A prominent South Carolinia African-American lawyer switched his support from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders on Monday, a development Sanders’ campaign hopes will boost his black support.
State Rep. Justin Bamberg was the attorney who represented the family of Walter Scott after he was fatally shot by a police officer in South Carolina last year. Bamberg was attracted to Sanders’ bolder platform.
“Hillary Clinton is more a representation of the status quo when I think about politics or about what it means to be a Democrat,” Bamberg told The New York Times. “Bernie Sanders on the other hand is bold. He doesn’t think like everyone else. He is not afraid to call things as they are.”
While Sanders has been on the rise in Iowa and New Hampshire, he is struggling in South Carolina. Part of that is due to his low standing among black voters. Recent polls have shown Clinton beating him among the state’s African-American voters by more than 50 points.
“What I got from him was not a presidential candidate talking to a state representative, or an old white man talking to a young black guy,” Bamberg said. “What I got from him was a man talking to a man about things that they are passionate about, and that was the tipping point for me.”
