The history of the Democratic National Committee reshaping its primary calendar is the story of unintended consequences. And history, to paraphrase the old line, may not be repeating itself — but it sure does seem to be rhyming. Nearly 40 years ago, the DNC unwittingly elevated Jesse Jackson by frontloading its schedule with Southern states. At the time, committee members hoped the shift would help a moderate white candidate, who they thought could more easily win a general election. Instead, Southern Black voters rallied to Jackson’s history-making candidacy. On Friday, the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee again sought to push its nomination fight to the South. This time, though, the panel’s decision to lift South Carolina to first-in-the-nation status was done expressly with the state’s Black voters in mind. The party wanted to reward their most loyal constituency and those voters who, in the modern era, have invariably determined its nominees. Yet in making South Carolina first overall, rather than keeping the state in its previous role as first in the South, the party risks diluting the influence of Southern Black voters. The state traded the prospect of nominating power for attention and money. It will get a wealth of candidate visits, and its state party will reap a financial windfall. But South Carolina will now effectively become what Iowa was for the preceding half-century: the contest where also-rans are culled rather than the one that vaulted Democrats to the nomination or at least narrowed the race to a final two. This could have profound implications for who the party nominates in 2028. The reason why Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) delighted, at least until this week, in his state coming third or even fourth was because it meant they played a decisive role. With the field narrowed by the time it got to South Carolina, Clyburn and the state’s Black voters could all but choose the nominee, as they memorably did in 2020 with Joe Biden. With its population of Black churchgoers and white retirees and suburbanites, the South Carolina Democratic primary became what its GOP equivalent had been before the Trump era — the place where insurgencies went to die. The reason why Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is batting .000 in presidential nominations is in large part because he couldn’t appeal to this AME-AARP demographic, the de facto Democratic establishment. Now, though, whoever on the left… [TheTopNews] Read More.
3 weeks ago
