Two black South Carolinian men who previously supported Joe Biden switched to endorsing Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan’s presidential bid. They cited a lack of attention from the Biden campaign and a desire for a younger Democratic presidential nominee.
Fletcher Smith is a former state representative who was South Carolina co-chairman during Biden’s 2008 presidential bid. Brandon Brown was the deputy political director for Biden’s 2008 campaign and earned an endorsement from Biden when Brown ran for Congress last year.
“I have a basic standard: If you call me early enough and ask for my support, then I’ll give you good consideration. If you don’t call me, then I’ll assume you don’t need my support. I didn’t get that call this time,” Smith told NBC News. “I think his campaign decided we don’t need the old heads, there are a lot of young bucks out there.”
The two men attended a small meeting with the former vice president, 76, and black leaders in Columbia, South Carolina last month, but the face time was not enough to woo them.
Smith said that he is looking for “a new voice from a new generation” and “a candidate who can still talk to people in the Midwest as well as working-class people and middle-class people.”
When asked why he chose Ryan over South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who campaigns on being from the Midwest, Smith told the Washington Examiner that he has not heard from Buttigieg’s campaign. “I don’t think Pete knows how to talk to the black community yet,” Smith said. “Once he learns how to do it, maybe he can get his sea legs.
Brown echoed Smith’s point on needing a younger nominee. “What you’re seeing is almost like a changing of the guard,” he told NBC.
Brown said that he developed a friendship with Ryan after the 2020 hopeful reached out to him.
“I introduced him to some people and you could immediately see he resonated,” Brown said. “We see that Tim Ryan represents those traditional values that in South Carolina still hold true. He is not a socialist — that resonates in South Carolina.”
Smith condemned the spat between Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris over Biden working with segregationist senators to oppose busing in the 1970s.
“It’s an asinine issue for Democrats to have this stupid food fight on the national stage on the basis of race. What we need to be talking about is good jobs,” Smith told the Washington Examiner.
In South Carolina, which holds the fourth statewide contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, a majority of Democratic primary voters are black. The latest Monmouth University poll of likely Democratic primary voters in the state found Biden leading the field with 39% support total and 51% support among black voters. Ryan had 0% support in the poll.
RealClearPolitics’ polling average puts Ryan at 0.3% support nationally in the crowded field of presidential hopefuls. In his home state of Ohio, Ryan received 1% support in the field, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
