Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Leading White Democrats Court Black Votes; Some Find Trouble
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
November 22, 2019

Share

ATLANTA — Coming out of their debate in a key center of black America, the leading Democratic presidential contenders aimed for the party’s crucial black and minority vote, with the scramble putting internal party tensions on display.
From black protesters disrupting Elizabeth Warren to the lone black woman in the race chiding white, upstart Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the dynamics in Atlanta highlighted the push for crucial black and other minority support with less than three months before primary voting begins. They further underscored some candidates’ vulnerabilities in trying to assemble the coalition necessary to win the nomination — and defeat President Donald Trump in the general election.
Warren electrified a raucous and racially diverse crowd in the Clark-Atlanta University gymnasium as she tries to expand her support beyond the white liberal base that boosted her in the primary polls this summer. But the Massachusetts senator had to endure protests of a black school-choice group that threatened to overshadow her message aimed squarely at black women — Democrats’ most loyal faction.
Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor who leads caucus polls in overwhelmingly white Iowa, spent the day defending remarks relating his experience as a gay man to the systemic racism facing African Americans. Kamala Harris, the California senator and only black woman in the race, blasted his approach as “naive.”
Like Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders invoked his biography, as the child of an immigrant family with casualties in the Holocaust, to connect with African Americans’ struggle against oppression and white supremacy. Harris, still lagging the front-runners, has not criticized the way Sanders talks about race, but the Vermont senator still must prove he can get more black votes than he did in losing the 2016 nominating fight.

Photo of Joe Biden
Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a town hall held at Lander University on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019, in Greenwood, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)

Biden Has a Considerable Lead Among Black Voters

All those contenders are trying to catch Vice President Joe Biden, whose considerable lead among black voters leaves him atop most national polls. Biden spent Thursday meeting with black Southern mayors, led by Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, one of his top campaign surrogates. But it wasn’t all smooth for Biden, as immigration activists interrupted him in South Carolina demanding he pledge to halt deportations on his first day in office. Biden refused.

“Black history is American history. And American history teaches us that racism has for generations shaped every crucial aspect of our economic and political system.” Elizabeth Warren 
For those chasing Biden, Warren offered perhaps the strongest display Thursday.
Before an energetic crowd at Clark-Atlanta, the senator called for a “full-blown national conversation about reparations” for slavery, and she praised black women for helping build the country and advancing social and economic justice. She bemoaned structural impediments beyond slavery, naming Jim Crow segregation, modern-day mass incarceration and red-lining practices that make it harder for minorities to get mortgage loans.
“Black history is American history,” Warren said. “And American history teaches us that racism has for generations shaped every crucial aspect of our economic and political system.”
She offered a litany of policy proposals: new spending at historically black schools, legalizing marijuana, overhauling federal housing policy, student loan debt forgiveness, even repealing the 1994 crime law — which Biden sponsored as a Delaware senator.
“I am not afraid,” she said to roars. “And you cannot be afraid, either.”

Harris Lambasted Buttigieg for Comparing the Struggles of Black and LGBTQ Communities

Yet for a time, it looked as if Warren might not be able to deliver the rare formal speech that aides had built up as a seminal moment in her campaign. Moments into her address, dozens of black protesters from a school-choice group interrupted. They stood down only after Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley took the microphone from Warren.
“The senator is here to talk about fighters like you,” said Pressley, who is black. In drowning out Warren, she said, the group was keeping the senator from telling the story of black women already marginalized.
Buttigieg, meanwhile, found no such defender as he enjoys a newfound lead in Iowa, the first-caucus state, but shows negligible black support in more diverse primary states that follow. So, he was left to contend with Harris alone.
Their flap spun off the mayor saying Wednesday during a debate segment on race that he has “felt like a stranger” in his own country because his civil rights as a gay man were left to the whims of politicians.
During a post-debate event, Harris lambasted Buttigieg for comparing the struggles of black and LGBTQ communities. A Democrat who wants a winning coalition, she said, “should not be … saying one group’s pain is equal than or greater” than another’s.
Buttigieg pushed back, telling reporters, “There’s no equating those two experiences,” and maintaining that he hadn’t done so.
Sanders understands as well as any candidate that Democratic presidential politics demands more than just enthusiastic white support. The Vermont senator battled Hillary Clinton to a surprise draw in Iowa in 2016 and trounced her in New Hampshire, another mostly white Democratic electorate. Yet with overwhelming black support, Clinton then dominated Sanders in South Carolina and across the Deep South, building an early delegate lead she never relinquished.

Photo of Pete Buttigieg and Rev. Al Sharpton
Pete Buttigieg, left, speaks with the Rev. Al Sharpton at a breakfast event on Thursday, November 21, 2019, in Atlanta. Buttigieg, along with Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer, all presidential hopefuls, spoke at the event hosted by the Sharpton’s National Action Network. (AP Photo/ Ron Harris)

Former President Barack Obama Offered Advice to Democrats

This time, he’s intent on building black support earlier in the campaign, and on Thursday, he noticeably leaned more on biographical details than he did for much of his 2016 campaign, even as he ticked through his usual list of progressive policy remedies.

“There’s a way of talking about race that says ‘we can be better,’ and there’s a way of talking about race that says ‘you are bad’ or that ‘you don’t get it.’ When we invite people to their better selves, we tend to bring people in.” former President Barack Obama
Now 78, he told the crowd — gathered around a statue of Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr. — of his 1960s activism, describing himself and his fellow white students as “not quite so brave” as black citizens in the more dangerous Jim Crow South. But, Sanders said, “I was arrested and went to jail fighting housing segregation in Chicago.”
And he wanted them to know his family history.
“Some of you know, I’m Jewish,” Sanders said. “My father came to this country from Poland. He came fleeing anti-Semitism. A lot of people in my father’s family did not make it out of Poland.
“They were murdered by the father of white supremacy, Adolf Hitler,” Sanders continued. “So, I learned at a very young age what racism and white supremacy and Aryanism and all that crap is about.”
Far from the campaign trail, former President Barack Obama offered advice to Democrats considering those varied approaches. The first black president, speaking at a party fundraiser in California, warned against absolute judgments as candidates navigate a fraught issue.
“There’s a way of talking about race that says ‘we can be better,’ and there’s a way of talking about race that says ‘you are bad’ or that ‘you don’t get it,’” he said, later adding, “When we invite people to their better selves, we tend to bring people in.”

DON'T MISS

Senate Rebukes Trump’s Tariffs as Some Republicans Vote to Halt Taxes on Canadian Imports

DON'T MISS

Supreme Court Sides With the FDA in Its Dispute Over Sweet-Flavored Vaping Products

DON'T MISS

Trump Announces Sweeping New Tariffs to Promote US Manufacturing, Risking Inflation and Trade Wars

DON'T MISS

Fresno Firefighters Save Dog From Canal and Now She’s Ready for Adoption

DON'T MISS

Big Brands Spend Just Enough on X to Avoid Musk’s ‘Naughty List’

DON'T MISS

Judge Dismisses Corruption Case Against New York City Mayor Eric Adams

DON'T MISS

State Center Trustees Render Split Decision on Future of PLAs

DON'T MISS

California’s Schools Chief Has a $200,000 Salary and a Side Gig

DON'T MISS

Why Project Labor Agreements Are Good for Our Schools and Students: Opinion

DON'T MISS

Trump Proposes Tax Deduction for Auto Loan Interest on US-Made Cars

UP NEXT

Western US Sees Sharp Increase in Extreme Weather Impact

UP NEXT

7-Year-Old Girl Was Killed by a Falling Boulder at a Lake Tahoe Ski Resort

UP NEXT

Xavier Becerra Enters 2026 California Governor’s Race

UP NEXT

Elon Musk Reclaims Top Spot on Forbes’ Billionaires List

UP NEXT

Lakers Hold Off Rockets With 6 3-Pointers Apiece From Dorian Finney-Smith, Gabe Vincent

UP NEXT

Athletics Bat Boy Stewart Thalblum Takes Down Drone in Left Field

UP NEXT

NFL Postpones Tush Push Decision but Passes Other Rule Changes, AP Source Says

UP NEXT

March Madness: It’s South Carolina vs. Texas and UCLA vs. UConn in Women’s Final Four

UP NEXT

What to Watch in Tuesday’s Big Elections in Wisconsin and Florida

UP NEXT

Major Layoffs Begin at Health Agencies That Track Disease and Regulate Food

Fresno Firefighters Save Dog From Canal and Now She’s Ready for Adoption

11 hours ago

Big Brands Spend Just Enough on X to Avoid Musk’s ‘Naughty List’

11 hours ago

Judge Dismisses Corruption Case Against New York City Mayor Eric Adams

11 hours ago

State Center Trustees Render Split Decision on Future of PLAs

11 hours ago

California’s Schools Chief Has a $200,000 Salary and a Side Gig

12 hours ago

Why Project Labor Agreements Are Good for Our Schools and Students: Opinion

12 hours ago

Trump Proposes Tax Deduction for Auto Loan Interest on US-Made Cars

12 hours ago

Western US Sees Sharp Increase in Extreme Weather Impact

13 hours ago

Amazon Said to Make a Bid to Buy TikTok in the US

13 hours ago

Fresno Man Found Dead, Coroner’s Office Seeks Help Finding Family

13 hours ago

Senate Rebukes Trump’s Tariffs as Some Republicans Vote to Halt Taxes on Canadian Imports

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday night that would thwart President Donald Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada, ...

6 hours ago

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., center, is joined from left by Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., as they speak to reporters about President Donald Trump's tariffs on foreign countries, at the Capitol, in Washington, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
6 hours ago

Senate Rebukes Trump’s Tariffs as Some Republicans Vote to Halt Taxes on Canadian Imports

9 hours ago

Supreme Court Sides With the FDA in Its Dispute Over Sweet-Flavored Vaping Products

10 hours ago

Trump Announces Sweeping New Tariffs to Promote US Manufacturing, Risking Inflation and Trade Wars

A young Labrador mix rescued from a Fresno canal on Sunday, March 2, 2025, is thriving in a foster home after overcoming fear and trauma. (Instagram/Fresno Animal Center)
11 hours ago

Fresno Firefighters Save Dog From Canal and Now She’s Ready for Adoption

11 hours ago

Big Brands Spend Just Enough on X to Avoid Musk’s ‘Naughty List’

11 hours ago

Judge Dismisses Corruption Case Against New York City Mayor Eric Adams

11 hours ago

State Center Trustees Render Split Decision on Future of PLAs

12 hours ago

California’s Schools Chief Has a $200,000 Salary and a Side Gig

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend