Longtime civil rights activist Jim McClurken comfortably beat five opponents in his primary yesterday, coming in second place in the race for Lansing, Michigan’s City Council. The win secured him a spot in the general election, where a victory would make him the first gay man to serve on the Lansing City Council.
Jim told the local LGBTQ paper that his campaign was motivated by the need for more LGBTQ voices at the decision-making table. “I have to say that Donald Trump’s election was another one of the factors that brought home to me that if people like me don’t run for office, other people will,” he said. “Lansing is ready for someone like me to be open and on city council.”
Jim has advocated for marginalized voices for decades, and will continue to do so on the Lansing City Council. Victory Fund’s political director, Sean Meloy, highlighted Jim’s record of activism: “If you look at his record from the ’70s, and the civil rights work he’s done on behalf of Native Americans and the LGBT community in the ’80s during the AIDS crisis, for fundamental rights, for recognition and for basic healthcare rights, he was on the front lines doing that in the community in which he’s running right now.”
