A new report from Buzzfeed suggests that Democrats are truly worried about how well conservative and pro-Trump groups’ messaging is resonating with minorities — something few left-leaning organizations believed could happen.
The Democratic National Committee reportedly told Buzzfeed that they are “tracking” the influence of several online efforts aimed at recruting minorities — and specifically black Americans — away from the Democratic party, and that they’re doubling down on efforts to bring minority voters into the fold.
Buzzfeed clearly doesn’t look kindly on the groups recruting minority voters — groups including Blexit (a riff on “British exit” or Brexit), which encourages black voters to “exit” the Democratic Party after years of being taken advantage of, and Foundational Black Americans, which challenges how black voters have been received within Democratic ranks, where they aren’t setting the agenda and where they have often been left out of discussions about platform priorities. The outlet calls the groups “fringe messaging campaigns” that disseminate “disinformation,” but the groups are having enough of an impact, clearly, that they’ve gotten the attention of Democratic party bigwigs.
“Democratic National Committee sources told BuzzFeed News the party is tracking a new set of loosely organized online movements that officials believe are trying to steer black voters away from the party or from voting altogether,” the outlet reports. “The groups are varied in their approach, but share a common thread of deep suspicion of the Democratic Party and an apparent determination to seize upon the hypersensitive political moment in a country with a deeply troubled racial past.”
The groups vary in their approaches (and their core ideology), but they have one common thread: they all aim to convince minority voters to “rethink” their membership in the Democratic Party.
Democrats say there’s no reason to be concerned and that minority voters are always a top consideration, but that hasn’t stopped them from responding to Blexit with force.
“DNC operatives are taking the challenge seriously and are now working on several black outreach efforts, including Seat at the Table, which is catered toward black women, and the Chop It Up tour, which is designed to engage black men,” Buzzfeed reports. “National Democrats say they want to equip voters with a clear sense of what Democrats have delivered for black people, especially under Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, said Cyrus Garrett, the DNC’s African American political director.”
But like its 2016 nominee, the DNC maintains that its not to blame for its own failures with minority voters. The fault, sources told Buzzfeed, lies with Russia and social media disinformation campaigns targeting minority voters on social media, meant to draw divisions between Americans and handicap the party against President Donald Trump. That isn’t likely to win many friends among those who are leaving the party; no one likes to be told their susceptible to social media troll campaigns.
Democrats, themselves, seem to be making the DNC’s job more difficult. Just this week, after Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) exited the race to earn the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, party luminaries like Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) took to the airwaves to excoriate the party over its lack of “diversity,” and to press the party on cultivating minority candidates.