Biden, Stressing Obama Ties, Has Support From Older Black Voters. Is It Enough?

[brooklynite]

New York Times

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. — In most respects it was a typical first Sunday at Brookland Baptist Church. The minister delivered a raucous sermon, communion was distributed and the choir closed the service with the gospel classic “Order My Steps,” which admonishes Christians that “Satan is busy, God is real.”

But when the benediction was completed, the rush of congregants to the front pew signaled that this Sunday was unique: The honored guest was former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and everyone wanted a photo.

“He was with President Obama and you know what that means, he has a head start in my book,” said Barbara Cain Seabrook, a 58-year-old member of Brookland Baptist. “I think he has the community at heart.”

Nearly every Democrat in South Carolina agrees that Mr. Biden is the early pacesetter in the state’s critically important primary, buoyed by his longstanding relationships with elected officials here and support from black voters, who make up almost 60 percent of the Democratic electorate.

[at140]

1. Biden will win older voters of

All colors and shades. Young voters might be another story.

[emulatorloo]

3. Poll: Biden leads among millennial voters

https://www.democraticunderground.com/128729144


———————

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/434639-poll-biden-leads-among-millennial-voters


Former Vice President Joe Biden leads a selection of Democratic presidential candidates and potential candidates among millennial voters, according to a survey released Monday.

According to CBS News, a poll organized by the University of Chicago's GenForward Project found that Biden has the support of 21 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 34. Coming in second is Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is supported by 18 percent of millennials, according to the poll.

The poll also showed that young minority voters support Biden. Twenty-nine percent of Asian-American millennials, 28 percent of African-American millennials and 19 percent of Hispanic millennials said they plan to back Biden, the poll found.

The poll was based on interviews with 2,134 millennials from Feb. 8 to Feb. 25 and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, according to CBS News.

-sniip-

————————-

From the CBS article:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-biden-leads-2020-democrats-in-millennial-support-poll-finds/

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is mulling a White House bid, leads declared and potential Democratic presidential candidates in support among millennial voters, according to a new poll of adults between the ages of 18 and 34.

The poll, organized by the University of Chicago's GenForward Survey Project, found that 21 percent of millennials back Biden over Democrats who have entered the crowded primary field, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. Sanders, whose insurgent 2016 campaign was fueled by ardent support among young progressive voters, is a close second at 18 percent.

According to the poll, Biden also enjoys strong support among young minority voters. With support from 29 percent of Asian American millennials, 28 percent of African American millennials and 19 percent of millennial whites, the former Delaware senator led in all surveyed voting blocs — except millennial Latinos. Twenty-six percent of Hispanics between the ages of 18 and 34 said they support Sanders. Among that group, Biden came in second with 19 percent support.

-snip-

[Cha]

4. Mahalo for those enlightening

articles, emulatorloo!

[at140]

12. Good info, however how many millennials

Have heard of Buttigieg or Harris? At this stage name recognition carries the water.

[emulatorloo]

2. NYT's endlessly promoted the Mercer's LIE BOOK "Clinton Cash" uncritically in 2016

Just something to consider when skimming their bullshit headlines

[brooklynite]

9. Do you have a specific issue with anything in article?

Or are you assuming they’re just making the facts up?

[uawchild]

5. South Carolina voters will respond to Booker's message

I feel that when South Carolina voters actually go into the voting booths that Cory Booker's message of social justice and his record of standing for the most disadvantaged among us will be resonating by then. His policies speak directly to their concerns:

"Booker said he envisions an American ideal “where our criminal justice system keeps us safe, instead of shuffling more children into cages and coffins.”

Here’s where Booker stands on some key political issues as the 2020 race kicks off.

Criminal justice reform
Booker played a pivotal role in the passage of one of the First Step Act, one of the Senate’s few bipartisan legislative success stories in 2018. The law implements measures designed to reduce recidivism and offers some protections against severe mandatory minimum sentences.

“This is literally one of the reasons I came to the United States Senate, to get something like this done,” Booker said when the bill passed in December.

Booker has focused on reforming America’s prisons and justice system throughout his political career. During his five years in the Senate, he pushed a number of criminal-justice bills intended to boost transparency in law enforcement, ban juvenile solitary confinement and lower employment barriers for people leaving jail.

Drug policy
Booker has called federal drug policy a decades-long failure. In 2017, he introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, which would legalize pot at the federal level.

