Reverend Jackson was far more important than most people know

By twice blowing past expectations, and never stopping in his work to keep hope alive, Jesse Jackson changed the American political world for all time

Very few people understand the groundshaking nature of Jesse Jackson’s two presidential campaigns and the work he did afterwards. His blend of Black preacher style, progressive populist economics, and overtly progressive coalition building politics changed the way presidential campaigns were run, the way Democrats organized in the Black community, and the way Democrats thought about voter registration and getting out the vote. He put the South back in play after the Democrats being shut out of it in the three presidential elections in the ‘80s. And to say that he opened the door for Barack Obama to be President may be the biggest understatement of all, but Bill Clinton also never would have been President without all the Black voters he registered and helped turn out in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and the South.

Here is how the Reverend changed American politics:

1) He showed people a candidate could go over the heads of the establishment and win voters over to your side with a movement oriented campaign.

People forget how many Black elected officials disdained Jackson’s run in 1984 and endorsed Mondale instead. The Mondale campaign assumed those Black elected officials could deliver the Black vote, but those endorsements were overwhelmed by the passion and excitement Jesse Jackson created. Progressive insurgent campaigns ever since have used that kind of model to win surprise upset victories.

2) He showed people a Black insurgent populist could draw White working class votes.

Before the Rev ran, most voting in America in primary elections followed closely along racial lines. There were exceptions, but there hadn’t been many. The other thing that had been conventional wisdom before Jesse was that only “safe” Black candidates, people who weren’t rabble rousers, could win White votes – think Tom Bradley in CA or Wilson Goode in Philly.

Jackson changed that assumption. While he dramatically exceeded exceptions in 1984, it was mostly by winning higher percentages of the Black vote and by turning out more Black voters than usual. But in 1988, his progressive populist campaign once again exceeded expectations, this time with not only higher Black turnout but with lots of White voters. He won over 11% of the vote and 13% of the county delegates in Iowa, where only 1% of the voters were Black. He won the Texas caucuses by putting together a coalition of Blacks, Latinos, and populist Whites. After sweeping through the mostly Southern Super Tuesday primaries, he shocked the Democratic establishment by dominating the Michigan caucuses, winning a ton of White labor union voters.

At that point, he had more delegates and state primary victories than any other candidate. He even won states like Vermont and Alaska that have hardly any Black voters.

3) Jackson dramatically out-performed his fundraising, proving the power of his populist message.

The way Democrats usually won Democratic primaries was to win Iowa and/or New Hampshire, and then ride that momentum to raising a lot of money, allowing them to compete in the later states. Dukakis repeated that pattern, but raised so much early money that he was able to swamp other contenders like Gephardt even though Gephardt had won Iowa.

Jesse’s early momentum did not result in him raising that usual flow of money, because he was Black and populist and scared the hell out of the money men (they were almost all men) in the party. But he won all those votes, delegates, and states I listed above anyway. I think it is safe to say that no candidate for president’s vote total has ever out-performed the amount of money he raised so dramatically. Jesse’s populist message allowed him to punch way above his weight.

If internet fundraising had been around in the 1980s, I think it is likely Jesse would have won the nomination in 1988. And when Obama ran 20 years later, no one was writing off his chance to win the White voters he needed to win to get the nomination.

4) Jackson’s voter registration and turnout capacity allowed Democrats to compete in the South again.

After the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, Democrats had a lot of trouble winning in the South. Carter won a few Southern states in 1976, but none other than his home state of Georgia in 1980. We didn’t win a single Southern state in the presidential races of 1972, 1984, or 1988. But the Black voters Jackson energized helped the Democrats win back the Senate in 1986, and over time, we started competing again for the Southern states in presidential races. Virginia has now become a lean Democratic state, and North Carolina and Georgia are now two of the most competitive states in the country. We have won Florida a couple of times since the 1990s and it was stolen from us in 2000. Texas is becoming more competitive, and in Mississippi we only lost the Governor’s race last cycle by 3 points, and Cindy Hyde Smith only won by 4 points 6 years ago when she ran.

And by the way, it wasn’t just his registration efforts in the years he ran. Jesse would hit the trail every single cycle for Democrats, and he never lost his ability to inspire and mobilize and turn out voters. I lost track of the number of times I would get calls from party fundraisers asking me to help raise more money for Jesse to go out and get more folks to the polls, because party strategists knew how important he was in turning out the vote.

5) Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition rebuilt the potential for the Democratic Party to become a majority party again.

After the crumbling of one of the most enduring electoral coalitions in American history, the New Deal coalition that lasted 40+ years, Democrats were searching for a new way to win elections. The corporate wing of the party was arguing that we should be working to win over higher income “office park dads” and move away from the New Deal’s focus on working class folks. Jesse Jackson understood that those numbers didn’t ever add up in the end – that a charismatic candidate like Clinton could keep enough of the old Democratic coalition together while winning over some higher income voters, but that it wasn’t an enduring majority coalition.

Jesse argued that with populist economics and a welcoming message, we could stay engaged with working class voters of all colors and generate excitement from voters and activists who had never been involved in politics before. No Democratic politician in that era did more to reach out to Latino voters, to Asian-Americans, to LGBT folks, or to young people; but Jesse also carried the flag of farmers who were being foreclosed on during the 1980s farm crisis, and the factory workers who were being decimated by bad trade deals and deindustrialization.

Rev. Jesse Jackson (WikiCommons)

Jesse’s vision of the Rainbow Coalition did not carry the day often enough in party councils. If it had, Democrats would have won a lot more elections in recent years. His legacy, though, is enormous.

Reverend Jackson, rest in peace and rest in power. Thank you for the changes you made in our politics. Those of us who loved and admired you will carry on.