Biden has consistently said he is the choice of black voters because "they know me."
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An interesting presentation of numbers on Meet The Press today suggested "it may be because black voters just look a lot like Biden's other core constituency groups, regardless of race."
What's your theory?
This week: “I come out of the black community, in terms of my support. If you notice, I have more people supporting me in the black community that have announced for me, because they know me, they know who I am. Three former chairs of the Black Caucus, the only African-American woman that has ever been elected to the United States Senate. A whole range of people.”
Joe Biden Stumbles Again on Race at the Fifth Democratic Debate
An hour and a half into the fifth Democratic debate, the moderators’ questions turned to the topic of race, and the former Vice-President delivered one his characteristic flubs.
August: “The bad news is that I have a long record, but the good news is that I have a long record,” Mr. Biden said in an interview with a group of black journalists. “People know me, or at least they think they know me, after all this time. They have a sense of who my character is and who I am — warts and all.”
Biden Extols His Black Support: ‘I Think They Know Me’ (Published 2019)
In an interview with black journalists, the former vice president cited his support among black voters to push back on criticism of his candidacy as focused on the white working class.
An interesting presentation of numbers on Meet The Press today suggested "it may be because black voters just look a lot like Biden's other core constituency groups, regardless of race."
Many of the Democratic 2020 hopefuls used Wednesday night's Democratic debate in Atlanta to court African American voters, whose support, so far, has kept Joe Biden on top, nationally. But just how sturdy is that support? Well, we decided to dig into data from our NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls conducted all throughout this year, combined them into one big poll. Biden is still the clear frontrunner in our poll, among voters overall. In fact, among black voters, he does even better. He's at 50%, among African American voters, compared to just 12% for Elizabeth Warren, 10% for Bernie Sanders, and just 2% for Pete Buttigieg. Now, some may chalk this up, simply, to Biden's high name ID and his time serving as vice president to the first African American president. But in fact, it may be because black voters just look a lot like Biden's other core constituency groups, regardless of race. Only 34% of black Democrats call themselves liberal. That's a 20-point drop from other Democrats, compared with 61% of Democratic African American primary voters, who self-describe as moderate or conservative, 16 points higher than the rest of the Democratic Party, overall. And how about age? Only 18% of the African American primary vote, right now, is in the 18-to-34-year-old age group. That's nine points lower than the party, overall. That's compared with 57% of African American primary voters, who are 50 and older, six points higher than the party, overall. So look at it. Older, moderate, or conservative voters, they've always been voters that Biden has been able to win over. That's true even when you remove race from the equation. And that might make black voters less likely to support sweeping changes that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren are running on. They're looking for a small “c” conservative change. Is that Joe Biden? And as this race shifts south, black voters could keep Biden in the front of the pack, regardless of what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire.
What's your theory?
