richardmurray

Black Democrats say party isn't helping enough
BY JONATHAN WEISMAN
NEW YORK TIMES Oct 28, 2022  

As prominent Black women struggle for campaign cash in the final legs of their Democratic bids for the Senate, Black female politicians in the party say its leadership is leaving viable, path breaking candidates to fend for themselves in winnable races throughout the Southeast.

Cheri Beasley, the Democratic nominee in North Carolina, and Rep. Val Demings, Sen. Marco Rubio's challenger in Florida, have both won praise as excellent candidates who are hanging tough in difficult states. But supporters say they have received far too little backing from Washington Democrats for their efforts.

The Democrats' Senate Majority PAC, a group affiliated with the party's leadership, and its partners spent $10million since May against Beasley's Republican opponent, Rep. Ted Budd, as of Thursday, ranking him sixth on the group's target list. The top target, MehmetOz in Pennsylvania, had more than $25 million spent against him.

At the same time, Republicans' counterpart group, the Senate Leadership Fund, had blitzed Beasley with $33.8million in spending, second only to spending in Pennsylvania against John Fetterman, the Democrat.

For Demings, neither Senate Democrats' super PAC nor their official campaign arm, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, had spent much of anything in the last reports to the Federal Election Commission.

"The Black women, here and in Florida, the emphasis hasn't been on them," Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., said of Beasley and Demings. "We shouldn't be forgotten in this process."

Democrats say the figures undercount their support, at least for Beasley, a former state Supreme Court justice, and they pushed back on the criticism.

"Senate Democrats are backing one of the most diverse classes of candidates in history, and we are supporting them through robust investments in organizing, advertising, campaign infrastructure and direct financial contributions," said Jessica Knight Henry, deputy executive director and chief diversity and inclusion officer at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "We know that candidates of color and especially Black women are competitive at the highest level."

For Senate Democrats' official arms, stretched thin by the huge spending of their Republican counterparts, this year's campaign has been defined by tough choices.

The first priority has been to save the party's incumbents: Sens. Raphael Warnock in Georgia, Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, Mark Kelly in Arizona and Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire. The next priority was what Democrats in Washington saw as the Republican seat most likely to flip, that of the retiring Sen. Patrick Toomey in Pennsylvania. Next was the Senate race in Wisconsin, a state that President Joe Biden won two years ago.

run what Washington Democrats acknowledge to be remarkably effective campaigns, they have been left largely to their own devices.

Democrats have spent big to save one deeply endangered Black female incumbent, Rep. JahanaHayes of Connecticut, and to help one Black female candidate contending for an open seat in Ohio, Emilia Sykes.

It is in Democratic races for the Senate – where only two Black women have served in the nation's history – that discontent is most prevalent, especially among Black female House members who serve alongside Demings and saw her prove herself in the impeachments of Trump.

To be sure, Demings, Beasley and Abrams have done a lot to support themselves. As of Sept. 30, Demings had raised $65.5 million, well more than Rubio's $44.5 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. Beasley's $29.4 million was nearly triple Budd's $11.1 million.

But in states like Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, that might not be enough.

ARTICLE
https://buffalonews.com/black-democrats-say-party-isnt-helping-enough/article_28a84fab-e317-5daf-8926-0b1a7850561d.html

MY THOUGHTS

The history of Black women and positive involvement in the USA has a long history. I believe in most of my maturity that Black women , not black men, have a huge role in the creation of the modern usa. 
A female group, disempowered as women, disempowered as Black, desperate as mothers to find peace, made cornerstones of the black community by white peoples abuses toward black men in the usa. 
The Black Church in the USA/Black Colleges in the USA/Black communal organizations from the black panthers to self defense to the nation of islam to black participants in white parties of governance, Black women have always been greater participants than black men. 
But in all the said organizations Black men or non Black women tended to be the chiefs/head honchoes, the ones in greatest control and that impotency of Black women in all the organizations of the past is reflected now.