am willing to pay a price to deliver for broken, hated, and neglected people.”
If elected, Dean would likely be the most progressive and outspoken Senator Alabama has ever had.
“I can’t wait anymore to be free,” Dean continued. “I’ll go to the Senate as a free man with the intention to free all the people,” Dean stated. “The Biden administration needs some coaching. They know and have witnessed my capacity to test limits and demand policy excellence. As a U.S. Senator, however, they’d suffer the indignity of actually having to listen to me.”
Dean claimed that “there’s no audacious person, no well-intentioned citizen and no child who wouldn’t benefit” from his being elected as the U.S. Senator from Alabama.
Dean opposes the state’s plan to spend $400 million in federal American Rescue Act funds for COVID-19 pandemic recovery to build new prisons.
“The feds have to drop down on the Ivey Prison Scheme,” Dean said.
Dean feels that Alabama listed a number of problems that he thinks should be addressed.
“We need international intervention in our courts and prosecutorial stations,” Dean said. “The water and environmental crisis in the Black Belt deserves infrastructure investment. We need to attract K-5 classroom talent with six-figure salaries for well-trained instructor-coaches.”
Dean promised that if he is elected, he will work for more federal funds for historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“We have to put a billion dollars each into our top-performing HBCUs,” Dean said. “Miles College is part of my neighborhood. They deserve specific federal attention to expand the campus and program offerings. I’ll be for Miles what Senator Shelby has been for the University of Alabama.”
Dean is in favor of significant changes in policing in this country.
“We need a Civilian Rescue Authority, not a police-military,” Dean said. “I’ll write the bill and work to design the agencies with consent and approval from the formerly incarcerated and survivors of police brutality.”
Dean’s tenure as Mayor of Brighton ended following a year-long court battle. A circuit court judge ordered a runoff election between Dean and former Mayor Eddie Cooper when many of Dean’s votes were disqualified for failure to comply with Alabama’s voting laws. After the disqualification of a number of ballots, Dean was six votes shy of having won the mayoral race without a runoff. Dean chose not to run in the special court-ordered runoff for mayor following his courtroom defeat.
Dean has been a student of Howard University since 2014. He formerly worked for the American Federation of Teachers in Jefferson County. If elected to the U.S. Senate, he would be both the first Black Senator from Alabama in state history and the youngest Senator to represent the state of Alabama in its history.
At this point, Dean is the only Democrat officially declared as a candidate for the Senate. 1819 News is aware of other Democrats who are looking at possibly entering the race. The seat is currently held by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama). Shelby is not running for another term.
The Democratic primary will be on May 24, 2022.
