Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a 2020 White House hopeful, said the narrative that some older black voters are homophobic and transphobic was “a trope” and “just nonsense.”
“To label one community in particular as being burdened by this bias as compared to others is misinformed, it’s misdirected and it’s just simply wrong,” she told CNN on Monday.
Harris’s comments come after South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn (D) told CNN that there was “no question” that Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s sexuality was a problem among older African Americans, calling it a “generational” issue.{mosads}
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you otherwise, because I think everybody knows that’s an issue. But I’m saying it’s an issue not the way it used to be,” Clyburn said.
Buttigieg, the first openly gay major Democratic presidential candidate, later responded to the comments, likening South Carolina voters to the residents of South Bend, Ind., where he serves as mayor, and characterizing them as “socially conservative Democrats” who reelected him regardless of his sexuality.
“And at the end of the day I think the reason why the people in my community moved past that and reelected me, and the reason why we’re going to be able to earn votes in every part of the country, is because elections are about this, they’re about voters asking a question: ‘How will my life be different if you get elected versus somebody else?’”