As a talented collegiate and pro fullback, Vonta Leach made a career of blowing open up a path for others to follow. Now Vonta, an athlete turned elected official, is doing everything he can to clear the way to make it as easy as possible for everyone to vote in his home state of North Carolina.
Considered to be one of the greatest fullbacks ever to play in the NFL, Vonta is now a star volunteer in Left of Center’s efforts to get Cynthia Wallace elected to North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District (made famous last year when it was discovered a GOP-linked scheme succeeded in stealing absentee ballots from mainly minority voters).
“I’m all in,” Vonta told us this week amid a busy campaign schedule. “It’s been a Republican district, but with everything that’s been going on in this country, a lot of voters think Cynthia Wallace is slugging it out and she is making the race competitive. She has a chance, just because of what’s been going on.”
What’s been going on is a hate-filled presidency that encourages local violence and brutality and is supported by Republican enablers in Congress that have chosen to line the pockets of their fat cat friends while looking down on the majority of Americans. The GOP has turned its back on North Carolina, taking the state for granted and assuming its residents would simply sit down, shut up, and take it.
Listen to Vonta’s Get Out The Vote message above!
Vonta is doing phone banking, making appearances on behalf of Wallace and the Democrats, and doing socially distanced canvassing under the essential and unique rules for get out of the vote activities amid the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus is, of course, the biggest example of the GOP’s incompetence and lack of compassion, failing to protect Americans and the American economy from the worse health crisis to hit America in about 100 years. Two key voting groups in the NC09 congressional district, Blacks and Native Americans, have been among the biggest victims of the GOP’s failure to take seriously the threat of the deadly pandemic. Despite pleas from North Carolina for more help from Washington, its Republican congressmen and senators have failed to budge and deliver needed aid to the state.
It’s no fluke that so many pro athletes from every sport are stepping up and entering the political fray this year, given the Republicans’ swift and frightening turn towards authoritarianism. Vonta says this is not a one-election phenomena.
“What we are seeing now we will be seeing for a long time,” said Vonta, who played 10 years in the NFL, including as a member of the Baltimore Ravens that won Super Bowl XLVII.
NBA star Chris Paul stopped by to catch up with former NFL star Vonta Leach at a Lumberton, NC voting site. (10/30/20)
Vonta speaks with polite disdain about those who say athletes and entertainers have no business in politics. “Hopefully more athletes will take an even bigger role,” is his response to the critics.
Born and raised in economically challenged Rowland, NC, Vonta credits his mother and grandmother with providing him with a sound and loving family setting he proudly admits “impacted my life.” Vonta, who now resides in Lumberton, continued to forge his values, hope and faith as he stepped onto his life path as a student athlete at East Carolina University. Making it to the highest level in his sport, the NFL gave Vonta the platform to begin to use his values, experience and stature to work with others.
“Being a professional athlete has given me opportunities and helped me realize that I have a gift to give to so many others,” Vonta said.
As family man and father of two, Vonta has never forgotten where he is from, dedicating much of philanthropic and community work on behalf of helping kids and young people find their paths to their own success. Professionally, Vonta owns and operates VL Investments LLC, which mainly deals in real estate.
“You take one look at Vonta, and you say to yourself ‘I wouldn’t want to get in this guy’s way,’ but then you talk to him and you realize he is one of the sweetest, smartest and giving community activists you will ever meet,” said Left of Center co-founder Deb Kozikowski.
“Left of Center is blessed with amazing and dedicated volunteers, including preachers, teachers, moms, students, employers, employees, retirees, and a kind, giving man who happens to be a three-time NFL Pro-Bowl fullback,” agreed LOC’s co-founder Mara Dolan.
At the moment, Vonta is dedicated to his role on the Public Schools of Robeson County Board of Education, a position he was elected to earlier this year in his first foray into elected office. Only 38-years-old, he is keeping his options for higher office open.
“We don’t know what the future holds, so right now my focus is on the local school board,” Vonta said. “When the time comes and something else comes up I will have to take a look at what more I can possibly get involved in.”
Written by guest contributor Ken Bazinet. Ken is a respected, longtime national political reporter and freelance writer based in rural Maryland.