Elections
“It would have a devastating effect on how Black women see the Democratic Party as the most viable option for us,” civil rights leader Melanie L. Campbell told theGrio.
A growing list of more than 2,600 Black women signed a letter to Democratic Party leadership, demanding that they not abandon President Joe Biden amid political pressure to suspend his reelection campaign. Organizers of the letter tell theGrio that ousting the 81-year-old president would be a “betrayal” to Black women across the country.
“We fought hard for this administration to win. Fought hard to make sure that it was a Black woman on that ticket. Fought hard and worked hard to push for the gains we have made,” said Melanie L. Campbell, chair of the Power of the Ballot Action Fund.
“It would have a devastating effect on how Black women see the Democratic Party as the most viable option for us,” the civil rights leader told theGrio. The longtime activist added, “We’re under attack in so many ways. It would be a betrayal that would have negative consequences.”
Campbell led thousands of Black women, including voters, delegates and political leaders like former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee.
LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, told theGrio she doesn’t trust news headlines and “unsourced” stories about Democratic conversations regarding Biden’s political future.
“I believe there’s an underground effort to throw [things] on the wall and see what will stick,” said Brown, who famously helped mobilize Black voters in Georgia and beyond, leading to historic gains for the Democratic Party in the 2020 race.
“I don’t put my life on the line every day for a small group of elite Democrats to make a decision when we worked our asses off really engaging people … Not only is it not acceptable, it’s really anti-democratic,” she added.
As Democratic leaders in Congress increasingly call for Biden to step down as the party’s presumptive nominee, the collective of Black women argue in the letter that it would “circumvent the will of millions of voters” to push the president aside over a “bad 90-minute debate performance against a serial liar who wants to destroy our democracy and be a dictator-in-chief.
“The suggestion that any candidate who won their primary should simply step aside because victory appears difficult at the moment is disrespectful to the voters, unjust and undemocratic,” said the letter.
The Black women leaders say part of the letter is to reclaim their electoral power, as they’ve done in previous election cycles.
“We believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will win this race. We believe that there’s a path to victory, and we all know that the path to victory will entail the active participation and dedication of Black women,” Brazile told theGrio. “We know that this is going to be a major battle to win back the White House as well as keep control of the United States Senate and take back the House.”
The longtime political strategist added, “But as Black women, we take our civic participation very seriously, and we intend to make our voices heard.”
Brazile said every day hundreds of people have reached out to join in on the letter backing Biden and Harris. “These are the same activists that got out, knocked on doors, registered new voters and really made a huge difference for Joe Biden after his selection of Kamala Harris in 2020,” she shared.
The Black women voters expressed concerns about what the chatter about Biden’s future could mean for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Though some Democrats think Harris is the most viable candidate for the nomination as Biden’s running mate and constitutional successor if Biden were to drop out, others have suggested a first-of-its-kind open primary in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention in August, just three months ahead of Election Day.
“They can f–k around and find out if they want to without her on the ticket,” said Brown, who added, “Our spidey senses are up.”
Brown recalled when Black women and Black men “saved the day” and then were sidelined by white Americans during historical periods like the women’s suffrage movement and the U.S. Civil War.
“It was literally 50 years later before our right to vote was secured,” she said of the women’s suffrage movement that led to white women gaining the right to vote. “Here we are leading suffrage, and white women left us there,” Brown declared.
After the U.S. Civil War, when “white folks got what they needed out of us, they put us to the side and our interests to the side,” she said. Brown continued, “That will not happen again this year. We literally want to make sure that our voice is not marginalized, and we’re not accepting anything less.”
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The Black women leaders also say they are prepared to fight on behalf of Harris, who is already facing political and personal attacks as a Black woman.
“There’s a proven playbook for attacking Black women in America, which has been fine-tuned over decades,” said Rachel Noerdlinger, another organizer of the letter and equity partner at the political strategy firm, Actum.
“It was imperative we got ahead of the inevitable narratives, the time-tested attacks, and efforts to discredit the highest-ranking Black woman in American history,” Noerdlinger told theGrio.
“This is a statement that we stand with her, and President Biden, in numbers because this administration has delivered for Black Americans, especially our sisters, over the last three and a half years.”
Noerdlinger, a longtime Democratic operative and communications adviser, said it’s been “open season for discrediting, discriminating, and diminishing Black women” since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted affirmative action last summer.
“You saw that last summer when the Fearless Fund was attacked for helping women of color, then when Bill Ackman pressured Claudine Gay to resign as president of America’s oldest university,” she maintained. “Those attacks will pale in comparison to what’s awaiting Vice President Harris — especially if she indeed becomes the nominee.”
Though Democratic leaders like U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., have cited polling for why Biden should no longer seek reelection, the Black women organizers say they’re not buying it.
They have been on the ground in battleground states like Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada, talking to Black women voters, who expressed concerns about Biden’s June 27 debate performance but were left confident after subsequent campaign events.
“[They] say that wasn’t enough for somebody to have to step down,” shared Campbell. “I don’t think they’re talking to the voters.”
The activist said polls also showed former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would handily win against Trump in 2016, and yet “she didn’t make it across that finish line.”
She added, “It’s one thing to listen to the outside polls but … have you polled your delegates? I know some delegates, and they haven’t been called.”
Brown of Black Voters Matter Fund appeared offended that Democratic leaders never reached out to her and other organizers to obtain their opinions.
“They depend on us for mobilizing hundreds and thousands of voters … I have not gotten a single call from party leadership asking me about … the thoughts of the people that I work with and I represent in all the states we work in,” said Brown. “So where are you getting your information from?”
Ultimately, the letter’s supporters said President Biden kept his promises to Black women and Black voters more broadly.
“He said he would put a woman on the ticket. He chose a Black, South Asian woman in Kamala Harris. He said he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. We now have Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson,” said Campbell.
“He has put more Black women in positions in his administration, and Black people and brown people. He has made his administration one of the most diverse that I’ve ever seen.”
Campbell said Black voters are more concerned about the threat of a second Trump administration than Biden’s age.
“Is he supporting voting rights? Is he supporting reproductive rights and a right for us to control our bodies? Is he supporting Black-owned businesses? No,” she told theGrio. “They’re weaponizing diversity equity inclusion as un-American.”
Campbell also decried calls from conservatives like Project 2025’s proclamation to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. “Where do you get a Pell Grant from? Where do you get a no-interest loan from? How does that help support public schools where most Black children go?” she asked rhetorically.
She also expressed concern about what Trump would do with the power to appoint more judges to the federal bench, particularly the Supreme Court.
“We know what he would do if he had the ability to take on and appoint more judges to roll back the clock,” said Campbell. “His three appointees got rid of affirmative action in higher education that has now rolled into corporations getting rid of diversity and equity.”
Given what’s at stake, Brown said Black voters understand that “this really ain’t no popularity contest,” but that it is about what is “pragmatic and practical.”
“We’ve been in this country long enough. We have not had the luxury to vote for the last 60 years for folks that we were excited about,” she explained. “When democracy ain’t in place. Black people don’t do well. And so we understand that in ways that other communities may not.”
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