Letter writer: Beach-Ferrara offers the strategic vision and leadership we need

Graphic by Lori Deaton

My good friend Jasmine Beach-Ferrara is running for the Buncombe County [Board of Commissioners]. I’ve worked closely with Jasmine for the past four years at the Campaign for Southern Equality, and I’ve seen what she can accomplish. That’s why I’m volunteering on her campaign — we need leaders like Jasmine in government. We need her strength, her vision and her determination.

If we’re really committed to building a new South, we must elect leaders who truly represent the diversity of our community and whose lived experiences inform their approach to public policy. Our local elections, like this county [Board of Commissioners] race, are a powerful place to start.

Far too few women are elected to office at all levels of government; in fact, far too few run in the first place. The same goes for people of color and for LGBT individuals. Why is this? Women, people of color and LGBT people are often overlooked in the candidate recruitment process. And, when they do step up to run, they are often told they can’t win or they should wait their turn to run.

Jasmine has the strategic vision and leadership we need in our local politics. When Amendment One passed in North Carolina, many people said it would take 20 years for the law to change, but Jasmine knew we could do better. Jasmine and the Campaign for Southern Equality, together with a team of attorneys, plaintiffs and volunteers, worked to strike down that law in two years.

Jasmine’s visionary leadership and ability to organize and deliver social change is why she has my vote. I ask you to join me in supporting her.

— Aaron Sarver
Asheville

Editor’s note: Sarver reports that he is serving as an unpaid campaign co-manager for Beach-Ferrara’s campaign.

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9 thoughts on “Letter writer: Beach-Ferrara offers the strategic vision and leadership we need

  1. Lulz

    LOL. your new south will be as broke as your old north lulz. I tell ya what, go back there where high taxes have killed everything and big government loons just added to it lulz.

  2. Lulz

    LOL, why do you think she can make a difference locally when she has zilch private business experience? Oh, she’s a woman and gay and therefore automatically smart and wise. Problem is though she’ll be just as ineffective as the rest and will in the end just pass tax increases as a way to make up for it. Here’s a little jive you should like understand. A healthy economy needs no constant tax increases. It pays for itself. But voting in the least qualified people or only one issue lame ducks who are completely and utterly incompetent is the worst mistake you can make.

  3. Aaron Sarver

    Jasmine actually has significant business experience as founding Executive Director of the Campaign for Southern Equality. She has grown CSE from a start-up with no funding in 2010 to a nationally recognized organization with 7 employees and a budget of more than $400,000 in 2016. And CSE is certified as a living-wage employer by Just Economics.

  4. Asked what set them apart from their competitors at the ABLWV candidate forum, the Reverend Jasmine Beach-Ferrara said that we are “a wonderfully diverse county in many ways, including politically and religiously,” and that she was “tired of the shrill and partisan conversations we’ve been having,” as divisive blogger Gordon Smith sits perplexed beside her, as if to say, “WHA? WHO? WHA?”. Watch Smith squirm: bit.ly/1Su2eUI (28:00)

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