By John Wagner
LAS VEGAS — With both
Democratic presidential candidates stepping up their appeals to African
American voters, Bernie Sanders claimed one victory here just two days ahead of
the Nevada caucuses.
The Clark County Black Caucus,
an organization based in Nevada’s most populous jurisdiction, announced its
support Thursday for Sanders in his contest against Hillary Clinton.
Yvette Williams, chairwoman of
the
caucus, said that Sanders’s agenda most closely aligned with that of her
nonpartisan group, saying the endorsement of Sanders “wasn’t a very difficult
decision.”
“His message really resonates
when he talks about income inequality, racial justice and prison reform,”
Williams said.
She said her organization has
the potential to provide a boost to Sanders heading into Saturday’s caucuses.
“We are all registered voters
and very much engaged and involved,” she said. “We’re the most active
organization on black issues here in Nevada.”
The endorsement, which Sanders
referenced during a dinner speech here to the Clark County Democrats, comes in
a race in which Clinton started with a huge advantage among African American
voters, including backing from elected officials.
Sanders has more recently
claimed some high-profile supporters of his own, including Benjamin Jealous,
the former head of the NAACP. The Clinton campaign, meanwhile, has been seeking
to draw attention to a new report that questioned Sanders’s commitment to the
priorities of African Americans in his home state.
After competing in Iowa and
New Hampshire, two states that are largely white, Clinton and Sanders are now
engaged in an intense battle to win the allegiances of African Americans.
The next two Democratic
contests will come in Nevada, where 30 percent of the Democratic electorate in
2008 was black or Hispanic, and in South Carolina, where 55 percent of the 2008
Democratic electorate was black. In March, another slew of Southern states with
large African American populations will vote.
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