Clinton and Sanders vie for black voters with eye toward critical southern states

[umbertino]

Some see Bernie Sanders’ relative unpopularity as ‘purely recognition’ but he will have to overcome the Bill effect to win in South Carolina and beyond

 

 

Lauren Gambino in New York and Adam Gabbatt in Sumter, South Carolina

 

Wednesday 17 February 2016 12.59 GMT

 

 

On Sunday, Hillar-y Clinton and Bernie Sanders sat in front row pews opposite each other for Sunday service at Victory Missionary Baptist church in Las Vegas. Last week, Sanders met the Rev Al Sharpton in New York. On Tuesday, Clinton arrived in New York to meet Sharpton and a group of prominent civil rights leaders, many of whom Sanders will meet later this week.

 

And for much of the day, the candidates held duelling events. While Clinton delivered a major speech on race in Harlem, Sanders headed to Georgia where he will continue his tour of historically black colleges and universities.

 

In the final days before a run of crucial contests, the Democratic hopefuls are crisscrossing the country – and each other – in a race to court black voters who may play a decisive role in the increasingly competitive battle for the party’s nomination.

 

“We aren’t a single-issue country,” Clinton said, repeating a criticism she’s levelled at her opponent for his relentless focus on Wall Street greed and income inequality.

 

“We face a complex set of economic, social and political challenges. They are intersectional, they are reinforcing, and we have got to take them all on. So it’s not enough for your economic plan to be: break up the banks.”

 

In her speech, Clinton also implied that she, unlike her opponent, had forged lasting relationships with the African American community – a point several of the black leaders and politicians supporting her, including congressman John Lewis, who is campaigning for Clinton, and former NAACP president Hazel Dukes have hammered.

 

“You can’t just show up at election time and say the right things and think that’s enough. We can’t start building relationships a few weeks before a vote,” she said to applause.

 

Several states south, Sanders was working on building those relationships. He held multiple events in South Carolina, beginning his day with a prayer breakfast at Allen University, a small historically black college in Columbia.

 

He spoke next at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where he was introduced by Erica Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, who died after a police officer placed him a chokehold.

 

“I’m tired of seeing videos, videos of Erica’s dad and other videos of unarmed people being killed by police officers,” Sanders said. “What is going on now, especially with regard to African Americans – this is not new … Clearly as a nation we need criminal justice reform.”

 

Speaking before a largely white crowd in Columbia, Sanders railed against the “welfare queen” – Walmart – and pledged to overhaul the criminal justice system by holding law enforcement officers who break the law accountable and police departments more reflective of the communities they serve.

 

“Count me in as somebody who if elected president will help lead the country in the fight against institutional racism and a broken criminal justice system,” he said.

 

Kendall Bellard, a 22-year-old biology student, was among the crowd of people who waited in line to see Sanders speak at the University of South Carolina in Columbia on Tuesday.

 

“He believes healthcare is a right for all people,” Bellard said. “That’s my main issue I’m concentrating on. Most Americans are either underinsured or not insured at all.”

 

Bellard, who plans to vote for Sanders, said Clinton’s enduring support among black voters is due largely to her husband’s legacy.

 

“She is definitely getting the minority of our parents because of Bill,” Bellard said of former president, Bill Clinton. “A lot of older African Americans say he was actually the first African American president.”

 

“I think a lot will be hoping Hillar-y will be like Bill. So they’ve not really given Bernie Sanders a chance even though he’s talking about the issues important to us.”

 

Though Sanders has kept pace with Clinton so far – forcing her to a near-draw in Iowa and trouncing her in New Hampshire – he must make inroads with communities of color to remain competitive as the race moves toward more diverse states. In recent weeks, Sanders has moved to strengthen his support among black voters, whose support Clinton is counting on to power her to victory in southern states.

 

A CNN survey published on Tuesday found that Clinton holds a commanding lead over Sanders in South Carolina ahead of the state’s 27 February primary.

 

Clinton led Sanders by 18 percentage points, the poll found. It also highlighted Clinton’s deep support among black voters, who favored her by a margin of 60% to 33%. But in a sign that the dynamics could still shift, roughly a third of likely black voters said they had not yet committed to a candidate, compared with six in 10 whites who said they had.

 

Sanders’ message of income inequality and political revolution appears to be gaining some traction among black voters in South Carolina.

 

About 40 miles east of Charleston in the city of Sumter, whose population is 49% African American, Vincent Spann echoed the notion of the Bill effect.

 

“If you go into black households in the south you’ll see a picture on the wall,” said Spann, 38, the owner of Ice clothing store. “You’ll see three people in the picture. One, John F Kennedy. The other is Martin Luther King. The third is Malcolm X.”

 

Spann said that African Americans of a certain age “will always have an affinity towards the Kennedys”, and that Bill Clinton was the first candidate in modern times to tap into that legacy.

 

“They fought for causes that people of African American race definitely think were important,” Spann said. “In the next generation Clinton represented the white guy who cared about the black problem.”

 

As for Sanders, Spann said the Vermont senator’s relative unpopularity among African Americans was “purely recognition”.

 

“They don’t even know the politics of Bernie Sanders,” he said.

 

A few doors down is the Bell Package store, which sells predominantly liquor. The owner, Leon, asked to use his first name only. He planned to vote for Sanders.

 

“I like Bernie Sanders. He tells you how the inside works and how the big boys on top get there and stay there.”

 

Leon, 60, was baffled by Bill Clinton’s enduring popularity.

 

“You got a man from Arkansas, he ran for president, been up there eight years,” he said. “And I can’t name two things he did for African Americans. But people bought into it.”

 

As for Hillar-y, Leon said: “I don’t know how she got to be popular among African Americans.”

 

“I can’t name one thing she did for the African American race. She was New York senator and she never did anything for the African American people there.”

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/17/Hillarious-clinton-bernie-sanders-black-voters-south-carolina-southern-states