LaTosha Brown is co-founder of Black Voters Matter; Tiffany D. Cross is a political analyst and author of the forthcoming book, “Say It Louder! Black Voters, White Narratives, & Saving Our Democracy”; Brittany Packnett Cunningham is an activist, educator and writer; Alicia Garza is principal of Black Futures Lab and host of the “Lady Don’t Take No” podcast; Sunny Hostin is a lawyer, author and co-host of “The View”; Angela Rye, host of “On One with Angela Rye,” is a commentator and political strategist; Amanda Seales is a comedian, author and creator of “Smart Funny & Black.”
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The truth telling starts right up front:
Black women are miracle workers. We have been the Democrats’ most reliable voting bloc since passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Most recently, we resurrected Joe Biden’s campaign.
This year is no different: Biden’s only path to victory is through black women and the voters we know how to energize. Though we have propped up the Democratic Party for decades, the return on our investment in the party might as well read, “insufficient funds.”
Those days are over. We are here to collect.
Very simply, Vice President Biden: You owe us, you need us and you must not take our votes for granted — they must be earned. To earn the engagement, excitement and, most importantly, the votes you need, we believe many black voters need the following commitments:
America needs a black woman as vice president
We do not agree with other influential black leaders who suggest that having a black woman on the ticket is not necessary. Black female elected leaders throughout the country have shown themselves to be formidable champions of justice, expert coalition builders, highly effective legislators and compelling communicators
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.Biden’s campaign was nowhere until South Carolina. He came in fourth and fifth place in Iowa and New Hampshire and second in Nevada. These elections were mostly caucuses and mostly very white. They did not reflect the country or the diversity of the Democratic Party very well. Then, the base showed up. The base of the Democratic Party is black women. They are our most consistent voters. They have earned the right to lead the party. They rescued Joe Biden. Without them, he does not become the nominee. Without them, he is not even close to the nomination. They saved his candidacy pure and simple. They chose him !
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The writers point out that targeting white swing voters didn’t help Secretary Clinton nor did it help President Obama in his elections in 2008 and 2012. This next part may be hard for some to read, but the authors lay out why choosing Senator Amy Klobuchar is problematic:
A choice such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), who failed to prosecute controversial police killings and is responsible for the imprisonment of Myon Burrell, will only alienate black voters. These are the same voters who may be forced this fall to take personal risks to line up and vote in many states, especially where Republican efforts to suppress mail-in voting are successful. This is a lot to ask amid a coronavirus pandemic that is disproportionately more deadly to black people.
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.There are defenses to this, but the question isn’t whether or not white people are satisfied with the defenses, but rather whether or not black voters will be satisfied with the defenses. They said that Joe Biden himself is enough to attract white swing voters. I agree with the authors completely. Nevertheless, there is an argument which I don’t personally subscribe to, but which can be made. If Biden himself is able to attract white swing voters, those same white swing voters will need a similar type of candidate that appeals to them since they know that he will be 78 when he starts his first term if he wins. These white swing voters know that Biden is 78 years of age and may not be able to complete his term and so they will want to be satisfied with his running mate. Furthermore, the states that will determine who wins the electoral college are Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Michigan is 75% white and 13.6% black. Wisconsin is 87% white and 6.7% black. Pennsylvania is 82% white and 11% black. Therefore, since these are very white states, an argument can be made that these are the voters who will determine who will win the electoral college. The similarity score of Minnesota is in the top five with Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Similarity score, derived by 538, is determined by political characteristics, geographical similarity and demographic similarity. Therefore, Senator Klobuchar’s electoral history in Minnesota is likely to transfer to those states. She won the open seat by 20% in 2006, she won reelection in 2012 by 32% (President Obama only won there by 8%), and she won reelection in 2018 by 24% (Secretary Clinton won it by 2%). She won by far more than a replacement standard Democrat. She won rural districts that Trump won by 20%. She also is extremely similar to Joe Biden in terms of where he would naturally gravitate to policy wise. Unfortunately, I think it is extraordinarily likely that he picks Senator Klobuchar and those are the arguments for her. I present them to be intellectually honest and so that people can read the best arguments for her.
