There will be days of pundit meaning-making around the results of the South Carolina primary, but perhaps the most obvious takeaway from Joe Biden’s huge win is that Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Michael Bloomberg should follow the example of Tom Steyer and drop out of the race, now.
Black voters in the state have predicted the eventual Democratic nominee in every primary race since 1992—save for John Kerry—and with Saturday’s vote, the clarion message as three in five black voters went with Biden was that the other candidates competing for the middle lane don’t have a chance with the Democrats’ most reliable base. It’s time they pulled over.
This isn’t so much a surprise as it is confirmation of what anyone keeping even a side-eye on the Democratic contest has known for quite awhile, and that voters have now confirmed.
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Pete Buttigieig’s failure to gain traction with black voters has become almost the trademark of his campaign, and his tendency to say the absolute wrong things where race is concerned—defending the misunderstood intentions of white enslavers immediately jumps to mind—hasn’t helped. Amy Klobuchar has repeatedly touted her ability to win in the red Midwest, seeming to attempt inroads with black folks almost as an afterthought.
Mike Bloomberg—who sincerely looks put upon each time he has to answer for promotion of racist policies including stop-and-frisk and redlining as mayor of New York City and whose campaign put out a statement Tuesday night declaring that he wasn’t going anywhere ahead of Super Tuesday—hasn’t been able to buy black voters the same way he has some black elected officials. Exit polls showed him with a staggering 26 percent favorable rating among South Carolina Democrats, compared to 76 percent for Biden.
And yes, I’m well aware it was Joe Biden’s night, with neither Bernie Sanders nor Elizabeth Warren faring as well as I might’ve liked nor as predicted. But with Biden’s outsized moderate candidacy, is there a need for more of the same on the ticket? There’s no good reason for these folks to remain, particularly when there’s so much to be lost by them continuing on a course that so clearly leads nowhere near the top of the ticket.
Each candidate has previously stated how critical it is that Donald Trump be defeated, and by dropping out, they’d be putting their proverbial money (I’m looking at you particularly intensely here, Mr. Bloomberg) where their mouths are.
If the current election is an opportunity to save our incredibly imperfect democracy and reassert some kind of normalcy—which honestly, wasn’t particularly fantastic for black folks, but here we are—then the best way these candidates can help on that front is by energizing their voters to support more viable Democratic runners.
For all the lip service each has given to African-American civil rights, getting out of the way would be the best way, in this moment, for them to contribute to the health and well-being of black folks.
There are other upsides as well. Should she drop out now, Klobuchar could stop limply saying that “evidence needs to be immediately reviewed” in the case of Myon Burrell—the very likely innocent black man who Klobuchar helped send to jail for life in 2002—and actually attempt to make a meaningful contribution to release efforts. Buttigieig, who actually seemed like he was really just laying the groundwork for a 2028 run, can continue to refine his Douglass Plan for Black America, which needs work. Bloomberg can start pouring money into Democrats who have a real shot, like he originally promised to do, no backsies.
My point is, why keep sucking up the air in the room when it’s clear black voters aren’t selling what they’re buying? And while it’s true that black voters aren’t a monolith—the generational divide has a huge impact on voting habits, for example, and black voters in South Carolina lean more religious and conservative than black voters in other states—Saturday is evidence that these folks have hit an impasse they can’t get over. In the lead up to Super Tuesday and beyond, we’ll need all the energy we can harness to defeat the racist meme currently occupying the White House.
Consolidation of the field is the best bet for a winning strategy.
