As GOP nominee Donald Trump surges in this the last week before Election Day, President Barack Obama is raising the alarm over the low turnout of black voters in early voting periods across the nation. He worries that it could torpedo Hillary Clinton’s hopes to win the White House.
Appearing on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, Obama urged black Americans to get to the polls. “I’m going to be honest with you right now. The Latino vote is up. The overall vote is up. But the African-American vote, right now, is not as solid as it needs to be,” he said according to The Hill newspaper.
The President went on to scold black voters into going to the polls if they care at all about his legacy.
“If you really care about my presidency and what we’ve accomplished, then you are going to go and vote,” Obama said. He then told black Americans to urge their friends to vote, too, by telling them Obama “personally asked you to vote.”
“It’s not that hard, and I know it’s not that hard because we’ve done it before,” Obama added.
It has been said that Obama owes his 2012 win to an energetic turnout of black voters, including early voters.
But on November 1, The New York Times published a story that alarmed many liberals, including, it now appears, President Obama.
The “Old Gray Lady” worriedly reported that trends in early voting suggest black voters are not very energized for Hillary Clinton and early numbers are way down from 2012.
The lower turnout of black Americans is being recorded in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio among other states according to reports.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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