Jesse Jackson: Republicans ran a 'white primary' in South Carolina
Jackson at an M.L.K. Day event in Ohio. Columbus Education Alliance via flickr
2:24 pm Jan. 27, 2012
Rev. Jesse Jackson said the Republican presidential candidates "completely ignored the black community" and "ran a white primary" in South Carolina.
"Not one of them visited a church, a school, a neighborhood, and so there was no reach-out," Jackson said, speaking to me at the Sheraton Hotel this morning, where he was hosting an annual meeting of his Rainbow PUSH coalition.
He also criticized black Republicans for not diversifying their party.
"You get people like Colin Powell, [former Rep.] J.C. Watts, Congressman [Tim] Scott, I think, in South Carolina and [Rep.] Allen West in Florida, and Michael Steele, none of them played their role to expand the base," Jackson said. "And in effect they ran a white primary. And all their ads and such, they were in a white primary. And so, essentially, in Florida, it's 30-percent Hispanic vote and they're trying to get it. It's important and they should. Thirty percent of the vote is black in South Carolina, they didn't try to get it. They're running a really narrowly conceived campaign."
Jackson said in particular that Newt Gingrich's criticism of Barack Obama as a "food stamp" president isn't a line he's likely to use everywhere he campaigns.
"When Gingrich attacks food stamps, he won't take that speech to Appalachia," Jackson said. "He won't take that to states in rural America because on food stamps, the first beneficiary is the farmer, then the trucker, the warehouse, the store and the recipient. So, it's a whole infrastructure in the food-stamp business."
"The cab drivers, most of them are on food stamps, and they work every day," Jackson said. "T.S.A. workers, most of them are on food stamps."
