The 2020 black vote: Warren searches; Trump surges

Elizabeth Warren may be rising in the polls, but she still faces one major uphill battle in earning the presidential nomination from the Democrat Party: earning the support of black voters.

And after The New York Times ran a surprising piece on Warren’s recent struggles to connect with black voters — the outlook did not appear any brighter for the Massachusetts senator.

(Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Pete Marovich)

Covering a rally Warren held at Clinton College, a predominantly black institution in South Carolina, The Times reported something remarkable.

“When Ms. Warren looked out at the audience, she saw mostly white faces,” reported the Times.

And that’s despite Warren making a clear effort to gain traction with black voters. Campaign staffers were even handing out signs at Clinton College that reads things like “African Americans With Warren” and “Black issues are American issues.”

Add to that, the paper reported that a rally held in South Carolina only six weeks before also failed to bring out black voters.

“Six weeks earlier, when she held a rally in Aiken, S.C., the crowd that turned out was also predominantly white,” the Times reported.

“The way I see this is that African-American women have really been the backbone of the Democratic Party for generations now,” Warren told reporters when asked about the lack of black voter support to her campaign. “They get out there and they fight for people. And what I’m doing is showing up and trying to talk to people about why I’m in this fight.”

Six in 10 Democratic primary voters in South Carolina in 2016 were black. South Carolina is an essential win for anyone seeking the presidential nomination.

A CNN poll found that Warren is polling at 16 percent in South Carolina, trailing behind Biden’s 37 percent. When you break South Carolina down to just black voters, Warren almost disappears. The CNN poll finds that Warren only polls at 4 percent, while Biden polls at 45 percent.

Democrats are typically supposed to poll well among black voters, so this spells bad news for Warren as she is not exciting black Democrat voters.

Warren has a string of other controversies to worry about too. There’s her recent firing of a senior campaign staffer for “inappropriate behavior,” as well as reports that she has been lying about being fired from a teacher job for being pregnant.

Looking ahead to the general election in 2020 and the picture becomes even more bleak for Warren — and any other potential Democratic nominee — because President Trump has made a big show of his own growing support among black voters.

On Friday, the president brought 300 black supporters to the White House, including celebrity supporters like comedian Terrence Williams and actor Isaiah Washington.

There were chants of “USA! USA!” and “four more years” in the room — a stark contrast to Warren’s rallies.

“You broke the sound barrier,” Trump told the audience after the chants. “I’ve never heard it quite like that, and I appreciate it. We love you.”

“You built the nation. We all built it, but you were such a massive part of it. Bigger than you were given credit for. Does that make sense?” Trump later said to the crowd.

“No one in America has been hurt more as a result of the Democrats’ corrupt leadership and socialist policies than our nation’s African American community,” he later added in a pitch to potential black voters. “It’s true. That’s true.”

While Trump got less than 10 percent of the black vote in 2016, that could really change if he ends up going against someone like Warren. And if the excitement building at his rallies are any indication, he’s on track to do just that.

It’s also worth noting that the passion Trump voters have is exclusive to no color. They show a liveliness that you just don’t see in crowds coming out for Democrats like Warren.

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