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Roxbury voters backed Clinton

Dearth of black voter support for Sanders mirrors nation-wide trend

Yawu Miller
Yawu Miller is the former senior editor of the Bay State Banner. He has written for the Banner since 1988.... VIEW BIO

In a pattern that has been repeated at the national level, voters in Boston’s predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods voted overwhelmingly for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in last week’s Democratic primary, giving her margins as high as 80 percent in some precincts while white voters backed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in larger numbers.

Citywide, Clinton won 57 percent to 41 percent for Sanders. While more than 50 percent of Boston residents are people of color, in Massachusetts as a whole, whites make up 83 percent of the population. Accordingly, statewide results were much closer, with Clinton claiming a 50 percent share of the 1.2 million votes cast in the Democratic primary and Sanders willing 48.7 percent. Clinton’s wins, concentrated in and around the state’s largest cities, turned largely on the heavy support she won from black and Latino voters. In Lawrence, a city that is more than 70 percent Latino, Clinton won by a 70 percent margin.

In Boston’s predominantly black Ward 12, Sanders won just 29 percent of the votes to Clinton’s 70 percent. But in Ward 6, which is sited in the predominantly white neighborhood of South Boston, Sanders won 46 percent of the vote, winning higher percentages in the mostly working class precincts there.

Sanders also won 49 percent of the vote in Ward 11, which includes many heavily white progressive and Latino precincts. Similar preferences were reflected throughout Massachusetts, particularly in white progressive strongholds such as Northampton and Amherst, where Sanders won with 62 percent and 66 percent, respectively.

Black voters matter

At the national level, Clinton has relied heavily on black voters, winning a slew of Southern states while Sanders has been racking up wins in the North. Black support became a decisive factor in the South Carolina primary, where she won 86 percent of the black vote, allowing her to seize 54 percent of the overall vote.

Suffolk County Register of Probate Felix D. Arroyo, who endorsed Sanders, attributed Clinton’s decisive victory to name recognition among blacks

“For many of us, Hillary has high name recognition,” he said. “Sanders was an unknown entity.”

While Clinton received endorsements from prominent black elected officials, including at-large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley and Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins, Arroyo was the sole Boston-based elected official to throw his support behind Sanders. Clinton also sewed up endorsements from Massachusetts mayors, including Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, and the Massachusetts Congressional delegation, with the exception of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

That institutional support underscores the relationships Clinton has been able to build in the 23 years since her husband Bill was elected president in 1993.

“Clinton has met more mayors and elected officials than Sanders ever could,” Arroyo noted.

Clinton has opened a formidable lead in the race, with 671 delegates and 458 super delegates, to Sanders’ 476 delegates and 22 super delegates as of Monday

Leftward shift

Whether or not Sanders wins, Democratic activists say Sanders has managed to push Clinton on key issues.

“She was right-of-center,” said longtime Democratic Party activist Louis Elisa. “If Bernie hadn’t brought up issues of equity, they wouldn’t be as much of an issue in this campaign.”

Both Sanders and Clinton have come out against the controversial Three Strikes laws enacted in many states that trigger life sentences for people convicted of three felonies. Clinton, who supported her husband’s omnibus crime bill, has backed away from the policies the bill codified, many of which are seen as having contributed to the nation’s growing prison population.

Arroyo urged Sanders’ supporters to remain engaged in the presidential race, regardless of the outcome of the nominating process.

“Whichever of the two wins is 100 percent better than any of the Republican candidates,” he said. “I urge the people who have been fighting for Sanders not to stay home.”

Turnout strong

Voter turnout in Massachusetts was close to the 2008 presidential primary, in which Clinton beat Barack Obama statewide, but lost Boston. Turnout was high, with 1.3 million ballots cast. In Roxbury’s Ward 12, last week 3,812 people voted, versus 3,825 in 2008. Of the 55 people who voted in the Ward 12 Republican primary, 31 voted for billionaire Donald Trump, 16 for Ted Cruz and 6 for Ben Carson.