Pete Buttigieg is having a moment atop of the polls in the early-voting state of Iowa. But this success won’t easily carry over to other more diverse states, because Buttigieg is still struggling with black voters. In a frantic effort to fill that gap in his support, Buttigieg appears to have falsely touted black endorsements for his “Douglass Plan” for racial justice.

Here’s what happened. The South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate polls abysmally with black voters, and he knows it. So, Buttigieg put out a comprehensive “Douglass Plan” to try to win over black voters by touting his support for criminal justice reform and other laudable policies. However, the plan contained elements that were both possibly illegal and extreme. As I wrote at the time of its release, “The Douglass Plan is a microcosm of Buttigieg’s entire campaign: It’s got some good intentions, but it’s lacking in courage and steeped in tired, bad ideas.”