Media
A Black Man in the White House
Democrats Are Playing Checkers While Trump Is Playing Chess
October 12, 2017
For Democrats, the warning shots are coming thick and fast.
“More than half of Americans don’t think Donald Trump is fit to serve as president, yet he has a clear path to winning reelection,” Doug Sosnik, who served as President Bill Clinton’s political director, wrote in the Washington Post last week. “Are Democrats Headed for a McGovern Redux?” Alan Greenblatt asked in Politico on Oct. 9. On the same day, a New York Magazine headline declared: “No One Should Rule Out a Trump Re-election in 2020.”
What can Democrats do?
Dream Act Not Enough for Some Immigration Activists—Including Dreamers
October 02, 2017
Obama pollster Cornell Belcher on the failures that led to President Trump: “What happens to a centrist Democrat who can’t hold the Obama coalition?”
February 20, 2017
Trump didn’t “remake the electorate,” argues leading Democratic pollster. Instead, Hillary and her party blew it
‘We’re not getting any whiter’: Obama pollster talks racial politics at SMPA event
March 22, 2017
Cornell Belcher, a pollster for former President Barack Obama during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, cited racial identity and animosity as one of the most important drivers of today’s party politics during an event Tuesday night in the Marvin Center’s continental ballroom.
In a conversation with School of Media and Public Affairs Director Frank Sesno, Belcher talked about what went wrong for the Democrats in last year’s election and the role race played in shaping the campaign.
MICHAEL BAISDEN SHOW GUEST: CORNELL BELCHER, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK “A BLACK MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE
March 17, 2017
Michael Baisden Show guest, Cornell Belcher is the author of the book “A Black Man In The White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America’s Racial-Aversion Crisis .” Belcher is an award-winning pollster and one of the premier strategists in national progressive politics.
Listen to the complete interview and hear what you didn’t hear on the show!
SXSW Panel: Is big data destroying the U.S. political system?
March 14, 2017
2016 was a bad year to use data to create odds. From wins by the Cavaliers and Cubs, to Brexit and Trump becoming president, we got it wrong. But lost in the debate over whether the data was good or bad is whether data is good or bad for the American political system. Chuck Todd, NBC News political director and moderator of “Meet the Press,” asks if a case should be made that the better and more effective tools used to gather big campaign data are the exact cause for the country's polarization. Has data helped to increase polarization and to short circuit our ability to govern?
All in with Chris Hayes
February 08, 2017
All In with Chris Hayes as Republicans shamefully cut off Elizabeth Warren.
The Democratic Party has a race problem.
February 06, 2017
“One of the things I find is a progressive blind spot is race,” said pollster Cornell Belcher, who previously worked for President Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns and the Democratic National Committee. “Republicans get race. They get it, and they understand how to organize around it.”
MSNBC: All In with Chris Hayes
February 08, 2017
Cornell Belcher joined All In with Chris Hayes last night right as Republicans shamefully cut off Elizabeth Warren.
Cornell Belcher opens up about his book ‘A Black Man in the White House’
January 30, 2017
By Kelley D. Evans
Award-winning pollster Cornell Belcher’s new book is out and making the right kind of waves. Described as a white paper, the book just might be the source of knowledge minorities need to cope with the results of the 2016 election.
MSNBC: Hardbacll with Chris Mathews
January 25, 2017
Cornell Belcher on Hardball with Chris Matthews last night speaking about Donald J. Trump:
"Creating this boogeyman for his vanity, creating this boogeyman for more restrictive voting."
The Myth of a Post-Racial America and The Rise of Donald Trump
January 16, 2017
A recent Quinnipiac poll puts President Obama's approval rating at 55 percent. The same poll found that 51 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his responsibilities as president-elect.
When President Obama was elected eight years ago, many falsely believed that "post-racial America" had finally arrived. As the 2016 campaign showed, President-elect Trump used race to get elected.
Cornell Belcher is the author of "A Black Man In The White House" and was a lead pollster for the Democratic National Committee under Howard Dean. He was also a member of President Obama’s polling team for both the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, and speaks with Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich about the racial politics that divide the country today.
ABC News This Week: LIVE VIDEO with Cornell Belcher
January 15, 2017
Cornell Belcher Talks to ABC News
After a fiery roundtable discussion on This Week, we continue the conversation on President-elect Donald J. Trump's feud with Rep. John Lewis with Cornell Belcher, author of the new book "A Black Man in the White House." Have a question? Leave them in the comments below!
Obama's Legacy: More Than Just the ACA
December 06, 2019
President Barack Obama is wrapping up his few last weeks in the White House. With the new Congress officially sworn in and in session, the focus of Obama's legacy has largely been on the Affordable Care Act. Bill Press discusses other key milestones from the past eight years with Cornell Belcher, President of Brilliant Corners Research + Strategy and author of A Black Man in the White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America's Racial-Aversion Crisis. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
How Trump's victory turns into another 'Lost Cause'
December 28, 2016
By John Blake
Those who say white voters can't be racist because they elected a black president twice are ignoring another inconvenient fact: Obama was elected despite opposition from white voters, political scientist Cornell Belcher told Vox in a recent interview.
