Atlanta, GA (Associated Press) – Eight years ago, exit polls showed Hillary Clinton with comfortable margins over now-President Barack Obama among whites and Latinos during the Democratic primary season.
This year, exit polls of Democratic voters showed whites narrowly preferred Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Yet, Clinton is the presumptive 2016 Democratic nominee.
The key difference: African-Americans sided overwhelmingly with the winner of 2008 and 2016 nominations, with black voters across the South and in heavily Democratic cities fueling key wins and delegate advantages in the drawn-out primary contests.
For Clinton, her second effort is evidence of a lesson learned, and it provides her with a head start in rebuilding part of the general election coalition that propelled Obama to two terms. For Sanders, it’s a case of what-might-have-been.
And for aspiring Democrats eyeing future White House bids, it serves notice that the presidential demand for a diverse voting coalition isn’t just a general election concern for Republicans too dependent on whites; it actually begins in the Democratic primary.
“You just can’t have a limited strategy focused on Iowa and New Hampshire, two of the whitest states in the country,” said Atlanta-based Democratic consultant Tharon Johnson, who worked for Obama’s 2008 campaign, arguing that Sanders and Clinton, in her first campaign, made that mistake. Read the full story here.
