South Cook News

A project aimed at getting black voters to think about voting based on candidates rather than parties is being launched.

Brian Mullins, who is part of a group launching the Black Voters Project, said the project will allow them to move their goals forward. They said independence around issues is needed and especially in the black community, which tends to vote only Democratic.

“The Black Voters Project is an effort that we are launching," Mullins told South Cook News. "The goal is to organize the black voter block in the state of Illinois. So it's a specific media-targeted door-to-door survey and data-driven effort to engage the black electorate in issues relating to the black community. Not Democratic, not Republican, not Independent, specifically not libertarian, but start with the issues so that we can then push people to the right candidate, not a party. So it's organizing our own vote for the first time outside of party boundaries that will allow us to move our agendas and our exchanges forward.” 

Mullins said that they decided to try to take it under their own wing and try to move the electorate “after systemically watching and witnessing in living through political, social, educational destruction in our communities, a lot of it policy driven and ignored by the elected officials of all races and parties." 

"Traditionally, what happens is the conversations in our black communities are had between the black elite and the Democrats and it leaves out 90% of the voters," he said. "And we watch this systemically over and over. And so we're launching this effort to try to bring it all together. Part of it is called rebuilding the trust, right? So our initial kick-off is going to be called Rebuilding the Trust, which is reaching out to see if there are any current black elected officials. The black vote controls who is elected in Illinois." 

He said that "the Democrats rely on Cook County delivering 90% of the black vote for the Democrats." 

"So we're saying this time we're not just going to come out and vote for J.B. Pritzker unless JB is willing to negotiate some issues and talk about the real issues in our community," Mullins said. "And that's the same thing for Darren Bailey. Let me be clear. We are looking for someone that is going to change the narrative of what we all know to be for the last 30 years in Illinois: 'We're leaving the state.' 'We have systemic poverty.' We're stuck in 'the education system is failing to educate.' There are no economic opportunities through these liberal states.”

Mullins described the effort with the League of Independence in a Facebook video with the Southland Journal. 

“We decided to form the League of Independence. That is because we’ve seen a trend over the last 30 years, especially now it is tending, that the Democratic Party in Illinois has a stronghold over the electorate. At the federal level: The democrats hold the presidency, [at] the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate. At the state level, they also hold the governor’s seat, [the] State House and the State Senate. And we don’t believe they are serving the will of the people. So instead of forming a new party that is where this independence comes in.”

Mullins has discussed black Illinoisans leaving the state before. He argued that “erroneous and unfair property tax assessments” and the increasing burden of property taxes onto homeowners have a more pronounced effect on black households, according to Suburban Marquee.

He has also been a vocal proponent of redevelopment efforts in Calumet City.

Mullins was also a critic of teacher strikes in the Chicago Public School, WTTW News reported.