A longtime trusted aide to former President Barack Obama said Friday that black voters could sink South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s chances of winning the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Jim Messina, who managed Mr. Obama’s 2012 campaign, said Mr. Buttigieg, who is gay, has to figure out a way to woo more black voters that historically have played a major role in picking the party’s nominee, including in South Carolina.
“Pete Buttigieg cannot be the nominee of this party if he is getting such a historically small amount of African American votes,” Mr. Messina said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Mr. Messina, meanwhile, said former Vice President Joseph R. Biden is well-positioned to win the nomination because of the strong support he holds among senior citizens and black voters.
“He is exactly where he wants to be,” he said of Mr. Biden. “If he can hold those two bases, he will be the Democratic nominee for president.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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