Former Obama pollster dispels notion that Iowa will determine which Democratic candidate black voters support

(Image credit: STEPHEN MATUREN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 29 January 2020

People need to refresh their memories, suggests Cornell Belcher, the former chief pollster in South Carolina for the Obama campaign.

Belcher told The New York Times that people are placing too much emphasis on the role the Iowa caucus played in establishing former President Barack Obama as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination in 2008, especially among black voters. Instead, Belcher said their internal polling numbers indicated Obama's support among black voters had surpassed the early frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, as early as November 2007.

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But he doesn't think many of the candidates have learned that lesson. Belcher thinks the party's current crop of contenders shouldn't wait around and see if a surprise Iowa victory can carry them forward like they believe it did for Obama. Instead, he argues, they should already be challenging former Vice President Joe Biden in South Carolina, where he's in command. "It's lazy thinking," Belcher told the Times. "They think they don't have to put resources behind it, and is, in fact, taking a key constituency that they need for granted." Read more at The New York Times.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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