The potential voters we need are not voters who favor Senator Klobuchar. We need to boost our turnout among people of color, especially black people, and people who label themselves as progressives. Those elections (2006, 2012, and 2018) were all favorable for Democrats, but there is no way to reasonably deny that she over-performed the wave in those years. We need to boost enthusiasm and excitement, especially among black voters. Of the black voters who vote, we will win a high percentage. Black women consistently vote. Still, there is room for us to boost our turnout among black voters and the failure to do this was one major reason why Secretary Clinton lost. Last time, we ran an all white ticket (Secretary Hillary Clinton and Senator Tim Kaine). We began with a very diverse pool of candidates and ended up with a white man in his late 70s. We cannot have another all white ticket. It will depress turnout. It does not demonstrate how much we appreciate black women carrying the weight for us in elections. They have been more than loyal to us. They are our leaders. We need to acknowledge that by putting them in leadership positions. I find it very likely, personally, that Joe Biden will not run for reelection in 2024. If Joe Biden wins, whoever is his vice president will immediately begin as a strong front-runner for the nomination in 2024. This must be a black woman. Black voters carried Joe Biden from last place to the nomination. He needs to respond to that fact by choosing a black woman. We need a great campaigner who will bring about enthusiasm. There are two ways to do that: choose a super progressive candidate or choose a progressive woman of color, especially a black woman. White liberals would be very excited to see Senator Warren (who was my second choice after Senator Harris) as Biden’s running mate. These are the people who do the phone banking and the canvassing. However, again, we should not, we must not run a second all white ticket. That would be the worst possible message to our base, black women voters. The other way to generate enthusiasm is to choose a woman of color. While Hispanics are important for our victories in many states including Arizona, Colorado, and Florida, there are not as many Hispanics in the three states which will determine who wins the electoral college: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Moreover, specifically, it is BLACK WOMEN who are the base of the party. It was not Hispanics who turned around Joe Biden’s campaign. IT WAS BLACK WOMEN. They are the ones who are our most consistent and reliable voters. While choosing an Hispanic woman would definitely be better than choosing a white woman, the best choice is a black woman.
There are a number of good candidates who are black women: Senator Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and Representative Val Demings. I would, of course, fully support any of these three choices.
Here is a bit of the bio of Stacey Abrams.
Stacey received degrees from Spelman College, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, and Yale Law School.
Stacey's Work
She put her education to work to better the lives of Georgians through the government, nonprofit, and business sectors. Dedicated to civic engagement, she founded the New Georgia Project, which submitted more than 200,000 registrations for voters of color between 2014 and 2016. Under the pen name Selena Montgomery, Stacey is the award-winning author of eight romantic suspense novels, which have sold more than 100,000 copies. As co-founder of NOW Account – a financial services firm that helps small businesses grow – Stacey has helped create and retain jobs in Georgia
From President Barack Obama
"In a time when too many folks are focused simply on how to win an election, Stacey’s somebody who cares about something more important: why we should. That’s the kind of politics we should practice. That’s why I’m proud to give Stacey Abrams my support."
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Here is her electoral experience:
Stacey’s Leadership
In 2010, Stacey became the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly and the first African American to lead in the House of Representatives. As House Minority Leader, she has worked strategically to recruit, train, elect, and defend Democrats to prevent a Republican supermajority in the House, and has worked across the aisle on behalf of all Georgians. During her tenure, she has stopped legislation to raise taxes on the poor and middle class and to roll back reproductive healthcare. She has brokered compromises that led to progress on transportation, infrastructure, and education. Most recently, she passed legislation to improve the welfare of grandparents and other kin raising children and secured increased funding to support these families.
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Let there be no doubt that she is far more qualified than Donald Trump. She would boost turnout among black voters. She is a dynamic and engaging speaker and campaigner. However, she does not have the high level governing experience that one would ideally want in a running mate for a presidential candidate who will be 78 years of age when he enters the office if he wins. Many voters are aware of his age and they will not vote for him if they do not believe that his running mate is qualified and prepared to serve as president on Day One should something happen to him. Even though she should be governor right now and it was clearly an ethical conflict of interest for Brian Kemp to oversee an election in which he himself is a candidate, she still did not end up in the governor’s mansion and she, therefore, does not have high level governing experience. All black women are NOT EQUAL. So, even though I would support her and the ticket if she were on it, there is clearly a better choice.
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.A second choice is Val Demings.
