Hillary Clinton faces challenge: Black voters in Rust Belt
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| Bradley Thurman, owner of Coffee Makes You Black, a well-known breakfast spot on Milwaukee’s predominantly African-American north side, talks Friday, March 18, 2016 in his Milwaukee shop. Thurman says he supports Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. in the upcoming Democratic primary in Wisconsin. |
MILWAUKEE
(AP) -- This month has brought a new challenge for Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign: Black voters in Rust Belt states aren't as
solidly behind her as they've been in the South.
I
t
led to the Democratic front-runner's surprise loss in Michigan, where
about a third of black voters supported Bernie Sanders, and it nearly
cost her Missouri, where African-Americans voted more like their
counterparts across the Midwest than in the South. Now it could
foreshadow vulnerability for Clinton in Wisconsin, the next Northern
battleground primary.
What's behind the trend?
Exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks
by Edison Research reveal a possible answer:
Black
voters up North have appeared more likely than black voters down South
to say race relations in the U.S. have recently gotten worse. And while
large majorities of African-Americans in both regions trust Clinton to
handle the issue, those in the Midwest have been much more likely to say
they trust Sanders.
Rust Belt blacks live
closer to some of the major racial conflicts of recent years - the
police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; the police
shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland, Ohio; and the
tainted water crisis in heavily black Flint, Michigan. And they are well
positioned to turn out and express their dismay at the polls.
"Absolutely,
there are enough to make a difference," said Bradley Thurman, 66, an
African-American cafe owner in Milwaukee, noting that black support
twice helped tip Wisconsin toward Barack Obama, even as many other races
in the state have gone in favor of Republicans.
Down
South, Clinton has routinely picked up support from 8 in 10 black
voters or more. But in areas farther north across the Midwest where
manufacturing has contracted and factories have closed, support has been
as low as Missouri's 67 percent. That primary election had been too
close to call until Sanders conceded
Thursday, giving Clinton a
1,531-vote win.
About 7 in 10 black voters
backed Clinton in Ohio and Illinois, less than in the South but not
enough of a drop to deny her those states on a day when she also picked
up victories in Florida and North Carolina.
The
tight vote in Missouri - a swing state where residents have long
debated whether they're Midwestern or Southern - underscored feelings
that could help keep Sanders afloat.
"I didn't like the statement Clinton made calling our kids 'super predators,'" said Syreeta Myers, 42, who is black.
Myers'
only child, VonDerrit Myers, was killed in St. Louis in 2014 by a white
police officer, two months after Brown was fatally shot in nearby
Ferguson. She's been politically active ever since, attending rallies
and marches. Myers said most of the people she knows are behind Sanders
because of "what he said about stopping police from killing our
children."
Marquette University senior Nick Truog also sees race relations as an area where Sanders has an edge.
"I
saw online where someone said, 'I can't vote for Dr. King, so I'm going
to vote for the guy who marched with him,'" said Truog, whose father is
black and mother is white.
Truog studies
international affairs and political science in Milwaukee, a city that
saw months of protests over the death of Dontre Hamilton, a black man
killed by a white police officer in 2014. He said he backs Sanders,
citing the candidate's positions on income inequality and student debt
as factors.
But Bobby Sanford, 42, who runs a small Milwaukee-area pest control business, doesn't like Sanders' idea of free college.
"No," Sanford said. "We have to pay for that."
Sanford,
who is a black independent, remains undecided. "Honestly, I just don't
like Clinton," he said. He said he's a fan of Republican front-runner
Donald Trump's outspoken style but doesn't admire Trump enough to vote
for him.
"I don't think so, but I don't want to vote for Sanders, either," Sanford said. "I pay enough in taxes as it is."
Similar
dissatisfaction with the government comes up in Michigan. Exit poll
figures show black voters there were somewhat less likely than those in
Southern states where the question was posed to have positive feelings
about the way the government is working.
This
also could hurt Clinton, who's seen as the establishment candidate. The
data show that black support at the high levels Clinton has seen in the
South probably would have flipped Michigan into the win column and added
breathing room for her in Missouri.
Overall,
about 45 percent of whites have supported Clinton in the Midwest, making
the minority vote a decisive factor. Black voters make up a smaller
percentage of the Wisconsin Democratic electorate than other Rust Belt
states. In 2008, about 8 percent of Wisconsin Democratic primary voters
were black. By comparison, African-Americans made up about 21 percent of
Democratic primary voters in both Michigan and Missouri this year.
Still,
Thurman, owner of Coffee Makes You Black, a well-known breakfast spot
on Milwaukee's predominantly African-American north side, thinks it's
enough.
He supports Sanders because of the
Vermont independent's bold proposals. "It's a lot of pie in the sky, but
at least he's throwing it out there," Thurman said.
His wife looked surprised when she heard his position.
"We don't really discuss politics," said Laurie Thurman, who co-owns the shop.
She's
leaning toward Clinton because "she's been around." But the matter
isn't decided, she said, and "maybe my husband can convince me."
