Sen. Elizabeth Warren has shown improvement with her polling numbers in the Black community, and that change is potentially the reason behind her recent surge in national polling.
A Quinnipiac poll released last week showed Warren with 19% of the African American vote, which is a nine point increase from the poll’s August results. According to survey data released by Morning Consult on Monday, the Massachusetts senator is up five percentage points with black voters since August.
“It’s certainly a dramatic shift that had to be noticed by the Biden campaign — and also Sanders, Harris and Buttigieg,” Tim Malloy, Qunnipiac’s polling analyst, said to Politico. “Other [candidates] aren’t moving. And if they are, it’s in the wrong direction.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden still leads with the important voting bloc, but Warren's recent surge shows that she's an even more clear opponent for him.
“Warren is attempting to rewrite the playbook as it relates to what it takes to win the nomination,” Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist based in South Carolina, said to Politico. “But I don’t know how anyone can secure the nomination without overwhelming black support across the board.”
The Warren campaign began to steer its message toward Black voters following the senator's appearance at the She The People forum in April, the first-ever presidential candidate forum focused on women of color. Warren has continued to hold listening sessions across the nation with Black women’s groups and community activists, even holding a roundtable with a group of Black organizers in July, who then took to social media to express their support for her platform.
On closing the racial wealth gap and the student loan plan, @SenWarren, forever economist pic.twitter.com/vCjMB4NvBi
— Corn Pop's Ride-Or-Die (@FeministaJones) July 13, 2019
“In terms of her building trust and authenticity, I believe that was the moment,” Aimee Allison, founder and CEO of She The People, said to Politico. “The thing about [black women] is that we have networks of networks. When she impressed a room of 2,000 women of color, I could just see months later that she started getting people’s attention.”
Even with this recent surge in Black voter support, Warren still has a way to go to threaten Biden's hold on the Black community. In order to take the lead, Sen. Warren must do more to capture the attention of Southern voters.
