Clinton, Sanders fight for black vote in S.C.

HOLLY HILL, S.C. - Bernie Sanders has the crowds and the kids, but Hillary Clinton has the moms.

Five women whose children were victims of gun violence or died in police custody toured African American churches across South Carolina this week, bearing witness to their pain, and to the comfort and help Clinton has given them.

The moms had a dual political role. First, to energize a constituency crucial to Clinton's strategy to win the South Carolina primary Saturday, as well as to blunt the Sanders insurgency in other Southern states. Second, to send a message: You can trust this woman.

In contests in Nevada, New Hampshire, and Iowa, Democrats who said it was most important to choose a candidate who is honest and trustworthy picked Sanders by landslides. A perception that Clinton is not a warm person also dogs her.

"We haven't been prompted or prodded to say this," said Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter, Sandra Bland, died in a Texas jail after a state trooper pulled her over for failing to signal a turn. "These are all things that each of us felt - a genuineness. She listened and followed through for us. You can't fake that."

About 40 voters listened, rapt, as the women told their stories at a table beneath a reproduction of Da Vinci's Last Supper in the cinder-block parish hall of Lovely Hill Baptist Church here.

Sanders, the socialist Vermont senator, has had a light schedule so far in the Palmetto State, with a large rally in Greenville and an appearance on a CNN town hall Tuesday night, where he was careful to name Thurgood Marshall as his model Supreme Court justice. Sanders made forays into Vermont and Massachusetts, and will go to Illinois before a scheduled return Friday.

In South Carolina, he has been accompanied by the actor Danny Glover and former NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, and stresses his plans to reduce the number of African Americans warehoused in prisons for nonviolent offenses and crack down on police abuse. The campaign also is running a radio ad with the movie director Spike Lee saying Sanders will "do the right thing" if elected.

Clinton's lead in public polls of South Carolina Democrats averages 24 percentage points, and that rests on deep support from African Americans, projected to make up more than half of the electorate Saturday.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, for instance, showed Clinton leading among black voters by 68 percent to 21 percent. Yet the same survey picked up a generational divide. Among black voters under age 45, Clinton's lead was 53 percent to 35 percent.

The Clinton brand is strong in South Carolina, which delivered a decisive 1992 victory for Bill Clinton, which he credits with sending him to the White House after a rocky start to the primary season. A Southern Democrat who appealed to working-class voters, Bill Clinton had decades-long relationships with civil-rights and black political leaders in the state. Older black voters remember the booming Clinton economy.

"Bernie Sanders hasn't been in the trenches struggling for black people and people of color," said Rosemary Holback, a retired nurse from Elloree. "The Clintons have been there and earned their stripes."

Darius Harris was in elementary school during Bill Clinton's time in office and has come to believe Clinton is an "underrated" president because of his stewardship of the economy. But Harris is supporting Sanders, drawn by the Vermonter's emphasis on fighting the wealth disparity between the richest 1 percent and ordinary Americans.

"Hillary is a solid candidate, but I like Bernie's passion," said Harris, 27, an African American executive, who was among 5,200 people at a Sanders rally Sunday in Greenville. "For whatever reason, I don't feel it's as genuine with Hillary as with Bernie. Look at footage from 15 years ago - Bernie's saying the same things. He's consistent."

LaShonda Nesmith, chairwoman of the Florence County Democratic Party, is the rare party leader openly backing Sanders in the primary. Clinton has most of the leadership, including U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat with a powerful organization.

"Bernie is the only one truly speaking out on mass incarceration and all the terrible things with the police," said Nesmith, 42, the mother of a son in fourth grade. "It has to stop."

She also mentioned a recent interview with CBS newsman Scott Pelley in which Clinton could not answer whether she had ever lied to the American people. "Enough is enough," Nesmith said. "Feel the Bern!"

At Lovely Hill Baptist, another side of Clinton was on display.

The mothers described being courted by Clinton and her campaign for months, quietly, away from the media gaze. She helped them get answers from the Justice Department, met with them, consulted them on developing her campaign proposals to curb gun violence and police brutality.

Maria Hamilton, mother of Dante Hamilton, got a meeting with Clinton last summer after she promised on Facebook to disrupt one of the candidate's rallies in Milwaukee. A police officer killed Hamilton's son in a hail of 14 bullets in a park. When they met, Hamilton said, the women hugged for three minutes, and she cried on Clinton's shoulder. Later, she was among the women who met with Clinton and her staff for two hours in Chicago to talk about the issues, and Hamilton sounded amazed that some of their ideas wound up in Clinton's antiviolence platform.

"We sat there and collaborated with her and her staff," Hamilton said. "Our concerns were implemented in her policies. God is good. He was in the room. The Lord was in the room. And Hillary was that mother, that grandmother, that sister."

State Rep. Jerry N. Govan Jr., who was at the church, said he has known the Clintons since he was a Young Democrat in the 1970s and they were active in the party and the George S. McGovern presidential campaign. He cited Hillary Clinton's work on childhood poverty and educational inequities in the state for the Children's Defense Fund at the time.

Nothing against Sanders, Govan said, but he just hasn't seen him in the trenches in South Carolina.

"I'm an idealist, but I believe very strongly in a commitment to hard work, a dedication to service for others," said Govan, 57. "This lady has a 40-year track record of giving back. She didn't just show up."

tfitzgerald@phillynews.com 215-854-2718

@tomfitzgerald www.philly.com/bigtent