Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Rep. John Conyers are among CBC members under fire. | AP Photos CBC draws fire for Obama criticism

Black members of Congress have spent months knocking President Barack Obama for not paying more attention to the black community. Now, Congressional Black Caucus members are themselves being charged with disloyalty — by primary challengers angry that they’d kick the president while he’s down.

For CBC members, it’s a predicament that underscores the inherent political risks in knocking Obama, who they argue has been too quick to compromise with Capitol Hill Republicans and unwilling to pursue an agenda that would help their economically devastated districts — but who still has vast support within the black community.


After the CBC members criticized Obama for reaching an agreement with Republicans to raise the nation’s debt ceiling, Michigan Democrat Bert Johnson hammered Rep. John Conyers, the longest-serving black House member and frequent Obama critic who went so far as to call for a march on the White House in protest of the deal.

“While I wish the final contents of this bill were different, turning our ire on our president, as Rep. John Conyers and a handful of his colleagues unfortunately have done, is the wrong thing to do,” Johnson, a black state senator who is challenging Conyers, wrote in The Huffington Post. “We should not pull the rug out from underneath the president when he needs our solidarity the most.”

Johnson, an ambitious 38-year-old Detroit lawmaker, is crisscrossing the district, casting Conyers as a hard-nosed Obama enemy.

“Trying to chop off the head of the president is a very destructive thing that divides us,” he told POLITICO. “I just think it’s been a very heavy hand some members have had toward the president, and I don’t think it’s been productive.”

John Barlow, a Conyers campaign spokesman, declined to comment on the congressman’s criticisms of Obama except to say: “John Conyers supports the president. He meets with the president regularly to make sure he and the president are doing the right things for Wayne County and Detroit on jobs, the auto industry, safety, the country, economy, education and health care.”

In fact, Barlow said, Conyers still hopes to win Obama’s endorsement in the primary race.

Conyers isn’t the only one under fire: Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., the son of the civil rights icon, is facing criticism from his primary foe, former Rep. Debbie Halvorson, for being too critical of the president.

“There have been times when the congressman has spoken out against the president for not doing enough,” Halvorson told POLITICO. Voters, she said, “really should have a person who stands with this president, who in this district is loved and revered.”

For those taking aim at the CBC members, there’s a clear upside in coming to Obama’s defense: In heavily black areas, the president remains overwhelmingly popular despite the occasional grumbling. A recent Pew Research Center survey found Obama leading potential Republican opponent Mitt Romney 95 percent to 3 percent among black voters.

“This is a district that is definitely supportive of the president, and certainly when it all boils down, it’s one of a number of things people will look at,” said Mississippi Democrat Heather McTeer Hudson, the Greenville mayor who is running against longtime Rep. Bennie Thompson, the influential top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.

“There is a lot more support that can be done and should be done, because this president needs our support,” said Hudson, who has used her campaign’s Facebook and Twitter pages to document the work she’s done with the White House. “I think it’s one thing to say you’re with the president and another thing to show it.”

California Democrat Isadore Hall said Obama is still a favorite in the Compton-area district where he is competing with Democratic Rep. Laura Richardson, a CBC member who — Hall was quick to point out — endorsed Hillary Clinton early on in the 2008 Democratic primary.

“What I’m finding quite strange is that at such a difficult point in American life, Obama is facing opposition from within the Democratic Party and from members of the CBC,” said Hall, a black state assemblyman. “What I find incredible is that we are throwing the president under the bus.”

Hall is blitzing senior centers and churches to highlight his support for the president. He’s sent out a cascade of press releases trumpeting his support for Obama’s jobs plan and proclaiming himself an Obama partner. In one recent email, Hall noted a recent visit he made to the White House.

Richardson has made her displeasure with Obama clear — as recently as August, she told POLITICO that Obama was wary of being too closely linked with the black community and had shied away from black-centric issues.

But in a statement this week, Richardson insisted that she has been a consistent backer of the White House. “I have long been a strong supporter of President Obama, his administration and his agenda, and nothing in my words or actions could reflect otherwise,” she said.

In centering their campaigns on their support for Obama, the CBC challengers are also attempting to distinguish themselves from their competitors.

That’s particularly true for Johnson, who is one of a handful of Democratic candidates looking to oust the 82-year-old Conyers from the seat he has held since 1965.

“You try to find whatever characteristics you can to distinguish yourself from another candidate,” he said.

Halvorson — who is white but is competing with Jackson in a district that includes a significant population of black voters — has made her support for Obama a central thrust of her campaign. She’s traveling around the Chicago-area district reminding voters that she formed a close relationship with the president in 1996, when she and Obama were elected to the Illinois state Legislature. As a point of pride, she points out that she lost the congressional seat she had held for just one term after voting for key planks of Obama’s ambitious agenda.

“I lost my race in 2010 because I stood with the president,” she said.

Halvorson contrasted her record with that of Jackson, who she pointed out had recently sent a letter to Obama criticizing his Justice Department for its enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

Frank Watkins, a Jackson spokesman, pushed back on the idea that the congressman didn’t back Obama. While Jackson has frequently pushed Obama to be more aggressive in his policymaking, he said, “We have never hinted or said that we do not support him just because we want him to do more.”