State Rep. London Lamar, D-Memphis, wants to chair the Shelby County Democratic Party, according to The Daily Memphian.
Someone recently nominated Lamar for the position, the paper went on to say.
“I decided to run because I was asked by several elected officials and Democratic officials to help us to put our party in a position to thrive in 2020,” The Daily Memphian reported.
“We had a landslide election in 2018. We wanted to make sure we could provide the county party leadership to continue to build on those victories – not only to maintain our power here in Memphis, but to be in a position to lead the state to a Democratic win in 2020.”
Lamar reportedly revived the Shelby County Young Democrats organization and is currently finishing up her term as chair of the Tennessee Young Democrats organization, the website said.
Lamar is one of two contenders for the position, The Daily Memphian reported.
As The Tennessee Star reported last year, Lamar generated international attention after she declared in November, shortly after her election to the Tennessee House of Representatives that “Tennessee is a racist state,” as The Tennessee Star reported:
… Lamar live streamed a 15-minute rant on Facebook and said, among other things, Tennessee is a racist state and full of uneducated Republicans. She also reprimanded white men for wanting to keep more of the money they earn and suggested allowing felons to vote will help elect more Democrats.
Lamar later said she merely summed up the thoughts and feelings of her constituents when she scolded white Tennessee Republicans as supposedly racist and uneducated. She removed the video from Facebook a few days later after it got international media attention she apparently didn’t want.
In January, as reported, the state’s Registry of Election Finance fined Lamar for filing her disclosures late. Lamar was originally supposed to pay $8,175 in fines, as registry officials decreed in November. Lamar reportedly told registry officials this was her “first rodeo.” But, because of her inexperience with such matters, registry officials reduced her fine to $300.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “London Lamar” by London Lamar.
Does it really matter who leads that party in Memphis? That place is a lost cause.