![]() When a friend suggested she run for office, Fenty was skeptical at first. There are some things that have to be done on a federal level and local level.” “I realized this issue is bigger than just volunteerism. ![]() ![]() It’s more than just, ‘Oh, let’s make the schools better.’ It’s how can we invest in the community,” she said. “There has to be a holistic view of helping out these kids. Grassroots work, she reasoned, was not enough. Seeing the problems some of the kids faced - struggling schools, incarcerated parents, abusive homes - spurred something in her. Throughout the years she has volunteered with low-income and foster children. “I’ve never had any political aspirations,” she said, adding that she has always cast a ballot based on “who I felt was right for the moment.” Inspired by her mom, Fenty focused on being a fashion designer and having her own business. But what changed her most growing up was seeing her mom take on the American dream by becoming a small business owner. Fenty said she had “a typical life” she went to school and worked, even though at times, her family had to rely on public assistance. She was the second of seven children, and moved to Virginia when her parents divorced. That ire doesn’t seem to exist within Fenty, though she comes across as someone who deeply cares about changing things for her community.įenty’s parents migrated from Guyana and she was born two months later in Brooklyn, NY. There’s anger and passion in their voices. “Once people talk to me, and they get to know me, and they understand where I’m coming from - after that they’ve just been very welcoming and very open.”įenty’s lighthearted, optimistic tone sounds like a contrast with how many other women, typically spurred to action by Hillary Clinton’s loss and President Trump’s policies, talk about running for office. “They automatically stereotype you: ‘Since you’re African-American, you must be Democrat.’ So I get a lot of shocked faces like, ‘What the heck is going on?!’ and a lot of people have been … kind of suspicious,” she told Refinery29. But the fashion designer and business owner doesn’t resent that assumption. The fact that she’s a Black woman and the daughter of immigrants in a Virginia congressional district that recently turned blue would make many think she’s a Democrat. But there’s something that sets her apart from the wave of other women of color running for office this year: Fenty is a Republican. She’s a 37-year-old Black woman, a first-time candidate, and is facing two middle-aged white men in the primary. In some ways, Shion Fenty’s campaign is similar to that of many others taking place this year across the U.S. ![]()
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