He said whites didn't put Obama in the White House. Obama grabbed only 43% of the white vote in 2008 and 39% in 2012.
"The majority of whites did not elect Obama, and that's the wolf at the door," Belcher told Vox. "The vast majority of whites did not support President Obama and President Obama won back-to-back majorities, and that caused the realization of their power waning. Mitt Romney ran up a higher score among white voters than Ronald Reagan when Reagan had a landslide in 1984.
NEW YORK TIMES: Democrats at Crossroads: Win Back Working-Class Whites, or Let Them Go?
December 15, 2016
By JONATHAN MARTIN and ALEXANDER BURNS
Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster, said it was folly to continue developing a message for and devoting considerable resources to “a shrinking, increasingly resistant market.”
WASHINGTON MONTHLY: How the GOP Helped White Nationalism Make a Comeback
December 14, 2016
by Martin Longman
Cornell Belcher, who worked as a pollster for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns, has done a deep investigation of racial and political attitudes during Obama’s presidency and he has a new book coming out: A Black Man in the White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America’s Racial-Aversion Crisis.
Democratic Pollster Cornell Belcher Delivers Blunt Talk on 2016 Election Results
December 12, 2016
By Lauren Victoria Burke (NNPA Newswire Contributor)
Part of the problem for Hillary Clinton in 2016 was that moderates and liberals were more likely to vote for a third party candidate while, in the end, Republicans stuck together and “got in line” as others were casting protest votes. The result was a surprise victory for New York real estate developer Donald Trump.
Belcher also said that “race trumps gender” in America and that it always has. For that reason, Trump did much better with White women voters than anyone had predicted. So many polls and pundits ended up being incorrect in 2016 that the pollster/pundit class has been thrown into a state of self-study over the 2016 election results. Yet, Belcher has been talking about many of these issues for years.
Obama’s Rise Hindered Clinton’s, Pollster Says
December 12, 2016
Pollster Cornell Belcher says that what most have described as Donald Trump’s “stunning” election victory didn’t come as a surprise to him because he witnessed the rise of racial aversion during Barack Obama’s presidency.
“Trump was the right candidate at the right time,” said Belcher, a pollster in Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns and for the Democratic National Committee under Howard Dean.
Belcher bears out his theory in his new book “A Black Man In The White House: Barack Obama and the Triggering of America’s Racial-Aversion Crisis.”
A pollster on the racial panic Obama’s presidency triggered — and what Democrats must do now
December 12, 2016
By Jenée Desmond-Harris
His research details the crisis of racial antagonism that helped Trump win. In his new book, Cornell Belcher describes “America's racial aversion crisis”: a panicked emotional response on the part of white Americans to an African-American president, which transformed into a powerful force in politics.
WATCH: Dems need grassroots leader at helm of DNC, pollster says
December 05, 2016
A former Democratic National Committee (DNC) pollster says the party needs a stronger leader from outside the establishment to head the operation.
Former DNC pollster Cornell Belcher — who worked on President Obama's campaigns in '08 and '12 — notes that Obama "was not someone who was an establishment person" and asserts that "a grassroots voice outside the establishment" is needed to lead the Democrats.
Former DNC Pollster: White Voters Saw Trump as Their ‘Great White Hope’ to Get Their Country Back
December 03, 2016
By Trent Baker
Saturday, former DNC pollster Cornell Belcher said on MSNBC’s “AM Joy” that white voters saw President-elect Donald Trump as the “great white hope” who would “give them their country back.”
“Look, this ideal that the Democrats need to spend more time having a conversation with white voters is patently absurd,” Belcher told host Joy Reid. “We spend 80 percent of our resources right now chasing this mythical, unicorn white swing voter. The truth of the matter is, look, we’re not winning more blue-collar white voters because we’re racially polarized. These people want their country back and they saw Donald Trump as the strong, great white hope to give them their country back.”
THE DAILY WIRE: Belcher: Trump Is 'Existential Threat' To 'Communities Of Color'
November 30, 2016
By Robert Kraychik
Belcher’s recently published book argues that “racial antagonism” - related to “symbolic racism” and “racial resentment” - has risen among whites since 2009 as a function of President Barack Obama’s race.
PBS NEWS HOUR: What we know about voter turnout so far
November 03, 2016
In the final race to the White House, get-out-the-vote efforts are key. Judy Woodruff speaks with Cornell Belcher of Brilliant Corners Research & Strategies, Michael McDonald of the University of Florida and Mark Hugo Lopez of the Pew Research Center about the effectiveness of outreach efforts, particularly among minority voters.
