Pete Buttigieg visits SC's smallest county as he seeks to build support among black voters

Kirk Brown | The Greenville News

Show Caption Hide Caption Pete Buttigieg seeks support from black voters while visiting Allendale County, SC Seeking to build support among black voters in South Carolina, Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg campaigned Monday in Allendale County.

ALLENDALE – Recent polls show Pete Buttigieg has surged ahead in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states on the road to the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. But the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is mired in fourth place in South Carolina, polling shows, largely because he has scant support among black voters who are expected to cast a majority of the ballots in the Palmetto State's Feb. 29 Democratic presidential primary.

Buttigieg is trailing former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in South Carolina.

Buttigieg sought to address that problem Monday during a series of campaign stops that included a visit to Allendale, a little town where little time was wasted.

With just fewer than 9,000 residents, Allendale County is South Carolina's least populated county, but about 70% of its residents are black, and that's the highest percentage in the state. And it is a Democratic stronghold where Hillary Clinton received 76% of the votes in the 2016 presidential election, prompting Allendale Mayor Ronnie Jackson to describe it Monday as the state's "bluest county."

Buttigieg is the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit Allendale since John Edwards stopped here in 2008. About 50 people attended Buttigieg's campaign event at the county's Democratic headquarters.

He said he came to Allendale because “folks don’t always hear from national Democratic candidates, especially in rural areas and smaller communities.”

Willa Jennings, the chairwoman of the Allendale County Democratic Party, quickly and directly brought up Buttigieg's biggest perceived political weakness in South Carolina.

“I have to ask you this: I hear a lot that you don’t have support from African-Americans. I just want to know why you don’t have that support," Jennings said.

Buttigieg replied, "It is so important to me to earn the support from black voters."

“I know in particular a lot of African-American voters have felt not only kicked around by the Republican Party but sometimes taken for granted by the Democratic Party," Buttigieg said. “As somebody who is new on the scene, I have to earn that trust. We’ve got to have those conversations.”

Jennings also asked about how Buttigieg's policies would help Allendale County deal with a host of economic challenges. She said many residents take a 5 a.m. bus to work in Hilton Head, which is 90 miles away, and don't return home until 7 p.m.

Buttigieg spoke about how the closure of the Studebaker plant in South Bend in 1963 caused decades of financial hardship in his city.

“I know what it is like to feel like your community has been left behind," he said.

But he said South Bend has made a turnaround in recent years.

“We cut the black poverty rate by more than half," Buttigieg said.

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Sharon McBridge, a black councilwoman from South Bend who accompanied Buttigieg to South Carolina, said he led an effort to increase wages for municipal employees in his city.

If elected, Buttigieg said, he will work to correct inequities in health care that have led to a situation where “African-American patients are less likely to survive cancer or childbirth than white patients.” He also said he would seek to invest $80 billion to provide quality internet service to rural areas throughout the nation.

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Buttigieg went to a vineyard that is owned by a black family before his stop in Allendale. Later Monday, he was scheduled to visit the site of Orangeburg Massacre, which is where South Carolina Highway Patrol troopers opened fire on about 200 unarmed students during a Civil Rights protest on Feb. 8, 1968. Three young men were killed and 28 others were wounded there.

His campaign will begin airing its first statewide TV ad in South Carolina on Tuesday. It is part of a $2 million media investment in the state.

Buttigieg, who is openly gay, attended a church service Sunday in Goldsboro, North Carolina, that was led by the Rev. William J. Barber II, a well-known Civil Rights activist.

According to the Associated Press, Barber dismissed what he called the “false narrative” of division between African-American and LGBTQ voters, and after the service Barber reiterated that any portrayal of tension between the two communities is “not factual.”

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During his speech Monday in Allendale, Buttigieg said he would be a different type of leader than President Donald Trump. He said one of his overriding goals would be to unify the nation.

“I just have a different idea of the presidency than the person that is in that office right now. I don’t think the presidency is there to glorify the president. The presidency is there to empower the American people — to help people live better lives," he said.

“That is why I am running for president.”

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