Joe Biden's agriculture appointment is a slap in the face to Black voters

Passing up a qualified Black woman for a corrupt white failure may cost Democrats the Senate

Joe Biden.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Whether Joe Biden has a successful presidency depends on the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs more than any other factor. If Democrats sweep both seats, the party will just barely control the Senate, and will theoretically be able to pass at least some laws (especially if they abolish the filibuster and make D.C. and Puerto Rico new states). If they lose just one, Mitch McConnell will surely bottle up just about all legislation, and may not even allow Biden to staff his administration.

But Biden is already betraying his most loyal group of supporters, namely African-Americans, and harming Democrats' chances in the runoff in the process. Top Black Democrats had been pushing for a qualified, progressive Black woman to lead the Department of Agriculture (USDA), but Biden passed her over for a white man whose most notable prior accomplishment was giving in to a racist smear campaign directed at another Black woman. Now Biden is preemptively blaming Black activists in case that decision contributes to his party to whiffing the Georgia runoffs.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.