Obama Won On Minority Votes - 1268 Words

Obama won on minority votes. He only won 39% of the white vote in 2012, and presumably Hillary Clinton would have greater support amongst white voters; since she quite frankly does not look like the president. As it stands now according to a WSJ poll, the Secretary has slightly lower favorability numbers than the president among white voters (Zitner). But, this question is being asked in the vacuum of yes or no favorability of one candidate, contrary to Election Day where voters would be picking between her and someone else. In that case the Secretary should pick up white women voters who would prefer her to the GOP candidate. However, she cannot focus on picking up white votes at the expense of minority votes. The Black vote in†¦show more content†¦This is excellent news for the Secretary’s hope of winning minority voters in the general due to her ability to win them over in this early stage. However, Secretary Clinton must find ways to preserve this level of s upport. African American voter turnout had record highs of 65% and 66% in ’08 and ’12 respectively (Walter,1). While this turnout was a piece of a larger trend, the chance to vote for the first black President could have overinflated these numbers. Obama pulled down 95% and 93% of the black vote in the general elections, and Sec. Clinton must find a way to replicate those results. She will not have the support based on shared demographics that the president benefitted from. The secretary is a rich white woman and that demographic difference from her predecessor will require her to find different ways to connect to this voting bloc. Specifically, she will need to run a color conscious campaign, in contrast to the relatively color blind campaigns that the President ran. How can she run a color conscious campaign without alienating the white voters? She just needs to follow these three points. First, win the endorsements of noncontroversial black figures. She has already begun this process by gaining support from Magic Johnson, John Legend, and Pharrell Williams. She also isn’t just picking up celebrity support, she also has earned endorsements from Senator Cory Booker, and Representative John Lewis. These could be considered