Congressional Black Caucus Chair: Dems Lost Midterms Because of Racist White Southerners

Congressional Black Caucus Chair: Dems Lost Midterms Because of Racist White Southerners

The Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus said Democrats got walloped in the midterm elections because white Southern voters are racists. 

“We lost because of ideological differences within the Democratic Party and with our Administration. We lost because our party has, to some extent, lost white Southerners due in part to the race of our President,” Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH) said, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Fudge’s remarks echo those of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the Democrat who is in a runoff with Republican Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. Landrieu blamed racism for Obama’s low approval ratings when asked why President Obama has “a hard time in Louisiana.”

“Let me be very, very honest with you,” Landrieu responded in an interview before the midterms. “The South has not always been the friendliest place for African-Americans. It’s been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader.”

To Fudge, black voters were not the reason for the losses. She urged critics to “find another scapegoat” and “Don’t blame us!”

“Our community organizations and churches mobilized to encourage early voting opportunities with programs like ‘Souls to the Polls,’ and African American activists and state leaders stood ready to combat any instance of voter intimidation or fraud,” she said. “Black elected officials crisscrossed the country to discuss the urgency and importance of this election. We phone banked, knocked on doors and held ‘Get Out the Vote’ rallies. Our losses were not a referendum on African American political engagement. We did our part, so don’t blame us!”

Fudge added that Democrats also lost the Senate because “we failed to mobilize young voters across racial and regional spectrums,” in addition to failing “to persuade Southern voters to hold true to core Democratic values.” She also blamed the lack of enthusiasm among Hispanics, saying the Latino community “was insufficiently motivated.”

She also blamed Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United for allowing “a select few to subvert the political process with secret, unlimited money,” even though some of the biggest donors–like billionaire Tom Steyer–were on the left. The Democrats also have the support of the institutional mainstream media, which conservative candidates often have to spend resources working against. 

As the Plain Dealer noted, Republicans received 10 percent of the black vote in 2014 compared to the six percent that Mitt Romney received in 2012. It was the best showing among black voters for the GOP since Republicans received 11 percent of the black vote nationwide in 2006. 

Southerners, and perhaps black voters, disapproved of President Barack Obama’s plans for his plans to enact a massive executive amnesty. Exit polling found that 75% of voters in the midterms opposed Obama’s executive amnesty. A plurality of voters in pre-election polls said they would be less likely to support candidates who favored giving a pathway to citizenship to all of the country’s illegal immigrants, and every Democrat who was up for reelection voted for the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” comprehensive amnesty bill that would have done just that. Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow wrote numerous letters to Fudge and Obama before the election emphasizing that massive amnesty legislation and executive amnesty would devastate black workers the most.

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