‘Sometimes you are going to be doing things that are counter to political expediency,’ says Ford, the likely Dem nominee for governor
Nevada attorney general Aaron Ford, the likely Democratic nominee for governor, is rallying behind diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, regardless of their unpopularity, as the Trump administration investigates the largest university in his state over allegations of racial discrimination.
Ford participated in an Aug. 11 African American Policy Forum event dedicated to brainstorming ways to maintain a “multiracial democracy” and argued on a panel that DEI is the way forward.
“Sometimes you are going to be doing things that are counter to political expediency, and right now, the diversity, equity, and inclusion conversation is counter to political expediency in so many people’s eyes,” Ford said at the forum. But I’ve never run from it. Won’t run from it. Not only because as Andrea [Joy Campbell] says, we have personal stories, but because it’s what’s the right thing to do, right?”
The event featured “pioneering Black attorneys general” including top Democratic state lawyers like Letitia James (N.Y.), Keith Ellison (Minn.), Andrea Joy Campbell (Mass.), and Nick Brown (Wash.). Organizers billed the summit as a way to combat the Trump administration’s “targeted assault on Black knowledge, history and people,” by which they meant the administration’s commitment to dismantling DEI practices in higher education and renaming certain Army bases.
Ford will likely win his party’s nomination for the office, setting up a November 2026 battle against incumbent governor Joe Lombardo (R.) in a race shaping up to come down to the wire in a state President Donald Trump won in 2024 but went for former president Joe Biden in 2020.
Ford’s vow to defend DEI comes as the Trump administration investigates the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for race-exclusionary practices in its graduate programs, according to a March 14 Department of Education memo. More than 50 institutions of higher education have found themselves under investigation for similar civil rights violations since Trump came into office, and the administration plans to follow the successful “blueprint” that led to a $221 million settlement with Columbia University.
The gubernatorial candidate attended another conference in April, this one hosted by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, at which he called on the audience to “stay woke” while fighting for DEI.
“That’s why they’ve got a war on woke, you understand?” he asked. “They don’t want you asking what’s going on. They want you ignorant. They want you complacent. That’s why they’re changing history books right before your eyes, and so it’s important that you stay woke and that you continue asking questions and hold folks accountable.”
Sharpton in January announced that the National Action Network planned to spearhead a boycott against corporations that ditched DEI policies, saying he and his followers would show that “Donald Trump can’t make us spend money for companies that will not deal and commit and continue with diversity and equity and inclusion.”
He led an Aug. 28 pro-DEI march through New York City’s Financial District at which he described mandatory diversity policies—many of which have been found to violate the Civil Rights Act—as the “civil rights fight of our generation.”
Ford’s campaign did not return a Washington Free Beacon request for comment.
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