Odessa Kelly Takes Aim at Cooper âDynastyâ in Congressional Primary Bid The national group behind âThe Squadâ taps local nonprofit leader, longtime community center director to lead off 2022 efforts Tweet
Odessa Kelly, photographed at the Napier Community CenterPhoto: Eric England
Odessa Kelly is greeted like a celebrity at the Napier Community Center. The kids playing basketball in the gym call out to âMiss Odessaâ and run over to give her fist bumps. Adult supervisors offer hugs.
Itâs been more than a year since the 39-year-old left her job at this Metro facility to serve as the full-time executive director of Stand Up Nashville, a community engagement and social justice nonprofit organization she co-founded. But âMiss Odessaâ is still a familiar face at the community center, and she says the kids who use that nickname are the ones who inspired her to take her next step: running for Congress against longtime
Many of those groups are still at it. About two dozen people gathered outside Cooper’s downtown Nashville office on Friday to call on the lawmaker to get behind various climate change, policing and health care proposals.
“I don’t think he’s done enough,” says Audrey Tesi of Black Lives Matter Nashville. “I’ve seen him provide some statements, but those are empty statements. It’s not enough to say, ‘I hear and see you and I empathize with you.’ That does not provide materially effective change for the Black community.”
Cooper has long been known as a moderate Democrat a budget hawk who made a name for himself in the 1990s