(Photo provided by Shuwaski Young - 2023)
- The former Democratic candidate says today’s Democratic platform and the policies it advances “do not represent the Mississippi I know and love.”
Shuwaski Young made headlines this week, announcing that he was leaving the Democratic Party.
Young, a former Democratic nominee for the 3rd Congressional District in 2022 and Secretary of State in 2023, announced his party switch in an op-ed released Tuesday morning. He previously served in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, worked in the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama Administration, and was affiliated with the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Young, who has described himself as a “diehard Democrat,” now says the party is unrecognizable.
“I have made the prayerful decision to identify as a Christian Conservative. I am no longer a Democrat,” Young wrote, adding, “Over time, I have continuously witnessed an intraparty course change: from advocating for fairness and equity in the workplace to unrecognizable liberal policies that challenge traditional gender norms, traditional family values, bedrock beliefs in religion, and the mocking of men for being men, while advocating for economic policies that do not improve the lives of the poor and middle class and do not advance strong unified families.
Young, 41, said he became convinced that “an immediate retracement of these views were necessary. Consequently, I can no longer see my reflection within the current Democratic Party.”
His political evolution has been a long time coming. Following his 2022 loss to incumbent Republican Congressman Michael Guest, Young openly expressed his deep disappointment in the Mississippi Democratic Party’s operations.
“The Democratic Party of Mississippi has failed to show up for the values and policies that we proclaim are important to Democracy,” Young said at the time, calling for a change in state party leadership and saying the party must acknowledge the wants and beliefs of its base in Mississippi.
In his 2023 campaign, Young stepped down as the Democratic Party’s nominee for Secretary of State citing health reasons.
He now says today’s Democratic platform and the policies it advances “do not represent the Mississippi I know and love.”
“Furthermore, I have concluded that increased taxation, the redistribution of wealth and advancing identity politics as a tool to gain votes, while simultaneously attempting to uplift the poor into the middle class, was indeed a fallacious political ideology,” Young wrote. “Again, I concluded that the government alone cannot serve as an eternal solution to the socio-economic ills onset by poverty — only hard work, the pursuit of self economic interests, and the presence of a strong family could achieve socio-economic advancement for the working poor.”
One prominent Democrat in Mississippi was quick to criticize Young’s decision to leave her party. Katelyn Mabus Presley, wife of failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, implored Mississippi Democrats to “please don’t worry with the irrelevant ‘wanna be’ swapping parties today,” while encouraging them to continue to support presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Other responses to Young’s decision ranged from calling him a hypocrite to a traitor and worse on X, formerly Twitter. His post sharing the op-ed has received over 260,000 views. He says the response drives him even more to talk about values and policies that can make Mississippi and America better for families.
Young told Magnolia Tribune that with this party switch he would be considering a future run for elected office as a Republican. He is in talks with Mississippi Republican Party leadership about joining the GOP.
On Wednesday, he sat for an interview on SuperTalk radio where he told host Gerard Gibert that others within the Democratic Party are also considering a change.
“This is a moment of honest and truth for me, and I think that there are other people out there that feel the same way,” Young said.
He recognizes that there is a “historical loyalty to the Democratic Party amongst African Americans and black people, particularly, in Mississippi and also the South,” primarily since former President Lyndon Johnson’s “The Great Society” in the 1960s.
“Fact is, these specific liberal policies which are continued today gave working mother’s incentives through government subsidies to disallow fathers in the home (now commonly known as the projects), systematically ripping families apart for the sake of guaranteed government checks. In other words, the government became the father to men,” Young wrote in his op-ed.
Young told Gibert he cannot sell policies such as those that he does not believe in.
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