Democrats have long counted on African Americans as a loyal voting bloc, whereas the Republican Party acknowledged after its loss in the 2012 presidential race that it needed to build support among minorities to win the presidency.
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“The real test of a candidate’s commitment is not whether we come to speak [at your convention]”, Clinton said.
Then, without mentioning Bush by name, she declared, “I don’t think you can credibly say that everyone has a “right to rise” and then say you are for phasing out Medicare or for repealing Obamacare”.
It is vital that those contending for the highest office in the land not only listen to our concerns, but be a part of its discussion and offer up their unique strategies and solutions for consideration to the very people who may one day move them into that coveted White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“They can’t rise if the minimum wage is too low to live on”, Clinton said. They can’t rise if their governor makes it harder for them to get a college education. State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, the Democratic leader in the state Senate, said Bush denied thousands of African Americans the right to vote by purging state’s voter rolls.
Christine Taylor, a spokesperson Perelman, told The Hill in a statement that he’s “close personal friends with both Graham and Bush, adding that he has a “deep respect and admiration for their leadership on America’s national security”.
Derrick Tartt, from Miami Gardens, said he also had never seen Bush in person before and had not voted for him for governor either time.
Yet while Clinton may have found a more sympathetic audience, Bush could well have a more easily accomplished goal. 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush hops off the stage to deliver remarks and greet supporters during a campaign rally at the Maitland Venue in Maitland, Fla., Monday, July 27, 2015.
“The Urban League deserved better today”, spokeswoman Allie Brandenburger said in an e-mail.
“There are now literally 100 people financing the bulk of our presidential elections”, said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen, which advocates for consumers before Congress, the executive branch and the courts. “It’s a record I’ll gladly compare with anyone else in the field”.
That record included taking down the Confederate battle flag from the Florida Capitol in 2001- an “easy call”, Bush said.
“He better be prepared and be doing research about what’s important to us”, McDonald-Anderson said.
“Race still plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind”.
While that is partly a legacy that stretches back centuries, “it is also because of discrimination that is still ongoing”, she said, as she recalled the names of several young unarmed black men recently killed in police-involved shootings across America.
Republican candidate Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, also spoke, saying he wanted to use corporate tax reform to create jobs for unemployed people. He decried wealthy elites, particularly billionaires’ ability to write multimillion-dollar checks to political campaigns. “I was impressed”, he said. “That is oligarchy”.
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Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland Governor, focused his speech on racism in the justice system, while Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, Clinton’s nearest rival for the Democratic nomination, called for more spending on child care and education.
