• Steering Committee website, with co-chair bios and photos

The National Committee of the Green Party of the United States has announced the election of four co-chairs and secretary. Trahern Crews and Kristin Combs were newly elected as co-chairs, joining Gloria Mattera and Tony Ndege who were re-elected to a second term. David Gerry was elected secretary. The election results were announced at the National Committee meeting in Salem, Massachusetts, on July 27. The new Steering Committee members were elected to replace steering committee members whose terms had ended, and join continuing members Anita Rios, Margaret Flowers, Justin Beth and Hillary Kane.

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
August 1, 2019

Contacts:
Holly Hart, Co-chair, Media Committee | [email protected] | 202-804-2758
Craig Seeman, Co-chair, Media Committee | [email protected]| 202-804-2758

The co-chairs serve as the spokespersons of the party and execute the day-to-day administration and operations. The co-chairs, secretary and treasurer form the party's Steering Committee, and are elected by the 239 members of the Green Party's National Committee, which consists of delegates from state Green Parties and Green caucuses.

KRISTIN COMBS is the chair of the Philadelphia Green Party and previously served as chair of the Green Party of Pennsylvania. As chair of her state party, she tripled the annual budget, did a full review of the bylaws, and reworked the party structure to make sure it reflects Green Party values. She is on the Green Party of the U.S. Apportionment Review and Accreditation Committees.

In 2015, Combs ran for city council in Philadelphia in an historic race. Running on a red/green platform, she was the only queer candidate and the youngest candidate. She had the endorsement of several unions and neighborhood organizations, and every socialist organization in the city except for one that ran their own candidate. Her win number was 40,000, and she received over 11,000 votes, the best showing from a candidate outside of the two major parties in decades. In 2016, she ran as a statewide candidate for Treasurer and received enough votes to secure minor party status for the Green Party of Pennsylvania until the next election cycle. Combs was the petition Coordinator for Paul Glover’s campaign for governor of Pennsylvania in 2018. She stated: “I'm excited to serve as a co-chair for the only political party that proposes holistic solutions to our social, economic, and climate crisis.”

TRAHERN CREWS is co-chair of the Green Party of Minnesota and chairs the party’s politics committee. He is co-chair of the Green Party of the U.S. Reparations Working Group and plans to make reparations for the American descendants of slavery an issue in the 2020 Presidential election. From 2014 to 2015, he served as spokesperson for the Saint Paul Green Party (4th Congressional District). He organized the July 2019 Minnesota forum for candidates seeking the Green Party presidential nomination

Crews has been active in Black Lives Matters in Minnesota in organizing mass protests and community meetings, and working on creating and getting legislation passed on criminal justice reform. He was endorsed by the Green Party in his run for Saint Paul City Council, where he received 14% of the vote in a race using instant-runoff voting. One of his key issues was raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He has also supported a “care over confrontation” campaign to reduce harm to people who contact the city for help with a mental health crisis.

DAVID GERRY was a co-chair of the Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts from 2015 to 2017 and is a founding member of the Greater Boston Chapter. He has been a member of the Green Party of the U.S. Lavender Caucus since 2012 and is a member of the national party’s Diversity and International Committees, and serves as co-chair of the Bylaws, Rules Policies and Procedures Committee.

Additional Information

Green New Deal | News Stream
2019 Green Party Annual National Meeting