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Dems Say They’ll Lift Up Voters of Color

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Ad Bonanza Targets Battleground Blacks, Latinos
How Campaign Strategists Respond on Biden’s Age

Update: V.P. Harris on Wednesday’s GOP Debate

Homepage photo credit: Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Journal-isms Roundtable photos by Sharon Farmer/sfphotoworks

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Wall Street Journal reporter James V. Grimaldi watched the Journal-isms Roundtable on Facebook and projected the site onto his living room television. (Credit: James V. Grimaldi)

Ad Bonanza Targets Battleground Blacks, Latinos

As the top two Republican presidential candidates — Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis — stoke white grievance, top Democratic campaign leaders say, “We’re putting our African American and our minority voters first. Because it’s important to the president and the vice president.”

Those are the words of Cedric Richmond, co-chairman of the Joe Biden–Kamala Harris re-election campaign.

Communications director Michael Tyler (pictured) added, “So that’s why [Democratic National Committee] Chairman [Jaime] Harrison is going to be doing roundtables across the state of Wisconsin starting in Milwaukee . . . focused on Black men in particular, just to make sure that we are engaged in having those conversations now, and that it’s not a conversation that only happens in the summer and fall of 2024.”

Not that the Democrats are focused only on communities of color, of course. The White Stripe Project did not come up in the discussion, but Brakkton Booker reported Aug. 1 for Politico about the creation of this Democratic group targeting white working-class voters.

The Democratic campaign leaders were speaking Sunday at the Journal-isms Roundtable, a Zoom session titled, “How Democrats Plan to Wage the 2024 Presidential Campaign.” Forty people were on the Zoom, with, as of Wednesday evening, 53 more watching later on YouTube and 159 viewing the simulcast on Facebook. You can watch an embedded version above or on the YouTube site.

Richmond and Tyler were joined by Quentin Fulks, principal deputy campaign manager. All are African Americans. They responded to persistent questions about how the campaign plans to answer questions about Biden’s age and discussed how they will engage in “battleground” states. Their answers did not always satisfy the journalists, particularly on the age issue. But they acknowledged, to the satisfaction of some, that state and local outrages on racial issues required a large-scale effort to turn red and purple jurisdictions blue.

Also on the call were speakers about voter suppression, misinformation and disinformation: Dominik Whitehead, vice president of campaigns of the NAACP; Judy Kang, program manager, USC Election Cybersecurity Initiative; and Jessica Fulton, interim president and vice president of policy, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Fulton said the Center was “focusing on economic policies around tax policy and race, small business, household economic security.”

The group also toasted Alex Mena (pictured), newly named executive editor of the Miami Herald, an appointment seconded by Leroy Chapman, his counterpart at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  

The Roundtable took place the same weekend that the Biden-Harris campaign announced what it described as “a 16-week, $25 million advertising campaign that will reach key voters in battleground states. The buy includes both the largest and earliest media buy for a reelection campaign into constituency media ever, as well as the largest overall buy for a reelection campaign at this point in time ever, ensuring that President Biden’s message is heard throughout this year’s Republican primary.”

Arlette Saenz reported for CNN that “the campaign is also placing ads in Hispanic and African American media in each of these states – as well as a targeted buy to reach Hispanic voters in Florida – as they look to court key voting blocs ahead of the 2024 election. This represents the largest and earliest buy a re-election campaign has ever placed in Hispanic and African American media outlets, a campaign official says . . . “

“It’s Us” campaign ad from the Biden-Harris campaign. (Credit: YouTube)

The Democrats included in their announcement news of a memo by Tyler that “lays out five criticisms of the GOP field, including Republicans’ views on cutting Social Security and Medicare, lowering taxes for the rich, banning abortion, protecting the gun lobby and undermining democracy, which focuses on election deniers.

” ‘The 2024 Republicans are focusing on litigating the benefits of slavery, which books they want to ban from schools, and a made-up war on “woke” that they themselves can’t even define,’ the memo said. ‘That’s a race for the MAGA base, not a pathway to winning a general election in 2024.’ “

Greg Bluestein reported Sunday in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The ads will run on broadcast, cable and streaming channels over 16 weeks, along with upcoming NFL games and the World Series. The ads will also be placed on Instagram and YouTube, as well as outlets owned by Black and Hispanic executives. . . .The Hispanic outreach effort was led by Conexión, a media strategy firm led by Adrian Saenz.”

Jacob Ogles added Sunday for Florida Politics, “The ads target Black and Latino voters in battleground states, including Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Florida buy will specifically target Hispanic voters.”

The Democrats cited economic issues as the reason for targeting Black men.

