Voters have been casting ballots in Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington.

352 delegates are at stake.

The biggest prize is Michigan, with 125 delegates up for grabs.

Black voters made up 21% of the state's Democratic electorate in 2016.

African American support helped propel Joe Biden to victory in South Carolina.

And on Super Tuesday, the former vice president is hoping for the same again tonight.

For more on this, I'm joined by Rashad Robinson.

He's the president of the organization, color of change or shot.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So Joe Biden has been on the political scene for a long, long time, and I wonder what you think it is that has resonated so much for African American voters when it comes to Joe Biden.

Well, I do think that people are really scared.

They're worried about another four years of Donald Trump, and I think as the field whittled down, you know, Joe Biden sort of emerged as a safe bet for folks to beat Donald Trump Now what?

We also have to remember about black voters and that they're not a monolith.

And the other thing we have to remember is that this is a primary.

So what you're gonna get in the primary season is people who vote in every election.

You're gonna get the most committed set of voters who will vote.

Regardless, the question still remains.

Is Ken Joe Biden?

I think the question remains, What?

Bernie Sanders?

Can they expand the black bass?

Can they get to the type of 2012 and 2008 numbers that actually propelled Democrats into the White House?

So let me ask you about Senator Sanders for just a moment.

Why do you think it is that he's not been able to garner as much support from the African American community?

You know, compared to what we've seen with Joe Biden?

Well, this is a Democratic primary, and Joe Biden is a Democrat and Bernie Sanders is running and as an outsider and running as an outsider in a primary is really tough because you are coming up against establishment forces.

And this is not to say that black folks are establishing.

I'm talking about you know, the type of endorsements of members of Congress of state legislator, cyber folks that have ground games that have been in it for a while.

Right, people sort of want to know how you're gonna protect sort of their ability to move things.

They want to know that how business is going to work.

And I think for a lot of people that have been in the game for a long time, they look at it Bernie Sanders and they wonder, is he gonna disrupt things so much that that is gonna be hard for me to think about, how what my job looks like, How I engaged.

I have looked at a lot of the focus groups, though particularly of young black folks And what did you find in the Rust Belt?

And they actually are not interested in any conversations about the establishment.

And in fact, that is why, as you see, young black folks tracking Maur towards a Bernie Sanders campaign because they actually don't believe a story of incremental change.

They don't believe a story of just going back 25 years ago, seven years ago, eight years ago is suddenly gonna make their lives better.

We have to remember that the emergence of black lives matter happened under the Obama administration.

If you were making minimum wage at a job seven years ago or six years ago, you know your life has not fundamentally gotten worse under the trump era.

Now we have Corona virus and other things that might change that.

But for a lot of people, they don't believe the story that simply moving back and forth between Democrats and Republicans sort of at an establishment way.

It's gonna fundamentally change.

So we do have to have a story, not just a story about going back to the good old days, but a story about what the future looks like if we're going to expand the base.

So I want to delve a little bit more deeply into this notion of black voters, like any group, not a monolith, right?

So you talk about this sort of generational divide, younger African American voters looking for one thing.

What about older black voters?

What is it that you have found when you talk to voters?

They're very interested in seeing well.

First of all, older black voters have had to be harm reduction voters for years explain that.

What is that?

What that means is that they often times had to choose between the lesser of many evils or had not always had to be able to choose their best kind of most aspirational option.

You have to remember your candidate.

Yes, it wasn't Intel South Carolina, after Iowa and New Hampshire, that black voters got behind President Obama as their candidate, particularly older black voters who was kind of waiting.

And we're concerned that white vote folks wouldn't actually vote for President Obama.

Older black voters have had to stand in the gap many times.

We can't even look at what happened in Alabama with the Doug Jones race and can look at the ways in which black voters overwhelmingly showed up and push back.

And so the fact of the matter is, is that older black voters often times are not gonna believe a story that we can just have revolution and change things because they've lived through a lot of different promises that actually haven't been delivered.

And sometimes we'll take the tried and true over promises that may not actually be delivered, and that is actually what we're dealing with.

But we do need a candidate that can both paint a story about how they're going to kind of stabilize and govern in a really clear way, because I think that that's what people want.

They don't want the crazy every time they turn on TV.

But people also want a story that does involve change that involves structural changes.

It possible toe have that in one candidate.

I think that we've, I think, that we had it in some ways and Obama didn't always deliver.

But I do think that a cannon is going to have to deliver.

And yes, I do believe someone that's pushing for structural change can also be a person that talks about governing.

That can also be talk about delivering.

But that actually has to be part of both the stories, because for so many folks around the country, they have seen it.

Corporations have had to consistently do less to make more, and all everyone else has had to basically doom or to make less.

In the regardless of who gets in the White House, Democrats or Republicans, America wants something different.

Donald Trump talked about draining the swamp right and that, and that was appealing to the right base to the left base of people who are gonna turn out.

They do want a story about why they're in this circumstance, and it can't just be.

You have to work harder.

There are rules that are rigged, and people need a story about how we're gonna fix it.

So let's look ahead here next week for more states are holding their contests on March 17th.

What kind of impact you think black voters could have on those primaries in Florida, Illinois, Ohio?

In Arizona?

I mean, these are states where black folks play a huge role.

There also places where there are other races that are going to be interesting.

They're really hotly contested District attorney Primary Cook County, where Rachel Justice advocates are getting behind Kim Foxx for reelection on.

And then there's, you know, these other races that are happening.

So I do think people gonna be really excited about engaged.

I do think we're also gonna have a debate in between that, and we're gonna have a debate with two candidates on the stage for two hours, and we're gonna and no one's gonna be ableto hide both of these folks, records are gonna be on display in really deep ways.

And I think the public is going to get a taste of who can go up against Donald Trump.

What are you gonna be listening for specifically?

I'm gonna be listening for both these air.

You know, I'm a 41 years old and I've been in politics for a long time.

These these guys have some have some years on them.

I'm gonna be interested to see who can stay on that stage for two hours and go back and forth and engage, Right?

Being president is a really tart and tough job, and we've got two people that are that have that have been around for a very long time.

I'm also gonna look to see if they can pivot if they can engage if they can give us move beyond talking points.

So I think that that will be sort of the test on.

I think a lot of people will be looking at.

It will be the first time that there won't be six or seven cannons on the stage.

That will be too.

And these two cannons will have to go head to head on their records.

And it will give a very clear picture about what the stakes are for the Democratic Party.

What the stakes are for the left because we actually have very too.

We have two very different visions about what the future could be.

Fascinating.

Rashad Robinson.

Rashaun.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Thanks for having me.