Democrats Get An Opening ... If They Use it Right

Sticking to a campaign pledge to nominate a Black woman for a Supreme Court vacancy offers Biden and Congressional Democrats desperately needed wind behind their sails for 2022

Publisher’s Riff

After a string of legislative and political losses since the holiday season, some due to effective Republican maneuvering and others seemingly unforced errors, President Biden and Democrats really needed a reversal of fortunes to help reposition themselves in 2022. Electoral failure for Democrats is not an option: We can cite, all we want, the conventional wisdom of “the party in the White House loses the midterms,” but we better fast snap into reversing that historical trend because the stakes are way too high to do otherwise. The recent retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer offers what could be, potentially, a unique chance to galvanize the Democratic base in such a way that helps trigger a fresh new sequence of motivational events, namely the nomination of a Black women jurist to fill the vacancy.

It’s as if the universe is giving Democrats a chance to, perhaps, regain some lost ground and to force themselves to reboot strategy and messaging. Biden has reiterated that he will stick to that pledge, as he should. While this won’t completely restore lost Black voter support, particularly in the wake of the destruction of the Voting Rights Act and the inability to pass a full Build Back Better package (chief among disappointments), this will be a significant political move to help stop the bleeding, so to speak …. if done right. The Senate confirmation process will, most certainly, be contentious, but if there ever was an opportunity at the top of a midterm cycle for revival this would be it. All Biden and Senate Democrats need to do is leave nothing to chance during the confirmation process and put all their political capitol behind any Black woman jurist they pick.

There is, technically, very little - if anything - Republicans can do to block this nominee, anyway, since the filibuster is removed for the purpose of confirming judges. But, sure, go ahead and let Republicans attempt to breath fire on and block a Black women Supreme Court nominee, and see how that will attract the ire of Black voters, especially Black women voters who are eager to cement this historic first. And, yes, we’re going to say it: This is something President Obama should have done instead of nominating Merrick Garland back in 2016. That could have helped then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had a Black woman SCOTUS nominee been delayed by Senate Republicans well into the presidential election cycle.

With Biden and Senate Democrats on a roll this year with a record number of federal judicial appointments, it shouldn’t be hard to keep all members of the Caucus in line - especially since he’s, already this year, added five more Black women judges to the federal appellate courts. As far as federal judgeships go, especially diverse picks, Biden has been on a roll …

He’s already breaking records in his first year …

Ultimately, there is value in this vacancy. It presents an opportunity for Democrats to hit their own internal reset button as they have been, clearly, hemorrhaging Black voter support. They desperately need Black voters mobilized in a significant way in 2022, and a Black woman SCOTUS nominee and confirmation is a good way to kick that off. That said: follow up will be needed. Biden and Democrats must now activate and accomplish three very visible and key goals in 2022 if they want to build the kind of political environment that truly galvanizes their base …

• Nominate and ensure the confirmation of a Black woman on the Supreme Court.

• Cancel student loan debt; and

• Lastly, begin constructing an ambitious “needs-based” GOTV or voter mobilization effort whereby registration and turnout activities are directly connected with an effort to provide direct access to social assistance programs, remaining pandemic relief money and Infrastructure Act dollars.

This is that moment.