Buttigieg faces new urgency in bid for voters
CONCORD, N.H. — Pete Buttigieg was just hours removed from his strong showing in Iowa when he confronted a question about whether it would last.
Bruce Barnes, a 52-year-old white voter from Henniker, N.H., pressed Buttigieg on what he was doing to improve his standing among voters of color who are critical to winning the Democratic presidential nomination. “This isn’t just about how to win. This is about how to deserve to win,” Buttigieg responded, detailing at length his plans to invest in minority communities. “We’ve got to recognize that right now, this is two different countries, in so many ways, because of your race.”
The resonance of those comments will determine whether Buttigieg’s performance in Iowa was a blip or the beginning of a historic march to the Democratic nomination. Such a trajectory would almost certainly require Buttigieg to make dramatic inroads with black voters, who have largely sided with former Vice President Joe Biden in the early days of the contest. With Democrats obsessed with finding a candidate who can assemble a multiracial coalition to defeat President Donald Trump in the fall, Buttigieg’s gap with minority voters is a vulnerability.
Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., faces stiff competition heading into Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dominated the state during the 2016 primary, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is from a neighboring state and Biden is a well-known name. But the biggest challenge will come later this month during the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary. Both states have significant minority populations, and Buttigieg has lagged in the polls there.
Buttigieg has faced questions from black voters about his dismissal of South Bend’s first African American police chief. He’s also been criticized for his handling of the shooting death of an armed black man by a white South Bend police officer over the summer.
Buttigieg has argued the best way to start building credibility with nonwhite voters is to show he can win, and he pointed to his strong showing in Iowa.
