Mark McKinnon Says All Warren Has to Do to Pull Black Voters is Win Iowa and New Hampshire: ‘They’ll Come Aboard’
No Labels founder Mark McKinnon said that all Massachusetts Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has to do to overcome her polling deficit with black voters is win the predominantly white states of Iowa and New Hampshire, telling CNN “they’ll come aboard” at that point.
On Monday’s edition of CNN’s New Day, McKinnon joined hosts John Berman and Bianna Golodryga, along with CNN contributor Jess McIntosh, to talk about the presidential race, and the subject of polls came up.
“The number that has been super important for Biden in South Carolina, and nationally, is his support among the black vote, which is still at 50% in South Carolina,” Berman said, telling McIntosh “That tells me that among the people who might very well decide who the Democratic nominee is, Biden still seems on fairly solid ground.”
“Yeah, Biden’s still the frontrunner,” McIntosh said, adding “Biden has been the frontrunner, he remains the frontrunner.”
She added that Biden “is the frontrunner at a moment where it is not often that the frontrunner who is currently here in the off-year becomes the eventual nominee, so obviously things can move and change, we are going to see this field narrow significantly.”
McIntosh noted that “We’ve seen Elizabeth Warren rize during a critical moment,” and that “next next week’s debate is even more important.”
McKinnon observed that “firewall” states like South Carolina can melt with early state losses.
“The African American vote is crucial for Elizabeth Warren, she’s run a seamless campaign other than this, she’s introducing new policies directly aimed at the African American vote,” Golodryga, and asked “What can she do, and can she, turn that around to her favor?”
“Yep, she can,” McKinnon said, adding “You know what it is? Winn. Win Iowa, winn New Hampshire, they’ll come aboard.”
McKinnon might be thinking of then-candidate Barack Obama, whose support among black voters surged in 2008 after a win in Iowa.
But McKinnon’s analysis assumes that black voters are skeptical of Warren for the same reasons they were of Obama, and ignores the fact that Warren is running against Obama’s VP, and ignores the fact that she’s in a larger field that includes Senator Kamala Harris, who is running to be the first black woman to be elected president.
Watch the clip above, via CNN.
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