The Center for American Progress reported in March 2022, “Many Black men — older and disabled Black men in particular — continue to experience persistent gaps in both employment and economic opportunity.“

Veteran journalist Nolu Crockett-Ntonga (pictured) told the campaign leaders, “My grandsons who are in their twenties, you know . . . What they care about is despite education, they can’t make enough money to rent an apartment. This business of $15 minimum wage is ridiculous.

“I mean, who in the [Washington] area can live on $15? So here’s the question. What are the talking points around the economy, especially okay, the CHIPS Act and the . . . infrastructure, all this is wonderful, but right now a lot of people are feeling pain. . . .”

Tyler responded, “We’ve achieved the highest level of African American labor force participation since before the Great Recession,” and moreover, “it is about the articulating the underpinning philosophy, right? And the motivations of this president and vice president. You know, they understood when they took office that it wasn’t going to be enough to just go back to the economy that we had before the pandemic.

“We had, we faced the worst . . . downturn since the Great Recession. But they knew that even before the crisis that we had in 2020 we were dealing with an economy that was plagued by rising inequality, by disinvestment from communities of color, you know, that goes back decades, right?

“And so this was about making an articulation of an entire economic philosophy, right? Growing the economy, putting the middle out . . . versus what we’d seen for decades, which was that Reaganomics approach of give tax breaks for the wealthy, get tax breaks for corporations and hope and pray that that money trickles down to folks who are just trying to get by.”

“Nosotros” campaign ad from the Biden-Harris campaign. (Credit: YouTube)

To a question by Mary Chou of Scripps News about outreach to Asian American voters, Fulks replied, “Translating alone into several different languages, 20-plus languages at a minimum is something that our campaign is doubling down on,” but more important is “making sure that we’re down on the ground level,” with print and digital advertising and developing trusted messengers within those communities, a concept he called “relational organizing.”

Whitehead of the NAACP said his group will be “focusing in on those down-ballot races where we know it impacts communities of color, DA races, city council, mayoral races . . . down the local level . . . to increase turnout at the top of the ticket.”

He cited an NAACP campaign last fall in Shelby County, Tenn., which includes Memphis, in which the national organization placed about $70,000 into the local branch and “helped to put boots on the ground to help execute voter registration, postcard, and door-knocking campaigns.”

Whitehead also explained a partnership with the mapping company Esri to attack inequality. According to the company, “Now, using smart maps and advanced analytics from geographic information system technology (GIS), the NAACP has repositioned itself as a monitor of inequality in an increasingly complex world where the strategies for creating privilege and, conversely, inequity are evolving. A geographic approach has gained importance in the civil rights movement because data-driven maps can help leaders identify and prioritize the most harmed places. . . .”

On Friday, a federal judge narrowed a section of Georgia election law that banned the practice of handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast ballots, as well as halted enforcement of a requirement that voters put their birth dates on the outer envelope of their ballots. The practice has been criticized as a voter-suppression tactic. (Credit: CNN)

Whitehead added, “We are targeting in real-time issues that are happening on the ground and then also doing some advanced targeting where we can foresee issues that are happening when it comes to the upcoming election cycle. We’re testing that out now this year. A little bit more in places like Mississippi, Virginia, and Louisiana. Our goal is to build a large coalition of volunteers, experts, legal experts. We’re in partnership with many of our civil rights groups on the ground in all things voter suppression, voter turnout. We’ll continue to see this state by state. . . .”

Some attendees said they thought the Democrats did not go far enough.

“I think some of the Dem policy makers were not plugged enough in the real world,” messaged veteran journalist Barbara Reynolds. “For example, Nolu tried to bring them into the world of the disconnected youth and I certainly was not pleased with their outreach to seniors, who vote regularly. One thing that turns us away from the poll is their inability to stand in long lines. I saw my 90 year old father having to walk away [because he] could not stand long in the Ohio lines. I haven’t faced that problem yet, but I know plenty who do. But otherwise, it was wonderful as usual.”

Roger Witherspoon, another veteran, messaged, “The assertion that the Biden campaign is committing millions of $ to actively contest ostensibly red and purple states is important.

“You’ll recall Hillary [Clinton] bypassed Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin ’cause she didn’t think she needed to. And she lost them all. It was close, but she lost nonetheless.

“I’d still want to know exactly what the message is. Harris criticized a specific assertion about the ‘benefits’ of slavery.

“But Biden has been silent on the overarching issue of ‘parental rights.’ Whose rights?

“Do white parents have an automatic veto over any subject dealing with race in America?

“What are the ‘rights’ of Black parents?

