Report: Elizabeth Warren Making Inroads Among Blacks

Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to be the Democratic candidate of choice among African-American voters, but Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is gaining more support from blacks.

"She's expanding her coalition, and that's a credit to her strategy and messaging and the bottom-up campaign she's built to this point," Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright told The Hill in a report published Thursday.

Warren, 70, is showing strength among blacks in several recent polls:

• The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll Tuesday found Warren in second place among black voters with 13%, her best showing in any poll to date, up from 8% in a July survey.
• The Economist-YouGov survey released the next day put Warren at 11%, up from 5% in July.
• The Politico-Morning Consult poll released Wednesday had Warren 5 points higher among black voters.

The results point to a willingness among African-Americans to consider Warren for the nomination — and she continues to pull ahead from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and appears to have benefited from the decline of such candidates as Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

The Working Families Party, which backed Sanders in 2016, endorsed Warren on Monday.

In addition, a poll of Iowa voters released Thursday by Focus on Rural America found Warren in a virtual tie with Biden, 23% to 25%, with Buttigieg in third at 12%, Sanders in fourth at 9%, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in fifth at 8%, and Harris at 5%.

"Warren and Biden have split the progressive constituency, and any Warren bump has been at the expense of Sanders and second-tier candidates, not Biden, whose base has remained steady," pollster Mark Penn told the Hill.

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