Pete Buttigieg Is Like Joe Biden Without the Black Friends
By Malaika Jabali, Guardian UK
14 February 20
Buttigieg's abysmal poll numbers with black voters aren't a coincidence. He
has made almost no effort to reach them
hile Pete Buttigieg might feel pretty good about effectively tying with
Bernie Sanders in Iowa - the votes are still being counted - and landing in
second place in New Hampshire, Democrats can count his relative success as a
spectacular loss. The problem with the current Democratic primary system is
that it doesn't prove candidates' viability in a general election; it just
proves how good they are at winning Iowa and New Hampshire. Buttigieg is
representative of this problem.
Buttigieg's difficulty attracting black Democratic voters - who are
important in March's Super Tuesday contests - is well documented. A November
Quinnipiac poll showed he had essentially zero support from black South
Carolina voters. Since then, that support has grown to 2%. Buttigieg's donor
base is richer and whiter than the bases of the other Democratic candidates.
And of course there are issues with his treatment of racism and inequality
in South Bend, Indiana, where he served as mayor and where racial inequality
is more stark than the US on average.
These failures alone don't rule him out. Hypothetically, there's still time
for him to try to gain ground. But based on his campaign's current
engagement levels with black voters it is tough to believe he will catch up.
Reports from Buttigieg's southern campaign trail indicate that black voters
haven't really gotten to know him; he has emphasized the fact that he's an
upstart with whom black voters simply aren't familiar. However, his campaign
doesn't seem especially committed to overcoming the problem.
This can be measured, in part, by ground game. Although Buttigieg has made
some personal stops in South Carolina, he has the fewest field offices there
of any Democratic frontrunner, with just four in the state. (Even Joe Biden,
who has longstanding name recognition and doesn't especially need South
Carolina field offices, has more.) None of Buttigieg's offices are in
majority black cities, even though the primary importance of South Carolina
is to appeal to black Democratic voters.
Instead of tackling this gap head-on, Buttigieg exorbitantly front-loaded
his field presence in Iowa and New Hampshire. He had more field offices in
Iowa (33) than in all other states combined (28). Iowa and New Hampshire
also happen to be among the five whitest states in the country and wholly
unreflective of who actually supports Democrats in general elections. Black
Americans made up 25% of the Democratic party's 2016 primary voters. They
are a mere 1.7% of the population in New Hampshire and 4% in Iowa.
The implied contrast, of course, is Biden. Biden polls well with black
voters, benefits from strong name recognition from the Obama years, and
frequently visits South Carolina, often in the company of the African
American congressman Jim Clyburn. While Biden's political policies have
often been terrible for black Americans, he is, on average, their most
popular choice.
But Buttigieg straddles the worst of neoliberal worlds. He appeals to the
Democratic party's elite donors - alienating him from some working-class
voters - without having done even the minimal and purely performative
outreach to people of color expected of any Democratic candidate. Basically,
he's Biden without the black friends.
Most other Democratic candidates have struggled to attract black support and
support among voters of color more generally, though Sanders' popularity
with people of color has markedly improved.
Yet Buttigieg's failures are particularly problematic when you consider the
other candidates. Warren, whose donor base is almost as white and affluent
as Buttigieg's, has had multiple roundtables to earn the support of
progressive black women organizers, like the Black Womxn For coalition.
Sanders has over twice the field staff as Buttigieg in South Carolina,
including in the vastly majority black city of Orangeburg. He has also
launched a number of tours across historically black colleges and
universities, and he has over a dozen field offices in California.
Buttigieg, meanwhile, does not have a single field office in California,
according to his campaign website, which grossly hinders his ground game
with Latino voters. His campaign has touted black support where it doesn't
exist, including by falsely claiming that certain black leaders had endorsed
his Douglass Plan for Black America. Further, the campaign underplayed how
much the plan was buttressed by white endorsers.
Buttigieg's success reveals both the abject uselessness of focusing on early
states that don't reflect the Democratic party's diversity and the essential
hollowness of his campaign. Like his political career, it allows him to
collect accomplishments without much sense that he is particularly
qualified.
