Democratic strategist James Carville said Sunday that Black voters in South Carolina, not progressive activists, should decide the party’s 2028 presidential nominee, and he warned that bloc is far less liberal than much of the Democratic base assumes.
Carville made the comments on the “Politics War Room” podcast, where host Mark McKinnon asked him about South Carolina’s role as the opening state in the 2028 Democratic primary calendar.
“The key, single most important voting demographic in selecting a Democratic nominee is, was, and should continue to be southern Blacks,” Carville said. “There’s no more loyal constituency in the party. And by the way, just so people understand this, they’re not that liberal, OK?”
Carville said that voting bloc wants candidates who have a record of results, not rhetoric.
“And what they want and what we’re going to find out, and there’s an expression, is, ‘I don’t want someone that’s talk the talk. I want somebody that’s walk the walk.’ And when you go to South Carolina and make a pitch — advice from James Carville — talk about things you’ve done,” Carville said.
He mocked the kind of identity-focused messaging Democratic candidates often lean on.
“Don’t say, ‘I am a great friend of people of color.’ That’s the stupidest f—ing expression I ever heard.”
Carville said candidates need to point to concrete accomplishments that benefited Black Americans rather than lean on slogans. He also took aim at the party’s more academic, ideological wing, saying handing control of the nominating process to that faction would be a mistake.
“But don’t ever take power of nomination away from southern Blacks. ‘Cause if you give it to overly educated people, overly educated people f— everything up.”
“As long as that’s there,” he added, referring to Black southern voters driving the nominating process, “we’re going to have a pretty good nomination.”
Dan Turrentine, a Democrat and co-host of “The Huddle,” backed up Carville’s read in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“James is right. The average Black voter, like most Americans, is not crazy liberal. They are most interested in what you will do to solve today’s problems versus wasting time fantasizing about tomorrow’s revolution. That said, it’s likely the winning candidate will not view this as an ‘either/or’ choice, but find a way to appeal to ‘both’ constituencies,” Turrentine said.
