Lewis: Dems Need to Win Back White Voters
The Hill reports:
A leading civil rights leader in Congress believes the Democratic Party is losing too many white voters.
In an interview, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Democrats need to "go all out" to win back white, Southern voters before the next election.
White voters preferred Republican candidates by almost two-to-one in the midterms last year. Their support helped the GOP win 22 seats in the states that make up the Old Confederacy. The Democrats' only pick-up in the region was the New Orleans district where the party holds a registration advantage.
Since November, there have been a string of defections by southern Democratic state lawmakers, which has prompted renewed speculation about the party’s future in the region. Former Alabama Rep. Artur Davis (D) said Democrats should even consider running as Independents if they want to succeed.
Lewis, who was a civil rights activist before being elected to Congress in 1986, said he's concerned the party is losing its diversity, which will make it difficult to reclaim the lost seats."We've got to go all out and get white voters, especially white men, to come back to the Democratic Party," he told The Ballot Box. "I just think it's important for the Democratic Party to roll out and try to reveal itself and not become a party that is split along racial lines." ...
