Liberia: Sen. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, the Woman Who Helped Boakai Win

It is late October, and Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence is feeling uneasy after President-elect Joseph Boakai lost the first round of the elections. The Senator, as the chair of the Boakai-Koung campaign, had declared for nearly three months, along with the rest of her campaign team members, that the President-elect was going to win the election in the first round.

However, when the October 10 election results showed that Boakai had narrowly lost to outgoing President George Weah, she became apprehensive and, for the first time, feared the possibility of losing the elections. Armed with election data, the Grand Bassa Senator began hosting a series of internal briefings on Boakai's pathway to winning the November 14 runoff after he had lost to Weah 43.83% to 43.44% during the first round.

“I’ve been in a very male-dominated business for decades, and I have found out that there’s plenty of room for passion, but there’s very little room for emotion. So when we had to do the second round, even though we did not place first, I knew something was wrong somewhere,” Lawrence told the Daily Observer in an exclusive interview. “The election was an existential battle for the future of this country, and so, we needed to lead to make victory certain. We reviewed our strategy, found the lapse, and put the correct measure in place, which resulted in victory.”

Reviewing the election data, Lawrence, alongside her team, zeroed in on a strategy that would capture the runoff from Weah, who had all the wherewithal and was confident of winning. The Senator, as part of her strategy, had to ignore the numerous complaints within the Unity Party alliance over Boakai's no-shows at campaign events in  the five counties that make up the Southeast, as they  voted in droves for President Weah, thereby propelling him to lead the first ballot.

Her stubborn approach, grounded in data, was anchored on two pillars: first, reducing the vote margin of the incumbent presidential candidate, in the eight counties that he won, especially in Bong and Grand Bassa, two significant vote-rich counties; while simultaneously expanding the Boakai’s lead in the seven counties he won, especially Montserrado County, which holds the card to the Presidency.

But, there was a catch. The timeframe for the second campaign was short. Hence she split her strategy into two: first, work with Boakai to get the strategic support of other presidential candidates and leading stakeholders, and simultaneously strengthen the Unity Party Alliance's “get out the vote” campaign to target and mobilize voters to increase the turnout for the runoff.

Lawrence adopted this strategy after the election data showed that while Weah won the first round ballot, half of the 1.9 million people that voted out of a registered voter base of 2.4 million did so against the President, opting for Boakai and several other opposition candidates. And it worked. Boakai managed to gain the support of Lusinee Kamara of the All Liberia People Party; Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe of the Liberian People’s Party, and Edward Appleton Grassroots Development Movement.

These men joined the Boakai campaign having finished in the top six in the October 10 poll, even though their share of the votes was very minimal but significant enough to sway the runoff elections. The key moment for Lawrence, however, came when she landed the support of Amara Konneh, Senator-elect of Gbarpolu County and a data enthusiast.

Konneh, who was then given the role to coordinate the Boakai campaign, handled his task very well — working with Lawrence to set up a very sophisticated war room that would enable them to collect and analyze election results in real-time, allowing the Liberian people to know the winner of the election even before the official results were announced.

The result was a historic win for Boakai, making him the second presidential candidate in the history of Liberia to return a former ruling party to power since 1878 when former President Anthony W. Gardiner did so with the True Whig Party. Boakai won the runoff with 50.64% (814,481 votes) to Weah's 49.36% (793,914 votes).

The achievement comes a few weeks after he had lost the first ballot by a narrow margin as a result of his slim lead in Montserrado, which has the country's largest share of the vote. Weah's defeat became historic -- making him the first President in Liberia's 177 years of history to lose a reelection bid. His defeat came just six years after he had won Boakai convincingly in the 2017 runoff, securing a decisive win with 61.5% to 38.5%. 

The dynamics, however, shifted in 2023, with Boakai putting up a formidable fight in the first round and then winning the runoff after constantly pledging to rescue Liberia from what he described as mismanagement and corruption under the Weah administration.

“When we look over, there were numerous challenges, but the two most important ones were structure and finances. So the first thing I did was to distinguish the political parties from the campaign team, especially when it comes to a political party that has a presidential candidate and that party feels entitled to taking charge of the entire campaign, and you from another party join in there as the campaign chairperson who takes over the entire campaign.

“Secondly, raising money and getting things on track was a huge challenge that I had to overcome, especially when I came in with nothing available to start the campaign with,” the Senator said. “So whatever we needed to do, I just had to take the lead and demonstrate that commitment. So we succeeded. I think a lot of people believed in my stance, especially when it came to my fight for national interest. It became easy for me to navigate.”

While Boakai's win is historic, it is the work of Lawrence, who had to manage his campaign that was full of several challenges, including resources, that propelled him to the Presidency. Amidst some harsh criticism, the Senator, who at times (three years) was the only female senator in Liberia, never “capitulated” to the complaints but stood firm and kept the blinders on while relentlessly executing her runoff strategy, and it worked.

Her focus on keeping the campaign’s attention directed at the “powerbroker” counties of Montserrado, Nimba, Lofa, and Margibi, which Boakai lost in 2017 with the exception of Lofa, meant the campaign did not pour more resources into long-shot counties, even when prominent supporters of Boakai insisted that her campaign team was letting a huge prize slip away.

Instead, she narrowed her focus on winning the overwhelming support of the voters who did not support Weah, as well as protecting their votes, which would leave limited room for any cheating. The focus paid off in the runoff as the Boakai campaign, beyond expectations, performed considerably in the Southeast Counties of Maryland, Grand Kru, Sinoe, Rivercess, Grand Gedeh, and River Gee — which are the strongholds of the outgoing administration. The campaign also significantly slashed the Weah’s campaign vote share in populated counties of Grand Bassa and Bong, increasing their vote share compared to what they got in the first round.

But all of this would not have happened if Lawrence, as the campaign chair, had not exhibited strong leadership to keep the Unity Party Alliance campaign tight with limited room for distraction. She did so by disciplining the campaign activities based on conventional campaigns, to attract voters of all ages and appeal to their desire for change and a better Liberia.

“The first round I always preached one round, and everywhere I went on the campaign trail, our goal was to win one round. We had financial challenges and all of that, but Liberians were committed to the rescue mission in many ways,” Lawrence said. “When we had to do the second round, I feel that we did very well to reach the second round, even though we did not win.”

“So, we came up with a strategy for the second round to maximize the votes in the Southeast, to control places and increase votes in places that we did not have more votes, and strongholds that we did not pay a lot of attention to. So the target was that at least we should increase the votes by another 5,000 in the Southeast, which we did. So when we saw all of those coming into play quietly, we knew that we were going to win the elections.”

Lawrence's groundbreaking achievement as the first woman in Africa to run a winning presidential campaign puts her in the league of very few women who have achieved such a feat around the world. Notably, she joins the likes of Kellyanne Conway, who became the first woman in the U.S to run a winning Republican presidential campaign, and Jen O’Malley Dillon, who led President Biden to victory. Dillon then became the first woman to run a winning Democratic presidential campaign — four years after Conway's record-breaking achievement.

The Senator now sits in rarefied company, alongside historical record-breakers like former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who was the first elected female President in Africa, and Liberia’s Angie Brooks Randolf, the first woman to chair the UN General Assembly. Her achievement, which is no small feat for women in Liberia and Africa, is the most transformative thing that has happened to Liberia, especially at a time when women are still struggling politically, despite the country having produced a female president.

And so, she is the Daily Observer’s “Person of the Year” for undoubtedly shaping the future of women's participation in politics and leadership. The Daily Observer uses its “Person of the Year” award to profile a person, a group of persons, or an institution that has made a significant impact on the country and its people on a national scale. For 2023, it's Karnga-Lawrence, who found a way to transcend boundaries and be a source of light for women who constitute the larger share of the Liberian population.

The Liberian people may have made Boakai president, but if the Senator had poorly run his campaign in a disorganized manner, the President-elect would not be where he is at the moment. This made her the rare gem that brought Boakai and the former ruling Unity Party, which was in alliance with other parties, back to power.

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In the 10-plus years since her debut in elective politics, Lawrence’s path has been paved by some record-breaking moments, including becoming the first female Senator of Grand Bassa County — one of the five founding counties of Liberia.  However, her popularity achieved a kind of nuclear fusion just when people thought her political career was over after her expulsion from the Liberty Party, which she was leading as its political leader by an ally turned foe — Representative-elect Musa Bility.

The calamitous situation also played a key role in Boakai’s decision not to select her as a running mate — opting for Vice President-elect Jeremiah Koung. But these disappointments became an inspiration for the Senator, and when she was asked by Boakai to chair his campaign, she accepted — combining frustration with a point to prove — she release an energy of historic force, which led to Boakai's victory and making Weah a one-term president. She did it by embracing her political strength and running a disciplined and mature campaign, which drew people to the Boakai campaign.

“I told everybody from the beginning that if you are on this rescue team, know that it is not about you; it is not about your political institution; it’s about Liberia. We feel that this country is going in the wrong direction, and if we want to rescue this country, we have to be committed to it,” she disclosed. “So I showed that I was committed to doing that. So I could not compromise. It was not about the party. It was not about position. It was about the result and getting the result to rescue the country was more important to me as the leader of the campaign.”

