Black Lawmakers Feel Democrats Have Abandoned Them

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As an example of the fine line Democratic leaders have to walk, consider the ramifications of the Supreme Court's decision to gut the remaining bit of the Voting Rights Act. Black leaders, especially in the South, are feeling isolated. Party leaders are focused on swing House districts and states and 2028 presidential hopefuls are in early states, of which only one (South Carolina) has a large Black population. Howard Dean's 50-state strategy never got going, and instead, Democrats have something like a 30-state strategy, where the party apparatus has been left to wither and die in many red states, especially in the South.

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Some Black leaders in the South are despairing. Florida House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D) said: "Republicans in the Legislature and the Supreme Court have said that it's okay to turn back the clock and reverse civil rights progress in this country. They're basically giving these Southern states what they have consistently and persistently wanted, which is to suppress Black voices." Some people are more explicit where the problem is. Yolanda Renee King, the granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., said: "The Democrats sort of allowed for this behavior to regularly happen," referring to the Democrats' failure to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act when they had the trifecta.

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But part of the problem is internal. The 62-member Congressional Black Caucus, which is entirely Democratic, has been focused on swing seats. A leader of its PAC, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), said: "The PAC has always been focused on electing Democrats in tough seats so that we can reclaim the majority. That goal, that focus, has not changed." Note that he said nothing about holding Black seats or supporting Black challengers to Republicans. In most cases, it is supporting white candidates who have a good chance of holding a tough blue district or flipping a marginal red one. The CBC's priority is maximizing the number of Democrats in the House, not the number of Black Democrats.

The CBC's priority, maximizing the number of Democrats in the House, has been my position all along.

In fact, it could also be phrased as

The priority is...maximizing the number of Democrats in the House, not just the number of Progressive Democrats

Yep.

Otherwise, for example, Jim "Gomer" Comer would remain chair of the Oversight Committee in the US House if the Democrats don't take the majority this coming November. That's an outcome everyone in the middle or the left side of the aisle should abhor.

And a political party that consists of large groups of Black voters, Latinos, Asian Americans, and other racial minorities, along with LGBTQ voters, Jews, affluent college-educated suburbanites, single women and young voters needs all Democratic candidates elected - everywhere - and not just "pure" Democrats who can easily get elected in NYC or Los Angeles. Such candidates would crash and burn in places like Texas (Talarico would be too "conservative" for LA voters) and Georgia (and as with Talarico, Ossman would be too "conservative" for voters in NYC).

It still amazes me that there are those who are so politically ignorant to understand this basic equation built on the reality of the game on the ground in state after state, Congressional District after Congressional District, town after town ...

... not the political game played on the Internet by Karl Rove/James Carville wannabes.