Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday that while he may be trailing among minority voters in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, that would change as soon as those voters learned more about him.
“When the African-American community becomes familiar with my congressional record and with our agenda and with our views on the economy and criminal justice, just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the African-American community, so will the Latino community. We have the momentum. We are on a path to victory,” he said during the Democratic debate Sunday evening.
Sanders made the comments after NBC broadcaster Lester Holt noted that Sanders was trailing his primary rival Hillary Clinton among minority voters, according to polls, and that the Congressional Black Caucus had endorsed Clinton, not him. Holt then asked Sanders how he could win an election for the Democratic Party without strong support from minority voters.
The Vermont senator responded by noting that his campaign began with just three percent in the polls when it was launched and Clinton’s lead has shrunk to single digits in recent polls. The two are neck-and-neck in the key early primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He attributed the shift to him getting his economic message out.
Sanders has at times had rocky relations with African-American civil rights activists. After some disrupted a speech he gave in Seattle last year, Sanders released a statement that he was “disappointed” by their actions. Sanders has since met with many activists in the movement, even hiring one to his press team.
