NJ Rep Watson Coleman: "Democrats have neglected the communities and people who are the backbone of our party”
/From [HERE] Donald Trump‘s victory over Kamala Harris in the presidential election nearly two weeks ago disappointed and saddened many Black Democratic voters in New Jersey. Now as the president-elect forms his cabinet and plans to take power, some of that disappointment is now focused on a Democratic Party many activists say worries about Black voters only at election time.
Harris, who was vying to become the first woman and second Black president in American history, carried New Jersey, but by a margin of only about 5 percentage points — much closer than expected.
The election and and having New Jersey nearly put into swing state territory has prompted Black Democrats on the local and federal level to do soul-searching, questioning whether the party has functioned in Black people’s best interests — and wondering if the feeling of apathy they warned about for decades finally caught up with the party.
“Don’t lose hope,” were the first words New Jersey African American Chamber of Commerce president John Harmon said when asked about the election.
Harmon supported Harris, whose campaign did focus on Black voters in the campaign’s final stretch. But he said this goes beyond the presidential election. The Democratic Party, he said, has taken the Black vote for granted. He also contends Black elected officials were more loyal to the Democratic Party machine than the Black communities they represented.
In the wake of the election, U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-11th Dist., echoed Harmon’s sentiment while endorsing Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for governor.
“Yes, Trump gained a few thousand more votes, but Kamala Harris lost half a million (in New Jersey). Why? Because Democrats have neglected the communities and people who are the backbone of our party,” Watson Coleman said in her gubernatorial endorsement statement in the New Jersey Globe.
Trump’s New Jersey vote total wasn’t that much larger than what he got in 2020, but far fewer voted for Harris compared to President Joe Biden.
“We have to turn a page,” Watson Coleman said. “We can’t keep going back to nominating the same old politicians backed by the same old special interest groups, corporate mega-donors, or single-issue organizations with big money.” [MORE]