A4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 26 , 2019
BY LAURA HUGHES
philadelphia — The Rev. Alyn
E. Waller, a senior pastor at Enon
Tabernacle Baptist Church in
Philadelphia, believes African
American voters in his city hold
the key to the White House.
After backing a Democrat for
president in every election since
1988, Pennsylvania swung behind
Donald Trump in 2016, helping
propel him to the presidency with
a dramatic turnout of supportive
white voters while turnout of
black Democratic voters in urban
areas fell.
Hillary Clinton easily won the
vote in Philadelphia, but the
drop-off from prior elections left
her unable to offset white Repub-
lican votes coming from more
rural and conservative parts of
the state.
It was a moment not lost on
Trump. During a rally in Pennsyl-
vania in December 2018, he
praised black Americans who
stayed home. “They didn’t come
out to vote for Hillary,” he said.
“They didn’t come out. And that
was a big — so thank you to the
African American community.”
He also has often lauded his rural
supporters for their high turnout.
Overall, turnout of black voters
fell from nearly 67 percent in 2012
— during the reelection of the
nation’s first black president — to
less than 60 percent in 2016 while
the white percentage rose incre-
mentally, according to a Pew Re-
search study.
In Pennsylvania, exit polls
showed, the percentage of the
vote cast by African Americans,
who overwhelmingly sided with
Clinton, dropped from 13 percent
in 2012 to 10 percent in 2016.
White voters, who went dramati-
cally for Trump, rose from 78
percent to 81 percent of the elec-
torate.
Interviews with black and
white voters in the state show
that a different dynamic may al-
ready be in play — on both sides.
Arresting the slide in black
turnout and cutting into Republi-
can advantages among white and
rural voters is seen by Democrats
as key to flipping Pennsylvania
back into their electoral column.
The same is true in Wisconsin
and Michigan, two other histori-
cally Democratic states that went
for Trump in 2016.
“I think people in Philadelphia
understand that we can deter-
mine the presidential election in
many ways because we can deter-
mine how Pennsylvania goes,”
Waller said in an interview with
The Washington Post. Trump’s
margin of victory in the state was
narrow: Just 44,000 of the
6.2 million voters flipped the
state from blue to red.
“We are trying to impress upon
our community how important
both the vote and the census is in
this new year,” Waller said.
He argues that Joe Biden, the
former vice president, is the can-
didate most likely to get black
voters to the ballot box.
“What we fundamentally need
is someone who can energize our
community to come out. I don’t
think any of the candidates will
help us with a Barack Obama-
style turnout, but I think Biden is
like getting back into old comfort-
able shoes that will allow us to get
our footing back.”
That sentiment reflects Biden’s
primary campaign strategy more
so than any Democrat seeking the
nomination in 2020: He is keen to
demonstrate that he’s popular
among black voters while also
appealing to the exurban and
rural white voters who aided
Trump.
Yet he has faced a series of
potential setbacks in maintaining
his support among black voters
over the past few months: Rivals
have attacked his opposition to
federally mandated busing in hishome state of Delaware in the
1970s and also comments in
which he championed his work
with well-known segregationist
senators.
This month, he told a group of
mostly minority voters in Iowa
that “poor kids” are just as bright
as “white kids” before quickly
correcting himself. But the con-
troversy doesn’t appear to have
trickled down to black voters in
Philadelphia.
“Where do these comments
come from?” questioned Tasha
Ann, a 46 year-old dental assis-
tant in Philadelphia. “It’s worry-
ing, but we all say things we
shouldn’t say.”“You can’t judge him on that,”
she added. “He proved himself
time and time again with Obama.
We all have a past. I would say
Biden is more likely to get African
Americans out voting.”
Waller was also unconcerned.
“We have had 30 years to see his
heart,” he said. “Do I believe that
Joe Biden in his heart is a racist,
or do I believe that he does not
have the African American com-
munity in his heart? I don’t be-
lieve he’s a racist and I don’t
believe he wouldn’t give the best
that he could for our community.”
More than a dozen African
Americans who said they usually
vote Democratic — but didn’t voteat all in 2016 — blamed unease
with Clinton’s candidacy. They
also expressed support for Biden,
frequently citing his past as
Obama’s vice president as a major
positive, and occasionally others.
Carl Garner, a 53-year-old IT
specialist, said he was partial to
Sen. Kamala D. Harris of Califor-
nia.
