“A lot of Black people are crazy about her [Whitmer] in this state, ”Rollins told POLITICO, citing her record of Flint’s leading water crisis and education policy, particularly in Detroit.
While Biden is preparing to announce his choice this week, Black women activists and operations have launched an eleven-hour campaign to pressure him. In a few open letters Monday and last week, they made the case that he needed strong African-American rise in swinging states like Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to win.
In all of those states, a drop in Black voter turnout in 2016 compared to the 2012 and 2008 elections, when Barack Obama was on the ballot, helped Donald Trump become president. Unlike Trump, they say, is probably not enough to motivate the big turnout needed to defeat him.
Spokesmen for Whitmer and Biden declined to comment. Biden is expected to reveal his running mate ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which begins on August 17.
It is not just Whitmer’s record that has prompted activists and political leaders to speak out. They said they were also chagrined by Whitmer’s positive press release compared to Black women on Biden’s shortlist: California senior Kamala Harris, Rep. From Florida, Val Demings, former Secretary of State Susan Rice, California rep. Karen Bass and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
“I do not want to base Whitmer, but I could not stand still as we put these women, these Black women, out to take all these hits,” said Pamela Pugh, the elected vice president of the Michigan State Board of Education. , told POLITICO.
The sentiment was echoed by Flint’s former mayor, Karen Weaver.
‘They let Black women defeat them in the media, but they protected them. “Nobody talks about what was promised in Flint that did not happen,” said Weaver.
In the wake of the national protests of the Black Lives Matter and the repeated prayers of the race over race, many activists thought that a Black woman was a lock to be his running mate until the Whitmer news broke, said Latosha Brown, a co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter.
Brown said she was flaming by Whitmer’s late consideration because a Black woman would do a better job of expelling African-American voters, even in Michigan.
“If he elected the governor of Michigan, she might not be able to move the Black vote for him because a lot of people are over her,” Brown said.
“At the end of the day, if Joe Biden can’t get the white Midwestern vote, then we’re all on damn creek,” she said. ‘The whole point of Black people voting for him is that he should yield to the white people. If he can not deliver the white Midwestern voice, like what the hell did we vote for you? ”
Jotaka Eaddy, who helped pen the 5 Aug. letter requesting that Biden call a Black woman, pointed out that an African-American running mate would also help progressive whites and young and millennial voters.
“This will pave the way for a widespread demographic,” Eaddy said. ‘It’s not about Black voters sitting at home. It’s about the intensity and energy needed to secure the White House. ”
Glynda Carr, co-founder of Higher Heights, an advocacy group for Black women, said Biden could ruin the otherwise positive coverage of a running mate by not choosing a woman of color. Sen. Tammy Duckworth in Illinois and screenwriter Michelle Lujan Grisham in New Mexico are the only other women on Biden’s list who identify themselves as black or white.
“If he does not elect a Black woman, it will be an awkward day for ‘the VP nominee,'” Carr said. There will be a lot of tension, people ask, ‘Why not?’ ”
Karen Finney, a veteran of Bill Clinton’s White House and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, said Biden will pay a steep price if he chooses Whitmer. It’s nothing personal against the governor of Michigan, she said, but Black women have worked too hard and long for the Democratic Party to get over it. African-American female voters took Biden’s victory in South Carolina primarily, a win that brought back his campaign and put him on the path to nomination.
“The Whitmer news reminded people that we must continue to be, not only to push back on the attacks, but to make it clear that the backlog, if he does not choose a Black woman, will get heavy,” Finney said.
Angela Rye, a top activist of Black Lives Matter and the former attorney general of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the agitation is building.
“I’m sitting on a fever, a boiling point on this,” Rye said.
Rye quoted an editorial on Sunday from Pugh in the online publication Black Star News that had raised two major criticisms of Whitmer, regarding water policy in Flint and education policy affecting Detroit.
First, Pugh and others say, Whitmer has given in to promises to clean up the lead-poisoned water of the majority-Black city of Flint. And Whitmer initially fought a lawsuit that was particularly important to Black people in Detroit “in search of a basic right to literature, classrooms with books and teachers, and school buildings without heat in the winter or air conditioning in the summer.” wrote Pugh.
“There’s not enough,” there first, when you compare Whitmer to these qualified women, which we unfortunately have to do, “Pugh told POLITICO.
A Whitmer spokesman responded to Pugh’s criticism by noting that the city of Flint is responsible for pipe replacement, that its water quality is “well within federal testing requirements” and that “bottles of water are available and currently being delivered to city residents by Nestle” . ”
But Rye said the governor’s statement did not cut it.
“Gretchen Whitmer, I do not know her,” Rye added. “But here’s what I know: Flint doesn’t have clean water yet, and it was a promise of a campaign from her,” Rye said. “In a climate where we experienced George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor and Elijah McLean and everyone else who has never had a hashtag, how do you justify that choice?”
Biden’s defenders, who do not want to publicly oppose the Coalition of Black Women’s Advocates, say he promised her to nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court. They also note that if Whitmer is elected, then lt. Governor Michigan of Garlin Gilchrist will be the first African-American governor of the state.
But that is not much consolation for those who want a black woman for VP, an issue that has taken an added interest in Biden’s selection process because of his advanced age, 77.
One of Whitmer’s biggest boosters in the state, Michigan Democratic Party President Lavora Barnes, who is African-American, could not be reached for comment.
Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of the BlackPAC political group, said the concerns about Whitmer were “completely justified.” But she added that she thinks a Whitmer pick is unlikely because it would be such a bad idea.
“I think the Whitmer leak was a red herring,” Shropshire said via text message. “It is unthinkable that with 4 top-tier Black women leaders, all of whom are not only uniquely qualified to become Vice President, but President, the Biden campaign would emerge from this process and say‘ yes, no of the Black women met our criteria. “They would have a lot of explanation to do and very little time to do it.”
