You just got to love these special interest groups when it comes to elections. They become so focused on what’s important to them personally they ignore the big picture and by staying home to “send a message” that the ticket wasn’t just the way they wanted it to be, they often end hurting themselves even more then if they showed up to vote.
Now we have members of the Hispanic and black communities telling Biden don’t pick Amy as his running mate, because if you do we may just decide to stay home and you need us to win.
Did these individuals ever stop to think what their lives would be like for the next 4 years if trump is re-elected? I mean isn’t that like “cutting off your nose to spite your face?”
And I guarantee you, we’ll get the same reaction from some other group of individuals if Biden picks a black woman to be his VP or a progressive like Warren. And let’s not forget about the group who won’t be happy because Biden has committed to picking a woman as his VP.
For any one group to “dictate “ terms for their vote in this election is just plain stupid considering the potential outcome for pulling this stunt is four more years of trump.
From Politico...
link“Black activists warn Biden: Don't pick Klobuchar as VP”“The Minnesota senator and former prosecutor has problems with communities of colors that another top white contender, Elizabeth Warren, does not.”
Amy Klobuchar performed abysmally among black voters in the Democratic primary. It’s haunting her now as Joe Biden decides on a running mate.
The Minnesota Democrat has the governing experience and ideological profile to mesh well with Biden, and she’s regularly appeared as a surrogate and a fundraiser for him, raking in more than $1.5 million for a single event she headlined. The pair have a warm relationship, trading phone calls when her husband was hospitalized with Covid-19 and they didn’t tangle publicly during primary.
But more than a dozen black and Latino strategists and activists warned in interviews that selecting Klobuchar would not help Biden excite black voters — and might have the opposite effect. Klobuchar would “
risk losing the very base the Democrats need to win,” said Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, which promotes women of color in politics. They pointed to her poor performance among non-white voters during the presidential primary, as well as her record as a prosecutor in Minnesota.
It’s not yet clear how much the opposition of activists matters to Biden. He's made clear that the electoral politics of his pick matter less than choosing someone who can be a governing partner and step into the top job without worry.
But the vocal contingent of African American and Latino detractors — many of whom said they would prefer Biden to select a black woman as a running mate — is unique to Klobuchar; Elizabeth Warren, another top contender for VP, doesn’t elicit similar antagonism from communities of color.
"
It comes from her performance in the primary — her weakness in being able to motivate them," - me - I would think the potential of 4 more years of trump would motivate any sane person. said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, who supports several potential vice presidential selections. “The engagement and the enthusiasm of black voters is going to be a difference-maker in this election, and the concerns about her in this role stem from the degree to which she resonated or not with those core constituencies.”
Earlier this week, Biden confirmed that "multiple black women [are] being considered" for vice president. Those often named include Sen. Kamala Harris, former Georgia gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and Florida Rep. Val Demings. Other Midwestern options, like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, have also been mentioned.
But for many of these operatives, Klobuchar symbolizes a strategic division within the Democratic Party: Whether to focus on winning back white, Midwestern voters who flipped to Donald Trump in 2016, or on activating voters of color who were not excited to vote. She “represents that tension,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, who said he’s told Biden that he would prefer a black woman on the ticket but noted he’s “not anti-Amy.”
“It is not her fault, but she is in the middle of an ongoing battle from the last few presidential races,” Sharpton continued, adding he would be “concerned” that selecting Klobuchar would not help energize black and brown voters.
In a Washington Post op-ed this month urging Biden to select a woman of color as VP, seven black strategists and activists called out Klobuchar, warning she would “only alienate black voters.”
"Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, does not need help winning white, working-class voters — he serves that function himself," they wrote. Referring to her record as a chief prosecutor in Minneapolis, they added, "A choice such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), who failed to prosecute controversial police killings and is responsible for the imprisonment of Myon Burrell, will only alienate black voters."
“If it was important enough to raise in an op-ed, it speaks to how serious we are,” LaTosha Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter and the lead op-ed author, said in an interview. “Her campaign appeal was about bringing in working class, white people from the Midwest, and perhaps that’s true, but that’s a particular strategy that doesn’t align with what it’s going to take to win. You need to excite the base.”
Angela Rye, a Democratic strategist and the former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, who also signed the op-ed, called Klobuchar a “non-starter.”
Klobuchar's boosters counter that Donald Trump will drive out the Democratic base no matter what, and that the key Rust Belt states that Democrats have to win play to Klobuchar's strengths.
"I think she could help put the upper Midwest in play, and that's an invaluable asset," said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who backed Bernie Sanders during the presidential primary. He also noted that "there are a lot of black people" in the Midwest, in cities like Detroit and Milwaukee, who will also be key for Democrats in winning back those states.
"I think the base is going to be excited enough because, before, Trump was an idea, now Trump is the reality," Ellison continued.
Klobuchar has been working to improve her relationships with minority activists and politicians since she dropped out of the presidential race. She endorsed a slate of racially and regionally diverse candidates in down-ballot races. She’s worked with Stacey Abrams, another VP contender, to promote a vote-by-mail bill, which was endorsed by Voto Latino and Rev. Jesse Jackson earlier this month. She also wrote a bill to expand broadband access to studddents at historically-black colleges and Hispanic-serving institutions. And she participating in a virtual town hall hosted by the NAACP on how the coronavirus is disproportionately hurting black and brown people.
During the presidential primary, Leah Daughtry, CEO of the DNC’s conventions in 2008 and 2016, hosted Klobuchar with a group of influential black women leaders, “half she knew, half she didn’t,” and “people walked away with a favorable impression.”
But, Daughtry noted, “building relationships in every area of our lives takes time, including in politics,” and “it isn’t something you can do in a matter of weeks.”
The primary results illustrate the Klobuchar's failure among voters of color.
In South Carolina, she won 1 percent of black voters, even though they make up a majority of Democratic primary voters in the state. It was the lowest total for any of the presidential candidates on the ballot.
In Nevada, Klobuchar received 4 percent support of the Latino vote, the lowest share of any presidential candidate other than Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. Nationally, Klobuchar regularly polled in the low single digits among voters of color.
“Could she have done more? Absolutely,” said Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina-based Democratic consultant. “But she knew where her bread was buttered, and that started in Iowa. She was taking the race as it comes.”
Seawright noted that Biden’s own strength in the black community — as evidenced by his resounding victory in South Carolina, which revived his flailing campaign — “gives room for the potential for Amy Klobuchar” as vice president.“
Note: I used “special interest groups” because I couldn’t think of a better term to describe a group of individuals, whether they’re male or female, young or old, white or folks of color, college educated or not who put their own personal interests before the best interests of the country for the upcoming election. I don’t think this country can stand another 4 years of trump. And while Biden and whoever he picks for his VP might not be our individual choice, if that ticket wins we can at least stop the damage trump/GOP are doing and start moving the country in the right direction. So now, IMO, is not the time for any of us to stamp our feet and threaten to take our marbles and leave if this ticket isn’t exactly the way we want it. What we must do is to turn out & vote regardless who Biden picks as his VP.
