At a campaign fundraiser hosted by a top lawyer to Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg highlighted his commitment to diversity and implored supporters to reach out to minority communities.
“I believe that when it comes to the experience in black America, replacing racist policies with neutral policies won’t get the job done,” Buttigieg told the crowd in Alexandria, Va., Friday evening. “We can’t have a country where people have been systematically denied every job opportunity to build wealth, health, education, and then expect it to take care of itself, even we did have neutral policies, which in many cases, to this day we don’t.”
Jessica Killeen, who has served as deputy counsel to Northam since he took office in 2018, was one of the hosts of the event. Buttigieg in February called for Northam’s resignation following the revelation of a photo of men in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan costume on Northam’s page of his 1984 medical school yearbook. After issuing an apology, Northam denied being in the photo but admitted to wearing shoe polish to darken his face for a Michael Jackson costume around the same time in the 1980s. An investigation into the photo completed in May could not determine whether Northam was one of the individuals pictured.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel criticized Buttigieg’s connection to Northam via the fundraiser in a tweet Friday evening. “What’s changed, Pete?” McDaniel said.
It’s been 133 days since we first learned of Ralph Northam’s racist yearbook photos.
But that hasn’t stopped Pete Buttigieg from holding a fundraiser with one of Northam’s top lawyers.
What changed, Pete?
Northam must resign.
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) June 14, 2019
At the event, Killeen declined to comment on McDaniel’s criticism, directing questions to the governor’s office. A spokesperson for the governor’s office said that Killeen’s involvement in the event had been approved with the governor’s office, consistent with its guidelines on political activity that require it to take place outside of work hours and on personal time, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., has maintained his position that Northam should resign. “I don’t know all the ins and outs of Virginia politics, but from where I’m sitting, it seems extremely problematic that our party has someone in that position who has taken those actions,” he said at a Washington Post Live event in May.
The presidential hopeful has struggled to gain support from black voters in polls, a point that he subtly acknowledged at the Alexandria fundraiser. Buttigieg called on his supporters to “make sure that we are building a coalition as diverse as the party that we seek to be,” asking that those in the mostly white audience find “people that don’t look like you, drawing them in to the process, inviting them out just to support the campaign” so the campaign can “make sure we’re paying attention to the right issues and telling stories that really reflect everybody’s experience.”
Buttigieg also mentioned his “Douglas plan,” named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass as a play on the U.S. Marshall Plan aid to western Europe after World War II. Buttigieg’s plan aims to reform credit scoring and access to credit, reduce the number of incarcerated Americans by 50%, and create federal grants in low-income communities. “It needs to be invested in America to lift up black America right here at home,” Buttigieg said.
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., the first member of Congress to endorse Buttigieg’s presidential bid, introduced him to the crowd in Alexandria.
Tickets at the sold-out “grassroots fundraiser” ranged from $25 to $1,000. Those who donated $500 or $1,000 gained access to a pre-reception photo-op, while others took pictures with life-size photos of Buttigieg and his husband Chasten and enjoyed $8 drinks from the bar. Buttigieg took the stage about an hour and a half after the event’s scheduled start time.
Buttigieg and Democratic primary rival Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota will headline the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Blue Commonwealth Dinner in Richmond, Va., Saturday evening.
