First Congressional Black Caucus Member to Endorse Mayor Pete Tells MSNBC Black Voter Support Will ‘Increase Dramatically’
Democratic Maryland Congressman Anthony Brown became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg for president, and told MSNBC that he expects Pete’s support among black voters to “increase dramatically” as they become more “familiar” with him.
The Buttigieg campaign announced Rep. Brown’s endorsement in a press release Thursday, in which Brown said that Mayor Pete “can heal our divides and restore decency to our nation’s highest office,” and that as a veteran, “I am acutely aware that the top priority for the President should be the security and safety of our nation, which is why my choice for president is Mayor Pete Buttigieg.”
On Thursday morning’s edition of MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson, anchor Hallie Jackson asked Rep. Brown about his endorsement, and about Buttigieg’s challenges in building support among black voters.
Rep. Brown told Jackson that he sees Buttigieg as “someone with an extraordinary intellect, certainly an understanding of a breadth of issues, a willingness to listen, and really a forward-looking approach to how we solve the many challenges that we are going to face on day one after the Trump administration.”
Jackson played a clip of The Root’s Jason Johnson dismissing the endorsement as unlikely to help significantly given Mayor Pete’s “own policies and his own behavior and his age,” and asked “What are you going to tell people, Congressman, who do you have those concerns about Buttigieg’s past policies?”
Brown said that Mayor Pete’s “biggest challenge” will be getting himself known to voters, and that “as he becomes more familiar in the African American community, just as he has has done in other communities, I believe that in listening to his message about empowering people, investments in education, very purposeful targeted investments — in health care particularly, considering the racial disparities in health care in our country — you’re going to see support increase dramatically for Pete Buttigieg.”
Jackson said “it would have to be pretty extremely dramatically, when you look at where the numbers are now,” and added that Mayor Pete “is polling at just 2% in that community, Joe Biden polling at 51%.”
“Obviously you would still have to build a coalition if you want to be the president and win the Democratic primary,” she said.
“And I think that’s where Pete’s strength is, it’s building coalitions,” Rep. Brown said, citing Buttigieg’s work as mayor of South Bend.
“So I think when he takes that experience, eight years as a mayor, and he couples that with the forward-looking vision, he’ll be very attractive to the African American community as he becomes more familiar in our community,” Brown said.
Buttigieg is in fourth place nationally and at or near the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire, but as Jackson noted, has remained mired in low single-digits with black voters. He has received support from some local black leaders in South Bend, but not all of them.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
