Despite getting drubbed on Super Tuesday in states with a high black Democratic voter turnout, Sen. Bernie Sanders was supposed to speak in Jackson, Miss. on Friday.
That trip has been cancelled, the New York Times reports.
After holding a rally in Phoenix on Thursday night, Mr. Sanders had been scheduled to travel to Jackson on Friday for a rally focused on racial justice.
The change in plans suggests that Mr. Sanders will not challenge Mr. Biden for the support of black voters in the South — a vital base in the Democratic Party — and is instead going all-in on the Midwest as he tries to compete with Mr. Biden for working-class voters there. Black voters in the South have overwhelmingly backed Mr. Biden to this point, and on Super Tuesday their support lifted him in states like Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia.
I would quibble with their wording, since “the Midwest” has working class voters of all races. Note that, in this context, “working class” = “white” to the campaign and the Times, in direct opposition to “black voters in the south.”
It’s noteworthy that Sanders was recently endorsed by the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba.
Twitter’s response to the news was instantaneous.