DETROIT (AP) — The upcoming presidential campaign offers a critical test for Democrats of whether they can ever again rely on the multiracial coalition that helped propel Barack Obama to the White House twice.
Young black voters are critical to that effort, especially in states like Michigan, which Democrats lost by just over 10,000 votes in 2016, ceding a state that hadn’t backed a Republican since 1988. Reclaiming it, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, would put Democrats on a firmer path to the presidency.
Nationally, the African American turnout rate dropped 7 percentage points in 2016 from its record high during Obama’s 2012 reelection. Other groups did not see a comparable decrease: White turnout increased slightly while Latinos held steady.
Democrats insist they’ll reverse the decline in 2020.