“I think some of those values that we exhibited made everybody understand that we have a campaign chair that is focused. We have a campaign chair that is willing to direct us in the right direction to win these elections, and it became easy for a lot of them to get back on board. So I played almost all of the roles as the campaign chair just to set an example that as a leader, you take the lead and everybody follows.”

As a native of Grand Bassa, Karnga-Lawrence was politically mentored by the late venerable politician, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine. Before his retirement from politics after the 2017 elections, he picked her from the many males in the party to become his anointed successor. In 2018, she was elected to such a position at the party convention before losing her political leadership position due to internal wrangling, which led to her expulsion.

Lawrence, who developed the political bug early, worked as a field organizer for Brumskine in three failed attempts for the Presidency in 2005, 2011, and 2017. She came to the Boakai campaign not just with a political base accumulated over the years as a Senator, but with an in-depth understanding of the inner workings of Liberian politics, drawing from her experience of Brumskine’s three failed attempts at the presidency.

The Senator, currently chairing the Senate Rules and Administration committee, making her one of the highest-ranking Senators in the 54th legislature, has been described by colleagues who have worked with her as steady and calm — attributes particularly useful when fighting an unpredictable candidate like Weah. 

She not only forced calmness and steadiness into the struggling Boakai campaign, but also made herself known as a person who “doesn’t put up with a lot of bullshit.” However, these tendencies, developed from her political mentor Brumskine, have been key to her political success as a Senator and a political leader. Since first winning election in 2014 and reelection in 2020, Karnga-Lawrence has become known as an advocate for the “interest” of the Liberian people.

One of her most notable glass-breaking moments as a Senator came when she championed the passage of the Decent Work Bill in 2016 after it had lingered for nine years on the shelf of the Senate’s conference committee. Under her chairmanship of the Senate’s conference, the Decent Work Bill became law, paving the way for thousands of workers in Liberia to have fundamental rights at work, including freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively. It also ensures the right not to be subject to forced or compulsory labor.

The Decent Work Bill, the country’s first labor law since the 1950s, also gives workers the right to equality at work and equal working conditions regardless of gender or other irrelevant criteria, among others. In 2016, she championed the fight for donor funding for the Health Sector that was not included in the budget, leaving room for improper accountability and transparency. She succeeded in getting thirteen million EU funds replaced as a budget line for the health sector.

Also, in 2018, while serving as the only female Senator among twenty-nine men, she organized the Senators for constitutional justice, comprising eleven senators, to stand against every action of the Senate that is not in the interest of the Country and violates the Constitution of Liberia. The block opposed the unconditional impeachment of an associate Justice who later won his appeal at the ECOWAS court for the violation of his human rights. This block is referred to as the ‘block of reasoning and for the people’ in the Liberian Senate.

But the most important highlights of her political career came when Boakai appointed her to lead his presidential campaign after failing in 2017 with a male at the helm. She did not just play the policy role as expected; she was everywhere with Boakai, ensuring that the campaign stuck to its core message and disciplined posture as much as possible, no matter what.

With limited resources, she structured the campaign in a way that produced the maximum result — targeting only counties where they were certain of winning. And the result was epic — succeeding where others in 2017 failed Boakai when he was a sitting Vice President. 

Whether Boakai may have won the Presidency if a man had been at the helm of his campaign, we may never know, but the calmness and discipline Lawrence brought to the campaign would have been lacking. And so, in the historical making of the Boakai presidency, Lawrence is the avatar that shifted the political narrative in favor of the President-elect — more so than anyone.

Where would Boakai be now if his campaign had been poorly run with infighting, just like outgoing President Weah’s campaign? The answer to this question may vary, but the truth is, he may not have put up a close fight like he did to go into the runoff and then eventually win the elections. Then there’s the task of inspiring public trust in the campaign, which, at some point, was riddled with accusations from political allies of President-elect Boakai who became foes, claiming that he was “unfit for the presidency” and his government would be externally controlled by lots of people.

These accusations, despite being heavily pushed by the outgoing government, did not shake the Boakai campaign, as Lawrence ensured that the party crafted a narrative for change that outweighed whatever accusations were being put forth.  She warned seriously against giving it credence “as doing so” would steal away public attention from the change Boakai envisioned for the country. The results of the policies were seen in crowds upon crowds at every campaign event with people printing their own T-shirts and volunteering.

And so, Lawrence became a symbol of generational —  bringing joy to the thousands of Liberians who wanted Weah out of power — making the 2023 Presidential election one of the epic moments in the history of Liberia. For this reason, and her groundbreaking achievement as the first woman in Africa to run a presidential campaign, Sen. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence is the Daily Observer’s “2023 Person of the Year.”