Sanders Is Behind With Black Voters. He Didn't Fix That in Flint.

[RandySF]

The event itself was an acknowledgment that Mr. Sanders is still struggling to improve his standing among black voters four years after he lost his first run for president in part because of his inability to gain their support.

On Super Tuesday last week, Mr. Biden outperformed Mr. Sanders by 40 points or more among black voters in Texas, North Carolina and Virginia. In several states, Mr. Sanders came in third among black voters, behind not only Mr. Biden but also Michael R. Bloomberg.

In Flint, Mr. Sanders drew only a smattering of nonwhite voters to his Saturday night event, advertised as a “racial and economic justice town hall” with the candidate.

Five years after Michigan switched Flint’s water supply to the contaminated Flint River from Lake Huron, the city is still dealing with the aftereffects of the lead crisis, which exposed nearly 30,000 schoolchildren to a neurotoxin known to have detrimental effects on children’s developing brains and nervous systems. Neurological and behavioral problems — real or feared — among students are threatening to overwhelm the education system.

Those lingering challenges were not given significant attention during Mr. Sanders’s remarks.

Aides say Mr. Sanders is still working to improve his standing with black voters, admitting that winning Michigan — a state where African-Americans make up a significant portion of the Democratic primary electorate — will be an uphill climb. Exit polling and survey data indicate that Mr. Sanders is also facing declining support among working-class white voters.



https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/us/politics/bernie-sanders-michigan.html

[Me.]

1. How Could He Be After Voting Against Them & Their Water Problem?

[oasis]

9. BERNIE SANDERS VOTED AGAINST FUNDING for Flint water crisis.

What excuse could possibly be adequate?

[Me.]

10. ...

[Gothmog]

2. Sanders is not helping himself on this key group of voters

Link to tweet

[True Blue American]

8. Kamala endorsed Biden.

[Blue_true]

11. The Bloody Sunday March shows the tone deafness of Sanders.

Rep. Lewis is facing an illness that kills 90% of the people that get it within 4 years of diagnosis, 100% not much after. Statistically Rep. Lewis doesn't have much more time to grace us with his presence.

Kamala Harris was there to provide moral support, so was Speaker Pelosi and other House and Senate members. Biden and other candidates at the time, other than Sanders and Gabbard were there.

Sanders worked beside Rep. Lewis for close to two decades in the House, yet Sanders found a concert more important than being in Selma for what could have been Rep. Lewis last appearance there. That is being totally tone deaf.

[NurseJackie]

14. It's appalling.

[Moderateguy]

3. Aides say that Mr. Sanders is working to improve his standing with AA voters....

He better get a move on, he’s already way behind and it’s the third leg of the race

[True Blue American]

4. The last I heard on the news

Was the Black Church was filled with mostly whites.

[Indykatie]

5. The Lack of POC at Bernie and Warren's Events Held in Urban Areas Spoke Volumes About Their

strength as general election candidates. It's not rocket science to understand that success in NH or IA means jack sh*t if you can't replicate that success once POC get to vote. That fact alone should tell the Dem Party that it's ridiculous to start the primary cycle in IA and NH, states that look nothing like the broader Dem electorate.

[True Blue American]

7. Terry McAulliffe

Said they would not be first again. He brought the DNC out of debt, built a new headquarters. I am sure he still has influence.

[Blue_true]

12. So was his rally in Detroit.

Sanders has a transactional relationship with African Americans, he calls upon us when he need us or thinks that he will need us soon, but he doesn't think about us or commemorate with us at any other time.

[Cha]

6. Yeah.. whatever.

[brooklynite]

13. Mayor of Flint endorses Biden...

Link to tweet

?s=20