By Andy Brack | Just call Elaine Cooper “the question lady.”
The 61-year-old Democratic activist from Columbia has a new mission — to ask questions in an unfamiliar place — gatherings of Republican presidential candidates.
Along the way, she gets snapshots of herself with those running for the top office. The humorous catch: While the candidates are grinning and showing lots of teeth, she sports a frown, a political statement if there ever were one.
So far, Cooper has encountered billionaire Donald Trump, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. But her interactions have a serious point. It’s important, she says, for citizens to be able to ask questions directly of candidates, not just wait for the filter of the media and managed political events.
“You should be able to ask questions at any event,” Cooper says, adding that she was able to ask a question of President Obama when he visited Benedict College this year. “We are the people who vote these candidates in.”
She says she enjoyed talking with Christie, still an undeclared candidate, at a recent political event in a Columbia bar. First, she thanked him for his public position against seismic testing for offshore oil. Her question: “Could you please meet with her (Gov. Nikki Haley) and talk about why you oppose seismic testing? You can bring a new clarity to the issue.”
Christie demurred, she says, obviously wanting to not interfere with Palmetto politics. But Cooper said she was happy the New Jersey governor answered the question while cameras were rolling.
Cooper says she also had a good, brief discussion, albeit private, on immigration with Cruz. And while she didn’t agree with him and still took a picture showing a grumpy face, she credited him for at least taking the question. Huckabee didn’t take questions. With Trump, there was just a picture.
The environmentalist says she wasn’t able to get questions to at least two others — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and candidate Ben Carson — because of folks steering her away. (She notes she was kicked out of one event.)
So far, what’s disturbed her most was when a couple of college students criticized her for asking questions. They told her it was wrong to videotape and ask questions because the press would distort what was said.
“These are our brightest and best? I told the students, ‘My God, you drank the Kool-aid.’ It is your right [to ask questions]. It is nonsense that you would think you could not ask a question of anybody running for office.”
Attending the political events has been a learning experience, Cooper reflected.
“Some Republicans are real open to questions and I admire that about them. I am concerned when some do not take questions.”
Cooper says her grumpy pictures with candidates seem to be inspiring some others — in a small way — to engage more in the political process.
“I just encourage people to go to these events,” the retired activist said. “Most Democrats say, ‘You are wasting your time.’ But that’s so bizarre. Why do people only rely on media and people who support these candidates [to learn about them]?
“Just ask questions for yourself. Be informed. Politics is a complicated, tricky business.”
South Carolina’s presidential primary is a long hot summer and fall away. By the time Republicans and Democrats vote in the state’s first-in-the-South primary in 2016, scads of candidates and hangers-on will have made appearances all over the state.
Go to meet them. Ask good questions. And don’t be surprised if you see a white-haired woman sporting a grumpy expression if she’s with a GOP candidate. Want to see that frown turned upside down? She’ll probably smile when she encounters Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is running for the Democratic nomination.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!