Thread by @DrTedJ

Biden had a good night & black voters in the South helped him to his biggest margins of victory

But if you look closely, you’d see something missing: the mythic “black monolith.” There was an observable regional character in the “black vote” yesterday.

brennancenter.org/our-work/analy…

We saw this coming; it was not a surprise. Biden won 61% of black voters in SC (20 points worse than Obama ’08 & Clinton ’16) and only beat Sanders by 10 points in Nevada, 38-28.

Yesterday, the trend held. Black voters in the South supported him in large numbers.

72% in Alabama. 71% in Virginia. 60% in Texas. 57% in NC. 53% in Tennessee. All less than Clinton ’16 & Obama ’08, who both won upwards of 80/90% of black voters in those states.

In other parts of the country, black voters made DIFFERENT CHOICES

In addition to NV, Biden only won 38% of black voters in CA (Bloomberg 20, Sanders 18, Warren 12). In MA, Biden only got 36% (Sanders 29, Bloomberg 16, Warren 14). In MN, a near-tie w/ Biden at 47% & Sanders 43%

A recent study of black American preferences from @JointCenter & @ThirdWayTweet showed both the solidarity & diversity w/in black America.

One of things that stood out to me was how region influences black folks' world views. We saw it again last night.

thirdway.org/memo/a-nuanced…

So where is the monolith? Where is the uniform “black vote?” It ain’t there.

Just because black voters know how to practice electoral solidarity in general elections doesn’t mean there’s no political diversity; Black Twitter this morning is proof-positive of this!!

What does this mean going forward? If Warren, Sanders, & Bloomberg all stay in, we can expect that black voters in Illinois & Michigan will make different choices than those in Mississippi in the coming weeks. Region, like age & ideology, matter - yes, even for the "black vote."

Nine month ago, I wrote about black political pragmatism. That pragmatism is why Biden won the most black voters in every state. Those black voters never abandoned him; pragmatism isn’t flighty no matter what voters tell pollsters.

washingtonpost.com/outlook/why-do…

Lastly, I'm clearly no genius or seer. Political scientists and sociologists have been doing this work on black political behavior and telling us ALL this stuff for DECADES.

We are all beneficiaries of their work./

Lastly, I'm clearly no genius or seer. Political scientists and sociologists have been doing this work on black political behavior and telling us ALL this stuff for DECADES.

We are all beneficiaries of their work./