Marijuana is already legal for recreational use in 10 states, and lawmakers in Booker’s home state of New Jersey have made recent moves to join them. But it remains outlawed at the federal level as a Schedule 1 drug, alongside heroin and ecstasy.

Booker’s proposal would remove pot from that list, as well as encourage states to “change their marijuana laws if those laws were shown to have a disproportionate effect on low-income individuals and/or people of color.”

More recently, Booker grilled Trump’s attorney general nominee, William Barr, during his confirmation hearing on federal marijuana policy and what he described as the social and racial biases arising from it.

Booker also criticized Barr’s answers on implicit racial bias and his role overseeing the war on drugs during his first stint as attorney general decades earlier.

“Mr. Barr was an architect of mass incarceration,” Booker said. “He literally wrote the book. He designed a lot of what we saw.”

Business and economy
While Booker was mayor of Newark, the financially troubled city’s taxes rose by 20 percent. He worked to attract investors to the city, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars from philanthropists and business leaders, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Forging those ties has also drawn scrutiny from progressive and democratic-socialist groups skeptical of Booker’s willingness to take on corporate interests. He was pilloried by those groups in 2017, for instance, after voting with Republicans against a symbolic amendment supporting pharmaceutical drug imports from Canada, which would lower the cost of some medicines.

Booker’s campaign website has yet to lay out his specific economic views or campaign proposals.

Still, as a liberal Democrat, Booker has sought to address income inequality, which is emerging as one of the key issues in the 2020 campaign.

In October, Booker announced legislation that would give an interest-accruing savings account to every American newborn. The account, which comes with a seed fund of $1,000, would become accessible starting at age 18, but only for specific uses, such as buying a house or paying tuition fees.

“Everyone in America should have a real shot to succeed,” Booker said in a press release announcing the bill, nicknamed the “Baby Bonds Act.”

“But federal policy over decades and an upside-down tax code that heaps benefits on the very rich and big corporations have grown the gap between those who have much and those who have little.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/01/heres-where-cory-booker-stands-on-key-issues.html

[still_one]

7. Is that why he voted against making drug prices cheaper?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/2017/1/14/14262732/cory-booker-senate-democrats

[Grendam]

8. At this point, I'd be surprised if Booker makes it to SC

Alternatively, with bad performances in Iowa and New Hampshire, he might try to hang on long enough for South Carolina to deliver the coup de grâce. It's going to be extraordinarily difficult to continue if Harris gets any traction in IA, NH, or SC.

[qazplm135]

6. if he holds it then yes probably

if not, then he's in a bit of trouble.

He has older folks in general, and older black folks and older black women specifically.

That's a pretty nice chunk of the primary electorate to have in your corner.

You maintain that, you probably win, particularly in a crowded field.

if he loses that, then it's anyone's game.

[Runningdawg]

10. IMO The 2020 nominee will be the person who can attract the most NEW voters to the polls.

[tirebiter]

11. I'm hoping Kamala Harris has a bigger piece of this pie

She has been spending a lot of time working on building it but that last paragraph giving Biden 60% does not differentiate the older from younger.

[LakeArenal]

14. Sure it is...

[joshcryer]

15. Sanders lost the 2016 primary because he couldn't get the black vote.

This will ensure his victory in the primaries.

[Gothmog]

16. Washington Post-Opinion: Voters aren't playing along with the media narrative

Link to tweet

The latest Hill-HarrisX poll shows former vice president Joe Biden opening up a 32-point lead over Sanders, whose claim to the party’s heart is evaporating before our eyes. The latest Morning Consult poll shows Biden expanding his share to 40 percent (up 4 points from the previous week) and Sanders tumbling to 19 percent (down from 27 percent in February). In other words, available evidence suggests that at present the predicted story lines aren’t emerging.....

The most reliable voters — African American women — have little affection for Sanders, nor have they automatically gravitated to African American candidates to the left of Biden. They know Biden, they like him and so far they are content to reward him with their support after his eight years of service in the Obama administration.

The lack of appeal among African American candidates is now a significant problem for Sanders and for other progressives such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. (The latest Quinnipiac poll found, “Biden had the support of 42 percent of nonwhite respondents, more than 30 points ahead of his nearest rival, Warren. Sanders, who struggled with nonwhite voters during his 2016 campaign, had only 7 percent support.”)

In short, in going far to the left, Sanders and other candidates misfired not only with older, more moderate whites but also with the critical African American electorate. The media likewise has overestimated the influence of the far left and failed to appreciate the centrist bent of both white and African American voters.