Former Ohio Sen. Nina Turner has no plans to take her foot off of Target’s neck, despite declaring the “end” to the 400-day Target fast, organized with Pastor Jamal Bryant and social justice activist Tamika Mallory. Turner told The Root she’s encouraging folks to also focus on another billion-dollar corporation undermining Black Americans.
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We previously told you the three organizers– known playfully as the “Mothership Three–” held a press conference this week, providing updates on the ongoing Target boycott in response to the end of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices at the company. Turner declared she’s “not going back to Target. And you shouldn’t, either,” on X. But now, she’s focused on CVS pharmacies– many of which are located inside Target stores– in Tennessee at risk of closing down.
“CVS is threatening to close 134 stores in Tennessee because there’s a bill pending that threatens their economic viability,” Sen. Turner told us. The bill she’s referring to, Senate Bill 2040, was introduced in Nashville in January to address how pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) operate in the state.
PBMs basically act as middlemen between insurance companies, pharmacies and patients. They manage prescription benefits for insurers, employers, and government programs. According to the American Medical Association, PBMs were created in the 1960s to help control drug spending. But while PBMs are supposed to reduce spending through pharmacy cost negotiations, critics have long argued that without proper regulation, they make things more expensive.
As Tenn. Sen. Bo Watson explained to WBIR News, the new bill isn’t an indictment against pharmacy benefit managers.
“We understand the role they play in providing prescription medications. It is the business model around some of them. Not all of them,” he said. But while the bipartisan bill is picking up speed in Tennessee, companies like CVS are threatening to close dozens of stores in retaliation, which means many residents could go without direct access to medicine, WVLT reported.
That’s why former Sen. Turner is raising the alarm in the state where most residents live at or below the poverty line, according to Census data.
“The fact that they would so callously decide that they’re going to just shut down pharmacies if they don’t get their way,” she continued. Tennessee notably also has a 16 percent Black population, the Census shows, but Turner said this fight is not just about Black folks.
“The Black community has a particular calling and obligation, and it’s unfair at times because we bear the burden of everybody else’s liberation in ours,” she said.
“I want to see the Black community across the country continue to be deliberate about where we spend our dollars and deliberately make a demand and deliberately call in other groups of people to be able to help us with this fight,” she added. Non-Black demonstrators showed up and out during the Target boycott. Now, Turner said she wants them back on the front lines alongside Black Americans. “We should not always have to carry this burden by ourselves.”
After passing in the State Senate Health and Welfare Committee 8 to 1 in February, Senate Bill 2040 now lies in the hands of the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee.
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