Why did Bob Dole get 12% of the black vote?

[darklordoftech]

That’s more than any other GOP nominee since 1980.

[Arbitrage1980]

That’s more than any other GOP nominee since 1980.

1996 was one of the lowest turnout elections in history (I think it was the 3rd lowest turnout by % in history). And black turnout before 2000s was particularly low. As a result, the blacks who did vote tended to be older and more moderate.

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

Dole voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Not sure if that was even discussed much in the campaign, however.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

That’s more than any other GOP nominee since 1980.

1996 was one of the lowest turnout elections in history (I think it was the 3rd lowest turnout by % in history). And black turnout before 2000s was particularly low. As a result, the blacks who did vote tended to be older and more moderate.

I'm only guessing, but I would imagine the welfare reform bill signed by Clinton in the summer of that year may have contributed to lower turnout among poor black voters.

[Suburbia]

Dole got 12% because he was not hostile to black people and Jack Kemp had a very good relationship with black voters.

If Clinton was not on the ballot in 1996, Dole-Kemp would have gotten 15% of the black vote.

[MIKESOWELL]

In the context of those times, a GOP candidate getting 12 percent of the vote wasn't that unusual. It's just that the overall share of the black vote for GOP candidates has been trending downward even more so since 2000.

[Redban]

I wouldn’t read too much into it. It wasn’t like 12% was so much better than the prior elections. Reagan got 9% in 1984. Bush 11% in 1988 and 10% in 1992. In a low turnout election, where Clinton’s win was near-certain, it’s possible the black Democrats didn’t care to come out. I don’t buy that they were angry with Bubba over the welfare bill, as they never held it against the Democrats in any other following elections.

 Black men went from 3% of the vote in 1992 to 5% of the vote in 1996. At the same time, the number of black women in 1996 was down from 1992. As we know, black women are much more likely to vote Democrat than black men.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Low turnout.

[vitoNova]

Because this was before Bill banged Monica.

Bubba's taste in white women solidified the fact that he was a secret black man. 

[MIKESOWELL]

Because this was before Bill banged Monica.

Bubba's taste in white women solidified the fact that he was a secret black man. 

I'm pretty sure he had already been described by Toni Morrison as America's first black president even before it was known about Lewinsky

[Continential]

Kemp

[Mexican Wolf]

Because this was before Bill banged Monica.

Bubba's taste in white women solidified the fact that he was a secret black man.  

I'm pretty sure he had already been described by Toni Morrison as America's first black president even before it was known about Lewinsky

I was pretty sure the Lewinsky scandal was the impetus for Toni Morrison calling Clinton "our first black president." Her editorial was published in The New Yorker on October 5, 1998.