Shabazz wins Democratic County Council District D primary on message of community

SOUTH BEND — Jenn Shabazz won the contested Democratic primary for the St. Joseph County Council District D.

Unofficial vote totals Tuesday night put her ahead of Jason Piontek by a margin of 788 to 562 votes.

Shabazz, surrounded by her family, friends and campaigners at her home Tuesday night, said she felt thrilled and excited as she took in her win.

"My campaign worked so hard," she told The Tribune. "Everybody did so much. The voters came out, and I won."

As a former teacher at Brown Elementary and assistant principal at Marquette Elementary, she says she has insight into the community's needs.

As communities deal with real world health crises, she said in The Tribune's previously published answers from candidates , in partnership with the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area and the American Democracy Project of Indiana University South Bend, "playing politics with words while neighbors are struggling is unacceptable,"

Shabazz said she wants to use her strong leadership and communication skills to prioritize bringing back a community that works together for everyone. In doing so, she wants to stop what she called the dismantling of the county's health department as she endeavors to support programs and grants to help poor neighborhoods and promote equity in healthcare.

"We all have a community that wants to work together," Shabazz said. "It's a matter of finding a way to bring everyone together. Everyone has a voice to bring to the table, whether people who supported me or didn't support me, but we are all together now."

The community, she said, must move forward, and to do that, it must flip the current Republican-led county council to Democratic control in the fall.

"They've gone after our health board, they've closed Portage Manor, they've gone after the library board, and they've just continued," Shabazz said. "The voters don't want that. They want to see a change. I am excited to help our Democratic party move all of our candidates forward and all of us unite. We are going to have a blue wave in November."

The current District D county councilman, Rafael Morton, ran for county commissioner of District 2. With no incumbent, Shabazz will be uncontested in the fall general election, unless the Republican party puts forth a candidate.

Regardless if she has an opponent in the general election or not, Shabazz said, her strategy won't change. She'll continue to talk with voters.

"I knocked on 2,200 doors myself," she said and added that the voters make the decision in elections.

"My job is to continue my campaign of talking to the voters," Shabazz said.

Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Shabazz wins Democratic County Council District D primary on message of community