One element of Elizabeth Warren’s surge in the polls is likely to strike fear in her top Democratic rivals — her rising support among African-Americans. After struggling to win over black voters in the early stages of the primary, the Massachusetts senator appears to be gaining ground with a demographic that will play a pivotal role in determining the nomination.

A Quinnipiac University national poll last week showed Warren winning 19% of the African-American vote — a nine-point jump over the poll’s August results. In the latest Morning Consult poll, released Wednesday, she’s up by five percentage points with black voters since August...“It’s certainly a dramatic shift that had to be noticed by the Biden campaign — and also Sanders, Harris and Buttigieg,” said Tim Malloy, Qunnipiac’s polling analyst. “Other [candidates] aren’t moving. And if they are, it’s in the wrong direction.”

...“Elizabeth Warren has been speaking directly to a lot of black women’s issues,” said Avis Jones-DeWeever, a lead researcher on last month’s Essence-Black Women’s Roundtable poll, which has Warren in third place behind Biden and Harris. “I’m seeing those direct specifics that [she’s] looking at and focusing on.”

Her April appearance at the She The People forum — the first-ever presidential candidate forum focused on women of color — marked a significant milestone for her campaign, particularly in regards to black women. Following her remarks to a majority-black female audience, the Warren campaign sharpened its messaging to include issues unique to black Americans like maternal mortality rates and racial justice, an approach that some activists say helped alter the perception that Warren was a detached policy wonk.

“In terms of her building trust and authenticity, I believe that was the moment,” said Aimee Allison, founder and CEO of She The People. “The thing about [black women] is that we have networks of networks. When she impressed a room of 2,000 women of color, I could just see months later that she started getting people’s attention.”

Since then, Warren has continued to hold listening sessions with black women’s groups and community activists. Ahead of July’s Netroots Nation conference, one of the largest gatherings of progressive activists, Warren held a roundtable with a group of black organizers who then took to social media to express support for her platform...

More at https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/02/elizabeth-warren-black-voters-support-2020-016649

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign has hired a veteran Michigan operative to lead its team in the state.

Mike McCollum, the caucus executive director for the Michigan House Democrats, will serve as the Warren state director, according to three Democrats with knowledge of his hiring.

The Warren campaign did not respond to an inquiry about the hiring of McCollum, who announced his new job to colleagues in the Democratic caucus on Tuesday evening.
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He was a regional field organizer for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign and a staffer in South Carolina and Florida for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He has also worked in Democratic politics in West Virginia and Massachusetts.

McCollum is one of the earliest state directors hired in Michigan among the major 2020 Democratic presidential campaigns. It underscores the efforts Warren’s campaign has made from the beginning to build out a robust ground game early on and to staff its operation with veterans familiar with their regions.

Warren recently traveled to Michigan for a 2020 presidential forum hosted by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. In September she met with union members on strike at a General Motors assembly plant in Detroit.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/01/elizabeth-warren-hires-michigan-director-016743