Black Voters Can Pick the Democratic Presidential Candidate. Will We?

The awesome power to choose the next Democratic presidential candidate can be in Black voters’ hands.  But ONLY IF, we vote.

In sound captured on The Daily podcast (Feb 28), the former Vice President Joe Biden said that “the African American community in South Carolina can make a judgement about who the next president of the United States is gonna be.” He continued to tell this congregation in the Palmetto state, “You can control this outcome.”

Biden’s reading of the race for the White House is shared by others, such as pollster Cornell Belcher, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and NAACP President Derrick Johnson. Before the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee, Belcher remarked that Black voters, particularly women, are the foundation of the Democratic Party. A winning Democratic nominee for president will have to build a coalition of voters around this base.  

A day before the second presidential primary and four days before 14 states vote on Super Tuesday, Scarborough asked the NAACP President Derrick Johnson: Should South Carolina be first? The MSNBC host and former lawmaker reasoned that Black voters are the base of the Party and over 65 percent of the Democratic electorate in the second primary state on the 2020 calendar.

Johnson echoed Belcher’s sentiment. He responded to Scarboro’s question by saying that South Carolina is the beginning. He explained in sobering terms how important Black voters are to all candidates seeking the White House. In 2016, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lost Michigan by 10,704 votes. Put another way, then-candidate Donald Trump won by .023 percent of the vote, the slimmest margin of victory in any presidential election in the state’s history. At the same time, 28,000 voters in predominantly Black Detroit skipped voting for the top of the ticket.

Michigan alone could not have changed the occupant in the White House. It would have needed help from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania too. Thanks to a vestige of slavery, the Electoral College, Trump won by 77,000 votes out of 136 million ballots cast, even though Hillary Clinton received almost three million more votes.

Black voters, especial young voters, have the power to change the direction of this country. To exercise power on primary day, use this list to get prepared:

1.      Are you registered to vote?
Each state has different voting rules. You may be able to register online. Visit: www.usa.gov/register-to-vote

2.      Are you still registered to vote?
Check www.vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/ 

3.      Do you know where you vote?

Locate your polling place: www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/  

4.      Can you vote early?

Find out: www.vote.org/early-voting-calendar/

5.      Are you busy on primary day, so you need to vote by absentee ballot?

Request an absentee ballot: www.vote.org/absentee-ballot/

6.      Can you commit to bring three voters with you to the polls to vote on primary day?

Take pictures outside the polling place with your “I voted” sticker and share them using the hashtag #SistersLeadSistersVote.

7.      Commit to discuss these questions with your family and friends.

Share news developments with your social media community.

Change does not happen by itself. It is time to get fiery and passionate about voting. Make a plan and vote. Inspire friends and family to go to the polls.

Holli Holliday is a practicing lawyer and president of Sisters Lead Sisters Vote, a nonprofit c4 organization for, by and of black women.