POTUS Contenders Court Minority Vote
The beginning of a run of minority-heavy electorate States starts smack in the middle of Black History Month. So, cue the tires screeching as all the POTUS candidates crank the wheel to jump into the Courting Minority Voters lane of this White House race. Maybe you remember a few years back when once and future POTUS candidate Hillary Clinton tried out her Ebonics on a fairly diverse crowd at a campaign rally. While most folks rolled their eyes, her political opponents had a field day. Not that it’s stopped them from doing their own policy shifts in order to gain some ground in these minority heavy states. It begins in South Carolina. While, overall, the GOP stands to have the toughest time connecting, DEM candidate Bernie Sanders is just as disadvantaged here as he was advantaged in Vermont. Hillary Clinton, despite her previous ill-fated attempts to curry favor with minority voters, smells blood. She’s ramping up the attacks against Sanders across the Deep South, anticipating wins in
South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Part of Clinton’s strategy and this should work, is using her relationship with President Obama to gain some traction and drive a wedge between Bernie and black voters. “He has called the President weak, a disappointment,” Clinton said of Sanders at a town hall Friday. “He does not support, the way I do, building on the progress the President has made.” Now, Clinton has used that “building on the progress…” line a lot in the debates, trying to separate herself from Sanders on healthcare and entitlement reform. However, the key part of that statement is, “weak.” That word, spoken about Obama, comes right out of the GOP playbook. Nearly every current GOP candidate has called Obama weak on foreign policy and terrorism. Some have made it the centerpiece of their campaigns to date. So, in using that particular loaded term, Clinton hopes black voters react to Sanders the same way they do when a GOP candidate hurls that insult. Will it work for Clinton as well as it is working against the GOP where black voters are concerned? Time – and the upcoming primary – will tell. Jonah Engler is an entrepreneur from NYC.