“Arkansas has banned talk of racial massacres unless they assertion that armed Blacks started it. Will ads target that? . . .

“Biden has to specifically show he is backing the future of all kids and fighting discrimination against all kids. If not, white parents won’t vote for him.

“How?

“Our guests didn’t address specifics. But that is where this game will be won or lost.”

How Campaign Strategists Respond on Biden’s Age

Cedric Richmond, co-chair, Biden-Harris campaign:

. . . . We’re not going to let people change the fact that wisdom and experience is somehow now a bad thing.

I think you have to point to the president’s record. You could point to his schedule. You could point to his working out, but for the people who are focused on that, it means that they’re taking away from the record accomplishments and all the other things. And I think we’re going to stand by his record.

We’re going to talk about his experience. And look, it was his experience in world affairs that led him to unite the West against Russia when even the Ukrainian president was saying Russia is not going to invade.

And he was mad at President Biden. President Biden was like, “No, the 100,000 troops on your border are not there for a picnic.

“They’re there to invade and we’re united.” So he united the entire West to do that.

So we’re going to hone in on his experience, his wisdom, his know-how, and his record of what he’s been able to do since he’s been there. But are we going to spend a lot of time, you know, talking about the fact that he works out every morning and does all these other things? Probably not. We will state — because at the end of the day we believe, and I know the president and vice president believe this — that this election is not about them.

The election is really about you, your community and your families. And every chance we get, we’re going to remind people that the president wakes up every day along with the vice president. . . . with the American people on their mind and how to improve their life, and so it’s just a hard fact, but you can’t — you can’t win an argument about age. You just have to remind people that age and wisdom is not a bad thing.

I won’t mind for one moment having an experienced and wise heart doctor. You know, as smart as I think I am and as young as I think I am, I don’t want me operating on my heart. I want somebody who has the experience and who’s been there, like the Farmers Insurance commercial, “I know a thing or two because I’ve seen a thing or two.” . . .

I just think that as people talk about that, we have to talk about the accomplishments and remind people that it’s a team effort. It’s led by the president and vice president, but it’s an administration-wide value system and effort. But thank you for that.

The question came up again when a journalist invoked her own parents, who are 81 and 82, and who like Biden,now 80 (Donald Trump is 77). “But they feel like if they feel they’re too old to do a  lot of things, much less . .  . run the country at that age.”

Quentin Fulks, principal deputy manager of the reelection campaign:  

It’s hard to answer the question any other way than Cedric answered it, and again, not to be combative within it because I understand, but you know the logic of the question is almost as though just because I feel this way, somebody else feels that way. . . .

By entertaining it, it falls right back into where Republicans want us to fall on, because if you’re talking about that at the end of the day, like what we’re doing is showing the president is being active.

The president’s campaigning. The president is going overseas. The president, . . . you know what I mean?

I’m not sure about your parent situation or other senior citizens or how much they’re doing, but I can tell you that Joe Biden every day is getting up and traveling.

He’s going to Maui, he is responding. He’s being the president of the United States.

He’s going to NATO. He’s going to . . . New York.

So, you know, at the end of the day, You know, all we can do is, you know, show that the president is working.

By doing that and not saying, “Oh, the president has a busy schedule because of his age.”

That’s not a relevant leg for us to stand on because within the day we know what Joe Biden is doing and the fact that the Republicans are going that way (1) is a baseless attack against Kamala Harris that they’re trying to get at ultimately. And then (2) is the fact that they’re trying to turn his age and experience and wisdom back on us, and we’re not going to allow that to happen.

Update: V.P. Harris on Wednesday’s GOP Debate

The following is a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday’s GOP debate:

“No one on stage ‘won’ tonight’s debate. Instead, the American people heard how much they stand to lose from an extremist agenda.

 “One by one, each extremist Republican candidate laid out a vision for an America that is less fair, less free, and less safe.

These candidates want to raise costs for working families in order to benefit special interests and the ultra-wealthy. To gut Social Security and Medicare. To strip fundamental rights and basic freedoms from millions of people. And to reverse the Bidenomics strategy that has helped create 13 million jobs, the strongest two years of small business creation in history, and record-low unemployment. 

“These extremists focus on unnecessary debates meant to divide our nation in hopes that the American public will not notice they have no affirmative agenda.

“President Biden and I will continue to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out and build a nation in which all people can truly thrive. We are laser-focused on finishing the job we’ve started: to create good jobs, lower costs, fix America’s roads and bridges, create a clean energy economy, protect a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body, keep our children safe from gun violence, and make sure all Americans can dream about their future with ambition and aspiration.” [Updated Aug. 23]

 

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