Richmond City, VA has very similar demographics to St Louis City,about 50% black, 41% white & the 2020 primary results there were fairly close there as well 44% Biden to 34% Sanders. Possible explanations? The AA vote is not as monolithic as is widely believed, particularly in the primaries. The fact that Sanders does a lot better among younger black voters than older ones is well known. These results suggest he does a lot better among urban black voters than rural ones, particularly in the upper South and the border states. Much as urban white voters are generally a lot more liberal than rural white voters, the same may be true among black voters.
In Richmond, Sanders support was strongest in central part of the city, which is mostly majority white and with a large number of college students and people in their 20s. Richmond here looks and feels more like a city like New York or Boston than anywhere else in Virginia, and young people are attracted to this and its cultural amenities. In the eastern part, the Sanders vote exceeds the white %, and this can be attributed to the young black vote. Due to young people and the culture of the city, Sanders support among whites was stronger in Richmond than among whites in most of the rest of Virginia, and stronger among blacks than among blacks in most of the rest of Virginia.
