Obama won (twice) without the white vote
There’s hard proof that running and mobilizing People of Color is a winning political strategy — so why do Democrats continue to run milquetoast white men?
We’ve heard it again and again: for Democrats to take back the House and Senate we need to run moderates — especially moderates who are palatable to Trump voters, especially old white men.
That we need the votes of moderate white people to expand Democratic values in elected office has carved a particular strategy into the pillars of the Democratic bible: it is smart and better for everyone if we coalesce around the Joe Bidens of America.
But this “common knowledge” has been taken for granted for too long.
Prioritizing the votes of white people is a BAD strategy. It keeps elected representatives with Democratic values from taking office, and illustrates how institutionalized racism literally blinds white people from making smart decisions that would benefit everybody.
It’s not new to disproportionately focus our attention on the wants and needs of white people. Our country’s been doing it since the beginning! Land owning, white men were the only electorate that existed for the majority of America’s history.
Though the slow expansion of voter rights has led to a more diverse constituency, the Democratic political establishment still focuses most of their energy on wooing white voters, AND has picked up a nasty habit of shaming Black, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, and Native folks for their “low voter turnout,” because “don’t they know what’s good for them??”
The Democratic party appears to believe that supporting Candidates of Color and investing resources in mobilizing People of Color to the same degree as white candidates in typical swing districts is radical and ineffective.
This widespread hesitation to rally behind People of Color in political leadership exists DESPITE the fact that there have been many examples of People of Color winning office on a progressive agenda and creating contagious excitement and optimism from all voters.
Here’s a few examples of POC who kicked ass at the polls, by turning out all voters, and especially inspiring Voters of Color.
►Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28 year old Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, ousted a white male incumbent for NY’s 14th Congressional District.
►Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American woman from Detroit, a Democratic nominee in a Democratic district, is set to become the first Muslim woman in Congress.
►Stacey Abrams, a Black woman in Georgia won the Democratic Primary, and is close to becoming the first Black female governor in American history.
►And then of course, there’s Obama. Who won the United States presidency twice with only 43% of the white vote in 2008, and 39% of the white vote in 2012.
This slaps the standard Democratic playbook in the face: you don’t need the white vote to win. If you have a candidate securing 93% of the Black vote, 71% of the Hispanic vote, 73% of the Asian vote, and bringing POC voters to the polls in historic margins (like Obama did in 2012) you have a winning strategy.
Being a candidate who focuses on the interests of People of Color not only benefits Candidates of Color, but has also shown to help white candidates. Doug Jones, the newly elected US Senator of Alabama, was able to win a Democratic seat in the deep south because of Black voters, specifically Black women. In 1963, Jones prosecuted two KKK members for a church bombing that killed four Black girls in 1963, showing early on that he would not tolerate racialized violence, hate crimes, or the death of Black folks — a few common sense positions that matter to Voters of Color.
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The fact that Communities of Color are so politically powerful, and yet disproportionately ignored in the American electoral system, is centuries of racism at work. The white vote is not the only vote that matters, and in fact, it’s not the vote we need to win.
This may come as a surprise to some, but Voters of Color are well organized in our communities, and if you gain our trust, we can turn out and support at the polls. Better yet, try investing institutional resources in Leaders of Color already in our own communities.
The bottom-line: support Candidates of Color and Democratic values will win.
