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Bernie Sanders' Path to Victory Looks Mighty Slim
DETROIT—Bernie got his ass kicked and it’s not looking any better moving forward. There really is no better way to slice or dice. it. Super Tuesday II was supposed to be the day Sanders closed his delegate gap with Joe Biden, but it only widened—in the former VP’s favor. Outside of winning North Dakota, Sanders…
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Marc Lamont Hill Breaks Down Why Black People Should Care About Palestine
There is a saying in journalism that “all politics are local.” The same can be said about white supremacy and the oppression it deploys against people of color across the word. All oppression is local. And that is probably why it is so easy for many of us, particularly black people, to lose sight of…
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Cornel West, What You Doin'?
FLINT, Mich—Political surrogates for presidential candidates have a tough job. They have to pitch their preferred candidates’ strengths while avoiding tough questions about their weaknesses and shortcomings in a way that doesn’t excuse them. It’s an impossible mission because all politicians will fail you. They have too many people to please and someone always ends…
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Bernie Has a Shot at Winning Michigan, but His Challenges With Older Black Voters May Doom His Chances
DETROIT—There are few towns in America in which you can gauge black enthusiasm for the political process better than the Motor City. With a population of more than 600,000, close to 80 percent of which is black, it is literally the biggest black city in America. With its population alone, Detroit should determine statewide and…
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Black Women Went to the Voting Booth With Pragmatism on Super Tuesday
OAKLAND, Calif.—Branice McKinzie walked up to a ballot drop box near the Alameda County Courthouse in downtown Oakland knowing that much of the electorate isn’t voting for Elizabeth Warren at this point, but she cast her ballot for the Massachusetts senator anyway. She praised Warren for her aggressive challenge of banks engaging in predatory lending…
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Black South Carolinians to Joe Biden: You're Welcome
COLUMBIA, S.C.—Saturday in South Carolina went as expected. Joe Biden won the state in a landslide and black folk across all age brackets favored the former vice president over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and the rest of the Democratic primary pack. Black voters made one thing very clear to The Root as I traveled the…
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Ayanna Pressley's Pitch for Elizabeth Warren
ORANGEBURG, S.C.—It’s hard to ascertain how much endorsements help a political candidate and the data that measures it often show it has little effect on voters—especially with independents. The best way to rally support behind candidates is usually local, grassroots politicking and years of familiarity. U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley’s support of presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren…
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Elizabeth Warren Supporters Worry About Sexism as South Carolina Primary Nears
CHARLESTON, S.C.—Standing at the head of a long line of people snaking around the Charleston Music Hall waiting to see U.S. presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren and musician John Legend on Wednesday is a mother of three who found it more financially prudent to be a stay-at-home mother than to work her full-time job in the…
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Mike Bloomberg Is Full of Shit and So Are His Surrogates
CHARLESTON, S.C.—On my connecting flight from Atlanta to Columbia, S.C., I sat next to a man who was very musty. But it wasn’t in-your-face musty. It was that type of musty that whisks under your nose when someone walks by the person carrying the offensive odor. On a scale of 1 to 10, this man…
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Live Blog: From Charleston, S.C., the Democratic Debate. What's at Stake for Tonight's Candidates?
CHARLESTON, S.C.—Greetings from South Carolina, where seven candidates for the Democratic nomination for president will try and convince voters in the state why they should back their candidacies at 8 p.m. ET. This primary could potentially make or break the viability of several campaigns, or, in the case of former Vice President Joe Biden, further…
