‘I know Joe’s heart’: Black voters back Biden
Former VP has strong relations with African Americans
After Kamala Harris challenged Joe Biden’s past opposition to school busing in a nationally televised Democratic presidential debate, the former vice president who prides himself on strong relationships in the black community was in an unfamiliar place, playing defense on race.
But Bebe Coker had a message for the man she has known for decades: Don’t back down. The 81-year-old education activist remembered the history differently than Harris’ portrayal, recalling black parents encouraging Biden to reject forcing black students to attend white schools.
“I told him not to back down off of that,” Coker, who is black, said. “I know Joe’s heart. I guess that’s why I’m rather defensive of him. Joe has always been straight-up Joe. But when things come back at people that don’t look like us, they will say it’s racist because it doesn’t sound right when it’s coming out of somebody else’s mouth.”
Such support helps explain why a 77-year-old white man is leading the most diverse presidential field in history among black voters. That backing has sustained Biden through a torrent of controversies that would sink virtually any other Democratic politician, including a series of awkward comments about race.
It’s a pragmatic calculation among many African Americans, especially older ones, who believe Biden will appeal to white voters and can defeat President Donald Trump next year.
As other candidates make increasingly vocal appeals to African Americans, Biden says he stands apart because he has been with black voters since the beginning of his political career in Delaware.
“I’ve always been comfortable with the community, and I think the community’s always been comfortable with me,” he said after meeting in Atlanta with African American mayors.
Black voters will be crucial in determining the next Democratic nominee. Biden’s support among this group gives him an important and sometimes overlooked advantage. While Biden is bunched near the top of the pack in the overwhelmingly white early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, he’s better positioned in the more diverse states that follow.
Black voters are a dominant force in South Carolina, where two-thirds of the electorate in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary was nonwhite.
A recent Monmouth University poll shows Biden earning support from about 4 in 10 black voters while Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren trailed with 11% each.
People who have known Biden for decades speak to the depth of good will he has among black voters. They talk of Biden as someone who has known and courted black voters for more than a half century. That, they say, could make it difficult for other candidates who hope to persuade some black voters to change their minds.
“He knew our plight. He knew how we felt,” said Richard “Mouse” Smith, who met Biden as a kid in Wilmington, Delaware.
“He walked through gangs, learned all nicknames. Hhe was part of this community,” said Smith, who remains one of Biden’s oldest and closest friends.