He won't run....

from USA Today
March 1, 2020
The New York Times is reporting that former Tennessee congressman Harold Ford Jr. will not run for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The paper's City Room blog cited two unnamed sources and ran an excerpt of an op-ed that Ford wrote for Tuesday's paper.

Harold Ford Jr. sits as he waits to speak at the Stonewall Democratic Club Feb. 24 in New York City. Ford has been weighing a challenge to fellow Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, but reportedly has decided against it.

CAPTION

By Chris Hondros, Getty Images

Ford was under pressure from state and national Democrats, including President Obama, to step aside.
The City Room writes:

"I've examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened," Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article to be published in Tuesday's edition of The New York Times. "I refuse to do anything that would help
Republicans win a Senate seat in New
York, and give the Senate majority to the
Republicans."

As a Tennessean, I am glad Harold is now in New York.

 

February 3, 2010

from Jillstanek.com

Pro-choice group NARAL's leader Kelli Conlin emerged from a 40 minute meeting with Harold Ford Jr. (pictured right) making clear that he is not pro-life - but said she also doesn't consider him "pro-choice."
... [S]he considers the phrase to apply to total support....
While she made clear she doesn't consider him "anti-choice" - which had become a perception that some felt Conlin had - she said "pro-choice" is an all-in concept.
And she took issue with Ford's support - as a TN congressman, and recently professed - for a ban on late-term abortions and a parental-notification requirement.
She described it as a "convenience mart" approach.
Ford had requested the meeting, to make clear he supports a woman's right to choose.
~ Maggie Haberman writes in the NY Post, revealing how a Democratic candidate for the NY Senate must be fully committed to the most extreme position on abortion to receive the industry's support, February 2

Multi Choice candidate Ford

Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life Committee, said Ford also voted for an amendment that would have gutted the effectiveness of the 2005 bill. Ford tried to be on both sides of that issue, he said.

“I guess he’s not pro-choice,” Johnson said. “He’s multiple-choice. He’s a carpet-bagging, political chameleon.”

When in Rome do as the Romans do

Ford spent much of his time on the issue of abortion trying to avoid the issue and disguise his view (if indeed he had one) and now that is what is haunting him as he tries for the "extreme makeover."


"If he gets into the primary in New York, there will be some great debates: Ford vs. Ford," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, who derides him as a "political chameleon." Read the NY Daily thoughts on Ford here.