minority vote news stories on Newser

Justice Dept. Shoots Down South Carolina Voter ID Law

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 16:27:00 CST

The Justice Department today rejected South Carolina's law requiring voters to show photo identification, saying the law makes it harder for minorities to vote. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said the law didn't meet the burden under the Voting Rights Act and tens of thousands of minorities in South...

Steele: Blacks Have No Reason to Vote Republican

Kevin Spak — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:44:26 CDT

Maybe someone should explain Michael Steele's job to him. In an event at DePaul University Tuesday, the RNC Chairman was asked why African-Americans should vote for Republicans. “You really don't have a reason, to be honest,” he replied, according to Politico . “We haven't done a very good job of giving...

Steele Fails to Lure Minorities To GOP

Rob Quinn — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 03:39:10 CDT

African-American voters haven't budged an inch in the GOP's direction despite Michael Steele's pledge to win over minority voters, a Washington Post analysis finds. Some 78% of black voters have an unfavorable view of the party, a figure unchanged since Steele became the party's first-ever African-American chairman. Analysts say the...

Obama-Driven Minority Turnout Fueled Marriage Ban

Ambreen Ali — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:36:01 CST

Barack Obama's popularity among California's minorities helped pass the state's conservative-backed gay marriage ban, Dan Walters writes in the Sacramento Bee . Blacks and Latinos—94% of whom voted for Obama—turned out in record numbers, and the majority of them supported the ban. The proposition would probably have failed with...

Obama Quietly Moves to Pump Up Black Vote

Gabriel Winant — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 09:56:55 CDT

Barack Obama is running a quiet parallel campaign aimed at black voters while he spends his time and more obvious effort in moderate white areas, Politico reports. The campaign has run ads targeted at black voters that aren’t released to the media, and scoured heavily African-American areas for new voters....

Housing Bill Funds Democratic Ally

Kevin Spak — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:36:01 CDT

Nestled in the housing bill President Bush signed yesterday is an acronym Republicans don’t like one bit: ACORN. The Wall Street Journal reports that the group is among the many housing-related nonprofits the bill hands cash to, but Republicans grumble that it does more than housing. It’s also co-managing a...

Obama's General Election Plan: Sign Up Voters

Sam Gale Rosen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:34:19 CDT

Barack Obama's general-election strategy is to rejigger the electorate in his favor by signing up massive numbers of new voters—mainly young and African-American voters. Suspicious Dems point out that a similar effort failed John Kerry in 2004, but, reports Politico, there's legitimate reason to think Obama might be able...

Why Don't Latinos Back Barack?

Katherine Thompson — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:08:40 CST

Hillary Clinton's support in Hispanic communities is well documented, but the voting patterns of Hispanics are not as easy to characterize as her pollsters make them out to be, reports the New York Times. The issue of identity politics is a complicated matter that clearly does not guarantee that all...

Hispanic, Black Nevadans Split Over Dems

Katherine Thompson — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 06:25:00 CST

White women and Hispanics may have helped Hillary Clinton to her victory in Nevada, but black voters overwhelmingly picked Barack Obama, a trend that may have big repercussions in upcoming primaries, says Politico . Minority groups traditionally side with the establishment candidate, which makes Obama's 83% support by African Americans in...