'There's a blind spot': Sanders reboots black voter outreach

[brooklynite]

Politico

FLINT, Mich. — No Democrat has won the party’s presidential nomination in the last 30 years without the support of a majority of black voters. And Bernie Sanders won’t either unless he figures out how to win over voters like Travis Gilbert’s mom, Elaine.

The 20-year-old black man brought his mother to Sanders’ town hall in Flint on Saturday in hopes of winning her vote for Sanders before the March 10 primary. Sanders’ aides had said he was going to make the case for why black voters should support him over Joe Biden.

But Sanders scrapped the speech, and by the end of the night, failed to convince Elaine Gilbert that he could defeat President Donald Trump. “I go back and forth between Bernie and Biden,” said Elaine. “The socialism is probably the biggest thing for me.”

Just as in 2016, Sanders’ inability to secure the backing of most African-American voters — particularly those who are middle-aged and older — is suffocating his campaign.

[honest.abe]

1. Sanders had 4 years to figure out his "black voter" problem.

Zero progress.

[Sloumeau]

2. Biden built much of his campaign around the Black voter.

Bernie Sanders...not so much.

[Indykatie]

3. It Would Help if Bernie Had Some AA Surrogates That Were Respected in The AA Community

Nina Turner and Cornel West won't cut it. Both are viewed correctly as being anti-Obama and that matters to the AA community. The same applies to Jesse Jackson but he is at least viewed better than Cornel and Nina even though he also had some anti-Obama animus.

[comradebillyboy]

4. It's not just black voter outreach, Bernie hasn't reached out

to anyone outside his 2016 base. He did nothing to seek support from Hillary's 65 million voters. He thought the other candidates would stay in to the bitter end and keep the vote divided enough for a 30% plurality to win the nomination for him.