Four members of the Central Ohio Young Black Democrats have resigned from the organization’s executive committee after they say the Franklin County Democratic Party tried to strong-arm the group’s endorsements.

Franklin County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Sexton said he supported his party’s endorsed candidates, but denied that he used “intimidation” to try to sway the group.

The Young Black Democrats' executive committee wanted to endorse Jasmine Ayres, who is running on the Yes We Can ticket in the Columbus City Council race, instead of incumbent Democratic Councilman Mitchell Brown, the city’s former public safety director.

But the county party already endorsed the full slate of Democratic incumbents, including Brown, and members have been at odds with Yes We Can, a group of Democrats that won seats on the county party's central committee in 2015.

The party tried to convince the Young Black Democrats to not endorse at all rather than endorse Ayres, but the executive committee members still intended to move forward with the plan.

That’s when members who resigned say they started receiving “messages of intimidation,” according to a press release.

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“I think we had a disagreement on that a little bit. I’m not sure what they’re referring to in terms of intimidation,” Sexton said. “We at no times said they couldn’t endorse anyone.”

In some instances, those messages were “pertaining to questioning the legitimacy of the organization’s endorsement process, the organization falling to the bottom in standing if it chose to continue down this path, the ability for the organization to participate in future events with the local party, and that the organization was in violation of rules to endorse outside of the local party’s endorsement,” according to a press release.

Sexton said he told the group’s leader that the two couldn’t work together if they endorsed different candidates. Brittany Eddy, one of those who resigned from the executive committee, said the Ohio Democratic Party eventually stepped in to confirm that the group could make its own endorsements.

"We're consulting our state and national party rules and bylaws, but we have been unable to find anything that prohibits a Democratic club from deciding endorsements and providing candidate support as they see fit," said Kirstin Alvanitakis, a spokeswoman for the state party.

"Democrats are a big-tent party — and that means sometimes there are disagreements about the vision of an organization."

The executive committee of the Young Black Democrats recommended that the organization’s membership endorse Ayres. The majority of members at the meeting Tuesday night agreed, but the organization’s rules require a two-thirds majority. The vote did not meet that requirement.

“I think the unfortunate thing for Democrats as a whole, we’re just missing out on the opportunity to really impact change within our community because we are not willing to have an open mind about progressive leaders moving forward,” Eddy said.

Eddy said several members either abstained from the vote or didn’t show up to the meeting because they work in politics and feared reprisal from the party. Three other executive committee members also resigned: Chris Scott, De’Juan Stevens and Kiara Richardson.

Scott, who was the organization’s president, also works at the Ohio Democratic Party. He declined to comment.

In a statement, Scott wrote: “The message that intimidation has no place in the democratic process has been sent and echoed, and now we move onward.”

Both Ayres and Brown interviewed for the Young Black Democrats' endorsement, Eddy said, but Ayres, who also is a member of the organization, emerged as the best candidate. She declined to provide specifics about why the board preferred Ayres.

Brown’s campaign could not be reached for comment.

“They clearly had someone who they felt was not going to be in the best interest of the black community and they chose to endorse me instead because of my background and because of the work that I’ve done, and now people are opposing that process,” Ayres said.

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan