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After Debating About Black Support, Democrats Fan Out to Try to Earn It After Debating About Black Support, Democrats Fan Out to Try to Earn It
(about 8 hours later)
ATLANTA — A day after the fifth Democratic presidential debate was held in Atlanta, candidates fanned out across the region on Thursday, many speaking primarily to black audiences, in hopes of peeling away some of the black voters who have formed a core of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s support. ATLANTA — One day after a televised debate featuring significant exchanges about race, Democratic presidential candidates fanned out across this capital of black political power to pitch their message to black voters and send a clear signal: Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. should not take support from African-Americans for granted.
Mr. Biden’s strength with black voters has helped him maintain an edge in the race even as he has slipped behind candidates like Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in some polls and sharply disagreed with two black candidates, Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California. At the most recent debate, Mr. Biden, again, collided with Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris, particularly on issues of racial inequities in the criminal justice system. Mr. Biden’s strength with black voters has been a key force in helping him maintain a polling edge in the race, even as the candidacies of Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont ascended among progressives. But on Thursday, both challengers — as well as Senators Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, the two black candidates in the race, and other contenders — made explicit appeals about how they would address concerns and priorities of black voters.
At a ministers’ breakfast meeting sponsored by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network Thursday morning, Mr. Booker pitched himself as the best candidate to address key issues in the black community. Ms. Warren, who is Mr. Biden’s leading rival in many state and national polls, took direct aim at his reliance on black support by delivering one of her biggest speeches of the campaign, describing how governments and powerful corporations use racism and racial injustice as a wedge to divide working class people. And she argued that it was time for the nation’s policies to include specific correctives to address discrimination.
“The black-white wealth gap is growing. The leading cause of death for African-American boys and men is murder,” Mr. Booker said. “We are at a point now where there are more African-Americans under criminal supervision than all the slaves in the 1850s.” “Don’t talk about race-neutral laws,” she said at a rally on Thursday evening at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black institution. “The federal government helped create the racial divide in this country through decades of active, state-sponsored discrimination, and that means the federal government has a responsibility to fix it.”
In impassioned remarks colored with scripture, Mr. Booker said the country needed to “ensure that the next president of the United States doesn’t have an academic appreciation of these issues, but actually has a passion, an instinctual connection — is someone that we can trust to bring these issues to the front and center of the national agenda.” “The rich and the powerful want us to be afraid of each other,” Ms. Warren told the crowd. “And why? Because they are afraid of us. Afraid of our numbers. Afraid of seeing us stand together.”
It was a familiar appeal. “I have a lifetime of experience with black voters: I’ve been one since I was 18,” Mr. Booker said at last night’s debate, to laughter. “Nobody on this stage should need a focus group to hear from African-American voters.” Ms. Warren also spoke directly to white voters, and pushed back on the notion that racial equity comes at the cost of white Americans.
Elsewhere in Atlanta, largely considered the country’s foremost hub of black entrepreneurship and political power, Ms. Harris held a “Black Women’s Breakfast,” where she leaned on her identity and her barrier-breaking career to connect with the audience, overwhelmingly made up of black professional women. “I just want to speak directly to the question on some white people’s minds when we talk about the need to address what our government has done in black communities: the uncomfortable question of, ‘What will this mean for me?’” Ms. Warren said. “The truth is, when we come together, we can all move forward.”
She said that while her record in black communities has come under repeated criticism, it was undoubtedly better than those of the race’s white front-runners: Mr. Biden, Ms. Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Ms. Warren’s speech was a thematic continuation of her rally in New York City in September, when she used the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire of 1911 to tell a story of government regulation and the political power of women’s voices. In her speech on Thursday Ms. Warren leaned on history again, citing the black women-led strike of Atlanta washerwomen in 1881.
“There are people on that stage who wrote the crime bill, who voted for the crime bill and who just learned how to talk about justice. Are you kidding me?” Ms. Harris said. “Where were these folks when I was creating a national model on what we need to do to end mass incarceration?” Ms. Warren was introduced by Representative Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts, the black lawmaker who has become one of Ms. Warren’s top surrogates after her recent endorsement. Ms. Pressley helped Ms. Warren calm a group of pro-charter school protesters who disrupted her speech.
A number of other candidates also toured Atlanta, making a concerted pitch to black voters. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., and the businessmen Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer attended Mr. Sharpton’s breakfast, too. Mr. Biden held a round-table discussion with a group of black mayors, including Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, who has endorsed him, before leaving for a forum in South Carolina, an early primary state where he leads in the polls. Earlier that day, several other candidates also targeted black voters, speaking at a breakfast held by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Ms. Harris held a “black women’s breakfast” with several of Atlanta’s leading black women professionals. And Mr. Sanders also held a rally on the campus of a historically black college.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Biden cited his long relationship with the African-American community in Delaware when asked about his support among black voters. “I’ve always been comfortable in the community, and I think that the community’s always been comfortable with me,” Mr. Biden said. At Morehouse College, standing near a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Sanders invoked his own background in a pitch to black voters. As a Jewish man whose family escaped Nazi Germany, he learned about the cruelties of racism through his family’s stories of fleeing discrimination, he said.
Mr. Sanders appeared at an afternoon rally at Morehouse College, the historically black men’s college whose graduates include the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Maynard Jackson, who was elected the first black mayor of Atlanta in 1973.
Standing near a statue of Dr. King, Mr. Sanders told the gathered crowd that fighting for the poor across races was the civil rights struggle of this era.
“Today we tell the billionaire class that this country belongs to all of us, not just to the few,” Mr. Sanders said. “But we also have to focus on the levels of racial disparities that exist in this country. How does it happen that the average white family owns 10 times more wealth than the average black family?”
Mr. Sanders invoked his own background, as a Jewish man whose family escaped Nazi Germany. He said he learned about racism through his family’s stories of fleeing persecution.
“A lot of people in my father’s family didn’t make it out of Poland, and they were murdered by the father of white supremacy, Adolf Hitler,” he said.“A lot of people in my father’s family didn’t make it out of Poland, and they were murdered by the father of white supremacy, Adolf Hitler,” he said.
In an evening event that has been billed as a major campaign speech, Ms. Warren will speak at another historically black school, Clark Atlanta University. She will be joined by Representative Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts, the prominent black congresswoman who endorsed her this month. Black voters are an important constituency in the Democratic Party, and the candidate who has won a majority of the black vote has almost always gone on to be the party’s nominee. But in a race with multiple black candidates and with white candidates promising policies specifically addressing racial inequities, the diversity of the black electorate — with respect to age, gender, education levels and ideology — has been on display.
“From the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to the Atlanta Washerwomen Strike, history has proven that when working women fight together, they win,” Ms. Warren said on Twitter, posting a video previewing the speech featuring the writer Roxane Gay. Still, it has been difficult for candidates to wrest black support away from Mr. Biden. He has been buttressed by sky-high name recognition, association with former President Barack Obama and his promise that he is best suited to win the white working-class voters who helped deliver the last election to President Trump.
Black voters are an important constituency in the Democratic Party, and the candidate who has won the majority of the black vote has almost always gone on to be the party’s nominee. But in a race with multiple black candidates and where white candidates are promising policies specifically addressing racial inequities, the diversity of the black electorate — with respect to age, gender, education levels and ideology — has been on display. On Thursday, Mr. Biden met with a group of black mayors, including Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, who has endorsed him, before leaving for a town hall event in South Carolina, an early primary state where he leads in the polls.
Even so, it has been difficult for candidates to wrest black support away from Mr. Biden, who is helped by his sky-high name recognition, association with former President Barack Obama and his promise that he is best suited to win the white working-class voters who helped deliver the last election to President Trump. Speaking to reporters in Atlanta, Mr. Biden cited his long relationship with the African-American community in Delaware when asked about his support among black voters. “I’ve always been comfortable in the community, and I think that the community’s always been comfortable with me,” Mr. Biden said.
In this week’s debate, Mr. Booker criticized Mr. Biden for his opposition to legalizing marijuana, noting that black marijuana users are more frequently penalized than white ones. In Wednesday night’s debate, Mr. Booker criticized Mr. Biden for his opposition to legalizing marijuana, noting that black marijuana users are more frequently penalized than white ones.
“Black voters are pissed off and they’re worried,” Mr. Booker had said. He added that while he had “a lot of respect” for Mr. Biden, “this week I heard him literally say that ‘I don’t think we should legalize marijuana.’” “Black voters are pissed off and they’re worried,” Mr. Booker said, adding that while he had “a lot of respect” for Mr. Biden, “this week I hear him literally say that ‘I don’t think we should legalize marijuana.’”
Looking directly at Mr. Biden, Mr. Booker said, “I thought you might have been high when you said it.”Looking directly at Mr. Biden, Mr. Booker said, “I thought you might have been high when you said it.”
Mr. Biden touted his support among black voters during the debate, saying, “I come out of the black community in terms of my support. They know me.” But then he mistakenly said he had the endorsement of the “only African-American woman who had ever been elected to the United States Senate.” At a ministers’ breakfast meeting sponsored by the National Action Network, Mr. Booker continued his pitch a day later as the best candidate to address racial inequities in the economy and criminal justice.
He was apparently referring to former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois — the first black woman to become a senator — but he was standing on the same stage as Ms. Harris, the second, who laughed at his remark. “The black-white wealth gap is growing. The leading cause of death for African-American boys and men is murder,” Mr. Booker said. “We are at a point now where there are more African-Americans under criminal supervision than all the slaves in the 1850s.”
“Proud to be the second Black woman elected to the U.S. Senate,” Ms. Harris later tweeted. In impassioned remarks colored with scripture, Mr. Booker said the country needed to “ensure that the next president of the United States doesn’t have an academic appreciation of these issues, but actually has a passion, an instinctual connection — is someone that we can trust to bring these issues to the front and center of the national agenda.”
Other candidates are also fighting for black support. Mr. Steyer, a California billionaire, addressing Mr. Sharpton’s group, emphasized the work of nonprofit organizations he had funded in encouraging voter registration. He pledged that on the first day of his presidency, he would form a commission to “retell the story of the African-American experience.” A number of other candidates also toured Atlanta, making a concerted pitch to black voters. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., the entrepreneur Andrew Yang and the billionaire former hedge fund manager Tom Steyer attended Mr. Sharpton’s breakfast, too.
Mr. Buttigieg sought to establish common ground with the black audience, pointing out that, as a gay man, he had benefited from black activism during the civil rights movement.Mr. Buttigieg sought to establish common ground with the black audience, pointing out that, as a gay man, he had benefited from black activism during the civil rights movement.
But he has struggled to build support among this constituency. A recent South Carolina poll showed he is the choice of fewer than 1 percent of black likely Democratic voters there.But he has struggled to build support among this constituency. A recent South Carolina poll showed he is the choice of fewer than 1 percent of black likely Democratic voters there.
Ms. Klobuchar, in her remarks, focused on economic issues affecting the black community, and discussed raising the minimum wage, improving access to child care and long-term care, and enhancing Social Security. Ms. Harris held a morning breakfast event for black women in Atlanta. Though her candidacy has fallen from its once front-runner status, Ms. Harris made clear that she remains the only black woman in the race, and pitched herself as someone who can uniquely understand black communities.
But Ms. Klobuchar repeated her stance against free college for all. “Ten percent of the kids come from families that make over $200,000 a year,” she told the ministers, urging investment in both historically black schools and training programs for jobs with high demand. Ms. Harris said her criminal justice record was better than those of the race’s white front-runners.
“We need to make college more affordable, but we need to make sure we focus on helping people who need the help,” she said, suggesting an effort to steer “kids of color” into high-paying jobs in science, technology and math. “There are people on that stage who wrote the crime bill, who voted for the crime bill and who just learned how to talk about justice. Are you kidding me?” Ms. Harris said. “Where were these folks when I was creating a national model on what we need to do to end mass incarceration?”
Mr. Booker said that when he arrived in the Senate in 2013, he realized “it was the least diverse place” he had ever worked. At the debate, Mr. Biden touted his support among black voters, saying, “I come out of the black community in terms of my support.” But then he mistakenly said he had the endorsement of the “only African-American woman that had ever been elected to the United States Senate.”
“I looked at the Judiciary Committee and I couldn’t even find a black staffer,” Mr. Booker said. “It cannot be about us without us,” he said. He was apparently referring to former Senator Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois — the first black woman to become a senator.
Thomas Kaplan contributed reporting. He failed to mention Ms. Harris, the second black woman elected to the Senate, who was standing on the same stage.
Stephanie Saul contributed reporting from New York.