Donald F. Cooney is a six-term elected Kalamazoo City Commissioner in

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He is also a professor at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

's School of Social Work and 2008 Democratic nominee for

United States Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

Michigan's 6th congressional district Michigan's 6th congressional district is a United States congressional district in southeast Michigan. In 2022, the district was redrawn to be centered around Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, as well as western and southern Wayne County, small ...

running against Republican Fred Upton. He also ran in the 2010 election.

Background

Cooney is originally from

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, where he was an ordained priest and community organizer and worked with

Cesar Chavez Cesar Chavez (born Cesario Estrada Chavez ; ; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged ...

National Farm Workers Association The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...

. He also served at a parish in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

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, before being chosen to be the director of "A Better Chance" House in Swarthmore,

, where he helped nine disadvantaged young people win scholarships to some of the best colleges in America. Cooney has been an associate professor at

's School of Social Work since 1977. While at Western Michigan, Cooney led the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n Anti-Apartheid Movement, convincing the university to become the fourth university in the nation to divest from South Africa. South African divestment by colleges and universities throughout the world is recognized as playing a substantial part in helping end apartheid in South Africa. Cooney is also a 25-year member of the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...

's Africa Project. As a long-standing Kalamazoo city commissioner, Cooney helped establish the Kalamazoo Living Wage Coalition, the Poverty Reduction Initiative, and Kalamazoo Communities in Schools.

City Commissioner

Cooney was first elected to the Kalamazoo City Commission in 1997 and has been reelected every two years since, coming in third out of 16 candidates in 2011 (top seven candidates are elected to the Commission). While on the commission, Cooney has sponsored and passed two resolutions in opposition to the War in Iraq and one resolution in opposition to the PATRIOT Act. Cooney serves as Commission liaison to the Commissions and City Boards on Neighborhoods, Community Relations, and Health and Social Services.

2008 Congressional elections

Cooney filed for the August 5, 2008, Democratic primary election for the

of on May 12, 2008, in which he was unopposed. He faced Republican Fred Upton in the November 4, 2008

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

. Cooney's campaign largely focused on differences in economic and energy policy with Upton during the campaign, calling for a new, New Deal to rebuild America's human and physical infrastructure. He has also been a vocal critic of the war in Iraq. Cooney has large popularity in

2010 Congressional elections

Cooney was the Democratic nominee for the

of in 2010 as well, stressing similar themes as in his 2008 run.

References

External links

Don Cooney for U.S. Congress
''official campaign website''
Commissioner Don Cooney
''official City of Kalamazoo website'' *
Campaign contributions
at

OpenSecrets.org OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP). ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooney, Don Michigan Democrats Living people Year of birth missing (living people)