Clinton aims to boost campaign with focus on black voters

[webfact]

Clinton aims to boost campaign with focus on black voters
By LISA LERER and KEN THOMAS

MILWAUKEE (AP) — After an overwhelming loss in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton is staking a campaign comeback on her ability to woo black and Latino voters, placing outreach to those communities at the center of her strategy to re-energize her 2016 bid.

The 22-point loss to rival Bernie Sanders in this week's primary heightened concerns among Democrats that Clinton's message is failing to win over both women and young voters — two key parts of the coalition that twice elected Barack Obama to the White House.

The New Hampshire defeat, along with Clinton's razor-thin win in the leadoff Iowa caucuses, raised the stakes for Clinton to rally minority voters — another pillar of the Obama coalition — in the contests coming up in Nevada and South Carolina.

As the contest fans out across the country, Clinton's campaign is casting her as a stalwart advocate for racial justice, tracing back to her days working for the Children's Defense Fund in the 1970s. She will tie her future even closer to Obama, a deeply beloved figure among black Americans.

Clinton also plans to intensify her focus on issues of importance to minority voters, such as immigration, civil rights and gun control, dispatching African-American supporters to make her case and launching a flurry of attacks to undermine any credibility Sanders may be building within the black community.

Focus-group surveys conducted by Clinton's campaign with undecided black voters in Charleston found that the former secretary of state has retained a high degree of trust with African-Americans, even as her numbers on trust and honesty have declined overall, according to Clinton aides.

While the voters were open to Sanders and liked his economic message, their views shifted after hearing about his plans to replace the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer health care system and his past opposition to gun control measures, the aides said.

"One candidate voted to give immunity to the gun manufacturers and opposed the Brady bill. ... I can't get past that," said Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., on Thursday as the Congressional Black Caucus' political action committee endorsed Clinton.

While Clinton still holds a big lead among party insiders known as superdelegates, who can support the candidate of their choice, the first two contests made clear that Sanders has undermined her once dominant position as the nomination favorite.

Her aides believe the next two contests and the primaries that follow in March, where minority voters make up a larger slice of the electorate than in overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire, could essentially decide the race.

She already has a head start with black voters. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll in late January showed African-American voters said they preferred Clinton to Sanders, 74 percent to 17 percent. That survey was conducted before her New Hampshire loss, leading Sanders and his team to believe that they can make inroads with minority voters.

But he'll be up against nearly a year of groundwork by Clinton and her team. Since launching her campaign in April, she's made criminal justice reform, gun violence and combating institutional racism central themes of her candidacy. Her team has spent months meeting with African-American leaders and voters, laying a base of support for the March contests.

Since New Hampshire, Clinton has launched a full-scale press, unveiling endorsements from top African-American leaders. At the CBC event on Thursday, Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon, said he would travel to South Carolina this weekend to campaign for her.

Clinton's team will also be rolling out the support of 119 black legislators in the March voting states. And she'll be endorsed by faith leaders in Flint, Michigan, adding to the 28 ministers and 50 black mayors who've already expressed support.

Meanwhile, Clinton supporters are targeting Sanders' record on issues like racial equality and criminal justice, even playing down his early support for the civil rights movement as a college student who joined the 1963 March on Washington.

"Thousands of people walked on Washington. What are the real policy issues or legislation that he has presented?" said Dr. Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP's New York State Conference.

On Friday, Clinton will head to rural Bamberg County, South Carolina, a poor, majority-black area, to hold a town hall on racial and economic disparities. She's holding a Monday campaign event in Riviera Beach, Florida, a majority African-American city, before meeting with civil rights leaders on Tuesday and holding a campaign event with the mother of Sandra Bland, the Chicago-area woman whose death in a Texas jail cell has become a rallying cry for criminal justice reform.

Former President Bill Clinton is being dispatched to Memphis, Atlanta and Florence, South Carolina, and the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, is heading to Flint, where the crisis over water has become a symbol of racial and economic inequality.

Sanders' campaign plans to promote his personal story, arguing that his early work as a college civil rights activist and his message of economic equality will help diversify his support. On Wednesday, he held a heavily publicized breakfast with civil rights activist Al Sharpton in Harlem, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, an influential writer on racial issues, said he would vote for Sanders.

But his team also acknowledges that his constituency may be far stronger in states with less diverse Democratic electorates, like Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Massachusetts — all states where they launched new ads on Wednesday.

"Bernie Sanders has an incredibly powerful story to tell," said adviser Tad Devine. "His fight for equality and civil rights, his fight against inequality and economic injustice is very, very powerful. It's going to resonate with the African-American community."
___

Lerer reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Donna Cassata contributed from Washington.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-12

[Pimay1]

Bernie has teamed up with Al Sharpton. I wonder if Hillary will team up with Louis Farrakhan?

[Steely Dan]

Bernie has teamed up with Al Sharpton. I wonder if Hillary will team up with Louis Farrakhan?

Truly a race to the bottom.

[NeverSure]

The message here isn't that Bernie is strong. It's that Hillary is really that weak. She's pathetic.

Why in God's green earth did the Democrats place all of their hopes on that loser?

[Grouse]

I thought Bill was great and it would be great to see him get another 8 years in the White House

Hillary needs to steal some of Bernie's clothes!

Hitting big pharma and getting university fees under control would be a start....

Don't, stop, thinking about tomorrow la, la, la

[NeverSure]

I thought Bill was great and it would be great to see him get another 8 years in the White House

Hillary needs to steal some of Bernie's clothes!

Hitting big pharma and getting university fees under control would be a start....

Don't, stop, thinking about tomorrow la, la, la

And class warfare has exactly what to do with Hillary's weaknesses? Oh I get it. She and Bill collected more than 60 million dollars in "speaking fees" in just the last two years from Wall Street and Big Pharma. Now that 1%er is going to convince "just who?" that she's for the little guy?

She's a joke. She's bought and paid for by Wall Street and her pandering to minorities is all she has left. I think she forgot what a "minority" means in an election.

[lannarebirth]

I thought Bill was great and it would be great to see him get another 8 years in the White House

Hillary needs to steal some of Bernie's clothes!

Hitting big pharma and getting university fees under control would be a start....

Don't, stop, thinking about tomorrow la, la, la

And class warfare has exactly what to do with Hillary's weaknesses? Oh I get it. She and Bill collected more than 60 million dollars in "speaking fees" in just the last two years from Wall Street and Big Pharma. Now that 1%er is going to convince "just who?" that she's for the little guy?

She's a joke. She's bought and paid for by Wall Street and her pandering to minorities is all she has left. I think she forgot what a "minority" means in an election.

Americans, and I'm sorry to say, African Americans, very often vote against their own self interest. They can't see that the company that was bundling sub prime loans, sold mostly in their neighborhoods, then shorted those financial instruments against their own clients interests, and then invited HRC, not once but three times to cheer them on for doing "God's Work"?

http://nypost.com/2016/02/10/why-hillary-wants-to-bury-her-rah-rah-goldman-speeches/

[Steely Dan]

. I think she forgot what a "minority" means in an election.

I think she's going to find out soon enough though when the votes are counted.

[Usernames]

After watching the latest debate, I'm sure that Hillary is now channeling John Howard Griffin.

[Publicus]

Black voters are not being conned by any of the righ wing blather going on in this crutial election campaign.

Black Americans know where Trump is on race, ethnicity, religion and all the rest of it, socially, culturally, politically. Same applies to Cruz. Rubio is young but he too has the same old racial values. Same for 99 percent of Republicans and other rightwhingers.

The right has tons of its skewed data. It is laughable rightwhingers might think they can get black Americans to join in whinging against the Democrats.

Black Americans fully well know Republican governors and R legislators make laws to stop or reduce blacks voting. Republicans are working to change Congressionaal redistricting to maximize the white vote and diminish the black and minority's vote.

Black Americans do not need HR Clinton or Bernie Sanders to alert themselves to more Republican and rightwhinge subterfuge, duplicity, political hand standing.

[Rancid]

Find the concept of endorsements intriguing, some character says they support some candidate and then what, all the lemmings then vote that way?

Weird, who cares who someone else supports, and what goodies will be coming their way for that endorsement?

[Jingthing]

It's a hard choice for African Americans as they are both strong on civil rights issues. But the consensus is still that HRC is more electable than Sanders, but that consensus is softening. Sanders is being given a good look now and he deserves that from all the democratic party constituencies, including independents as well.

From a personal identification POV, Bill Clinton was referred to before as REALLY the first black president because that man has soul, and it's true, he does.

HRC is trying to present herself as being blackish too based on the Bill connection, but that's not very believable.

Sanders is seen by African Americans as about as WHITE as you can possibly get. But the good news for Sanders is that probably YOUNGER African Americans will be more open than elders to his message, just as are all YOUNGER Americans.

Of course, if HRC loses her strong advantage with African American voters, then her path to being nominated might be finished.

Still, bottom line, republicans would much rather run against Sanders (the socialist stigma) than HRC, and nominating a possibly better choice does nothing if they are destined to be a LOSER.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Jingthing

[chuckd]

When Hillary drags Bill onto a stage at some event as he plays a saxophone will be a good clue her campaign is in trouble.

[Jingthing]

When Hillary drags Bill onto a stage at some event as he plays a saxophone will be a good clue her campaign is in trouble.

Good one.

[ggt]

WOW! This is such a BIG SURPRISE! Since the Dems in general...and the Clinton's in particular...have made a living off of courting minority groups in the US by giving them a sense of entitlement instead of insisting they become educated and join the workforce to help move the country forward...

You go Hillary!

Edited February 12, 2016 by ggt

[Publicus]

Find the concept of endorsements intriguing, some character says they support some candidate and then what, all the lemmings then vote that way?

Weird, who cares who someone else supports, and what goodies will be coming their way for that endorsement?

Endorsement happens as a natural occurrence in any given society.

A letter of reference is an endorsement. An amicus curia filing in a court of law is an endorsement. Sarah Palin endorsing Donald Trump is, well, an endorsement.

Nothing to see here. Keep the line moving plse thx.

[Publicus]

WOW! This is such a BIG SURPRISE! Since the Dems in general...and the Clinton's in particular...have made a living off of courting minority groups in the US by giving them a sense of entitlement instead of insisting they become educated and join the workforce to help move the country forward...

You go Hillary!

Rightwhinge.mythology strikes again.

Republicans and their fellow racial.warriors on the right are the oppressors and nine of ten black Americans 100 percent know it.

[Ulysses G.]

WOW! This is such a BIG SURPRISE! Since the Dems in general...and the Clinton's in particular...have made a living off of courting minority groups in the US by giving them a sense of entitlement instead of insisting they become educated and join the workforce to help move the country forward...

Indeed.

The Clintons have been no true friends to blacks.

[Publicus]

WOW! This is such a BIG SURPRISE! Since the Dems in general...and the Clinton's in particular...have made a living off of courting minority groups in the US by giving them a sense of entitlement instead of insisting they become educated and join the workforce to help move the country forward...

Indeed.

The Clintons have been no true friends to blacks.

Right wingers do not speak for black America. Nor should they presume to present themselves as knowing better than black Americans who are their allies in clear contrast to their enemies. Republicans have consciously made themselves the direct enemy of this vital public and voting constituency. The Republicans' problem is that they are Republicans.

[Jingthing]

Indeed.

African American voters, individually and collectively, have these voting decisions to make. Nobody else.

I expect the vast majority of them will do the right thing and reject the atrocious modern republican party, yet again.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Jingthing