Emails show camp's black-voter strategy

Sanders’ appeal worried Clinton aides

In this photo taken Oct. 5, 2016, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta speaks to members of the media outside Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's home in Washington.
In this photo taken Oct. 5, 2016, Hillary Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta speaks to members of the media outside Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's home in Washington.

WASHINGTON -- Hacked emails from the personal account of Hillary Clinton's top campaign official show some of the attention her team paid to courting black voters.


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There were worries about Sen. Bernie Sanders' appeal to that historically Democratic voter group. There also was angst over whether Clinton should give a major speech on race relations. Meanwhile, a South Carolina Democratic Party official voiced concerns that Clinton hadn't visited a particular region of the state.

The emails were among hundreds released Saturday by WikiLeaks. The notes were stolen from the email account of John Podesta, the Clinton campaign's chairman, as part of a series of high-profile computer hacks of Democratic targets that U.S. intelligence officials say were orchestrated by Russia, with the intent to influence the Nov. 8 election.

It was impossible to authenticate each hacked email that WikiLeaks published, but Democrats have acknowledged they were hacked and have not pointed to any specific case in which an email was altered to inflict political damage.

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Clinton's chief speechwriter, Dan Schwerin, emailed Podesta, communications director Jennifer Palmieri and others in February to say that, as conceived, a speech on race relations would demonstrate Clinton's "sustained and comprehensive commitment" to improving race relations and her lifelong sympathy toward the plight of minority groups in the U.S.

Schwerin went on to say that adviser Minyon Moore had raised tough questions about the wisdom of making the speech because it could "unintentionally end up elevating questions that aren't yet being widely asked and introduce new damaging information, especially super predator, to a lot more voters."

In a 1996 speech about President Bill Clinton's crime bill when she was first lady, Hillary Clinton described young people in gangs as "super-predators."

Some blacks find the term offensive and have sought during the campaign to hold her accountable for it. Hillary Clinton has said she regrets using the term.

After a "gut check" conversation with Moore and subsequent talks with policy advisers Jake Sullivan and Maya Harris, Schwerin says in the email that the campaign hierarchy is "mostly persuaded" by Moore's concerns.

Schwerin ultimately closes his memo with the idea that "if we're slipping fast, maybe it's worth rolling the dice and doing the speech. If we're holding relatively steady, maybe we see if we can ride this out without doing the speech."

In a February speech in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, Clinton offered a detailed plan to overcome racial disparities.

In an apparent effort to court young black voters in South Carolina's Pee Dee region, Clinton staff members promised Jaime Harrison, the state's Democratic Party chairman, that his area would not be overlooked by Clinton. They also offered some bold names in black entertainment who could stump for votes.

In a Jan. 28 email, Brynne Craig, deputy director of State Campaigns for Hillary for America, summarizes a conversation with Harrison, who is unhappy that Clinton hasn't visited the Pee Dee region, in the northeastern corner of the state about 100 miles east of Columbia, the state capital.

Craig says she assured Harrison that such a visit is a top priority for the former first lady, or her husband. Clinton visited the region in late February and later won the state's Democratic presidential primary.

Clinton's campaign also worried about Sanders' appeal among black voters, a key Democratic constituency that Clinton counted on.

In a July 2015 email, Podesta frets to other campaign workers about Sanders, who had challenged Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination all the way through the end of the primary process.

The Vermont senator had built his campaign around an anti-Wall Street, anti-establishment message with strong appeal to progressives.

In the email, Podesta says of Sanders, "He'll be at Sharpton rallies pretty soon," referring to civil-rights activist Al Sharpton. "Still think we should do something with him on VRA Anniversary."

Sanders visited Dallas and Houston in July 2015 for a series of town hall-style meetings in Southern cities to help boost his support.

Clinton called in to Sharpton's nationally syndicated radio show Aug. 6, 2015, on the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, to appeal to blacks to turn out to vote during the primaries. Her subsequent support among blacks in the South helped her gain a big delegate advantage over Sanders.

Information for this article was contributed by Hope Yen, Joe Trinacria and Shameka Dudley-Lowe of The Associated Press.

A Section on 10/23/2016

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