This Shaw grad is also on the ballot in the Georgia runoffs. He could make history.
Daniel Blackman has come to embrace his role in Georgia’s political universe. It’s proudly displayed in his social media biography — the other guy in Georgia’s Jan. 5 runoff.
Blackman, who considers Columbus his hometown, is vying to become the only Democrat on Georgia’s Public Service Commission, a regulatory body that decides what Georgia Power will charge its consumers and businesses and also oversees other energy and utility issues. He faces Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, a long-time Republican incumbent, after narrowly forcing a runoff in November.
If Blackman wins, he’d be the first Democrat elected to statewide office in two decades and the second African American ever to serve on the commission. In the shadows of two historic U.S. Senate runoffs, Blackman, 41, has leveraged that political attention for his own campaign. Volunteers and calls have been coming in, he said.
“We came to realize what we thought was a weakness became a strength,” Blackman said. “As more people around the country heard there was a third runoff in Georgia and this has a direct impact on pocketbook issues, it became an asset.”
Blackman’s ties to Columbus
Blackman was born in Boston and came to Columbus when he was 7 years old. His parents were immigrants from Barbados. His father was an Army Ranger stationed at Fort Benning, and Blackman lived on post until he was a teenager. He attended Fort Middle School and later, Shaw High School where he played football and ran track.
Columbus was the place where Blackman formed all of his lifelong relationships. He said Columbus was a great place then, but not the city that it is now.
“In the early to mid-1990s... there were a lot of challenges in certain parts of Columbus that weren’t developed,” he said. “There weren’t as many opportunities. ...I didn’t really have a lot of time to get caught up in any of the stuff that some of my friends, unfortunately, got caught up in.”
After graduating from Shaw, Blackman attended Clark Atlanta University to study international business and finance. Roughly a month before classes began, his father was shot multiple times while working a security gig in town. Blackman commuted from Columbus to Atlanta for the first few years, helping his mother out around the house and taking care of his father. He’d leave town around 6 a.m. and head back to Columbus around 4 p.m.
“We thought my dad was going to die,” he said. “It was pretty tough. ...I remember contemplating not going to college. It’s even tough to talk about it now.”
How does Blackman plan to win?
Blackman’s path to politics was unorthodox. He got his first introduction as a Radio One intern where he met former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson.
Jackson, Atlanta’s first black mayor, introduced Blackman to former civil rights leaders the Rev. C.T. Vivian, Congressman John Lewis and others. Blackman began organizing with Jackson to help elect Shirley Franklin, the first woman to serve as Mayor of Atlanta.
“They all saw something in me as a 22 or 23-year-old kid that they want to help shape and mold,” Blackman said.
Blackman spent a few years in the music industry before working with civil rights organizations that opened the door for additional opportunities, including stints at the National Wildlife Federation and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. He worked on environmental justice and civil rights initiatives with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Congressional Black Caucus. In 2016, he also served as Bernie Sanders’ political director in Georgia during the presidential campaign.
Blackman has yet to win an election. He unsuccessfully ran for a Georgia state house seat in 2008. He failed to beat McDonald in 2014 for a seat on the Public Service Commission. Blackman also lost a Georgia state senate election in 2016, where he became the first Black person to run for office in Forsyth County.
But Blackman said he’s taking lessons from 2014 to his rematch against McDonald this time around. He spent much of his time during that 2014 election in the metro Atlanta area and north Georgia. Now, he’s spending a lot of time educating and mobilizing voters in all corners of the state.
Blackman said he hears stories from voters around Georgia about high utility bill prices and children who can’t use the internet at home — both issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Pocketbook issues are what keep people up at night,” Blackman said. “Most people don’t understand how the Senate majority is going to directly impact their lives. ...But they understand if they don’t pay their light bill by the end of this month, it’s going to get cut off.”
A central tenet of Blackman’s campaign is advocating for consumers and small businesses. He argues McDonald and the commission have given a “blank check” to utility companies like Georgia Power, allowing them to pass costs off to consumers.
Blackman mentioned specifically the overbudget and late expansion of Plant Vogtle, a nuclear power plant south of Augusta. The commission will decide how much of the multi-billion dollar overruns will be passed on to its customers.
He lives in Forsyth County now, but he’s visited Columbus multiple during this election cycle. His later visits have come alongside the Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to much fanfare.
It’s been surreal for Blackman, who recently stood in the Civic Center parking lot amid a chorus of car horns and remembered seeing musical acts like Bobby Brown at the venue years and years ago.
“It meant a lot to know that a kid who was sent away from Columbus came back and has a chance to continue to make his city proud,” he said.
This story was originally published January 1, 2021 at 6:00 AM.