On the verge of a possible upset of the Democratic Party’s longtime golden boy, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, in Tuesday’s Maryland Senate primary, Rep. Donna Edwards has a question for her fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus: Why aren’t more of you endorsing me?

POLITICO has learned that Edwards met privately last week with several CBC members to voice her frustration that so few African-American lawmakers had offered her their support, according to five sources familiar with the meetings.


Only four of the 46 CBC members — Reps. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Lacy Clay of Missouri, Robin Kelly of Illinois and Hank Johnson of Georgia — are backing Edwards over Van Hollen, an unusually small number for a group known for standing by fellow African-American lawmakers. Meanwhile, Van Hollen has been making hay over his growing number of endorsements from black political leaders in Maryland, including some in Edwards’ district, though he has yet to be endorsed by a CBC member.

Edwards, who won her House seat by defeating Al Wynn, a popular member of the CBC, in a Democratic primary in 2008, has had a strained relationship with many black lawmakers from the start. But with she and Van Hollen running nearly neck-and-neck in a primary that many expected Van Hollen to win easily, Edwards has been reaching out over the past two weeks to members of the CBC to ask why they’re not backing her bid to be only the second black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She’s also pressed her case with lawmakers at the Democratic Club restaurant, where members often eat.

Sources close to the CBC and lawmakers familiar with the conversations said some of Edwards’ CBC colleagues responded to her in frank terms. Members of the CBC have long considered her abrasive and said she’s not an easy colleague to work with.

“She has not developed good relationships with the members of the CBC, quite frankly,” said a source familiar with the CBC. “A lot of people find her difficult.”

Edwards’ defenders, however, say her fellow CBC members should be rallying around a black woman who stands a decent chance of reaching the Senate, where only one Democrat — New Jersey’s Cory Booker — is African-American. They say her fellow House members are punishing her for failing to schmooze with CBC members on a regular basis — and because Van Hollen is known to be close to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

“Donna is about taking care of the business of governing — and she is not particularly focused on backslapping and hobnobbing with everyone,” said Johnson. “Some members socialize, are very warm toward each other, play together, drink together and sit together on the floor — and that’s fine. There are others who, for whatever reason, have a different trajectory, and I respect Donna for just being the person and representative that she is.”

Edwards campaign spokesman Ben Gerdes would not comment on the meetings but said “Donna’s committed to sitting down with elected officials and community leaders from across the spectrum and the country, like the members of the CBC, on the issues that impact the lives of African-American families.”

While only a handful of CBC members have endorsed Edwards, a larger number have donated to her campaign, although donations are not thought to carry the same weight as an endorsement.

The news comes less than a week before one of the most watched Senate Democratic primaries in the nation. Edwards is running in a dead heat with Van Hollen, a budget wonk who often leads high-stakes negotiations for Democrats with Republicans.

Van Hollen was once considered a shoo-in to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski. But Edwards’ pitch to Maryland voters, which often notes her ties to the minority community and the fact that she’s a single mother, has clearly made inroads with Old Line State voters.

Now, the race has turned into a nail-biter, and the campaign has turned ugly. A super PAC backing Edwards, for example, accused Van Hollen of being pro-NRA because of a niche provision tucked into a Democratic campaign finance bill he once helped negotiate at the behest of then-Speaker Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an effort to entice GOP members to vote for the larger campaign finance package.

After the White House, Pelosi and other House Democrats call on the Edwards-cheerleading super PAC to remove the ad — which they argued was an improper use of an emotional and sensitive topic — two CBC members, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison and Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, issued statements to POLITICO saying the ad had misconstrued the context of the campaign finance legislation.

Donna Edwards has been working to overcome some bad blood.

Cleaver, who decried the PAC’s ad as “disgusting,” told POLITICO that Edwards approached him last week — though he would not disclose details of their conversation.

Other sources said her approach to them was more casual: mingling, catching up and inquiring how people are doing — reconnections that could, just maybe, lead to help further down the road.

Earlier this year, the CBC’s political action committee passed on endorsing Edwards in an embarrassing public snub. POLITICO reported that Wynn, the former representative whom Edwards unseated in 2008 and who sits on the PAC board — had made the argument that black officials in the state were not backing her and they should stay out of the race as well.

The Edwards-CBC tension goes back years, to a House Ethics Committee dispute that involved Edwards and fellow CBC member Maxine Waters. The panel was probing the California Democrat for conflicts of interest in coordinating Treasury Department meetings with executives from a bank where her husband owned stock. When her grandson-turned-chief of staff Mikael Moore became the focus of the investigation, Edwards grilled him publicly for not seeing ethical red flags sooner.

That’s when the bad blood started, and Waters and other members of the CBC never forgot it, with many interpreting Edwards’ moves as an act of disloyalty.

It is unclear whether Edwards’ meetings will be successful in securing endorsements for her in the last days before the primary.

She could use the boost: A recent NBC4/Marist Maryland poll found her trailing her competitor by 6 points, signaling she has potentially lost the slight edge she had on Van Hollen just a few weeks ago.

But CBC members don’t appear to be coming to her rescue. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, for example, endorsed Maryland African Americans Will Jawando to take over Van Hollen’s congressional seat and Catherine Pugh for Baltimore mayor in the past few days.

But asked whether there could be one more coming — perhaps for Edwards, his fellow Marylander? — he shrugged and walked away.

Anna Palmer contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said CBC member Rep. Ellison asked for the pro-Edwards Van Hollen-attack ad to come down. However, he only said he disagreed with the contents of the ad and stopped short of calling for its removal.