Washington- On Nov. 2, when Republican candidates routed their opponents to take control of the House and narrow the gap in the Senate, just 10 percent of the electorate consisted of African Americans. In 2008 blacks made up 12 percent of all voters, a high that helped put the first African-American president over the top and into the Oval Office. Still, 12 percent is nothing to brag about, and 10 percent is even less so. (The 2008 census estimate put the African-American population at just under 13 percent.)
It’s well-known that if African Americans are ever going to achieve true political parity with whites (who made up more than 76 percent of the electorate in 2008), they need to close the racial voting gap. For the first time in American history, blacks did that in 2008. Two years later, enthusiasm has clearly fallen off.
To discuss what went wrong in 2010, and to look forward to the 2012 election, The Root talked to voting expert David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies — a nonprofit institution that conducts research on public-policy issues of special concern to African Americans and other people of color — and author of “Blacks and the 2010 Midterms: A Preliminary Analysis.”
Don’t worry, says Bositis. Obama will win in 2012.
RELATED:
