With the South Carolina primary just weeks away, Hillary Clinton scored a key endorsement on Thursday from the Congressional Black Caucus' Political Action Committee. Please note: the CBC itself has not made an endorsement, only its PAC.
Civil rights activist Rep. John Lewis praised Clinton on Thursday: "We need her leadership, her vision... We must get out our vote like we never, ever voted before."
The PAC's endorsement comes the day of the sixth Democratic debate and less than 48 hours after Sanders dominated Clinton in New Hampshire, 60% to 38%. The endorsement will likely reinforce Clinton's already strong support among black voters in South Carolina. Polls show her winning up to 80% of the state's black vote, and even Sanders has admitted that as of now, he has much ground to cover.
Following the PAC's endorsement, thousands of black voters from South Carolina and beyond took to social media to express their opinions on the matter. Corey Johnson, a Masters student at Andrews University and founder of ooboundsblog.com, shared his perspective on why fellow black voters should not settle for Clinton just yet.
Johnson wrote:
Black democratic lawmakers owe it to their constituents to hold a debate before the South Carolina primary and give both candidates an opportunity to make their case for the black vote. It baffles me how these black leaders are uncritically blindly coronating Hillary simply because her husband was good to them in the 1990s. Was his crime bill good to their constituents? How about her vote on the Iraq war? Our people deserve better. But if we remember 2008, many black democrats even endorsed Clinton over Obama. The tea is piping hot.
* The author of this post is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund an entire series of animated rap videos about Bernie Sanders and the 2016 election.