But speaking to a predominantly black congregation in the basement of Birmingham’s historic 16th Street Baptist Church, he didn’t have to. Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate in Tuesday’s special election, is sure to carry the African American vote in a landslide. Jones focused on motivating African American voters, the bedrock of the Democratic Party in the South and more than a quarter of Alabama’s population. “I’m here to try to get some folks woke,” said New Jersey’s African American senator, Cory Booker, who campaigned along with Massachusetts’ black former governor, Deval Patrick. Fred Hutchinson suggested Trump was the reason he sat Sunday morning on a metal folding chair in the 16th Street church basement, a temporary sanctuary while renovations were underway upstairs.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 11, 2017 02:48 UTC