It’s a family affair for Blaz in S.C.
Mayor de Blasio has a message for South Carolina: We are family.
On day two of his long-shot presidential campaign, the mayor spotlighted the deep ties between the Big Apple and African-Americans in the early primary state, and trumpeted his own unconventional family and its everyday struggles.
“(It’s) just one family’s experience, but I think families all over South Carolina and families all over the country are dealing with a series of challenges and stresses like never before,” de Blasio told the South Carolina Black Democratic Caucus.
One black lawmaker didn’t shy away from the open secret that de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, and their mixed-race relationship might be one of his biggest selling points with black voters.
“No. 1, he’s married to a black woman, so that he can’t be all bad,” said Johnnie Cordero, who moved to South Carolina from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, 26 years ago. “No. 2, he got in and took control of the city.”
De Blasio showed up to address the black lawmakers’ group at a library in the state capital of Columbia after a previously scheduled speech by Andrew Yang. The tech entrepreneur and dark horse candidate felt snubbed by the mayor’s last-minute addition to the schedule.
“They’re definitely piggybacking on what we’re doing,” said Jermaine Johnson, a volunteer for the Yang campaign.
De Blasio told the crowd that he recently celebrated 25 years of marriage to McCray, and said they rented an apartment in Brooklyn and raised their kids there in part to be near their aging parents.
He used the everyday story to stake out a familiar pitch that he would stand up for working people as president, ticking off familiar claims about universal prekindergarten, family leave and health care.