Posted Nov 05, 2009 at 8:26 AM by Maurice Berger
Another problem for the Democrats in Tuesday's election: parts of the Obama coalition--responsible for his easy victory last year--did not hold. As MSNBC notes: "Obama’s Base Is No Longer Fired Up And Ready To Go . . . According to the exit polls, just 10% of the voters in Virginia were under the age of 30, down from 21% last year. What’s more, McDonnell won 18-29 year olds, 54%-44%. Also in Virginia yesterday, African Americans made up 16% of the vote, down from 20% last year. And then there’s this: 51% of yesterday’s voters in Virginia said they voted for McCain, while just 43% said they voted for Obama. Folks, Obama won this state last year by a nearly 53%-46% margin."
Tagged: 2009, President Barack Obama, Younger Voters, Voter Enthusiasm, African-American voters, Virginia, New Jersey
Posted Jun 29, 2009 at 10:09 AM by Maurice Berger
A majority of African Americans believe that race relations have not improved with the election of President Obama, according to a new CNN/Essence/Opinion Research Corporation poll: "African-Americans really like President Obama, but more and more feel
that race relations have not gotten better since he took office, a new
national poll found. 96% of African-Americans approve of how Obama is
handling his presidency . . . During the 2008 election,
38 percent of blacks surveyed thought racial discrimination was a
serious problem. In the new survey, 55 percent of blacks surveyed
believed it was a serious problem, which is about the same level as it
was in 2000."
Tagged: 2009, African-American voters, race, Racism, President Barack Obama
Posted Jun 05, 2009 at 9:54 AM by Maurice Berger
The very coalition that assured and strengthened Obama's win last November is now standing strongly behind the president's nominee for the US Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor: Boosted by large black, Hispanic and Jewish majorities, American voters
approve--55% to 25%--President Obama's nomination of Judge
Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Back in November, African-American support for Obama was well over 90%, Jewish support was just under 80%, and Hispanic support near the 70% mark.
Tagged: 2009, President Barack Obama, Jewish Vote, Hispanic voters, African-American voters, US Supreme Court
Posted Dec 08, 2008 at 1:39 PM by Maurice Berger
The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president has had one immediate effect on the attitudes of African-American voters according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey: "38% of black voters believe the
nation is heading in the right direction, while just 16% of white voters agree. Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys found that 53%
of black voters say America is headed down the wrong track, along with 77% of
white voters." this represents an increase in black voter's optimism from pre-election numbers, one that can be ascribed to Obama's historic victory: "During the week prior to Election Day, just 10% of black
voters said America was heading in the right direction . . . confidence about the nation’s
future bounced among black voters the week after Election Day, when 40% said the nation was moving in the right direction . . . just 19% of whites agreed at that time."
Tagged: PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama, African-American voters
Posted Dec 04, 2008 at 9:18 AM by Maurice Berger
According to CQ Politics, while black voters in California overwhelmingly
supported Democrat Barack Obama for president, their views on
homosexuality were far more closely allied with Republicans: "When Californians voted for Proposition 8, providing for a state-wide ban on
same sex marriage, exit polls showed that 7 out of 10 black voters supported the measure. Gallup has
followed this up with an analysis of its polling data from May 2006, May 2007 and May 2008 showing
that on this issue, black Democrats are as conservative as Republicans. Thirty-one percent of black Democrats said that homosexual relations are
morally acceptable compared to 61 percent of non-black Democrats and 55 percent
of Democrats overall. That number put them more in line with Republicans among
whom only 30 percent found such relations morally acceptable." African-American Democrats were also closer to Republicans than non-black Democrats on a
number of other so-called moral issues, including stem cell research and sex outside of marriage but does NOT carry over into abortion and the death penalty, issues on which black voters are far more liberal than most Republicans.
Tagged: Democratic Party, Republican Party, African-American voters, moral issues, homosexuality
Posted Nov 10, 2008 at 10:14 AM by Maurice Berger
When it comes to the issue of how "race" played out on Election Day, one thing is certain: if the outcome was determined only by white people, John McCain would be president, by a landslide. Indeed, Obama garnered just 43% of the white vote to McCain's 57%, a 14% deficit that was only marginally better than Kerry or Gore's total and about the same as Bill Clinton. The Democrat was able to count on four groups for his impressive victory. Preeminently, the intensity and unprecedented numbers of African-American voters made the difference for Obama, especially in the closest fought states, such as Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio. This support was almost singlehandedly responsible for the Democrat's ability to pick off the true-red states of NC and IN. The black vote also deepened and widened Obama's victories in scores of Kerry-blue states, from New York to California. Hispanic voters represented another important asset: Obama led McCain among Hispanics 67% to 30%, a 10% increase in Democrat support from 2004. in his home state, McCain trailed Obama among Hispanics 61%
to 36%, making that race surprisingly close. The Hispanic vote was crucial to Obama in the southwest, handing him easy victories in Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. And in Florida, where Cuban-Americans have traditionally
tilted the Hispanic vote towards Republicans in virtually every presidential cycle, Obama won 57% to 42%. Another religious minority also played a key role in several states: Jewish-Americans, who gave the Democrat nearly 80% of their vote. (Jews are one of the demographic groups most loyal to the Democratic Party.) The Jewish vote in South Florida was crucial to handing the Republican leaning state to Obama. (Another state where the Jewish vote made a big difference: Ohio). Finally, through amazing outreach to the 18 to 29-year old demographic, the Obama campaign was able to boost the turnout of younger voters by more than 3 million, enough to hand the Democrat such razor close states as North Carolina and Indiana. Together, these four groups represented not only a winning coalition, but a shift in the power-base of the national electorate, allowing racial and religious minorities and young people to make a profound difference in the outcome of Election 2008.
Tagged: African-American voters, Hispanic voters, Jewish Vote, Younger Voters
