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Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955 in Atlanta, Georgia) was a controversial former and future member of the United States House of Representatives from Georgia from 1993 until 2003 and the first African American woman to hold that position. She was elected in November 2004 to a new term beginning in 2005.
She first courted controversy in 1995, when the boundaries of her home district (Georgia's 11th) were declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court because the boundaries were unfairly based on race (sixty-four percent of McKinney's constituents were black). McKinney countered that Texas's sixth district, by comparison, was deemed constitutional yet 91% of the constituents were white.
A prominent Democrat, she was defeated at the polls in 2002 in part because of an interview on KPFA Radio (San Francisco) in which she allegedly implied that George W. Bush knew of the September 11 terrorist attacks before they happened and failed to prevent them. The story was picked up by The Washington Post.
When New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani turned down a $10 million disaster-relief donation from Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal after the prince made comments blaming America's Middle East policies for the September 11 terrorist attacks, then-Congresswoman McKinney wrote a letter to his Highness in which she asked that he send his check to a number of charities working on behalf of African Americans.
In 2002, McKinney was defeated in the Democratic primary elections by Denise Majette, then a DeKalb County judge. McKinney protested this result, claiming that Republicans in the mostly-Democratic district had participated in the Democratic primary to vote against McKinney in revenge for her anti-Bush stance. Georgia election laws do not require voters to claim a political party when they register to vote, so voters can participate in whichever primary election they choose. In addition to possible "cross-over" Republican vote, Democrats unhappy with McKinney's controversial statements and anti-Semitic remarks by McKinney's father may have contributed to her defeat.
Although speculation suggested that she was considering a run for the Green Party nomination in the U.S. presidential election, 2004, in January of 2004, she declined a national campaign in favor of a Congressional campaign to unseat Rep. Majette. Majette subsequently became a candidate to replace retiring Georgia Senator Zell Miller, and McKinney won back her old Congressional district in November 2004.
McKinney is the daughter of equally controversial former Georgia state representative Billy McKinney, and has a sixteen-year-old son, Coy McKinney.
External links
- Cynthia McKinney For Congress Official Site
- Cynthia McKinney on Democracy Now!:
- Congressmember Cynthia Mckinney Under Fire: A Discussion with Georgia's First African-American Congresswoman - August 12th, 2002
- Progressive Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney Loses Controversial Primary - August 21st, 2002
- Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia Mckinney Speaks Out On the Unseen Costs of War - April 16th, 2003
- Fmr. Rep. Cynthia McKinney Seeking to Win Back Georgia Seat - July 19th, 2004