NAACP: Turnout Won't Be Same Without Obama on Ballot

NAACP: Turnout Won't Be Same Without Obama on Ballot

NAACP President Ben Jealous said Democrats may have trouble motivating voters — especially African Americans — without Obama at the top of the ticket in future elections. 

Jealous told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Democrats “must quickly figure out how to motivate these voters who – if Obama is not at the top of the ticket – simply go away.”

According to an NAACP Georgia poll, “enthusiasm for re-electing the country’s first black president accounted for about 5 percentage points in Georgia” this year.

There was a similar pattern of black enthusiasm in other states like Ohio.

Without Obama on the ticket in 2016, it will be more difficult for Democrats to cobble together the coalition Obama’s campaign did in 2012 that exceeded expectations at the polls. Thus, predictions of a permanent liberal majority in national elections may be a bit premature. 

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