Rep. Mel Watt, D-NC, who was Harvey Gantt’s campaign manager in 1990, said today that “white people … will not consider voting for an African American candidate.” Tell that to J.C. Watts, whose Oklahoma district was overwhelmingly white. Tell that to Doug Wilder, who ran strongly in very conservative Southside Virginia when he was elected governor.
What Mel really means is that extremely liberal black candidates can’t get centrist and conservative whites to abandon their principles and vote for a left-wing black candidate out of a sense of duty to affirmative action.