“Anything’s better than what
we have right now.” he said, add-
ing: “I’ve always liked Kamala
Harris and I think she’s a very
strong candidate.... I wouldn’t
mind putting my vote behind her,
but right now I think we just want
to beat Trump, to be honest with
you.”
Biden, he said, is best suited to
win: “I still feel that the middle of
the country trusts Joe Biden more
than the other candidates. Even
though I’m not part of that mid-
dle, I don’t think we can win
without them.”
Jason Saffore, 43, an African
American Democrat working in
Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal
Market, said he couldn’t bring
himself to vote for Clinton in 2016
and so didn’t vote at all. Next year,
he said, will be different.
“The guy we have in office now
is not serving our country and it’s
time for a change,” he said, as he
arranged a stack of onions in a
crate. “We need a president who is
for all Americans. Last time I
didn’t really care for the Demo-
cratic field at all, so I stayed out of
the mix. I think a lot of people
did.”
“I’m actually for Joe Biden at
this point,” he added.
At a bus stop nearby, Shanta
Tillar, a 36-year-old African
American from Philadelphia, said
that in 2016 “I really didn’t think
my vote would count” so shechose not to cast a ballot.
“Yes, I regret not voting last
time,” she said. That will change
in 2020 “because America needs a
different president,” she insisted.
“I think Joe Biden would be a
good president as he worked with
Obama, but really anyone is bet-
ter than who we have now.”
Where Biden has an advantage
at this early stage of the campaign
is his ability to meld support from
black voters with a measure of
backing from more conservative
white voters who will entertain a
vote for him but are less open to
other Democrats in the race.
David Kenderdine, a white 55-
year-old retired police officer
from Montgomery County, said
he had been a “straight Republi-
can” his entire life and voted for
Trump. But if Biden wins the
nomination, that could change.
“He’s the Democrat who would
appeal to the working man,” Ken-
derdine said, speaking outside a
local coffee shop in Doylestown,
40 miles north of Philadelphia. “I
like him, I always have.
“Mr. Biden is a gaffe machine,
but at the end of the day he is a
statesman and I believe that he
has the best interest of our coun-
try in mind. If it was anyone else,
I’d say no. But, I probably won’t
make my decision until I pull the
lever.”
Kenderdine is forgiving of the
various controversies that have
surfaced around Biden’s cam-
paign, suggesting they make him
a more appealing candidate to
take on Trump.
“I like Mr. Biden,” he said. “It’s
mainly because the guy doesn’t
care what he says and he speaks
his mind. So many of these politi-
cians speak with a guarded
tongue. He doesn’t. He still has
my nod for the Dems.”
Chris Cozzone, a 56-year-old
garage owner and Trump voter in
Little Britain, a rural area near
Lancaster, 70 miles west of Phila-
delphia, also believes Biden is the
most palatable Democrat in the
race. “Out of all the Democrats, he
would probably be my favorite
because he’s not so far left,” he
said.
“He’s a little more on the con-
servative side. Medicare-for-all
and free college for everybody” —
programs favored by other candi-
dates that Biden has dismissed —
“that would be awesome, but it’s
just not reality.”
But he describes himself as a
“die-hard” Republican who is un-
likely to turn against Trump next
year.
“I think he is turning the econ-
omy around and doing a really
good job. Things are still getting
done, despite the opposition.”
Bill Neff, 65, who owns a local
security company in Lancaster, is
one of the few voters in the area to
admit he deeply regrets voting for
Trump in 2016. “He’s not for the
common person, he’s for the elites
and the very wealthy and there-
fore he’s bleeding money from
working people,” he said.
He is undecided on which can-
didate he will back in the crowd-
ed Democratic field. “But I will
not vote for Donald Trump again,”
he said. “No way.”
[email protected]Can Democrats fix their Pa. problem?
After 28 years of going blue in general elections, the state backed Trump in 2016. To some, boosting black-voter turnout is key to getting it back.
ENON TABERNACLE BAPTIST CHURCH
The Rev. Alyn E. Waller, a senior pastor at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia, thinks African American voters in his city can
propel a Democrat to victory in 2020. “What we fundamentally need is someone who can energize our community to come out,” he said.DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
A Joe Biden rally in Philadelphia. Despite a few potential missteps by Biden, some black
Pennsylvania voters say he is the Democrat with the best chance of defeating President Trump.