“We Need More Democrats In The Senate” – Day After PA + NC Senate Primaries, Strategist Karen Finney Emphasizes Stakes Of 2022 For Black Voters

On the first day of the general election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina Senate races, Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator Karen Finney joined Reality Check with Charles Ellison on WURD Radio and Keepin’ It Real With Rev. Al Sharpton to talk about what’s at stake for Black voters in the 2022 midterm elections.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

WURD Reality Check with Charles Ellison:

• “When you think about what’s at stake, it’s very clear in terms of the GOP candidates who emerged – one of the big things we saw is that people who were peddlers of The Big Lie – deniers of the 2020 election… seem to do pretty well, regardless of Trump. That tells you a lot about what their agenda would be if they win.”

• “Voters came out in record numbers in 2020 and we did something extraordinary. We’re going to have to do it again, in 2022, if we want to keep America moving away from what I saw as very divisive destruction of the Trump years.”

• “We turned out in record numbers in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, and not only defeated Trump, we took back the House and the Senate, and Democrats have been working hard to keep their promises, the promises made to voters and the things that voters said they wanted. We’ve got the infrastructure bill down, we got COVID Relief done. So we got vaccines. We’re getting kids back in school, getting people back to work. We got our first black female Supreme Court Justice, so promises are being kept. … there’s more that needs to get done and the thing that is standing in our way is we got to elect more Democrats and particularly there in Pennsylvania.”

• “I think it’s important that we remind Pennsylvania voters, particularly black voters in Pennsylvania, you have the power, you have the opportunity to help make sure we take that Senate seat and take control of the Senate, so that we can keep getting done – the things that voters have told us they want, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and protecting Obamacare, protecting Roe v. Wade, passing criminal justice reform, codifying the protections of Roe v. Wade, and protecting our voting rights once and for all.”

• “It is not insignificant, we have to remember, we are seeing a record number of black women running again this year and that matters.”

• “Fetterman is another really exciting campaign. He’s really excited folks in Pennsylvania and I think part of what it is is folks just want to get things done. They want people who are clear eyed about who they are about what they want to get done.”

Keepin’ It Real With Rev. Al Sharpton:

• “I want black voters to know that we are the difference, we will make the difference in these races in terms of winning and losing and I have the best evidence I can present it that is look at what happened in this special election in Georgia, where black voters – we not only won Georgia in 2020 for President Biden – but black voters made the difference in that special election in giving Democrats the Senate. I want us to understand our power.”

• “The key issues that I think we have to be talking about…is how are we going to lower costs, and that’s why you hear me talk about childcare and keeping prescription drug costs low and continuing to bring down the cost of health care, affordable housing. But the reality is, in this midterm election… We have to help turnout and give Democrats the clear majority in the Senate, so that we can continue to do the things that we all came out in record numbers and voted for in 2020.”

• “I think part of the message that’s also important and things we have to talk about is that Democrats and President Biden had been working hard to keep their promises, we did get a COVID recovery plan. Remember that you had Republicans who voted against it, even though it would have helped their own people? We got the infrastructure deal done. But there’s more to do and we need more Democrats in the Senate.”

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