Articles

As voters, black women are important to Democrats. As candidates, where's the support?

Miami Herald/ Brian Murphy and Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan / February 24, 2020

The votes of black women propelled Democrats to historic victories in the 2018 midterm elections and helped elect the most racially diverse Congress in U.S. history. And their votes will be critical to helping Democrats win elections in 2020 in North Carolina.

But some of the most prominent black women Democrats in this year's elections are running without support from the party's leaders or donors.

That's most evident in the U.S. Senate race, where the candidate who wants to be North Carolina's first black female senator — Erica Smith — has accused the top Senate Democrat of not wanting a black woman to run. Democratic groups have spent more than $12 million helping rival Cal Cunningham, a white man, while Smith's own biggest source of financial help is a Republican super PAC trying to make the primary more difficult for Democrats.

North Carolina has elected black women to the U.S. House and the state Supreme Court. But it's never had a black female senator or a black female member of the Council of State, the group of executives elected statewide that include the governor, attorney general and treasurer.

"Black women, in particular, are asked to show up at the polls, asked to deliver votes and victories to people across the spectrum, but no one is asking us to be on the ballots. That's a grave injustice," said Rhonda Foxx, a candidate in North Carolina's redrawn 6th District.

"It is one of the biggest questions we are going to have as a Democratic Party, post this election cycle."

Nationally, there are 47 women of color serving in Congress and just 16 in statewide executive office, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

VOTING POWER, FUNDRAISING CHALLENGE

Of the 2.5 million Democratic registered voters in North Carolina, more than 700,000 are black women — 27.7% of all Democrats in the state. African Americans account for 46.8% of all registered Democrats in the state.

By contrast, there are 15,857 black women registered as Republicans in the state — less than 1% of the more than 2 million registered Republicans, according to data from the State Board of Elections.

A study of the 2018 midterm elections found that black women candidates, on average, raised the least amount of money — less than half of what white women raised. It is something North Carolina candidates have experienced first-hand.

"The biggest challenge is raising money. We usually represent less affluent communities. The network differs," said Linda Coleman, who won the 2018 Democratic primary in the 2nd District against a better-funded white male opponent, but lost in the general election.

"We're expected to do the same job. The money drives the message, so we obviously have a very difficult time navigating that terrain. There's a racial gap and a gender gap for black women."

SENATE RACE

Smith, a state senator, reported raising a little more than $233,000 for the 2020 election through Feb. 12, according to FEC reports. Cunningham, a corporate lawyer and Army veteran, raised more than $4.5 million through Feb. 12.

Cunningham's campaign has been boosted by millions in outside spending. VoteVets.org and VoteVets Action Fund have spent more than $7 million in support of Cunningham. Carolina Blue, a super PAC founded in February, has spent more than $4 million for Cunningham, who has secured a slew of in-state endorsements.

Smith's campaign has gotten a boost from the Faith and Power PAC, a group funded by the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Faith and Power PAC has spent nearly $3 million on the race, most of it in support of Smith. She has disavowed the political action committee, saying "this entity is not authorized to represent our views and positions."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee — which endorsed Cunningham, as it did in his failed 2010 Senate bid — has also spent in connection with the campaign. Smith has been deeply critical of national Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for picking sides in the primary.

Smith, who sought the endorsement of national Democrats, accused Schumer of not wanting a black woman to run for Senate in North Carolina. The DSCC has consistently cited Cunningham's fundraising abilities in its endorsement of him.

"It was not successful then and they haven't been successful so far," Smith said of the DSCC's endorsement of Cunningham in 2010 and 2020. "It's insane to continue to do the same things over and over again and expect a different result."

Nationwide, just two African-American women have ever been elected to the Senate: Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and Kamala Harris of California.

Smith said black women are "the most faithful voting bloc of the Democratic Party" and dismissed the premise that black women have struggled to gain footing in elections, pointing to her own electoral success and that of Coleman. Smith has won two school board races and three North Carolina Senate races.

"I know how to win. It's message over money every time," she said. "Money doesn't vote. People do."

Smith, a former high school teacher and engineer, has secured endorsements from progressive groups as well as the State Employees Association of North Carolina. Her platform is more progressive than Cunningham's, endorsing Medicare for All.

The two are competing with three other Democrats, including Trevor Fuller, an African-American man and a Mecklenburg County commissioner, to take on Sen. Thom Tillis.

Monika Johnson-Hostler, an elected member of the Wake County school board, has raised $95,000 in her 2nd District race. Deborah Ross, a former state representative who lost her 2016 Senate bid to Republican Sen. Richard Burr, raised $301,000, which includes a $55,000 transfer from her Senate account. Andy Terrell and Ollie Nelson, who is African American, are also in the Democratic race.

