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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow High Black Turnout Gave Terry McAuliffe His Win In Virginia
One of the big questions of the next few years of politics is whether Democrats can replicate the Obama model of minority turnout without the presence of Obama on the ballot. If the Virginia gubernatorial election was a test case, then the early answer is a clear yes. Cuccinelli maintained the GOPs traditional advantage with white and married women, winning the former by sixteen point spread of 54 percent to 38 percent, and the latter by a solid margin of 51 percent to 42 percent.
Where the change from 2009 was most significant was among black voters. Then, African Americans were 16 percent were of the electorate, a significant drop from the 2008 election. This year, blacks were 20 percent of all voters, which means their turnout was exactly where it was in 2012.
Put another way, for the second year in a row, African Americans turned out at a rate above their percentage of the population, and supported the Democrat by a 9-to1 margin. This is huge. For McAuliffe, what it meant is thatfor almost every black voter who went to the pollshe could count on a vote, giving him crucial support in a tight race. To wit, more than 37 percent of his vote total came from African Americans.
More here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/06/how-high-african-american-turnout-gave-terry-mcauliffe-his-win-in-virginia.html
http://theobamadiary.com/
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)scheming daemons
(25,487 posts)It motivates people to get off their rumps and vote when they hear there is a group of people trying to stop them from voting.
JPZenger
(6,819 posts)I've seen some studies that the "gender gap" that often favors Dems really is because of very lop-sided support for Dems among African-American women. Often the Repubs still get half of the vote for white women.
The key has been high rates of voter turnout by African-American women in recent races. Their turnout was partly motivated as a reaction to Republican voter suppression laws. There is some evidence that the backlash against Republicans by minority voters caused Repubs much more harm in votes than any positive gain they could have obtained from voter suppression.
"No rich old white guys are going to tell me I can't vote."
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)really doesn't sound like that much.