Ok, I’m going to jump in and invite abuse again this morning. The story line that Democrats aren’t doing enough to support African-American women is overstated, at least in North Carolina. We certainly need to do more to encourage black women to run for office. We also need to do more to ensure they can succeed in the workplace and take leadership roles in general, but to say Democrats don’t support them when they have an opportunity is not true in this state.
So before I start getting accusations about my white privilege, let me clarify my positions as a Southern white man who is also a Democrat. First, I have no problem criticizing my party for its shortcomings, particularly around issues of race. I believe in affirmative action programs and have seen their benefit for all of society, not just minorities. I strongly support the Voting Rights Act and think Congress is negligent in not updating it. I know that racism is still very much alive and that institutional racism is an insidious part of our society that denies opportunities to minorities. I believe we need to support HBCUs and we need to fund Civil Rights museums like the one in Greensboro because everyone needs to know the legacy of Jim Crow and understand that 400 hundred years of systematic, state-sponsored oppression and discrimination is not going to be undone in 50 years. I think the re-segregation of our schools is a threat to our social order and the advancements we’ve made since the end of Jim Crow. In short, I believe we, as a state and nation, have a long way to go on matters of race.
On the political front, I think we would benefit from more African-American candidates, women in particular, but to blame the lack of Democratic women on “the Democrats” is a false narrative in this state. In 1992, Eva Clayton became the first African-American woman to serve in Congress from North Carolina. She served until she retired. Today, Rep. Alma Adams makes up one-third of the Democratic Congressional delegation. She won a primary in 2016 against several well-heeled white candidates and clearly had institutional support from Democrat-allied organizations like NEA, EMILY’s List and the AFL-CIO.
Linda Coleman has been the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor twice in a row. In both races, she won Democratic primaries, in part, by securing the endorsements of the Democratic-allied organizations like the AFL-CIO and NCAE. In 2012, SEIU and the State Employees Association of North Carolina underwrote virtually her entire campaign, putting more than $500,000 behind her, the largest contribution by a third party organization in a Council of State race in state history. Coleman’s problem is not that she’s been unable to secure Democratic support; it’s that she’s never been able to put together the campaign to win the swing voters necessary for victory in a general election.
In Charlotte, Vi Lyles is the mayor of the largest city in the state. She won the seat by beating an incumbent white woman. Lyles’ endorsement list includes a significant number of high-profile white supporters like former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl, former Charlotte Observer publisher Rolfe Neill and former state senator Fountain Odom. She won their support because she was the best candidate, not because she was African-American.
Jessica Holmes is chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, the second largest county in the state, and is seen as a rising star in Democratic politics. A dozen years ago or so, I helped Terry Bellamy become the first African-American mayor of Asheville when she beat an incumbent white man. In Greensboro, Yvonne Johnson served as mayor of the state’s third largest city.
We might not have enough African-American women running for office in North Carolina, but when they run, the support is there from both Democratic institutional players and individuals. This year, the establishment is more than a little excited about African-American women running for state legislature. Women like Sydney Batch, who’s running in House District 37, are top targets of the Democratic caucus.
There’s no dispute that African-American women are the backbone of the Democratic Party. They vote at a higher percentage than any other part of the Democratic base. That said, as candidates, they should not get support just because they’re black women. They should get support because they bring the right experience and are willing to put in the hard work of raising the money to compete. With those characteristics, they’ll not only be welcome, they’ll be front-runners.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
You failed to mention D. D. Adams running for the 5th Congressional District seat, which Republican Virginia Foxx has held since 2005. Adams said she decided to throw her hat in the ring for 2018 to help change the direction of Congress and the 5th District.
YIKES! Any party’s #1 priority should be to win “the” election. Supporting some deserving minority or candidate is fine but not if it costs the election. And sniveling whiney complaints about lack of support, IMHO, are a good indication that the whiner is a loser.
Actually, smartysmom, any real party’s #1 priority should be to win an election by standing true to its principles, which reflect the views of its members and other voters who support its candidate(s). Winning an election as a Democrat who opposes abortion rights, gun control, healthcare affordability, human rights, equal rights for all, government accountability, tax fairness, an unbiased justice system, and a few other central planks of the party’s platform and ethical underpinning is not winning. It is not a win for the party — whose principles and platform are thereby trashed or, at best, ignored — or for the voters, who support a party because of its policy stances and are cheated by “victors” who then trash or ignore those stances and, in office, vote against the needs of the people who elected them.
For real Democrats, and real patriots, it’s not a question of “supporting some deserving minority or candidate,” but supporting candidates who will stand up for the principles we believe in as a party and as citizens.
Nor does one support “a minority”; one supports a person. The fact that you lump any candidate who is not a white male into the generic term “a minority” says volumes about you. Worse, it exposes an incredible ignorance on your part: women are NOT a minority group, they are the majority of the overall population and the voting population; the generic “minority” you disdain comprises black, Hispanic, Asian, GLBT, disabled, and other demographic groups which, collectively, OUTNUMBER your imagined “majority” of white men. As do women, black and white.
Talking about sniveling whiney complaints — it’s not sniveling or whiny to explain something. It’s not a complaint to point out reasons why something did or didn’t happen. It’s not whiny to note that while ABC helped X do something, X didn’t lift a finger to support ABC; it’s simply noting a lack of reciprocity as an issue to be addressed, dealt with, and solved. Those who interpret such facts as “sniveling whiney complaints” remind me of those people who dismiss the legitimate issues African Americans have about being shot by white cops, or the attitude taken by white male supremacists toward women who don’t like being raped.
Now, if, as it seems, you still think that the norm, the average, the basis by which all others are measured, is white straight males, then you’re in for a very rude awakening, and you’re not very smart after all. In today’s Democratic party, the “norm” is women, and specifically black women, who get out and vote. The diminishing minority of Democrats is white males — like me.
Unlike you, I’m fine with that: I would love to see a government run by smart women of every color and background, with some token men included to provide added perspective. In fact, that’s what we have in Asheville — a 7-person City Council comprised of four women (one of whom is black), one black man, one Indian-Italian man (Asian India, not Native American), and one lone white male.
Welcome the future. Embrace it, or be run over by it!