Why GOP attempt to 'dismantle black political power’ backfired

[0:00] today scott colomb is thanking republican cindy hyde smith for her service one day after the [0:06] democrat officially defeated her to become the next u.s senator from deep red mississippi the [0:12] projection came in yesterday eight days after election day making colomb the first african [0:17] american to hold any statewide office in mississippi since the 1880s in a post colomb [0:24] whose appointment to a federal judgeship was blocked by hyde smith back in 2023 [0:29] said the race was never personal as he shared this part of an interview his father gave to our [0:35] laura coates in victory you want to not be critical of other people uh cindy hyde smith [0:45] is a person who's been in service many years and uh she's our competitor but she's not our enemy [0:53] we're going to talk about this now a historic win with jamie harrison who was chair of the [0:59] democratic national committee previously he is currently the coast of the at your table podcast [1:05] jamie this is uh this is just a huge win what does this mean for democrats for black voters [1:14] because this is historic it is historic and congratulations to my friend and brother scott [1:20] colomb i'm glad i went to mississippi and campaign for campaign with him but listen scott colomb didn't [1:28] just break a political barrier he he actually broke a political assumption uh you know mississippi [1:34] isn't just about this one senate seat it's about the future of the south it's about black political [1:39] power it's about the democratic party and what we saw this past year coming out of the calais decision [1:45] we saw republicans and across the south trying to actually dismantle black political power we saw it [1:53] here in south carolina where they tried to eliminate the seat that jim cloburn uh currently occupies you [2:00] know it took us 95 years uh to go from number eight uh black congressman to number nine black congressman [2:08] so what we're witnessing right now brianna is one of the most remarkable expansions of black political [2:15] power since reconstruction uh how many six black governors if you include the virgin islands seven black [2:22] united states centers the cbc uh i believe will be at 66 the largest it's ever been uh and so that's [2:30] what you get when when people feel as though their political power and their voices are trying to be [2:35] eliminated they rise up could national democrats have done more do you think yes we could have i mean [2:44] we could have picked up a seat in louisiana no no no jamie i mean could they have done more to [2:50] help to help these candidates because obviously uh voters felt very passionately about this there was a [2:56] lot of work that went into these campaigns uh but could national democrats the party with the money with [3:03] the organization could they have done even more to buoy some of these candidates no and that's what i was [3:13] answering yes we could have the party could have done more and should have done more you know we could [3:19] have picked up jamie davis in louisiana that race we lost that race by less than one percent and jamie [3:25] didn't get any real support i endorsed him and a few others but he didn't get really much support [3:31] uh angie nixon down in florida we could have picked up jermaine uh johnson who ran for governor here [3:38] in south carolina if we just had a fraction of the support and the money that went to some other [3:44] states we could have leveraged that money to really uh push out more wins and so we have to do more [3:51] i give credit to ken martin uh he has continued a 50 state strategy of 57 states and territory strategy [3:58] that i uh invested in that tom perez did but it can't just be the dnc it has to be more i also give [4:06] credit to the d triple c uh because they even leveraged they went out and got a 25 million loan [4:12] to put more money into some of these races but you know some of these other committees have to step [4:18] up some of these other packs have to step up we cannot continue to ignore the south we can't continue [4:26] to say that black voters are the backbone of the democratic party but we don't invest in those [4:31] particular voters in terms of real investments on the ground and so there's a lot more that we have [4:37] to do and we could have gained more had we invested more okay some of these other committees okay what [4:42] what committee are you talking about you're you're saying the d trip did it good the dscc is that who [4:48] you're saying should have done more oh i i i i think the dscc could have done more i i think it uh i think [4:55] you know the senate majority pack could have done more you know i i the dga could have done more and [5:01] i hope that they see now that you can't take the south for granted i know what people normally think [5:06] listen i've been in in in those in that seat right as overseeing a national committee and i know how [5:12] hard it is you got limited dollars and you're trying to make the best bet and so i i understand that [5:18] but sometimes when you see that things are going a certain way you have to leverage those moments [5:24] and those opportunities the d triple c did that they took out a 25 million loan to say you know [5:30] what the donors aren't giving us all the dollars but we still have more opportunities out there we [5:36] just got to do that and we can't let the past dictate what we do in the future right when you see [5:43] that black voters are turning out at historical rates across the south then you say so something's [5:49] going differently this time around let's look at some of these other seats and see if there's some [5:53] opportunities there that even in this last minute that we can make an investment and push and um i [6:00] also want to ask you as we're looking at how this new congress is going to govern as the final elections [6:07] are being called the incoming democratic majority they're looking at leadership battles ahead on [6:11] capitol hill congresswoman elect malat kiros who is a democratic socialist told this to our laura [6:17] coats last night what i'll say is that it has been disappointing how undemocratic this process has felt [6:24] i primaried an incumbent i fiercely believe the importance of competitive elections and it feels [6:29] like a lot of our class are just coming in and you know being told this is what the leadership is [6:34] going to be our responsibility now is to come in and say fine this is the agenda that we are being [6:40] that we were sent here to do that's the trade-off it might be a so-called coronation but you have [6:45] demands we have demands jamie i wonder what you think about that considering yes there are six new dsa [6:54] members i think there's eight total maybe some others obviously who are aligned with the dsa but [7:01] you have dozens and dozens of democrats who want in on the house side anyways in these states where [7:09] trump won in their districts what do you think as you hear obviously a little frustration there from [7:15] uh the congresswoman elect yeah listen i i think the the one thing the advice i wrote a book about [7:23] capitol hill and how you climb the hill and how you navigate the hill the big thing as a new member [7:30] is understand the process you know get to understand what you can do in order to to deliver back home [7:38] uh you know in these leadership elections they happen and they happen very quickly and as a new [7:43] member you know you that's the first thing that you actually get an opportunity to vote on the reason why [7:48] you probably don't see a whole lot of competition in some of the leadership elections is because [7:52] the caucus generally is pretty happy with the leadership that they have this leadership just [7:57] delivered probably the largest victory that we have seen for a house minority in history right and so [8:05] therefore there's no opposition because people are happy that this leadership team has helped to [8:11] deliver hakeem jeffries has been all over the place raised more money than anybody ever in this uh in [8:17] that role has gotten more discharge petitions uh onto the floor and passed than any other minority leader [8:25] in history and so the caucus is pretty happy with the leadership that they have now it's taking the next [8:31] step which is we know who our leaders are going to be what is our agenda going to be and that's where i [8:36] think these new members can really play a big part and i know leader jeffries soon to be speaker uh elect [8:42] jeffries will really want to lean in and get all of their fresh ideas and and bring their energy to bear [8:50] uh to get this agenda passed and and through