Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Strategist Donna Brazile rallies black support for Harry Reid after Obama remarks

Democrats hope to move past controversy that’s followed senator

Donna Brazile

Leila Navidi / Las Vegas Sun

Donna Brazile, the Democratic National Committee’s Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation, hugs Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly as State Sen. Steven Horsford looks on during an event to kick off African-Americans for Harry Reid at the Culinary Training Center in Las Vegas Thursday, January 14, 2010.

Donna Brazile

Third graders from the Rainbow Dreams Academy perform a song during an event to kick off African-Americans for Harry Reid at the Culinary Training Center in Las Vegas Thursday, January 14, 2010. Launch slideshow »

Sun Coverage

After being dogged for a week by racially tinged comments he made about President Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid and his campaign brought one of the Democratic Party's leading black strategists to Nevada Thursday to rally African-American support and put an end to a controversy that Republicans have used to call for the Senate majority leader's ouster.

Donna Brazile, former campaign manager for Al Gore's presidential campaign and a prominent political analyst on CNN, told about 400 black supporters at the Culinary Training Academy in North Las Vegas this afternoon that she was proud to back Reid because of his long history of civil rights work, his legislative record and his pivotal role in shepherding Obama's agenda through Congress.

"Harry Reid is a part of our family -- not just the Democratic family or the black family but the American family," she said. "I am proud to be an African American for Harry Reid."

Last weekend, news broke that during the 2008 presidential election Reid had told the authors of a new book, "Game Change," that Obama was a good candidate because he was "light-skinned" with "no Negro dialect." Reid apologized to Obama, who accepted and called the matter closed. He also received the support of local and national black leaders.

Reid's campaign noted that Thursday's event was one in a line of constituency group launches that had been planned months ago, but the timing, on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, surely helps repair any damage to the senator's reputation among a bloc of voters he will need to win a tough re-election fight in November.

Brazile was backed by a panel of spiritual and elected leaders, including state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford and longtime civil rights leader Bob Bailey. Each implored the crowd to judge Reid by his record, not his rhetoric, and to vote for his re-election.

"We know racism," Brazile told the crowd. "We have been through tough times but we also know our friends and we know how to measure them and we know how to grade them and he's earned his high marks. In the bank of justice, he has a full account. Some people don't even have an account."

She continued: "He opened that account decades ago, long before it was fashionable to back this and support that. He opened his account because of his faith. And he believes that God made us all equal."

Brazile called on the crowd to defend Reid in the black community and challenge media and political distortions of his remarks.

"Let people know where you stand, in the barber shops and beauty salons," she said. "They are going to say things about Harry Reid out of school and out of character because that's the nature of the politics. Stand up for a fighter, a warrior, a good and decent honest man, a man who doesn't look at the color of our skin, but the content of our character."

She said Reid was critical to helping Obama realize King's dream of equality.

"We can't close the book just because his opponents would like to divide and distract us," Brazile said. "We will close the book when we finish writing this chapter that says we are one America. ... We will get there with Harry Reid.

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