Deval Patrick cancels HBCU campaign event after only two people show up

The former Massachusetts governor being late to the campaign game may be why only a couple of people came to his event at Morehouse College in Atlanta

Blue Telusma

Nov 21, 2019

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As far as presidential campaigns go, former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is admittedly a bit late to the party, and that may be why only two people showed up to a recent event at Morehouse College.

According to CNN, on Wednesday, one of Patrick’s planned campaign events was set to take place at the Atlanta HBCU, but when only two people actually showed up, it prompted his team to cancel the engagement altogether.

Governor @DevalPatrick was supposed to have an event at Morehouse College tonight. An organizer with the college who planned the event told CNN that Patrick cancelled the event when he arrived and learned that he would not have an audience. (Note, two people came, not pictured) pic.twitter.com/CzNjWYcWKJ

— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) November 21, 2019

Patrick just announced his candidacy last week, which while later than most, is still in time to qualify for the New Hampshire primary taking place in early February.

“When I was thinking about it many months ago, one of the questions was: How do you break through in a field this large and this talented without being a celebrity or sensationalist? And I’m none of those things,” Patrick said on CBS “This Morning.”

To his credit, Patrick has close ties to Wall Street donors. And as only the nation’s second elected Black governor since Reconstruction, Patrick also could run as a historic boundary breaker trying to dent Biden’s support among African Americans — though Harris and Booker, the only two Black Democrats in the Senate, have been unable to do that thus far.

But some are speculating that this is one case where “better late than never” doesn’t apply. Highlighting that point is a recent HuffPost poll of Democratic and left-leaning voters, that found that 80% of them were already “enthusiastic” or “satisfied” with the candidate choices they had before Patrick joined the race.

In our most recent survey, 83% of Democratic or Democratic-leaning voters said they were at least satisfied with the 2020 Democratic field, with 45% describing themselves as enthusiastic. 8% were dissatisfied; 3% were upset. https://t.co/rPfaKFLjqL

— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) October 23, 2019