but so far bernie sanders is nowhere when it comes to african-american voters. he s polled as low as 9% overall and as low as 2% among black voters. so with that kind of showing, sanders can t win or even make this a contest for too long. he says he s trying though. his campaign officials say they re making inroads and this weekend at the annual net roots nation conference of progressive activists, bernie sanders faced open opposition from the voters of color he is trying to winover over and he needs to win over. watch this. wall street journal poll i will answer your question but i would like to speak for a few minutes. a couple more minutes and then we ll get i was told we had 15 minutes, right? a little shorter than that sir. the issue is hold on one second.
i would be 100% with you ed. but like the old story in harlem. when the revolutionary communists went to the black men and said you should sign with us because we re about economic parity [ inaudible ] and sandra bland in texas was on her way to get a job. and the fact that she was on her way being gainfully employed did not stop her from winding up dead. there are issues of the police brutality. sure. and if bernie can t address that i he has addressed it. they are talking about police changes and tactics and all kinds of things. i think something is not being heard here. nina turner. you were at the net roots nation. what was this all about? you know, when you take a look at this black lives movement that is taking place. what did they need to hear from democratic candidates?
goal i think that we all share. i would hope that all decent minded americans share. how we create a society that ends discrimination. how do we best deal with racism in america? i m asking questions here. we are making some progress but we got to accelerate that progress. the net roots nation conference has been a tough place historically for presidential candidates. hillary clinton chose not even to attend this conference. so could this liberal wing of the democratic party do some damage to the candidates? joining me to discuss, contributor and professor at moore house college also with us ben ferguson. mark, first to you your reaction to what happened there. first of all, i was excited, i was proud. i was impressed by the work that was done by the black lives matter movement yesterday. they ve been doing amazing work for a year. this was another testimony to how organized they were
committed they were and courageous they were. their agenda wasn t being addressed sufficiently. they asserted the black lives matter in public space. i think that s something that needs to happen nonstop. i am excited. why did they choose this particular conference the net roots nation conference? i suspect they ll do many places to do this. but i think net roots is an important place to be. there were presidential candidates there. martin o malley bernie sanders are two people we want to think and talk about as candidates. we want to bring these issues to the table. it would be great if hillary clinton had been there to address these issues as well. sometimes with the protection of media and the protection of hand lers presidential candidates don t say anything. they forced them to address these issues. ben, i see you smirking there. what do you make of this? i would love to see this happen with hillary clinton. i think you can tell her campaign is being very smart by
you mentioned jeb bush. he is not there. what s on his schedule? what s going on. nor is chris christie or rand paul here. jeb bush was in the state a couple of days ago. chris christie we expect next week and rand paul later in the month. it does say something that jeb bush is not courting the social conservatives as donald trump, marco rubio, ted cruz and michael huckabee. jeb bush will be trying to thread the needle and reach out to the broad-based part of the party. bernie sanders is drawing bigger crowds. what s expected today? reporter: if republicans are talking to the true believers in iowa. democrats are talking to their true believers. martin o malley and bernie sanders are attending the net roots nation conference. liberal progressives are going to be marching knocking on