Who is Gary Chambers?

Gary Chambers is a Louisiana-based civil rights activist.  Chambers is a Democrat leader who is running for the primary elections in Louisiana, scheduled on November 8, 2022. If elected, Chambers would be the first Black person to hold statewide office in Louisiana since 1872

He previously ran unsuccessfully in the special election for Louisiana’s 2nd congressional district in 2021 and for Louisiana’s 15th State Senate district in 2019.

 Who is Gary Chambers?  

Chambers was born on August 5, 1985. He grew up in a middle-class, predominantly Black neighbourhood in northern Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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Sharon, Chambers’ mother, died by suicide when he was only a couple of two months old. He was raised by his aunt, Ivon Johnson, a public school teacher and William Johnson, a janitor. Chambers was only a teenager when his father regained sobriety. Despite having a difficult childhood, he pursued higher studies and graduated from Glen Oaks High School in Baton Rouge. 

Gary Chambers is a successful entrepreneur and co-founder of The Rouge Collection, a news outlet which focuses on the Black community in north Baton Rouge.

Chambers is extremely vocal about racism and systematic marginalisation of the Black community. He led protests against Alton Sterling, who was shot by two police officers. He also expressed his growing concern about police brutality and custodial murders in the US and was a staunch critic of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. 

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Chambers’ campaigned for defunding defence and allocating more funds to Medicare for All. He backed the Green New Deal, the Infrastructure Investment, Jobs Act, and the Build Back Better Plan, and also supported a $15 federal minimum wage. Chambers has also expressed his opinion on the climate crisis and has previously called for a ban on drilling in US waters in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Chambers is the founder of a nonprofit organisation Bigger Than Me, which consolidates progressive candidates in South America. The organisation is renowned for helping the locals during Hurricane Ida in September 2021.