Husted sweeps into 2nd term

Nina Turner, center, shown in a 2014 file photo, is considering an offer to serve as running mate for Green Party presidential hopeful Jill Stein.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Nina Turner, the Democratic former state senator from Cleveland who has emerged as a rallying figure for Bernie Sanders' disappointed supporters, said she is considering an offer to run for vice president on the Green Party's national ticket.

Massachusetts physician Jill Stein, the party's presumptive presidential nominee, reached out with the pitch, Turner told cleveland.com Sunday evening in a telephone interview.

The Green Party opens its convention Thursday in Houston. Turner would stand for nomination there if she agrees to be Stein's running mate. Her decision is expected in the coming days.

Turner is less than a year removed for a top position at the Ohio Democratic Party, which she left last fall after joining Sanders' Democratic presidential bid as a high-profile surrogate. The move caused a stir. Turner initially had favored Hillary Clinton, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, helped Turner raise money for her unsuccessful Ohio secretary of state run in 2014.

Those tensions spilled over last week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Clinton arrived there with more than enough delegates to secure nomination. But many of Sanders' backers arrived angry about newly publicized emails that suggested the Democratic National Committee had sought to undermine his candidacy during the primaries.

Sanders, an independent democratic-socialist from Vermont, urged his supporters to get behind Clinton. But some of his fans chose to voice their displeasure through demonstrations.

One protest involved a trio of Hollywood stars - Rosario Dawson, Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon - who objected to Turner's treatment during the week. Turner has said that she had been scheduled to give one of the speeches nominating Sanders during last Tuesday's convention program but that the campaign suspiciously nixed that plan at the last minute.

Some Sanders' supporters had wanted to place Turner's name in nomination at last week's convention as an alternative to Clinton's running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Stein, who was the Green nominee for president four years ago, has been working to attract Sanders' voters to her left-leaning party. Turner, 48, is a former Cleveland city councilwoman and state legislator who has become known as a voting-rights champion. She made waves in Ohio seven years ago by being one of few black elected Democrats to support a Cuyahoga County reform initiative and often is mentioned as potential future mayor of Cleveland.