Areva Martin on Bernie Sanders

“Many of us vividly recall the hotly contested 2016 primary race between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, whom I strongly supported. Sanders’ message of fighting income inequality and pushing for Medicare for all resonated with many Democratic voters, as it does now, and after winning the New Hampshire primary he seemed to have momentum on his side. But the race inevitably shifted to the South and its heavy contingent of black voters. Clinton benefited from her husband’s popularity with black voters and pulverized Sanders in South Carolina by 47 percentage points. Sanders next got crushed on Super Tuesday, losing the southern and southwest states of Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. In 2020, Sanders was determined to avoid repeating that history. He tried to increase his percentage of the black vote by blanketing Facebook with ads that highlighted his long-standing commitment to civil rights. He also talked up issues of paramount importance to the black community – criminal justice reform and social-economic injustice. Sanders enlisted the help of influential black surrogates such as Harvard Professor Cornel West and rapper Killer Mike. He began airing a TV ad that features former President Barack Obama’s past praise of him, even though he has positioned himself as the anti-establishment candidate. Former Obama aides like David Axelrod questioned the ad given that Sanders and the former President were not particularly close. In Mississippi, his campaign funded an ad campaign on black radio. But despite all this, Sanders once again failed miserably with black voters. He got crushed, again, in South Carolina and then suffered a blowout loss on Super Tuesday. And Tuesday night, he suffered perhaps a fatal blow by losing the three Ms – Mississippi, Missouri, and Michigan. So, what did Sanders do wrong this time? Well, it didn’t help that on the Sunday before Super Tuesday he failed to appear at a Bloody Sunday ceremonial event in Selma, Alabama, that honors the civil rights leaders who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Sanders compounded that mistake by canceling a rally in Mississippi. Perhaps unknown to him is that many African Americans from my hometown of St. Louis hail from the South and have deep ties to blacks in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. Sanders’ actions were an affront not just to those southerners, but to blacks in Missouri.”

“Sanders’ relentless attacks on millionaires and billionaires didn’t resonate with a large segment of the black community that takes pride in the successes of black billionaires such as Robert Smith, who paid off the student loan debt of the entire 2019 graduating class at Morehouse College. Sanders doesn’t seem to understand that although many African Americans suffer from an economic system stacked against them, we are economically aspirational. Many African Americans applaud the high achievement and success of billionaires like Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z and Michael Jordan. But Sanders’ biggest mistake, undoubtedly, was his failure to understand the mindset of middle-aged and older African Americans. For many of these voters, Trump’s relentless attempts to dismantle Obamacare and destroy the entire legacy of the first black president – Barack Obama – has been an unending nightmare. The unyielding assault and systematic attack on other prominent African American leaders, like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and the dismantling of safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for seniors made removing Trump from office a pivotal issue for many black voters.”