Joint Center News from the Convention Floor - Monday, July 26, 2004
Does the Democratic Party take African American voters for Granted?
By Joe Davidson
BOSTON, July 26, 2004 -- “Does the Democratic Party take African American voters for granted?â€
Many Black people answer “yes†to that question, which President Bush asked at the National Urban League convention last week. But if it’s true that the party takes Blacks for granted, it’s not because the party excludes them.
An analysis that the Joint Center released on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention shows that a significant percentage of the party’s leadership is African American.
Blacks and the 2004 Democratic National Convention, written by Joint Center senior research associate David Bositis, reports that 22 percent of the Democratic National Committee membership is Black, as are 20.3 percent of the convention delegates here in Boston.
“We have to be the most inclusive, the most embracing campaign we’ve seen in recent history,†said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who represents the Houston area in Congress. Lee spoke as she and other Congressional Black Caucus members dined with supporters at a Sunday afternoon dockside brunch in Boston Harbor.
The report identifies 51 high ranking African American officers in 25 state parties, D.C. and the Virgin Islands, reflecting a substantial increase from 33 such officers in 2000.
Yet that huge jump has not erased the perception that while the Republican Party seems to ignore Black people, the Democrats just take them for granted. The prevalence of this perception was confirmed in a BET.com/Black Entertainment Television survey this month. It indicates that over a third of Blacks (35 percent) believe the Democratic Party takes Black voters for granted.
While this still leaves many - - 60 percent of those surveyed - - who say that the party does reach out to Black voters, it suggests a challenge.
“We have a lot of work to do in the minority community,†said Lee. “The good news is we have a lot to say. We have a lot of practical programs and actions we can showcase.†But Lee added, “Our music can’t sound like the same old song.â€
Lee feels strongly that this means welcoming the efforts of Hip Hop artists and neighborhood activists as part of the party’s apparatus. “We have to embrace the work of Russell Simmons,†she said. “We’ve got to embrace the work of P. Diddy. We’ve got to embrace neighborhood political activists.â€
In fact, Simmons and P. Diddy are expected to be in Boston this week, and presumably they’ll be available for a political embrace from the Democrats. Simmons scheduled a Hip Hop Summit at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center of the Roxbury Community College on Monday.
The kind of folks attending that Summit should be a key target group of the Democrats if they want to win the election. The Joint Center’s report notes that only 50 to 60 percent of African Americans in the 18-to-25 age range identify with the Democrats, as compared with 80 percent of Black people generally.
In the report, Bositis points out the quandary posed by trying to reach these young voters: “The problem today for the Democratic Party, and for Black politics generally, is that political independents – being less attached – are also less likely to register and cast a vote.â€
The young Black vote certainly is one segment of the electorate the Democratic Party cannot afford to take for granted.
Joe Davidson is the editor of FOCUS magazine at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.