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U.S. NEWS Monday 6 July 2020
Continued from Front Buchanan said GOP-run state House chambers George Wallace, a former segregationist, in the
That includes white people from other parts of in Georgia and Texas are up for grabs, as are 1976 primary. Carter won across the South.
the country, Black families returning genera- Republican U.S. Senate seats in North Carolina, Clinton, who won several Southern states in
tions after the Great Migration north during the Georgia and perhaps Texas. Senate contests in 1992, campaigned seamlessly among Black
lynching and segregation era, and a growing South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi could voters yet made a show of his death penalty
Latino population. Harrison noted that even be much closer than typical statewide races in support by traveling back to Arkansas during
younger native Southerners, Black and white, those Deep South states. the campaign for the execution of a Black in-
are less wed to hard-partisan identities than "Georgia and the South are changing faster mate. Obama won North Carolina and Virginia
their parents and grandparents were. than most people think," said DuBose Porter, in 2008, leaning more heavily on diverse cities
"Sometimes we get held back by leadership a former Georgia lawmaker and state party and battleground suburbs.
that's still anchored in old ways," Harrison said. chair. "That was happening before Trump," Por- Biden, putting his needle-threading attempt
But "all of these changes are starting to move ter said, but the president "has accelerated it." on display, has noted his list of potential run-
the dynamics in so many communities. … That's True two-party states in the Old Confederacy ning mates includes "several" Black women. He
not to say we're forgetting our past. But it won't — at least beyond Florida and Virginia and oc- speaks about centuries of injustice and system-
be the thing that's dragging us back." casionally North Carolina — would be relatively ic inequalities, most recently using an Indepen-
The November elections will determine the ex- newfound. For generations after post-Civil War dence Day address to describe American his-
tent of the change, with competitive races in Reconstruction, the "Solid South" was uniformly tory as a "constant push and pull between two
the South affecting the presidency, U.S. Senate Democratic, white voters' visceral rejection of parts of our character, the idea that all men
control and the balance of power in statehous- President Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party. and women — all people — are created equal
es from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Austin, Texas. Beginning with the 1960s civil rights movement, and the racism that has torn us apart."
Democratic victories would redefine policy most whites drifted to Republicans. That trend But with civil unrest spurred by the latest police
fights over expanding health insurance access peaked during Democrat Barack Obama's two violence against Black Americans, Biden has
and overhauling criminal justice procedures, terms as the first Black president. More than par- sought a middle ground, making clear he op-
among other matters. The general election is ty identity, the common controlling force was poses progressives' calls to "defund the police."
also critical because voters will elect the state white cultural conservatism. Confederate symbols, Biden has argued, should
lawmakers who will draw legislative and con- "Voters align first on principles, then on policy," come down, but ideally not through mob ac-
gressional boundaries after the 2020 census. Buchanan said. tion, and he's drawn distinctions between me-
Republicans, for the most part, aren't as quick Democrats see Biden as a party leader who morials to traitorous Confederates and those
as Democrats to frame 2020 as a redefining can put a metro-based coalition over the top to national founders who owned slaves, includ-
year. Still, they acknowledge obvious shifts that by mitigating margins beyond big cities and ing George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
began with suburban growth in northern Virgin- suburbs. "Biden is a safe vessel for these (white) Their monuments, Biden said, should be pro-
ia and extended southward down the coastline voters who might have been OK with Trump tected.
and westward to Texas. when everything's going well, but now are just McCrary said that approach, with Biden's cen-
"North Carolina, Georgia, Texas – these are be- looking for a stable leader who'll do the right ter-left positioning on policy, should prevent a
coming real two-party states," said Republican thing," said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster white backlash that benefits Trump. Buchanan
pollster Brent Buchanan, whose firm, Cygnal, based in Alabama and whose firm is aligned argued it's an open question of what uneasy
aides GOP campaigns across the country. with Biden's campaign. white Southerners choose. "Those voters are still
Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dil- If Biden manages the feat, it would bridge the scared about the direction of their country," he
lon, talks eagerly of "an expanded map" that Southern appeals of the last three Democratic said. In South Carolina, Harrison sees progress,
puts North Carolina and Florida in the same toss- presidents. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were even as more tangible policy fights remain.
up category as the Great Lakes states that sent native Southerners who, with whiter, less urban "Almost all of my life, the Confederate flag flew
Trump to the White House. Georgia and Texas, electorates, attracted white moderates and over the state Capitol dome or on the grounds
she adds, will be tighter than they've been in Black voters. Carter, for example, styled himself of the Statehouse," Harrison said. "For my sons,
decades. a racial progressive, yet courted Alabama Gov. they will have no memory of that."q

Sheriff: 2 dead, 8 hurt in South Carolina nightclub shooting

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — A before Sunday morning's er adding that authorities
shooting at a nightclub ear- shooting — both about weren't sure what led to
ly Sunday left two people violence and whether the the gunfire.
dead and eight wounded club is violating rules de- Lewis said a "very large
in South Carolina, a sheriff's signed to slow the spread of crowd" was at the nightclub
official said. the coronavirus. He wants it for "some type of concert."
Two Greenville County shut down. "It's a danger to A post on Lavish Lounge's
sheriff's deputies noticed everyone." Facebook page advertised
a disturbance at Lavish Lewis and Bolt initially a July 4 performance by
Lounge just before 2 a.m., said 12 people had been trap rapper Foogiano. An
and saw a large crowd wounded — with at least Instagram direct message
running out of the building, four in critical condition, from the AP wasn't immedi-
Sheriff Hobart Lewis said at Lewis said — but Bolt told ately returned, but a book-
a press conference. There The Associated Press that ings representative told the
was "active gunfire from in- two victims were likely AP via text message that Lavish Lounge in Greenville, S.C., is seen in a Sunday, July 5,
side the building," Lt. Jimmy counted twice in the con- Foogiano was fine and his 2020 photo.
Bolt said in an initial state- fusion at the hospital. team was safe. Associated Press
ment, and Lewis said all the No one was immediately Coronavirus cases in South
shots were fired inside. taken into custody. Bolt Carolina have risen swift- face coverings in South those operating night-
"I was in bed and all of a told the AP that the sheriff's ly and the state's rate of Carolina. Gov. Henry Mc- clubs illegally or holding
sudden you hear this 'Pow! office was looking for two positive tests is three times Master has refused to im- concerts against his orders
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!,'" lo- suspects, but couldn't pro- the recommended level. plement a statewide mask don't have to be caught
cal resident Mike Riley told vide names or descriptions. In late June, Greenville — requirement. in the act to face criminal
the Greenville News. Riley "We don't really have a which has experienced McMaster reminded South charges, but instead could
said he heard four or five person of interest that we some of the state's highest Carolinians last week that be charged weeks later if
shots. He said he's been can name," Lewis said at COVID-19 rates — became he hadn't lifted restrictions COVID-19 cases are traced
worried about the club the press conference, lat- the first city to mandate on large crowds, and that back.q