Ross has been endorsed by the NC Association of Educators, CWA Political Action, the NC State AFL-CIO and the State Employees Association of North Carolina, which also endorsed Johnson-Hostler.

Johnson-Hostler said she had encouragement from others to enter the race. But that support has not translated into big fundraising dollars. She entered the race last year, before the district was redrawn to include just parts of Wake County.

"How can we actually change what representation looks like if we're not able to crack open established donors?" she said. "I question when people say they believe we should have reputable representation. If that's what we say we want, people who look like me, are we really willing to invest in ensuring that we have that representation?"

Johnson-Hostler, 45, is also the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She said she has tapped the well dry with her personal network and is not a candidate with deep ties to financially well-connected donors.

But she has used other networks.

Johnson-Hostler brought in fellow Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters and incumbent congresswomen Terri Sewell of Alabama, Frederica Wilson of Florida and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas for a fundraising event in Raleigh in February.

"As a black woman, I'm not coming in with the same net worth or network. In order to get the representation that reflects the party, we have to do something different to get those people elected," Johnson-Hostler said. "This party lives and breathes on black women showing up. Black women are still absolutely holding the Democratic Party together, by showing up to vote in large numbers."

Foxx reported raising $75,215 in her race. Kathy Manning, who ran unsuccessfully in 2018 against Republican Rep. Ted Budd, has raised $532,983, which includes a $250,000 loan from herself.

"It can no longer be just because you have X amount of money raised or X amount of capital, that's what makes you a stellar and great candidate. That doesn't work in 2020," Foxx said. "We have to recalibrate what constitutes a successful candidate."

Foxx, 36, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and George Washington University Law School. She was chief of staff for Rep. Alma Adams, a Charlotte Democrat. Foxx also worked for several campaigns and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as well as a lawyer for private firms. Gillibrand endorsed Foxx.

There are five candidates in the Democratic primary, including three black men: former Winston-Salem City Council member and state Rep. Derwin Montgomery, former state Rep. Ed Hanes, Jr. and Bruce Davis. Foxx has outraised all three.

A group that works to elect progressive African-American women, Higher Heights for America PAC, has endorsed Smith, Foxx and Johnson-Hostler.

OTHER CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES

Patricia Timmons-Goodson is the lone Democratic candidate running in the 8th district. Timmons-Goodson, who became the first African-American woman on the state Supreme Court in 2006, is running against incumbent Republican Rep. Richard Hudson. Timmons-Goodson has not filed a quarterly campaign finance report with the FEC.

Hudson, seeking his fifth term in office, has raised more than $1.5 million for the 2020 election.

In the 9th District, Cynthia Wallace is one of four Democrats running to take on incumbent Republican Rep. Dan Bishop. Wallace, an executive with a financial services committee, has raised $15,214 in the race — more than any of her Democratic competitors.

STATEWIDE RACES

State Rep. Yvonne Lewis Holley is one of eight African-American women in the state House. She represents part of Raleigh and Wake County, one of the state's two largest metro areas. She is in her fourth term.

But in her campaign for lieutenant governor, she said, "We're starting from scratch. We're starting with grassroots donors. A lot of people who donated to me haven't donated before."

Holley said a woman at church who gave her $3 had never donated to a campaign before.

"I took that $3 like it was $300," Holley said. "It's a lot of smaller donations, and people who are just beginning to be aware of the importance of making this investment. We don't often have a lot of expendable cash in the black community. I take more seriously their donations."

Holley said the African-American women running for higher office than the state legislature are all campaigning in different races with different chances. What they have in common, though, she said, is "the inability to raise the funds that white candidates raise."

Holley said that's because some people don't know them as well or think they are longshot candidates, among other reasons.

"I don't know what it is. I don't think there's a problem in the party, I just think people donate to people they know, or people they think can win," she said. "The black community has the network — it's not just about the money."

Holley isn't the only African-American candidate in the lieutenant governor primary. The others are men: Republican Mark Robinson and three Democrats, Rep. Chaz Beasley, Allen Thomas and Ron Newton.

So there's a chance that the next lieutenant governor could be an African American, one of several elections that could change who sits at the now all-white Council of State table.

In another, Wake County Commissioner Jessica Holmes is unopposed in the Democratic primary for labor commissioner. Former state Rep. Pearl Burris Floyd is among the Republican candidates for the same position. Both are African Americans.

ONE POSSIBLE SOLUTION?

Democrat Stacey Abrams, who lost a close gubernatorial race in Georgia in 2018 and is being mentioned a possible vice presidential candidate in 2020, said passing campaign finance reform is critical to setting a level playing field for women candidates of color.

"The answer is to fix the infrastructure," Abrams told McClatchy, "so that the candidates who win are not the candidates with the deepest pockets but the ones with the deepest message."