Joe Biden is now leading Bernie Sanders by double digits in a new national poll, and he has African American voters to thank.
Before the South Carolina primary, Biden’s campaign was fading fast. He flopped in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, and many commentators, myself included, considered his presidential bid a flop. But then Biden won South Carolina, and overnight, he became the Sanders alternative, winning the endorsements of other moderate candidates such as Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, along with many of their supporters.
None of this, however, would have been possible without the loyal support of black voters, and Biden knows it. “There’s only one reason I’ve come back,” he told an African American congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, this weekend. “The African American community all around the country. You’re the reason I’m back, no one else.”
There are many reasons black voters have remained committed to Biden since he announced his bid for the presidency. The most obvious is Biden’s association with President Barack Obama. But for many black voters, Biden’s appeal is about much more than his political connection to the first African American president. It’s about what that connection required.
Biden willingly and proudly accepted his role as Obama’s No. 2, one African American voter explained, throwing his many years of experience and credibility behind an inexperienced Illinois senator, simply because he believed in Obama and his agenda. And in doing so, Biden demonstrated political humility.
This could explain why Sanders has been unable to dent Biden’s African American support. Black voters respect Biden for the second-in-command role he played in the Obama administration, and they trust him.
Biden is the “safe” choice for many African Americans and not just because he’s a moderate. Darryl Hayes, 61, who attended Biden’s St. Louis rally this weekend, told BuzzFeed News that “they realize the importance of getting Trump out of there, and they want to go for a sure thing, they want to go for something comfortable, something familiar.”
Biden is familiar and comfortable — not just because he wants to continue building on Obama’s agenda, but because he spent eight years demonstrating solidarity with a community that has not always had a political voice. This is about more than just policy; it’s about loyalty. And many black voters evidently believe Biden has earned it.
