Gregory Edward Cheadle is an American real estate broker and politician.

Personal life

Cheadle was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. He grew up in inner-city

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

and Cleveland, as after his parents divorced his time was divided between Oakland where his mother was a secretary and Cleveland where his father was a shoe shiner. He moved to

Redding, California Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...

in 2001. He is divorced and has three children: two daughters and one son. As of September 13, 2020, he was working on his memoir titled ''My African American''.

Involvement in politics

Trump rally controversy

On June 3, 2016, Cheadle attended a rally in Redding, California for then-presidential candidate

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

. During the rally, Trump began speaking about a previous event in which an African-American Trump supporter punched a protester wearing a

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

outfit. While Trump was talking, Cheadle shouted "I'm here!". Trump then said "Oh, look at my African American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest? Do you know what I'm talking about?". According to Cheadle, after the rally ended and Trump was about to leave after greeting supporters, Cheadle yelled out "Uncle Donald, Uncle Donald." Trump, who recognized Cheadle as the man he had called out, told him "You know what I was talking about? Jobs, jobs, jobs," and Cheadle responded "Yeah, jobs." Trump's remark and use of the possessive "my" attracted criticism, with some viewing it as racist. Cheadle was also the subject of criticism, with many criticizing him for attending the rally, and friends and family leaving him angry messages "wanting to know why he let Trump insult him". According to Cheadle, his girlfriend broke up with him because of the incident, as "she was an influential Democrat and she just couldn't handle the pressure of even being seen in public with someone associated with Trump". Cheadle later clarified that he was not a Trump supporter, and said that he had previously gone to a

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

rally, but did not go in. He said that he took Trump's comments towards him positively, but noted that many were left uncertain as to their meaning.

Political positions

Cheadle has described himself as an "1856 Republican", and has said that "the Republican party of today has left its core principles of truth, fairness, and justice". He dislikes the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

, and did not vote for

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

, whom he has described as an "elitist". In 2016, he said that he supports decriminalizing

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

, because "it has led to mass incarceration via the

war on drugs The war on drugs is a Globalization, global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of prohibition of drugs, drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the Unite ...

". In 2016, he said on the topic of abortion that "I believe that women have the right of abortion via a convoluted Supreme Court decision, but government should not be responsible for the funding of that right"; a 2019 article in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' described him as anti-abortion. In 2017, he supported the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

players who took a knee during the national anthem. In 2018, he linked an increase in vaccines to the increase in autism. Cheadle announced in 2019 that he was leaving the Republican Party. He described President Trump as "a rich guy who is mired in white privilege to the extreme", and said he has a "white superiority complex", He also said he is now more critical of Trump's comments in the June 2016 rally, and that "today I wonder to what extent he said that for political gain or for attention.” He said he didn't join the Democratic Party because he disagrees with the party's stance on gun control and its support of abortion rights. In the leadup to the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...

, he was undecided on who to vote for between Joe Biden and

as "you’re asking me to choose between projectile vomit and diarrhea." He praised Biden's vice-presidential pick, Kamala Harris, saying "If I vote for Biden, it’ll probably be because I’m voting for Harris."

Congressional campaigns

Cheadle has run for Congress in California's 1st congressional district five times. He ran as a Republican in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, losing in the district's primary election each time. He ran as an independent in 2020, and also lost the primary election that year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cheadle, Gregory Living people Politicians from Cleveland California Independents Donald Trump controversies Year of birth missing (living people) Candidates in the 2012 United States elections Candidates in the 2014 United States elections Candidates in the 2016 United States elections Candidates in the 2018 United States elections Candidates in the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections Candidates in the 2024 United States House of Representatives elections