African-American leaders in Missouri have refused to back Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill amid attacks by local leaders that called on her to "show up" and earn the support of minority voters in the state.
"I'm going to vote for Claire, but Claire is going to have to bring her ass to St. Louis," Bruce Franks, a black activist and state legislator from St. Louis, said at a town hall meeting he hosted last month, The Kansas City Star reports.
In response, McCaskill asked African-American elected officials in Kansas City and St. Louis to sign a letter pushing back on Franks' comments.
They did not, the Star reports.
McCaskill, 64, who is seeking her third term, is considered one of the most vulnerable Senate Democrats in this November's midterm elections.
Among those approached were Democratic U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City and Lacy Clay of St. Louis, as well as Missouri Statehouse Minority Leader Gail McCann Beatty.
"I'm 100 percent certain that nobody signed it," Cleaver told the Star.
"We talked about it very seriously and strongly and every one of us said: 'We're going to support her, but signing this letter isn't going to achieve what she wants. It's just going to make people angry.'"
Cleaver and other African-American leaders told the Star that McCaskill would leave the impression of taking minority voters for granted as she tries to court new voters in a state that Republican Donald Trump won by almost 19 points in 2016.
"The state is large and diverse, but she might need to take the campaign into the repair shop in the black communities," Cleaver said.
"If people see that she's actually trying to win them over then, I think it will be a benefit to her re-election."
McCaskill's campaign cited her record of supporting Missouri's African-American community, dating back to her days as a prosecutor in the 1980s.
"Nothing has, or ever will, change that commitment," Meira Bernstein, McCaskill's campaign spokeswoman, told the Star in a statement.
However, when asked about the letter at a town hall in Kansas City, McCaskill said: "Maybe the letter elevated the issue maybe more than it should have been and it was fine.
"I mean, listen, here's the bottom line: I am going to work very hard and not take one vote for granted," she told the Star.
"I am blessed to have a lot of friends and a lot of supporters in the black community — and I am not going to take one of them for granted."
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