Black support for Senator Kamala Harris’ (D-CA) presidential campaign has cratered in the wake of opposing candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-HI) blistering attack on her record as California’s attorney general in the second Democratic debate.
“There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard said during the debate.
She also blasted Harris for maintaining the cash bail system which, she argued, disproportionately hurt poor people. Gabbard accused Harris of keeping prisoners beyond their sentence in order to use them as “cheap labor” as well as blocking evidence that would have “freed an innocent man from death row.”
Want to know how badly Tulsi Gabbard's hit on Harris (over her prosecutorial record) stung?
Harris polling at just ONE percent among black voters nationally, in new Q poll. Was in double-digits before.https://t.co/zJcpRcnPm9
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) August 6, 2019
Harris–who mocked Gabbard’s “zero–one percent” standing in the polls and described herself as a “top tier” candidate in a recent interview–saw her overall support collapse into the single digits in two major polls.
In a Morning Consult poll Tuesday, Harris’ support dropped to 9 percent. In the Quinnipiac poll, it dropped from 12 percent to 7 percent. Among black voters, she’s now at an abysmal one percent.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) came out as the big winner in the second round of debates, solidifying her second place status with 21 percent ahead of Senator Bernie Sanders’ (D-VT) 14 percent. Former Vice President Joseph Biden retained his his front-runner status with 32 percent of Democrats and independent voters who lean Democratic.
In the morning Consult poll, Biden leads with 33 percent, and Sens. Sanders and Warren come in second and third with 19 percent and 15 percent respectively.
Gabbard is still polling at 1 percent, but that’s still better than the 14 other Democrat candidates who have less than 1 percent, according to Quinnipiac.
Ironically, Black Democrats are turning on the very candidate former president Barack Obama is rumored to favor.
In order to become the front runner, Harris has peel away black support from Biden. But they’re running away from the “dirty cop” as fast as they can.
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)