Police stop black legislative candidate going door-to-door

A black legislative candidate says she feels humiliated after police in Wisconsin stopped her and questioned her while she was campaigning door-to-door.

Dane County Supervisor Sheila Stubbs, 46, revealed on Wednesday that she was campaigning last month with her 71-year-old mother and 8-year-old daughter when a neighbor called 911.

The male neighbor suspected that the silver sedan being driven by Stubbs’ mother was waiting in the area to pick up narcotics from ‘the local drug house’, according to police records reviewed by the Capitol Times.

After winning the Democratic primary a week after the incident, Stubbs faces no opponent in the general election and is set to become the first black person to represent Dane County in the Wisconsin assembly.

Sheila Stubbs is seen on the campaign trail earlier this year. Last month, a man called 911 while she was campaigning door-to-door, suspicious that she was there to pick up drugs

Stubbs is set to become the first black person to represent Dane County in the Wisconsin assembly, after winning the primary and facing no opponent in the general

Stubbs is set to become the first black person to represent Dane County in the Wisconsin assembly, after winning the primary and facing no opponent in the general

Stubbs (left and right) is set to become the first black person to represent Dane County in the Wisconsin assembly, after winning the primary and facing no opponent in the general

‘It was just so degrading,’ Stubbs told the Times of the police encounter. ‘It was humiliating. It was insulting.’ 

Stubbs said she had been in what she says is a predominantly white neighborhood for less than 20 minutes and had knocked on five or six doors. 

The police report does not identify the 911 caller except as a male, and it is unclear what race he may have been. 

She told the newspaper that she saw a squad car pull up next to her family’s vehicle. 

Stubbs said that she told the officer what she was doing and the officer asked to see the voter list she was using to determine which houses to visit. 

She then tried to explain to her daughter what had happened.

My daughter said, ‘Mommy, why don’t they believe us?” Stubbs told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

‘I said, ‘Sometimes we have to do more as African-Americans because of who I am, who we are. It’s not fair. That’s why Mommy is working so hard to change things for you because I don’t want you to go through the same thing Mommy goes through.”

Stubbs said she struggled to explain the incident to her eight-year-old daughter, seen above with her and her husband

Stubbs said she struggled to explain the incident to her eight-year-old daughter, seen above with her and her husband

Stubbs (right) is seen campaigning. She is the second black woman in recent months to be questioned by police while campaigning

Stubbs (right) is seen campaigning. She is the second black woman in recent months to be questioned by police while campaigning

The report indicates the encounter ended amiably, with Stubbs and her mother handing the officer, Katherine Bland, their cell numbers and offering to help Bland improve race relations.

Still, Stubbs said she had to work hard to prove she was who she said she was. She showed the officer her name tag, her campaign literature and a list of addresses she wanted to approach.

‘I belong where I choose to go. You don’t have to like me. You don’t even have to respect me. But I have a right to be places,’ Stubbs said. 

Stubbs is the second black woman in recent months to be questioned by police while campaigning.

In July, a deputy confronted an Oregon state senator, Janelle Bynum, who was campaigning for re-election. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk