Bernie hasn’t lost the ‘black vote’
Despite his big loss in South Carolina, Sen. Sanders continues to gain in black support nationally
Joe Biden’s massive win in South Carolina prompted a lot of tea leaf reading about its implications for the Democratic primary, with many in the punditocracy treating it as a strong indicator of which way the “black vote” will break in remaining contests. Case in point: Mother Jones came out with an article on Sunday titled “Bernie Sanders Lost the Black Vote. That’s Probably a Problem Going Forward.”
It leads with this:
In the ballroom of a convention center in Columbia, South Carolina, Bernie Sanders campaign co-chair Nina Turner stared out at the crowd of supporters that had gathered for what they’d hoped would be another victory party. The group was much smaller than the ones who’d flocked to see her and Sanders throughout South Carolina that week, but it did share one key characteristic with its predecessors: It was mostly white. And that was precisely the problem for the Sanders campaign in a state where two-thirds of the primary electorate is Black.
While the author provides a more nuanced analysis deeper into the piece, the overall framing feeds into a well-established narrative: Bernie’s base is “mostly white” (it’s not) and he’s…