Valdez Venita Demings (née Butler; born March 12, 1957) is an American politician and retired law enforcement officer who serves as the United States Representative from Florida's 10th congressional district, serving since 2017. She served as Chief of the Orlando Police Department, the first woman to hold the position. She was the Democratic nominee in both 2012 and 2016 to represent Florida's 10th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, the latter of which Demings won.[3] On January 15, 2020, Speaker Nancy Pelosi selected Demings to serve as an impeachment manager in the Senate trial of President Donald J. Trump.
Valdez Venita Butler was born on March 12, 1957,[5] one of seven children born to a poor family; her father worked in orange groves, while her mother was a housekeeper. They lived in Mandarin, a neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida. She attended segregated schools in the 1960s, graduating from Wolfson High School in the 1970s.[6]
Her desire for a career in law enforcement came when Demings served in the "school patrol" at Dupont Junior High School. She attended Florida State University, graduating with a degree in criminology in 1979.[6] She continued her education at Webster University Orlando, earning a master’s degree in public administration in 1996.
Demings was sworn in on January 3, 2017. She is a member of the New Democrat Coalition[20] and the Congressional Black Caucus.[21]
On December 18, 2019, Demings voted for both articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.[22] Demings was selected as one of seven impeachment managers who presented the impeachment case against Trump during his trial before the United States Senate.
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.Representative Val Demings, in my view, seems more qualified based upon her experience both serving as police chief and serving in the federal government as a US Representative. She was chosen to be an impeachment manager which is a real feather in her cap. Nevertheless, there is another black woman who clearly has a stronger background and that stronger background is likely to be important to voters given Joe Biden’s age.
.The best choice in my view is Senator Kamala Harris.
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Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ/ KAH-mə-lə;[1] born October 20, 1964) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States Senator from California since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 27th District attorney of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011 and 32nd Attorney General of California from 2011 until 2017.
Harris was born in Oakland, California, and is a graduate of Howard University and University of California, Hastings College of the Law. In the 1990s, she worked in the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and the City Attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2004, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco.
Harris won the election as California's Attorney General in 2010 by less than 1 point and about 50,000 votes. She was re-elected in 2014 by a wide margin. On November 8, 2016, she defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to succeed outgoing Senator Barbara Boxer, becoming California's third female U.S. Senator, and the first of either Jamaican or Indian ancestry.[2] Since becoming a senator, she has supported single-payer healthcare, federal descheduling of cannabis, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault rifles, and lowering the tax burden for the working and middle classes while raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest one percent of Americans
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.She has, in my view, a background that demonstrates that she is qualified and totally and completely prepared to serve as president on Day One. She has a secret weapon: she was a member of a black sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. She graduated from an historically black college / university: Howard University. She has true ties to our base, black women. She served in a district attorney’s office and as City Attorney and as district attorney. She ran for and won the position of Attorney General for the most populous state in the union which has the sixth largest economy in the world and then ran for and won reelection to the same position. This is an executive position, a position in which she oversaw a large number of employees and in a high position representing so many people in such a populous state. Then, she ran for and won a position as a US Senator from California. With her background, no credible attack upon her ability to serve as president on Day One if it is necessary. In my view, she is far more prepared than the other two black women candidates who are being considered. She has substantial executive branch experience and she has experience in the federal government as a US Senator from California. She not only is black, but she went to and graduated from an HBCU and was a member of a black sorority. She is Asian American in her ancestry with ties to the AAPI community. She is a gifted communicator who has the IT factor. She is a great campaigner. She is undoubtedly qualified and prepared to be president on Day One. She is also not going to scare of moderate voters. Therefore, in my view, she would be the best choice to be Joe Biden’s running mate.
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America needs a black female Supreme Court justice
While we credit Biden for pledging to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court, he must do more. His apology to Anita Hill came late and fell flat. Of the 114 justices who have served on our highest court, no black woman has ever been nominated, despite there being many talented and qualified candidates. The Supreme Court is poised in coming terms to make crucial decisions on such issues as mass incarceration and voting rights. The black community’s needs must be fully represented on the bench if a seat becomes available
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.Finally, they point out that we need a :
America needs a comprehensive black agenda
A comprehensive framework for next steps is Black Agenda 2020, which grew out of largest survey of black people conducted in America in 155 years.
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.I strongly recommend reading the entire piece and the links within the piece. It is a strong and powerful message worth the time to read and implement.