The Black Vote in 2020

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The last time a Democrat won the White House, he had enormous support from black voters; lower support from black voters was one of many reasons Hillary Clinton lost in 2016. Marcus Ferrell, a political organizer from Atlanta, tells Radio Hour about the importance of turning out “unlikely voters” in order to win an election, which, for him, means black men. Jelani Cobb, a New Yorker staff writer and historian, points out that the four Democratic front-runners, all of whom are white, may struggle to get the turnout they need. Cobb tells David Remnick that Joe Biden’s strong lead may begin to fall after his weak showing among largely white voters in Iowa; Pete Buttigieg has very low support among South Carolina voters, and even faces opposition from black constituents in his home town, South Bend. But Bernie Sanders, Cobb says, seems to have made inroads with at least younger black voters since 2016. Plus, a New Yorker staffer picks three favorites.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:11.8	If I wear a Stacey Abrams shirt in the airport, black men, black women will be like, where's you get that thing from to this date?
0:19.6	And I'll buy it off of you right now. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, and this is Marcus Farrell, a political
0:26.4	organizer in Atlanta. We're not going to increase the turnout of black women by 20 points because
0:33.4	black women already vote at the highest rate. Obama won because black men, Latino brothers, finally voted at high rate.
0:42.6	Farrell has worked with the New Georgia Project, which is leading voter registration drives in the state,
0:48.0	and he says that the most untapped voting block is black men.
0:53.1	When I go and talk to black men, they are not impressed
0:57.1	with the current talking point that candidates are providing them. The things that candidates are
1:05.0	very comfortable talking about aren't the things that black men care about at all, right?
1:12.7	So we want health care. That might be,
1:18.6	that might be great, but there's no one having conversations about keeping black men out of jail.
1:24.0	There's no one having conversations about increasing trade work so African American men can get jobs and be healthy, beneficial parts of society. So it's a different thing that say, I believe in Medicare for all.
1:30.9	But if you can go to a black man and say, I believe in Medicare for all,
1:34.7	and this is why it's going to help you, black man, then that's a different conversation.
1:38.8	But no one wants to have that conversation.
1:40.8	Everybody wants to talk in Iowa speak.
1:43.6	Iowa speak is generalized
1:47.0	conversations to 41-year-old white women to make them like you and make them feel safe
1:56.0	that you're going to be a good pick for president. Even the media and even the press and even the posters go to people
2:03.2	who are already going to vote. But you don't win with likely voters. You win with turnout voters.
2:07.6	And turnout people just want to hear, what are you going to do for me? How are you going to help my
	...

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