More Black Leaders In Indiana Are Endorsing Joe Biden For President

[highplainsdem]

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/darrensands/joe-biden-black-support-indiana-pete-buttigieg

Joe Biden is announcing that another round of black leaders in Indiana will support his presidential campaign, a show of force as the former vice president tries to establish himself with black voters and fend off a challenge from Indiana’s own Pete Buttigieg.

The campaign told BuzzFeed News that 14 more black leaders in the state would support Biden for president, including Robin Winston, former Indiana Democratic Party state chair; Jerald Harkness, a filmmaker; Lacy Johnson, an Indianapolis attorney and Democratic Party insider; Nathaniel Lee, a former state officeholder; and Tammi Davis, a Gary, Indiana, official. They joined the outspoken South Bend city councilor Oliver Davis, who made national headlines with his support of Biden last month.

Others included in the endorsement announcement: the Rev. Dr. Michael J. Bluitt, general secretary of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Indiana; Ronald Covington, president of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Indiana; the Rev. Dr. Fitzhugh Lyons, president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Indiana; Eugene White, former Martin University president; and community leaders Carl Drummer, TyJuan Garrett, Jeffrey Johnson, Theron Williams, and Charlitta Winston.

Ordinarily such endorsements — from a Republican state that has little influence on the Democratic primary — might not rate much attention in a national presidential election. But Buttigieg’s rivals and critics trace his struggles to appeal to black voters to Indiana, where he presides as mayor over South Bend, a city that’s roughly a quarter black. Davis’s endorsement last month helped seed that narrative.

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Lacy Johnson, one of the new endorsers, is a rarity in politics outside of Delaware: a black Democrat who actually met Biden before Barack Obama walked into the picture. The campaign describes Johnson as a “longtime” figure in state Democratic politics. “I've seen the ups and downs,” he said. “We need the Obama coalition again. And I think Joe Biden is the one [who] can do that.”

Buttigieg, Johnson said, had courted him while running in the past. “I was one of the early ones,” said Johnson, calling the mayor a “bright person — extremely bright.” After last hearing from Buttigieg in 2016, he said it had disappointed him that he hadn’t heard from him again, “until very recently.”

[Cha]

1. KR!

TY, hpd !

[Gothmog]

2. Yeah