The Rev. Alyn E. Waller, a senior pastor at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia, believes African American voters in his city hold the key to the White House.
After backing a Democrat for president in every election since 1988, Pennsylvania swung behind Donald Trump in 2016, helping propel him to the presidency with a dramatic turnout of supportive white voters while turnout of black Democratic voters in urban areas fell.
Hillary Clinton easily won the vote in Philadelphia, but the drop-off from prior elections left her unable to offset white Republican votes coming from more rural and conservative parts of the state.
It was a moment not lost on Trump. During a rally in Pennsylvania in December 2018, he praised black Americans who stayed home. “They didn’t come out to vote for Hillary,” he said. “They didn’t come out. And that was a big — so thank you to the African American community.” He also has often lauded his rural supporters for their high turnout.
Continued reading The Washington Post here, courtesy of Laura Hughes.